Raul began his career with Baxter Healthcare, supporting process development for parenteral solutions across US and Latin American sites. He then joined the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division as an Operational Excellence Partner, where he led the implementation of process improvement methodologies to optimize administrative and hospital workflows. Most recently, Raul was a foundational member of the Operations team at Evozyne, a Biotechnology startup in Chicago. At Evozyne, Raul helped build out the operations, managed strategic alliances, and led internal program management for early discovery and preclinical programs.

Raul has a degree in Biomedical Engineering and MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology.  Raul grew up in the west suburbs of Chicago, and currently lives in Riverside with his wife, Araselly, 7-year-old daughter, Adeline, and dog, Skye. He loves all types of music, from heavy metal to reggaeton, and also supports Chicago sports teams, including the Bears, Bulls, and Fire.

Carson is Portal’s Sr. Manager of Technology where he helps with Portal’s tech stack, troubleshooting, and providing IT support to member companies. Prior to joining Portal, Carson attended the University of Illinois Chicago, and recently worked as an operations strategist with Framework IT. Outside of work, Carson is an avid outdoorsman where he enjoys running, climbing, and cycling.

Todd has over 30 years of accounting, finance, tax, private equity, and venture capital experience.  Prior to joining Portal, Todd served as CFO for a private equity group where he has also supported multiple portfolio companies in the CFO role as well as Senior Tax Analyst for a public company owned by the group.  In addition, Todd managed the family office for the principal of the private equity group where he was responsible for investment analysis and due diligence, risk management, cash management, tax compliance and planning, and estate planning.  Prior to that, Todd spent four years with the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP representing the firm’s audit and tax practice.

Ritu Shah is joining Portal as Managing Director, focused on portfolio company development and value creation by providing interim leadership to position and accelerated seeded companies to the next round of funding.

She has a proven track record in the biopharma industry with success in leading four successful mergers & acquisitions along with new company formation and operations. Ritu has led several drug development campaigns with emphasis on strategic and therapeutic portfolio management across private and public pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Ritu has spent over two decades in pharma drug development, of which the last five years were in biotech.

Mike joins Portal to help build consistency in the firm’s day-to-day logistical operations. His background has been dedicated to helping organizations and campaigns manage extreme growth, while thinking through problems before they occur. Mike’s prior roles include Director of Corporate Business Development and Licensing at Shinola where he led a national growth through new market opportunities, Personal Aide to former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and served as National Advance Coordinator for President Obama in The White House and ’08 Presidential campaign. Mike is originally from Michigan, graduated from Michigan State University and has resided in Chicago since 2010 with his wife and two children.

Shahila Christie is the Managing Director of Strategic Growth at Portal Innovations. Over her 20 yr career Shahila spent the first decade as an academic researcher and then moved into the startup space where she enjoyed driving scientific strategy from a business perspective. She has held various roles including founding two startups as spinouts from universities, consulting for startup companies, followed by leading the clinical efforts for a medical device company in the oncology diagnostic space. In her current role Shahila ties these varied experiences together to help Portal Innovations grow and expand. Her role focuses on understanding life science ecosystems in cities beyond Chicago and building and implementing the Portal playbook to launch the platform in cities of interest nationwide.

In addition to her professional role, Shahila is an active Women In Bio member functioning in leadership roles over the years and also served as the Chicago Chapter President in 2020. Shahila has a PhD in Biochemistry from Loyola University in Chicago and did her postdoctoral work in drug discovery and development at University of Illinois.

An entrepreneur, investor, and attorney, Patrick brings more than 20 years of experience in health tech and life sciences, including executive leadership positions at Arches Technology, Outcome Health, and closerlook. Patrick was a Co-Founder and Executive Director of MATTER, a Chicago healthcare technology startup center and innovation hub. He helped build biotechnology companies MediChem Life Sciences and Advanced Life Sciences, both of which he helped take public as chief legal executive.

John is a proven leader with a track record of bringing valuable corporate, academic, and civic enterprises from concept to reality, including Advanced Life Sciences, Chicago Innovation Mentors, MATTER, and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago. John is Co-Founder and Chairman of Pyxis Oncology, Executive Chairman of ClostraBio, and Board member at Grove Biopharma. Over the course of his career, John has successfully raised more than $345 million of private and philanthropic capital to fund the development of transformative organizations.