Conor Tighe is Executive Vice President of Preconstruction at Clayco, where he leads the firm’s enterprise-wide preconstruction strategy and process, guiding projects from early concept through financial close and readiness for construction.

With more than 24 years of experience across construction, design-build, legal, risk, and insurance disciplines, Conor brings a uniquely comprehensive perspective to project delivery. His career spans roles as a preconstruction executive, project superintendent, engineer, project manager, cost engineer, risk engineer, insurance manager, and in-house construction attorney, allowing him to bridge technical execution with commercial strategy.

In his current role, Conor works closely with owners, developers, designers, and internal teams to align scope, cost, schedule, and risk early in the project lifecycle. He is particularly experienced in helping owners navigate complex project financing, entitlement processes, and preconstruction decision-making, often serving as a strategic partner well before ground is broken.

Conor also has deep experience working with startup and emerging-growth companies, which requires flexibility, creativity, and an adaptive approach across both design and construction. His ability to support evolving business models and accelerated timelines has made him a trusted advisor for innovative and first-of-their-kind developments.

His market experience spans EV and battery manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, mission critical and data centers, pharmaceutical, commercial real estate, residential, higher education, utilities, sports and entertainment, aviation, and cultural institutions. His transactional expertise includes master service agreements, design-bid-build, design-build, integrated project delivery (IPD), public-private partnerships, and EPC-style procurements.

Rebecca Motley’s professional background is in assisting startups with connections to resources,

utilizing a wide network of contacts throughout the Midwest. Her consulting company, 51-

enterprises, llc, works with all types of startup organizations, from retail to technology to life

sciences, referring them to resources from funding to operations. She moved to Chicago from

Champaign, IL, in early 2023 to run BioLabs Chicago, a life sciences incubator that was to open

in Lincoln Park. Before BioLabs, Rebecca directed the operations of EnterpriseWorks, the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s technology startup incubator. Her additional

experience has been in municipal economic development, commercial real estate, non-profit and

grant administration, and commercial lending. She has a B.S. in Economics and an MBA from

the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Molly is a partner in the Chicago Office of Siegel Jennings, a national property tax law firm. As a litigator and trusted advisor, she collaborates with Owners, Asset Managers, Acquisition teams and Tax Departments to identify, create and execute property tax reduction strategies. She becomes a member of her clients’ management team. Her goal is to maximize and protect the full potential of real estate assets, minimize related tax liabilities, and resolve disputes with tax authorities and government entities.

Molly’s client experience ranges from family owned 1031 portfolios to national commercial investment funds, including special use properties such as hospital campuses to multi-million-dollar manufacturing facilities.

Her comprehensive understanding of the commercial real estate market was developed in part through her time as a real estate broker in the Chicago area prior to starting her legal career. Molly regularly represents clients in hearings before review boards, local assessors’ offices, the

Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board, and the circuit courts.

Todd Freund founded Momentum Staffing Group in 2009, building it into Chicago's leading deep tech recruiting firm specializing in early-stage biotech, quantum computing, and materials science companies. With over 15 years navigating Chicago's innovation ecosystem, Todd has become the go-to talent partner for university spinouts and venture-backed startups from pre-seed through Series B.

Todd's expertise lies at the intersection of academic breakthroughs and commercial reality—helping founders build world-class technical teams at the critical inflection point between 5 and 100 employees. He has placed hundreds of scientists and engineers at emerging companies across drug development, quantum networking, advanced materials, and biotechnology.

A trusted partner to leading venture capital firms, incubators, and university tech transfer offices across the Midwest, Todd works closely with founders, investors, and academic leaders to translate groundbreaking research into scaled commercial impact. He is a regular speaker on talent strategy for deep tech companies and an advocate for Chicago's position as the Midwest's quantum and biotech capital. Todd serves clients across Chicago, Madison, Houston, North Carolina, Philadelphia, and Seattle.

Michelle Hoffmann, Ph.D. has been serving since August of 2021 as the Executive

Director of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC), a consortium of biomedical

researchers across Northwestern, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the

University of Chicago that is generously supported by the Searle Funds at The Chicago

Community Trust. The CBC’s mission is to stimulate collaboration among scientists to

accelerate discovery that will transform biomedical research and improve the health of

humankind. In her time as Executive Director, Dr. Hoffmann has reorganized the CBC

to train local PhD talent in the business of early science commercialization while

developing a process to find and fund the most promising biopharma applications of

Chicago university science. Prior to this role, from 2019-2021, Dr. Hoffmann was the

Senior Vice President of Deep Tech at P33, a privately funded nonprofit charged with

elevating Chicagoland’s innovation economy and driving inclusive economic growth.

