Director and Board Member, Nottingham Spirk Family Office, and Founder, Private Capital Investments

Mrs. Hill Ritchie has worked for seven single-family offices and also as an advisor through her firm, Private Capital Investments. Her current role is Director and Board Member for Nottingham Spirk Family Office, and her past roles include: Simon Group Holdings, Eden Capital, PEX Global and she was a Senior Analyst and Investment Committee Member for the Saad family office’s $3.5 billion investment portfolio. She was a Director for Wedge Alternatives, and also Hedgefund.net. She is an Angel Investor and Advisor to start-ups and is on the investment committee for University Impact, a social impact VC fund.

Katherine received her MBA from Fordham University and her BS in Psychology from University of Maryland. Her Board member activities include: Chair of the ACG New York Family Office Committee, Board Member of ACG NY, and Family Office Advisory Board of TriState Capital. Her past philanthropic volunteer activities include: Global Co-Chair of The Guild, the Philanthropy and Education Committees of 100 Women in Finance, Fordham MBA Overseers Board, All Special Kids, Lighthouse Organization and Cancer101.

Co-President, Nottingham Spirk Family Office

John Nottingham is the Co-Founder of Nottingham Spirk, a family office and a leading business innovation firm with over 1,300 patents, of which 95% have been commercialized. The Nottingham Spirk “Vertical Innovation™” process has helped partner companies earn over $50 billion in combined sales for product lines like Dirt Devil, Little Tikes, Dutch Boy, and AXE.

Nottingham Spirk partners with other family offices to create companies based on NS innovations, like the Crest SpinBrush venture which was sold to P&G, returning $475 million, 24 times EBITDA to family office investors. Their Swiffer Sweep+Vac venture was also sold to P&G.  The ThermoScan Ear Thermometer venture was sold to Braun/Gillette for $175 million. Their new Tempo Walk Autonomous Golf Caddie was recently acquired by Club Car. Their CardioInsight non-invasive electrocardiographic mapping venture was acquired by Medtronic and has so far returned over $100 million to investors. Nottingham Spirk was recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators in the World.

The Nottingham Spirk current portfolio of venture companies include TecTraum; concussion therapy system, Sterifre; low cost disinfection system, XaTek; blood coagulation monitor, HairClinical; break-through technology in hair care, and Polar Delight; single-serve premium ice cream dispensing system.

Nottingham Spirk recently partnered and co-invested with InvestIndustrial to acquire Jacuzzi Brands and is currently co-creating the next generation of premium spa products to double sales, triple profits and drive equity growth.

John serves on the Cleveland Clinic Board of Trustees, Case Western Reserve University Technology Commercialization Board, CWRU Think[box] Makerspace Advisory Board, boards of Global Center for Health Innovation, Great Lakes Biomimicry, and Cleveland Institute of Art, as well as several private equity company boards of directors.

John is one of the top individual patent holders in the USA, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, an inductee of the Inside Business Hall of Fame, and a winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Other awards include Gold IDEA Award, Edison Gold Award and DuPont Packaging Gold Award.

He has presented numerous times at family office events on the subject of innovating for maximum equity growth for portfolio companies. He has been featured on the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Japan Forbes, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, New York Times, Wired and Fast Company.

Brian Frenzel, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Tosk, joining the Summit from Mountain View, CA

Tosk is working to improve the quality of life and outcomes for patients by preventing the adverse side effects of existing cancer therapies, and blocking the activity of cancer genes. Brian will join the November Summit to unveil a brand new lead project that he and his colleagues have developed this year.

Brian is a highly experienced biomedical company executive, previously serving as CEO of Centaur Pharmaceuticals, CEO of Adeza Biomedical, CEO of Vesta Medical, and COO of Genelabs Technologies, all of which went public or were acquired by large pharmaceutical companies. Earlier in his career, He was director of corporate planning at Syntex Corporation, a principal at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, and a lieutenant in the United States Navy Nuclear Power Program. Brian holds a BS in physics and an MBA from Stanford University. You may have met Brian at previous Cavendish Forums, in his concurrent role with Band of Angels.

Meet Brian and Tosk by logging in to Cavendish IQ.

Robert Boyce, Chief Executive Officer, Plakous Therapeutics, joining in from Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Plakous Therapeutics, established in 2016, has developed a patent-pending, placenta-derived, acellular platform biotherapeutic for the prevention of the rare pediatric disease, Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC).

In June 2020, Plakous received both Orphan Drug and Rare Pediatric Disease designations from the FDA, and, in July 2020, Plakous received a $1.72M fast track Phase I and II SBIR grant from the NIH for NEC. This grant includes funding for the pre-clinical and potency experiments required for our IND filing. Most recently, the company signed an agreement with the Mayo Clinic to develop a natural history study for NEC.

Meet Robert and learn more about Plakous by logging in to Cavendish IQ.

Dillon Galynsky, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, HUSH, joining the Summit from New York City

HUSH is on a mission to rid the world of secondhand smoke. The team will introduce a new handheld filtration technology for both cannabis and tobacco, providing users the ability to capture all fumes and odor. As regulations and cultural shifts continue to favor smokeless and odorless consumption, HUSH is positioned to be the leading consumer product to provide a game-changing solution. The company presents dynamic domestic and international intellectual property ownership, and the team includes members of award-winning ELEVEN, and a former RI State Department of Health Executive Director.

Meet Dillon and learn more about HUSH’s work by logging in to Cavendish IQ.