Venture Capital | Operator | Independent Director | BIPOC Accelerator Founder | Stanford Univ.-Mentor
Kevin Allen has been involved in building great businesses his entire career. He started his first company right after business school in the bioinformatics space. As CEO and co-founder of New World Science and Technology, Kevin’s company created an algorithm to simulate cellular signal transduction resulting in a patent for the innovative work. After selling that business and a brief stint on Capital Hill as a Business Specialist for the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, he spent time as a Vice President in a small investment firm financing infrastructure projects for large municipalities.
From there, Kevin moved on to Johnson Controls doing infrastructure projects for Fortune 500 companies and discovered a passion for energy efficiency work. Kevin got back into entrepreneurship as the CEO and cofounder of tekBOA Inc – a start-up focusing on technology solutions in the built environment. tekBOA was sold to a customer in 2015. Following the exit, Kevin become the co-founder at Energy Growth Partners working with private equity sponsors in pursuit of proprietary acquisitions in the building services space. While at EGP, Kevin built a proprietary pipeline of acquisition targets with an aggregate value of over $250M. Seeing an opportunity in the fitness technology market, Kevin founded his next company ROWViGOR, a rowing fitness technology company. After winding down ROWViGOR, Kevin went to material science and technology company Windpact, where Kevin served as the COO.
Recently, Kevin co founded Access Mode - a nonprofit company dedicated to supporting BIPOC entrepreneurs where he is Executive Director and Chairman of the Board. Kevin also served as Managing Director for early stage Venture Fund NCTF Denver which focuses on investing in early stage companies founded by BIPOC entrepreneurs. Kevin has spent time as an Investment Banker and was a cast member of NBC’s “The Apprentice Season II” where he made it to the final four.
He has been asked to speak about his experiences at several events and institutions ranging from Princeton University to NASA. Kevin has a BS from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School of Business) where he excelled as a two-time All-League varsity football player; an MBA from the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University where he was a Toigo Finance Fellow; and a JD from the Law School at the University of Chicago. Kevin lives in Colorado with his wife, two teenage sons and their black lab Huey where he is active in a number of volunteer activities ranging from coaching football to mentoring early stage entrepreneurs for a variety of organizations
Venture Capital | Operator | Independent Director | National Bank Founder | Stanford Univ.-Mentor
Originally from New York City, James is a multi-disciplined senior executive, growth-stage operator and entrepreneur with over 30 years managing complex, scalable teams (public & private) companies. James works with management teams to optimize organizational behaviors and define key market engagement strategies. James has founded and/or structured go-to market strategies for multiple companies focused on disrupting traditional business models. Prior to moving to Colorado, James was Head Trader for a Woodland Hills, CA-based family office and was an equities portfolio and treasury asset manager for Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney/Morgan Stanley specializing in women & BIPOC-owned companies in New York City.
In 2007, he founded Colorado-based Solera National Bancorp with over $1.2B assets after raising $29M in a 13-state Blue Sky registered, self-underwritten IPO. The bank was the first nationally-approved bank holding company in Colorado in ten years, and is credited as the first national Hispanic-markets specialized banks in the United States. Through Bainbridge Ventures, James advised the New York City Dept. of Finance on their undeserved markets, impact investments & engagement strategies and served as Subject Matter Expert to the Director Economist (Charles Crum) of the Office of Inspector General for United States Postal on a proposed undeserved markets lending program. The project yielded a white paper, “Providing Non-Bank Financial Services for the Underserved” (2014) which was endorsed by Massachusetts Senator, Elizabeth Warren. In 2021-2022, James advised NFL Hall of Fame, Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens on a BIPOC-focused venture fund collaboration with Red Bird Capital of New York City. James currently advises the CEO of North American Health Services - a 12-facility long term care company based in Los Angeles, California.
He has extensive experience working with rapid-growth companies and is the longest serving mentor, lecturer and capital advisor for the Stanford University Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI) at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business since program inception in 2015. James has also mentored for; Access Mode, gBETA (Gener8tor) and Techstars. James has served on over twenty boards including; Bank Holding Company, Venture Capital, Fintechs, Community Development Financial Institutions, Financial Literacy. In 2022-2023 served on the Investment Committee of New Community Transformation Fund, a BIPOC-focused venture capital fund based in Denver, Colorado. He is currently a member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA) and the Colorado Latino Leadership, Advocacy and Research Organization (CLLARO).
James and his family live in Lafayette, CO. He graduated from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs with a BA in International Relations. He is an avid fly fisherman, jazz musician and F1 enthusiast.
The Diversity Premium refers to the tangible benefits that diverse teams bring to companies in various sectors and how it directly correlates to enhanced financial performance and profitability. The premise is that diverse/gender-diverse management teams objectively outperform their non-diverse counterparts and competitors at the bottom-line.
And there’s a cascading effect at companies with diverse-led teams:
