The North Coast Ventures portfolio and network are supported by the Management Team, comprised of six team members. The NCV team, half of which are female, are known entities that have demonstrated a commitment to integrating their activities with other regional programs and the early-stage ecosystem in general.
Find additional information on each team member below.
Todd Federman, Managing Director
Todd has served as Managing Director at NCV since its inception in 2006. In this role, Todd manages the day-to-day operational activities of the Fund including deal flow, investment screening, pre presentation coaching, due diligence team management, deal structuring, portfolio company performance, and State and membership reporting. Todd works closely with regional economic development groups, tech transfer organizations and incubators, and serves on the Boards of Directors (or is a board observer) of portfolio companies including Remesh, Navistone, ScriptDrop, and Vlipsy. Todd serves as the Chairman of AmpliFund. He is most active with companies in the B2B SaaS and Healthcare IT spaces.
As portfolio companies prepare for follow-on financings, Todd often takes a lead role in reaching out to and working with target venture capital firms and venture debt lenders. Todd functions as NCV’s primary contact with Jobs Ohio and has helped four companies secure $1M+ each of non-dilutive capital. In this role, Todd socializes the companies with Jobs Ohio, facilitates introductory meetings, attends diligence sessions and maintains a dialogue with JO as the process moves forward.
Daniel Luketic, Director
Daniel has served as the Director of NCV since 2015 when Seed III and Acceleration Fund I launched. He has led day-to-day operational activities related to deal flow generation, opportunity screening, due diligence, deal syndication, follow-on investment decisions, portfolio support, reporting, partnerships, events, new member acquisition and member management. As the team has grown, his focus has narrowed to manage/oversee overall operations and lead portfolio support efforts such as new company onboarding, board governance, value add support, liquidity committee and Portfolio Support Committee. Notable accomplishments include implementing Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) with the NCV Management Team, launching the Portfolio Support and Ambassador Member Committees, and launching NCV’s Innovation Council Program. Daniel is currently a Board Observer for NCV portfolio companies Wisr and Fenix Magnetics.
Clay Rankin, Managing Director and Founder
Clay founded NCV in 2006 as its Managing Director. In this role, Clay was responsible for the Fund’s operations and performance including building and completing the full complement of members, deal flow generation, investment screening, due diligence oversight, deal structuring, portfolio company performance, State and membership relations and engagement, and legal documentation and compliance. Clay currently serves on The Fund’s Executive Committee and remains an active contributor to the group.
Clay currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc. (NYSE) and TPA Stream Inc. (Chair), and over the past 12 years has served on a number of NCV portfolio company boards. In addition, he serves as a Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and is a member of their Executive and Governance & Nominating Committees (Chair). He also is a Board and Executive Committee member of University Circle Inc. and serves on the Visiting Committee of the Case School of Engineering and the Corporate Advisory Board for the Master’s Degree in Engineering Management Program at Case Western Reserve University, and the Council to Advance Human Health at Case Western Reserve’s School of Medicine.
Ann Kirschner, Chief Financial Officer
Ann joined NCV in 2019 with over 25 years of experience in financial management roles. In her role, Ann is responsible for fund accounting and reporting. She handles capital calls and distributions, State loan transactions, bill pay and financial communications with investors and portfolio companies.
Most notable accomplishments since she joined NCV include the preparation of quarterly investor capital statements and financial statements, standardizing financial processes and establishing a process to gather, monitor and retain portfolio company financial reports and updates. She facilitated NCV’s partnership with Winbridge, NCV’s first fund administrator.
Leen Ajlouni, Senior Associate
Since joining NCV in January 2020, Leen has been NCV’s point person for pre-screening, evaluating investment opportunities, and ensuring all aspects of deal intake, screening, due diligence and portfolio support activities are successfully executed.
With her background in process engineering, Leen’s notable accomplishments since joining NCV include several process and operational improvements. These improvements have been focused on adding rigor and structure to the Investment Screening Committee, and include expanding the size and diversity of the committee, building a Screening & Diligence playbook, and distributing a monthly deal flow newsletter. Leen also has taken an active role in building new relationships with other regional VCs and investor groups, as well as strengthening existing relationships through consistent communications and participating in monthly calls.
Alexis Brigeman, Events & Marketing Manager
Alexis joined NCV in October of 2020 and is responsible for engaging with the group’s 300+ member-investors to better leverage the power of their networks, and operationalizing it to capitalize on investors’ functional, industry and startup expertise to help accelerate portfolio company success. Alexis also provides support to the fund’s Innovation Council, a network of regional organizations that want to play a greater role in industry innovation and support early-stage companies by making connections to portfolio businesses and creating opportunities for program partners to be showcased as thought leaders.
In addition, Alexis executes internal and external communications and marketing strategies, manages investor and partner relationships, and oversees programming and engagement initiatives.