Introducing Leonis Fellows 2021
About three months ago, we were excited to open our fellowship program to the world. Since then, we have been pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming amount of interest and enthusiasm from over 200 thoughtful responses.
We have intentionally set up a fairly detailed application questionnaire for the purpose of getting to know each applicant well before we make the final decision. We are pleased to announce seven fellows for 2021- they are engineers, financiers, and scholars. We believe they best reflect the diversity of thought as well as a shared purpose of supporting early-stage founders.
The new Leonis Fellows have completed the first stage of the program, and they are already imbuing our team with energy and fresh ideas. We’re very excited for the new addition to the venture & startup ecosystem - and want to introduce the Leonis fellows to you.
Always, feel free to reach out to any one of us if you are working on something non-consensus but world-changing :)
Cheers,
Jay
Stephen White
Stephen White is a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics at Penn State University, where he studies mathematically rigorous methods for applications in data science. Steve graduated from NYU in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, before working for three years at a financial technology company in an implementation specialist role. Steve is excited to contribute this passion for the interplay between science, math, and technology to Leonis as a 2021 Leonis Fellow. When he is not working, Steve is an enthusiastic amateur squash player.
Heidi Xu
Heidi is passionate about customer insight and consumer strategy. She graduated from her MBA study at Cornell with a focus on strategic product and marketing. She currently works as a Sales Strategy Lead at Amazon Web Services. Previous to her MBA, she worked six years at Apple in various roles across the US and China. She is excited to leverage her customer insight knowledge to help startups leap to the next level to benefit more people’s lives.
Michael Liu
Michael is currently a Strategic Finance Manager at LinkedIn where he supports their Premium business. Prior to joining Linkedin, he was on the Business Operations team at Credible, a consumer lending marketplace. He started his career as an equity research associate analyzing the financial services industry at Bank of America. Michael is passionate about investing in exceptional founders that aim to build enduring companies making a positive impact in the world. Michael received his bachelor's degree in Finance and Accounting from New York University’s Stern School of Business. In his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball and has recently picked up chess again over the past year.
Marc H. Guirand
Marc is a tech entrepreneur passionate about the intersection of finance, technology, media, and geopolitics. He's a native of Haiti, grew up in Connecticut, and has lived in California for the past 6+ years. He's worked in Investment Banking at Canaccord Genuity and UBS and Business Operations at LendStreet Financial and Sikorsky Aircraft.
He's currently working on Derisk.vc, a venture studio to launch personal projects/tech-enabled services. He enjoys watching basketball and he occasionally plays recreationally. He also enjoys juggling a soccer ball and loves listening to music - Afrobeats, Hip-Hop, Synth-Pop, etc.
Yanbang Kan
Hi everyone, my name is Yanbang. I graduated from USC in May 2020 majored in electrical engineering and data engineering. Currently, I am working for Apple as an engineer related to Siri machine hearing and software automation. I am living in Seattle currently.
As an engineer, I am used to being curious and sensitive to new things. I like to pay attention to and study the technology and fundamentals of some emerging technology companies. I like venture capital because of my curiosity about venture capital and my interest in the investment itself. Besides, I would like to meet different people and share ideas with each other as well as learn from them. As for my hobbies, I like playing basketball, guitar, watching NBA and YouTube.
Michelle Sun
Hi I'm Michelle, I'm currently an engineer at Snap. I worked on industry machine learning solutions, especially for recommendation and ranking systems. I'm always interested in new technologies and excited about their applications to the business world.
I'm always amazed by innovation and fast iteration from startups and gradually grow my interest in startups and VC. I really enjoy understanding and analyzing startups. I'm very excited for this fellowship program and can't wait to learn more! During my spare time, I like to do road trip and listen to music.
Zachary Gaber
Hi everyone! My name is Zach. I am excited to get to meet all of you. I am currently a Summer Intern at Kinaya Ventures, which is a startup innovation and investment platform in West Africa. Growing up in California, I have developed a strong interest in entrepreneurship and investment. My undergraduate coursework has had a focus on finance, which I have gotten the chance to apply as an investment analyst for a student-run fund. In my free time, I enjoy playing tennis and nature photography. I am excited to get to learn about venture capital sourcing and due diligence through taking part in the fellowship program alongside the rest of the cohort!