Elliott Parker is the CEO of Alloy Partners. He earned a B.S. in Finance from BYU and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Elliott built his career in strategy consulting at Innosight, the firm founded by Clayton Christensen, where he helped dozens of Fortune 100 companies build and execute their innovation strategies.

Elliott joined his friends at High Alpha, the Indianapolis-based venture studio, to lead business design and corporate innovation. After years of building within the venture studio model, they spun the team out to bring their playbook to corporations, universities, and governments.

Elliott is the author of "The Illusion of Innovation: Escape 'Efficiency' and Capture Radical Progress," a book that highlights the opportunity for scaled organizations to unlock transformation through rapid experimentation.

A firm believer in the power of entrepreneurs to bring about meaningful innovation, Elliott is driven by this mission. A California native and avid surfer, he seizes any chance to ride some waves, finding that he does his best thinking out on the water. In 2022, he competed in the Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim, placing in the top 10 for his age group.

Lauren Kellum is the Chief of Staff and VP of Operations at Alloy Partners. Lauren studied visual communications design and started her career at a small creative agency, focusing on brand, messaging, and UI design. Her curiosity in the growing Indianapolis tech scene led her to join a seed-stage B2B SaaS startup as its first designer. Over several years, Lauren supported the startup through scale, establishing new business operations across product design, product management, sales, marketing, and customer support..

Lauren's exposure to the venture studio model during a High Alpha Sprint Week revealed a pathway to support founders, enabling them to focus on critical growth factors. She joined the High Alpha team and, in 2020, spun out with Elliott to help launch Alloy Partners. In her role as Chief of Staff, Lauren supports the CEO's special projects, spanning culture, operations, and strategy. Often the "first in role" across various business areas, she excels at converting strategy into executed initiatives.

Lauren loves the opportunity to solve big, ambiguous challenges with an amazing team. Despite growth, the team has maintained a curious and optimistic approach to solving significant problems. They continuously seek improvement with each new challenge.

Lauren is a lover of music and especially enjoys live music. She attended her first concert at 6 and has since enjoyed more than 60 concerts across a wide range of genres.

Mike Joslin is a Partner at 1842 Fund and Managing Director at Alloy Partners. His career began at Best Buy’s corporate headquarters, where he worked in marketing, merchandising, and new business growth, igniting his passion for creating and launching new ventures.

While pursuing his MBA at Harvard Business School, Mike conducted independent research for the late HBS professor Clay Christensen on disruption in the telecom industry and interned at Innosight, an innovation consulting firm co-founded by Christensen. He later joined Innosight, further deepening his expertise in innovation and disruption.

Following his time at Innosight, Mike continued to pursue his passion for creating and investing in venture-backed startups. He launched tech-enabled startups from a Boston-based startup studio, established and led portfolio company support at a $15B+ AUM venture capital fund of funds, and incubated new internal ventures. Additionally, Mike established and managed the corporate venture capital program at Marriott International.

Mike loves creating opportunities for world-class entrepreneurs and startup employees to increase their odds of success. He finds great motivation in helping founders navigate the challenging journey of building a business and changing the trajectory for their ventures.

Outside of work, Mike is an avid snowboarder who enjoys hitting the slopes with his two young sons.

Ben Lewis is a serial entrepreneur, former Olympic athlete, and managing director of Alloy's One Health Studio. One Health Studio is a venture studio creating startups at the convergence of human health, animal health, and agriculture that was built in partnership with Elanco Animal Health, the State of Indiana, and other corporate partners.

Prior to Alloy, Ben was the co-founder of The One Health Company, the parent of FidoCure. Ben also co-founded and served as CEO of 4Vets — one of the largest B2B distributors of animal-health products in Brazil.

He earned an AB in Biology from Dartmouth College, studied veterinary medicine at University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and received an MBA in Healthcare Administration from The Wharton School.

Nammy Vedire is the Head of Portfolio Success at Alloy Partners. She has spent her career as an operator and builder alongside early-stage founders. Nammy started as a Venture Creation Consultant at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, where she worked with more than 50 student, faculty, and alumni-led startups. She then served as Associate Director of the Center for Deliberate Innovation at Georgia Tech, running the Flashpoint@GT program that taught founders and corporate innovation teams to recognize and supersede the cognitive biases that cause new ventures to fail. From there, she built the go-to-market program at Engage, a venture fund backed by 15 large Atlanta corporations, including Coca-Cola, Delta, Home Depot, and UPS, that matched seed-to-Series-A startups with corporate customers. Most recently, Nammy was COO at Metaimpact, a company that helps enterprises build networks where stakeholders collaborate around shared initiatives.

Nammy has lived the terror and euphoria of building. She knows what it feels like in the trenches, and she knows how to connect founders to the customers and capital that move a company forward. What drives her is a simple truth: startups are dead by default. Almost everything in the world, even indirectly, is designed to kill new ideas and new ways of working. That sense of everyday rebellion, and the chance to work alongside founders who give their all to bring something new into the world, is what motivates her every day.

Nammy was part of the first class to ever graduate from her undergraduate college. With no infrastructure, legacy, upperclassmen, or alumni to rely on, she learned to build from nothing. Looking back, that is where the seeds of her entrepreneurial spirit were first sown.

Hunter Babcock is a Venture Builder at Alloy Partners. He earned a B.S. in Entrepreneurial Management, Marketing, and Strategy from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. His career began by leading Atland Ventures, the first independent student-run venture fund investing in Gen Z founders and trends. Following this, Hunter worked at Accenture, where he helped large corporations with digital transformation.

In 2021, Hunter joined Alloy Partners, drawn to its unique model of building startups. He thrives on identifying opportunities for startup creation that address some of society's most significant challenges. Hunter enjoys building the foundations of business models and rigorously testing and iterating on them through customer discovery. This role perfectly combines his experience in venture capital, strategy consulting, and startup building.

Outside of his professional life, Hunter writes a local newsletter sharing news and events in Denver with over 400 subscribers. He is also a competitive criterium and gravel cyclist, showcasing his passion for endurance sports. Additionally, Hunter has a knack for food eating contests and has completed multiple challenges, including the 29-scoop (8lb) "Lumber Jack" ice cream challenge.

Sandy Bacon is a Marketing & Sales Associate at Alloy Partners. With over twenty years of experience planning private events for various organizations, non-profits, and individuals, she joined the Alloy Partners team in March 2024 as an Events Specialist. When Sandy learned about the company’s goals, brand, and direction, she eagerly embraced the opportunity to help develop and align events that resonate with the company's vision.

Sandy loves the process of taking an end goal and deconstructing it to plan and organize an event. She finds great joy in delving into all the details, working hard, and ultimately bringing people together to enjoy the end product.

In her personal life, Sandy is a creative soul who has worn many hats. Over the years, she has hosted a public access TV show, sold handmade items in various stores, and currently teaches evening cooking classes at a local kitchen store. Her passion for creating and sharing her skills with others is evident in everything she does.

Nolan Bernard is the Portfolio & Network Director at Alloy Partners. He began his career in software at Salesforce shortly after their acquisition of ExactTarget. This experience provided Nolan with a deep understanding of what a top-tier SaaS sales engine looks like and offered him world-class training in GTM practices. Since then, he has helped shape sales and GTM strategy for several early to mid-stage SaaS companies, selling into a variety of industries.

Nolan loves working hand in hand with founders, recognizing the mental and emotional challenges they face. He is motivated by the opportunity to improve the lives of founders, particularly by helping them solve the puzzle of acquiring their earliest customers. He also enjoys the diverse nature of his work, introducing innovation and new products across different industries.

Outside of his professional life, Nolan has a strong enthusiasm for fitness and real estate.

Sarah Chumbley is a Senior Experience Designer at Alloy Partners. She began her career in the sports industry, holding a dual role at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar, where she focused on brand strategy and event marketing. Over time, her responsibilities expanded to include exhibit design and curation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. However, her ultimate goal was always to transition into UX design, and in 2020, serendipity and the global pandemic led her to Alloy Partners.

Sarah loves her job for two main reasons: first, the opportunity to dive deep into completely new industries every few months and tackle weird, interesting problems waiting to be solved; second, the privilege of being surrounded by a team of the most intelligent, curious, and impressive individuals who continually inspire her to reach for more.

In addition to her professional work, Sarah occasionally moonlights as a face painter, showcasing her creative talents in a different medium.

Ari Landon, PhD, MBA, is Head of Venture Ecosystem for One Health Studio at Alloy Partners. He's an executive scientist who has focused his career on novel and disruptive therapeutic and device development, with experience across private and public companies and non-profit organizations. At Rafael Holdings, a publicly traded pharmaceutical and medical device investment company, he led scientific diligence for acquisitions as Head of Search and Evaluation and sat on the investment committee. He also served as Division President of Rafael Medical Devices, taking an orthopedic device from concept through FDA submission.

