Laura E. Benjamin is the CEO and President of Myris Therapeutics, a Pittsburgh-based biotech building ultra-high DAR antibody-drug conjugates that fuse polymer chemistry with cancer biologics. A molecular biologist by training, she has moved from Harvard pathology labs to Eli Lilly oncology leadership to two CEO chairs - most recently steering OncXerna through more than $100 million in clinical-stage financing before taking the helm at Myris in 2024.
Noveome Biotherapeutics is a Pittsburgh clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company built around ST266, a multi-targeted secretome of hundreds of biologically active proteins harvested from a novel population of amnion-derived cells. Rather than transplanting cells, Noveome delivers the healing signals those cells secrete - aiming to modulate inflammation, protect nerves, and accelerate tissue repair. Its lead program treats necrotizing enterocolitis, a devastating gut disease in premature infants, with additional pipeline work spanning ophthalmology, neurology, and dermatology.
Skild AI is a Pittsburgh-based robotics company building the Skild Brain, a single general-purpose foundation model designed to control any robot - quadrupeds, humanoids, tabletop arms, mobile manipulators - across many tasks without bespoke retraining. Founded in 2023 by former Carnegie Mellon professors Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta, the company trains on a mix of large-scale simulation, internet video, teleoperation and real-world deployment data. After a $1.4B Series C in January 2026, Skild AI is valued at over $14 billion.
Graham Rihn is the founder and CEO of RoadRunner, a Pittsburgh-based company that uses data and AI to modernize commercial waste and recycling. A Cornell economics grad and former college linebacker who grew up in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, Rihn started RoadRunner in New York City in 2014 after watching garbage pile up on Manhattan streets and asking why an $85 billion industry had skipped the technology revolution. He moved the company to his hometown of Pittsburgh in 2017 and grew it from roughly 30 people in three cities to more than 500 employees serving over 12,000 customers nationwide, raising more than $150 million along the way, including a $70 million Series D led by General Atlantic.
Rexhep 'Rexhi' Dollaku is a General Partner at Base10 Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that has become the first Black-led VC to cross $1 billion in assets under management. Born in Ulcinj on the Montenegro-Albania border and raised in Pittsburgh, Dollaku studied economics, global health, and health policy at Harvard before building his career in venture. He joined Base10 as an early team member, architecting the firm's thematic research methodology that now drives 90% of its investments and growing it from a seed-stage firm to a $1.3B AUM powerhouse. His focus: backing founders who automate the 'real economy' - food, logistics, retail, fintech - solving problems for the 99% while donating half of the firm's profits to HBCU scholarships.

Nick Mehta co-founded Gainsight in 2013 and spent 13 years as CEO building the defining customer success platform - growing it from a startup into a $1.1 billion unicorn acquired by Vista Equity Partners, and in the process creating an entirely new job category of Customer Success Manager now held by hundreds of thousands of professionals worldwide. A Harvard-educated biochemist turned serial entrepreneur with a penchant for Taylor Swift parody rap videos, he stepped down as CEO in August 2025 to make way for his hand-picked successor while continuing on the board.