Passing the Torch: Next-Gen Chicago Innovators

Sean Chou

Sean Chou is the CEO and Co-founder of Catalytic, a company built on his lifelong obsession with working smarter and streamlining businesses.

Catalytic was founded in 2015 with the mission to supercharge business processes by helping people and systems work better together. The company’s product, Pushbot, orchestrates work, automates lowvalue tasks, integrates systems and provides visibility into running processes. It’s a quickly-deployable, AI-infused platform that democratizes process automation while still enabling IT governance and support. Once deployed, Pushbot leverages machine learning to continuously learn from users, further optimizing processes and automating activities.

Prior to Catalytic, he was the founding CTO and EVP of Services of Fieldglass, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) pioneer acquired in 2014 by SAP. He began his career as a technical project manager at Giant Step and technology consultant at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting. Chou graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in psychology.

Eileen Murphy

Eileen Murphy taught English for 15 years and was the founding English Department Chair at Walter Payton College Prep as well as the author of 360 Degrees of Text (NCTE, 2011). As the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for over 100 of Chicago’s highest performing schools, she became passionate about the role technology could play in education in the 21st century and left CPS in 2012 to develop ThinkCERCA to help all students achieve career and college readiness. ThinkCERCA is one of the top Literacy Courseware Challenge winners (Gates Foundation).

Rishi Shah

Rishi Shah is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Outcome Health, which he started in 2006 to improve health outcomes by embedding actionable information and intelligence into the moments of care. Today, Outcome Health impacts over 500M annual patient visits across 20% of the physician practices in the United States.

Outcome Health’s mission is to activate the best health outcome possible for every person in the world through technologies that change behavior to positively shape the human condition. The company serves health information and health intelligence during critical moments of care to enable patients and physicians to make the best healthcare decision possible. The company, founded in 2006 by Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal, partners with 231,000 healthcare providers nationwide to impact 500 million patient visits annually. Outcome Health has offices in Chicago and New York City, employing more than 600 people, and partners with large healthcare systems, private physician practices, medical associations, global life sciences companies as well as pharmacies and payers.

Shah has a passion for youth initiatives, education and investing in aspiring entrepreneurs that are developing solutions to urgent global problems. As an investor, he serves as Senior Advisor at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and is a founding partner at Jumpstart Ventures, where he has invested over $15M across 45 high-growth startups. As a mentor, Shah frequently lectures Northwestern University, and advises entrepreneurs at TechStars and MATTER Chicago, where he sits on the Board of Directors. Shah also serves on the boards of Young President’s Organization, and the Academy for Global Citizenship, an internationally renowned charter school that aims to brings resources and systemic improvements to under-resourced children.

Howard Tullman

Howard A. Tullman is the CEO of 1871 in Chicago – where digital startups get their start – and the General Managing Partner for Chicago High Tech Investment Partners, LLC and for G2T3V, LLC – both Chicago-based venture capital funds. Over the last 45 years, he has successfully founded more than a dozen high-tech companies.

Prior to joining 1871 in 2014, Tullman served as the Chairman/CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy which he co-founded in 2007. He is the former President of Kendall College in Chicago and the former Chairman/CEO of Experiencia, Inc. He is also the Chairman of the Endowment Committee of Anshe Emet Synagogue and a Member of Mayor Emanuel's ChicagoNEXT and Cultural Affairs Councils; the Innovate Illinois Advisory Council; the Illinois Arts Council; and President Preckwinkle’s New Media Council. Tullman also serves as an Advisory Board Member of HighTower Associates, Built in Chicago, The Starter School, Imerman Angels, and uBid.com.

Tullman is an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School, as well as a regular guest lecturer at the Northwestern University School of Law. Tullman also serves as a Director of Vehcon, SnapSheet, Music Dealers, BCV Evolve, MarkITx, and PackBack Books and served as a long-time Director and Board Chairman of The Cobalt Group.

A notorious collector and patron of art, Tullman serves as a Trustee of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the New York Academy of Art, and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University.

Tullman was born in St. Louis and earned both a bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctorate from Northwestern University.