Ari co-founded the Barer Institute and later led it as Executive Director and COO, managing a team of about 50 scientists developing small molecule therapies for aggressive cancer. Most recently, as Chief Scientific Business Development Officer at the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI), he built strategic partnerships with Eli Lilly, Elanco, and MBX, and spearheaded a for-profit subsidiary focused on company creation. He's also been VP of Life Sciences at Elevate Ventures, mentoring and funding life science companies from seed onward.

At One Health Studio, Ari is excited to cultivate a network of customers and investors for the studio's diverse portfolio of life science companies.

Philip Nuñez is an Analyst on the Build team at Fieldbook. He graduated in December 2024 from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Supply Chain Management. During his academic journey, Philip led a team that designed an app for J.B. Hunt, pitched a marketing initiative for Walmart's Energy Transformation team, interned at Bass Pro and two startups, and gained international experience working for the Belize Tourism Board.

Philip’s diverse experiences have honed his ability to navigate complex projects and collaborate across teams. Bilingual in Spanish and English, he attributes his cultural fluency to growing up in a half-Hispanic, half-American household. His unique perspective fuels his curiosity and passion for building solutions that connect people and ideas.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Philip is drawn to ambitious personal challenges and community involvement. He plans to backpack the 276-mile Ozark Highlands Trail, showcasing his love for the outdoors. Known for his leadership as the "Parking Pastor," Philip built and led a parking team for his church's college ministry. A former athlete, he advanced to round three of five in his quest to join the U.S. Youth Olympic Soccer team. He also proudly placed third in his fifth-grade spelling bee (despite missing an "h" in "rhythm"), a lighthearted reminder of his resilience and drive for continuous improvement.

Mateus Quelhas is Chief of Staff at Alloy's One Health Studio. He holds dual degrees in Food Science and Engineering from the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and ONIRIS (France), and an MSc in Strategic Marketing from Cranfield University in the UK.

His career started in new product launches and startup growth, helping early-stage businesses scale globally. He moved into corporate venture building, corporate venture capital, and business strategy. He later served as Chief Operating Officer at a business consulting firm within ACE Ventures, one of LATAM's top venture capital firms, where he led teams across more than 500 client engagements in life sciences, pharma, agriculture, technology, and consumer industries, working with companies including AstraZeneca, Unilever, Bayer, and BASF.

Mateus believes the best founders are fluent in both languages: the speed and resourcefulness of a startup, and the rigor and scale of a large corporation. He has spent most of his career helping founders build that bridge, drawing on his experience working both sides. At One Health Studio, he's excited to bring a diverse portfolio of companies to life and build the systems that help them reach their desired outcomes.

Outside of work, Mateus has traveled to more than 25 countries chasing new cultures, people, and food, and keeps a running list of where to go on his next adventure.

Julia Tofan is a Director on the venture building team at Alloy Partners. She began her career at the Wesleyan Investments Office, where she gained a comprehensive view of the investable universe, spanning public equity, credit, and venture capital. This experience sparked her curiosity about the inner workings of the companies that investment managers choose to fund.

Seeking to understand the micro-level intricacies of building companies, Julia joined Techstars to work directly with pre-seed stage founders. There, she learned to be scrappy and resourceful, developing a deep passion for the earliest stages of a startup's life.

In 2021, Julia brought her enthusiasm for creativity and early-stage innovation to Alloy Partners. She thrives in an environment where the team shares her optimism and dedication to envisioning and building a better world. Julia loves the challenge of thinking creatively and collaboratively to bring new ideas to life.

Outside of her professional endeavors, Julia once camped for thirty days straight while building mountain biking trails in Utah. This experience highlights her adventurous spirit and commitment to hands-on projects.

Courtney Ulrich Smith is the Program Manager for Fieldbook at Alloy Partners. She began her career in visual design for startups and transitioned to a UX/UI role after a company acquisition, working at a software agency specializing in data tooling for enterprise companies. In this role, she worked on digital transformation projects with Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies such as Walmart, Sam’s Club, and HEB. Her role gradually became more specialized in design research, and she eventually co-led the organization’s first strategy and innovation team. In 2023, she joined the startup studio that would eventually become Fieldbook.

Courtney is passionate about building business in Arkansas. She believes that Arkansas talent is often overlooked and vastly underestimated and hopes that Fieldbook's efforts will elevate venture investment across the entire state.

In addition to her professional achievements, Courtney is a two-time small business founder. She and her husband opened their first business in 2017 and their second in 2021. They are passionate about small business and have been involved in revitalization efforts in their historic downtown. Furthermore, Courtney is a non-profit founder, having started NWA Book Fest, Arkansas’s first community-organized book festival, which highlights authors from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.