Nick Shekerdemian is a member of our board of directors. Nick has previously served as a director of IPAX from February 2021 to February 2023. Nick is the Founding Partner of The Venture Collective, a venture capital firm founded in October 2019 focused on solving the world’s largest problems. The Venture Collective is backed by a series of exited founders, hedge fund managers and Fortune 500 executives and has invested in the likes of Axiom Space, Infogrid, Builder.ai, LifeBiosciences and HelixNano. Nick was previously Founder and CEO, from January 2016 to January 2019, and Chairman from January 2019 to August 2022, of a venture backed business called Headstart (sold to Silverback United, Inc. in August 2022). At Headstart, he received backing from investors including Peter Thiel, Y Combinator, FoundersX Ventures, Hack VC, Plug and Play, and the founders of Zynga and Unity. Nick is an advisor to the United Nations on education through the United National Technology Innovation Lab (UNTIL). Personally, Nick is an active angel investor with 50+ investments spanning consumer, enterprise software and biotech.