John is the Founder and CEO of Portal Innovations, a premier venture development platform that builds and invests in life sciences ventures across the U.S. with labs in Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Houston.

Prior to launching Portal, John founded and built several life sciences companies including Pyxis Oncology (NASDAQ: PYXS) and civic incubators MATTER and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago, a first-of-its-kind, fully integrated academic value creation engine which supports commercializing academic innovation.

Over his career, John has completed numerous public and private capital financings totaling over $400 million including 3 NASDAQ IPOs and has raised over $135 million in philanthropic and corporate funding to support university technology commercialization and venture start-up activities.

John is quoted often in the financial media including CNBC Fast Money, Bloomberg, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Institutional Investor, Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business. John hosts the Lab Rats To Unicorns podcast, where he holds biweekly conversations with professionals in life sciences to discuss their journey to bring life-saving treatments to patients.

John has a B.S. in Business Administration from Marquette University and an M.B.A. from Lewis University