Team

Akhil Nigam received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City (Valedictorian) and his MBA from Harvard Business School. Before business school, Akhil was one of the founding team members (employee number 5) of a high growth startup focused on software, Internet technology and IT services. In this role, he helped grow the firm to 100 employees in 5 years across the United States, India and Singapore. He was the youngest partner elected in the firm and gained extensive experience advising top level executives on technology strategy and trends while leading the firm's new business development initiatives. Akhil has also evaluated investment opportunities in a variety of industries for major private equity firms at Bain & Co. and at Fidelity Strategic Investments. Akhil lived in India until age 12 and then attended High School in Zimbabwe before receiving a full 4-year scholarship to the Cooper Union. Akhil currently lives in Cambridge with his wife Hemali and two daughters Diya and Aisha.

Scott Bailey is the Director of Partnerships at MassChallenge.  In his role, Scott develops annual fundraising strategies, builds partnerships with public and private organizations and investigates new expansion initiatives. Scott also plays a critical role in the day-to-day operations of the accelerator program and competition. He connects finalists with key stakeholders, partners and sponsors, and manages the competition judging logistics and the annual awards ceremony. Scott supports local and global entrepreneurship by frequently hosting international delegations at MassChallenge and volunteers his time to work with entrepreneurs, speak on panels, and mentor college students in the Boston startup community.

After graduating from the University of Vermont in 2009 with a degree in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship, he served as the Director of Client Programs at the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET), a non-profit technology business incubator.  During his time at VCET, Scott prospected early stage companies for the $5 Million Seed Capital Fund, founded the Entrepreneurship Club, and joined a student run startup, BlirpIt, as Director of Sales & Marketing.

Oren Robinson has been an artist and web developer since high school. Oren received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Wells College, awarded special distinction in computer science and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. A visiting researcher in machine translation at University of Rochester, Oren also studied language in Shanghai, where he became fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and would later go on to volunteer in post-earthquake relief work in Sichuan, and work as lead website developer for China's largest environmental non-profit in Beijing. Oren currently lives in Somerville.

Jeremy Bersin has worked as a mental health advocate since 2002, after co-founding a program dedicated to educating his community about the warning signs of suicide and depression. Since then, he has sat on numerous advisory boards at the local, state, and national level. After graduating from the University of Connecticut with a B.A. in political science and sociology, he took his background in advocacy and applied it as the Director of Marketing for Energy Inside, a startup company creating web applications focused on positive behavior change. Jeremy has also worked on projects with actress Glenn Close, BringChange2Mind and 33needs.