Amit Desai

Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering

Amit researches organic semiconductors for low-cost, large-area electronic devices including solar cells. He received his M.Phil in Physics at Trinity College, University of Cambridge and his B.S. in MSE, Summa Cum Laude , at NC State University. Amit has engaged in nanotechnology research projects in Singapore and at MIT. He raised more than $50K to support a student-run VC conference at Cambridge University. Amit was part of a management consulting team at Stanford tasked with developing a go-to-market strategy for a leading cell phone manufacturer's US product launch. Aside from entrepreneurship and VC, Amit enjoys traveling, tennis, and college basketball.

Sharon Zeng

B.A. Economics

Sharon is currently pursuing a B.A. in Economics. As a SVCC member, she has worked on several project teams to identify emerging trends and potential start-ups. Past projects have involved sector deep dives into solar energy and enterprise software for Firelake Capital Management and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. She is also actively involved at Stanford as a Project Director in Stanford Consulting and a member of Alpha Kappa Psi. Sharon has previously worked on the marketing team of a customer relationship management start-up and as a researcher in a genetics lab, where her work was presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research in 2009. This past summer, she developed a prototype for managing ad inventory as a Business Analyst intern at Facebook.

Brian Tolkin

B.S. Management Science and Engineering

Brian is a junior majoring in Management Science & Engineering, and minoring in Economics. Over the past summer, he was General Manager of the Stanford Store, and continues to hold that position throughout the school year. Interested in venture capital, entrepreneurship, and finance, Brian is also a member of Stanford Finance, exploring careers in a host of business-related fields. He is excited to work with SVCC for his second year, learning more about the world of venture capital and a new industry. Outside of academics and work, Brian enjoys reading, traveling, and playing/watching sports.

Alex Tran

B.S. Management Science and Engineering

Alex Tran is currently a senior at Stanford University. This past summer, Alex worked at Gurtin Fixed Income Management, LLC as a consultant and helped the boutique firm expand its business operations and revamp its reporting process. Alex's interest in venture capital was sparked by his research experiences at UCSF Medical School during his last two summers in high school where he founded a student group that worked with outreach organizations to place high school students into internships. Alex is interested in biotechnology venture capital and plans to major in MS&E with a minor in Biological Sciences. Alex enjoys coin collecting, going on road trips, and eating gelato on the balcony at Michael's Café, where he can watch life go by on Palo Alto's University Ave.

Thomas Westermann

M.Sc. Management Science and Engineering

Thomas is a Danish first year master’s student in Management Science and Engineering focusing of decision analysis and probabilistic risk analysis. Before coming to Stanford University, he received his B.Sc. in Engineering – Mathematics and Technology from Technical University of Denmark, where he focused on optimization in finance. During the summer of 2009, Thomas interned with Booz & Company in Copenhagen. In his final year of undergraduate studies in Denmark, Thomas worked part-time in the Research and Product Development division of BRFkredit, a leading Danish bank. In his spare time, Thomas enjoys travelling, skiing and playing basketball.

Keshav Rao

B.A. Economics, B.S. Management Science and Engineering

Keshav is a junior majoring in Economics and Management Science and Engineering. He is very active in social entrepreneurship and is the co-founder of Locra.org, a platform for aggregating information about non-profit projects in the developing world. Keshav’s other activities include designing multilingual educational material, providing college application consulting services, working on stock analyses at the Blyth Fund, researching public health disparities, and evaluating patterns of innovation in China. In his spare time, he enjoys watching ESPN, serving and volleying, playing the saxophone, and retuning his golf swing. He is also the current webmaster for the VC Club.

Sijia Wang

B.A. Economics, B.A. International Relations

Sijia is a junior majoring in Economics and pursuing a secondary concentration in International Relations. She has been involved with research at the Graduate School of Business in organizational behavior and the School of Education in international and comparative education. She is currently working as a marketing coordinator for the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Her interests include listening to electronic music, becoming a restaurant connoisseur, writing poetry, and following basketball.

Sheel Tyle

B.A. Economics, B.A. Human Biology

Sheel is currently pursuing a B.A. in Economics and Human Biology. He is on the founding team of a stealth startup in the online travel space and is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of ReSight, an international 501c3 NGO that drives the positive cycle of change through vision. Previously, he spent time at the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai and Arsenal Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm, in New York. Sheel is the only undergraduate student to have sat on the Obama Health Policy Advisory Committee during the presidential campaign. He is the President of the Hindu Students Association, the CFO of Stanford Consulting, and a board member for the Haas Center for Public Service. He will be joining Bessemer Venture Partners this summer as part of the investment team in consumer internet, media & entertainment, and health care IT.

Bo Zheng

P.h.D. Candidate in Biosciences

Bo is a second-year PhD student in the Biosciences program at the School of Medicine. He received his Bachelors from the University of Pennsylvania. His PhD thesis focuses on understanding the overall architecture of a simple bacterial cell at a systems level. He is interested in applying aspects of his research to emerging fields in biotechnology such as renewable energy, bio-remediation, production of industrial compounds, treatment for emerging infectious diseases, and synthetic biology. Prior to Stanford, Bo has worked on projects involving novel genomics technologies at Harvard Medical School and the Penn Genomics Institute. Bo is also a graduate advisor for the Stanford iGEM team. In his spare time, Bo enjoys classical music, jazz concerts, golf, driving on Highway 1, and reading the Economist.

Dave Grundfest

Need Major.

Need Bio.