Hoffmann spent 15 years helping life sciences companies grow, most recently as a senior

vice president at Boston-based Back Bay Life Science Advisors, an integrated strategy

and investment firm to global life science companies and their investors. During her

time at Back Bay, Hoffmann led projects for large, publicly traded companies, as well as

small, private, venture-backed health care and life sciences companies. Hoffmann also

worked closely with Back Bay’s investment team on two large transactions: an

epigenetics platform that was sold to Gilead Pharmaceuticals for $65M and an agent to

combat acute kidney injury that was acquired by AbbVie for $110M.

Hoffmann earned a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of

California Berkeley and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University.

David is expert in complex lease

negotiations and leads an integrated

multi-disciplinary corporate solutions

team delivering transaction advisory

and brokerage services. The Occupier

Services Chicago Area team advises

clients in office, industrial, retail,

education, lab and specialty spaces.

Along with senior partners Tom

Berarducci and Andy Gooliak, they

have created an award-winning team

of 12 transaction and advisory

professionals focused on occupiers.

He and his team’s core service

offerings include Account

Management, Transaction

Management, and Portfolio Strategy.

Auxiliary services offered include

Lease Administration, Workplace

Strategy, Labor Analytics, Capital

Markets, Project Management,

Incentives Procurement, and general

corporate real estate consulting.

David’s transactional experience

ranges from headquarters offices to

service centers, warehousing to

manufacturing, build-to-suits to

sale/leasebacks, R&D, schools,

apartment master leases and more.

As Education and Science Principal at HDR, Hans Thummel brings over 40 years of architectural experience and knowledge of the Chicago/regional life science market to his role. He excels in leading multidisciplinary project teams and has directed significant projects for AbbVie, Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His work is celebrated for its impact and excellence, demonstrating his ability to manage complex projects successfully.

Hans is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories, and the U.S. Green Building Council. As a thought leader and industry contributor, he has presented on topics such as adaptive reuse and building envelope at prominent conferences and published articles on the impact of COVID-19 on institutional research. His dedication to delivering high-caliber architectural design in support of research, learning, and discovery highlights his commitment to fostering equitable and empowered communities.

Kurt’s professional engineering career spans over 40 years. His expertise includes structural engineering design for Mission Critical Facilities such as Data Centers, Health Care Facilities such as Hospitals and Clinics and Life Sciences Facilities such as Biopharmaceutical Pilot Plants and Production Facilities around the United States and the World. His area of expertise is in designing buildings to be occupable after natural disasters including Tornados, Hurricanes and Earthquakes. He has been the structural engineer of record for conventional “fixed Base Buildings” ranging from 1-23 stories, “Base Isolated Buildings” ranging from 1-5 stories, and the retrofit and new construction of buildings incorporating Fluid Viscous Dampers ranging from 1-22 stories. He has published numerous papers on passive energy dissipation and presented the findings at various conventions in Boston, San Francisco and Milan.

For over 23 years as the Founding Principal at PARADIGM Structural Engineers, Kurt spends most of his time developing new leaders at PARADIGM and mentoring staff in Chicago and San Francisco.

Dr. Hanhee Paik is the IBM Director of Quantum Algorithm Centers. In this role, she is responsible for the success of IBM’s major quantum algorithm and application research partnerships with leading institutions worldwide, including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago, RPI, MIT, Yonsei University, RIKEN, the University of Tokyo. Previously, she served as Head of IBM Quantum Japan, where she established the IBM Quantum Japan team and mission to focus on the development of quantum‑centric supercomputing technologies in collaboration with Japanese partners.

Dr. Paik earned her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland, College Park. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) before moving to Yale University to work with Professors Robert Schoelkopf, 2025 Nobel Laureate Michel Devoret, and Steve Girvin. She later joined IBM to advance quantum processor architectures and quantum computing systems, notably leading the technical team that developed IBM's first 16-qubit quantum computers, available to the world.

From 2020 to 2022, Dr. Paik served as Chief of Staff to Dr. Jay Gambetta, who was then Vice President, IBM Quantum (and is now Director of IBM Research). Following that role, she led the development of large‑scale global quantum partnerships.

In 2021, Dr. Paik was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for pioneering a novel superconducting qubit architecture that catalyzed the commercialization of superconducting quantum computing and for her significant contributions to advancing quantum computing research across the industry. In 2025, she was named one of the “Quantum 100” by the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology for her ongoing role in helping propel the field forward.

Diana joined the Plaisance team in 2023 as Principal – Director of Operations. Originally from the DC-metro area, Diana obtained her B.S. in Chemistry from The College of William & Mary (mentor: Richard Kiefer) and Ph.D. in Chemistry at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (mentor: Paul Hergenrother). Diana’s doctoral research centered around the screening and pre-clinical characterization of procaspase activating agents, such as PAC-1, a cancer drug now in clinical trials. Diana completed her postdoctoral training at The University of Chicago (mentor: Suzanne Conzen) studying glucocorticoid receptor modulation in hormone-driven malignancies such as breast and prostate cancers.

Beginning her professional career as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the small liberal arts institution Ave Maria University, Diana worked on a collaborative team of faculty to bring the university its first research grant. With a desire to return to the bench and study epigenetics, Diana joined the laboratories of Professors Chuan He and Marc Bissonnette at The University of Chicago as a Staff Scientist. There, she worked with on biomarker discovery in over 10 different cancers (including colorectal, ovarian, and prostate cancers) using the He lab’s epigenomic technologies. In parallel with her research in the He laboratory, Diana also worked on early-startup commercialization projects through the Polsky Center at The University of Chicago, including a biotech spin-out AccuraDX. Diana was honored to be named a Top 40 Under 40 Chicago Scientist by Halo in 2019, an award she credits entirely to the efforts of the teams in which she worked, including extremely innovative scientific mentors, colleagues, and team members.

At Plaisance, Diana is enthusiastic about helping grow and support exciting scientific discoveries to bring them to the market. Diana enjoys spending time with her family, music, art, and occasional harmless pranks.

Brad Henderson is the founding CEO of P33, leading efforts to drive global tech leadership and inclusive economic growth for Chicago. A former senior partner at Boston Consulting Group, Brad is a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of the University of Chicago and Oxford. He actively supports higher education and civic initiatives across the Midwest, serving on multiple advisory boards and the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders program.

A seasoned business executive, marketing and strategic thought leader with more than 30 years of experience, Michael joined Clayco, one of America’s largest fully integrated design and engineering centric builder and real estate development firm across the commercial, industrial and residential sector as its first ever Chief Growth Officer and President of Chicagoland in early 2024. Prior to this role between, Michael led as President and CEO World Business Chicago, the City’s economic development organization, with more than 100 C-Suite executives from all over Chicagoland on its business centric board between 2020 and early 2024. The organization’s core focus is on growing its industry sectors by supporting the expansion of existing Chicagoland based companies and by attracting new corporate relocations to the region, all with a focus on equitable economic prosperity across all 77 neighborhoods and the region. Additionally, Michael worked alongside the Mayor’s Office as the Chief Marketing Officer to ensure that all marketing, branding, and business development activities for the city were aligned with Mayor Lightfoot’s and then Mayor Johnson’s economic growth plan focused on inclusive growth across Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods.

Michael Fassnacht has been a recurring figure in Chicago’s civic community and has led critical pro-bono work for the rebranding of the Chicago Public Library and its foundation, the city’s Amazon HQ2 pitch, the City’s Census 2020 activities and “Boards of Change”, an award-winning initiative to encourage residents to register to vote. Most recently, Michael served as a Co-Chair on Mayor Johnson’s transition sub-committee for Economic Vitaly & Equity. Additionally, he has been involved as a board member with Choose Chicago, Chicago Public Library Foundation, The Civic Consulting Alliance, CURRENT, The Poetry Foundation, and World Business Chicago while providing counsel to P33, and The Chicago Prize by the Pritzker/Traubert Foundation. Michael also serves as a 2022 Daniel Burnham Fellow.

Prior to his most recent role, Michael served for more than 10 years as CEO & President at one of the city’s oldest and most successful advertising agencies, Foote Cone & Belding (FCB). He led his agency to unprecedented international creative recognition and strong above-industry topline growth over his tenure. Over his long career, he has been recognized as a global expert in building and marketing brands. He started his corporate success trajectory at Lufthansa Airlines in Frankfurt, where he led the airline’s frequent flyer program, Miles & More, before departing to Silicon Valley where he was a successful start-up entrepreneur.

Michael was born in Germany and made his way stateside in college where he met his wife, Dr. Rhonda Duffaut. They currently reside in Chicago and have two children, Maya and Ryan.

Dr. Harley Johnson is a Founder Professor in Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A faculty member since 2001, Harley served as the Associate Dean for Research in the Grainger College of Engineering from 2019 to 2024. As a researcher, his work has focused on electronic and quantum materials, and he is the PI and Director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.

Dr. Aaron Fluitt is Senior Director of Technology Partnerships at PsiQuantum. In this role, he leads PsiQuantum's engagement with Chicago's world-class quantum technology ecosystem. He previously worked at Argonne National Laboratory and Boston Consulting Group. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he used high-performance computers to study protein folding and aggregation