Student Fintech Innovation Competition

2022 Competition Participants

• Open/Close Student Teams

  Team 1: Asic Energy (2nd place winner)

  Team 2: CRED (1st place winner)

  Team 3: CryptPay

  Team 4: Advoca

  Team 5: Common Interest (3rd place winner)

• Open/Close Judges

   

  

  Trey Addison is Co-founder and Managing Partner of Nascent Group Holdings. In Trey’s capacity, he manages the firm’s acquisition strategy, portfolio investment alignment, and investment operations. Trey has led Nascent Group Holdings investment in multiple real estate and small-cap companies in Ohio. Mr. Addison’s real estate and private equity investments have consistently outperformed the typical Private Equity benchmarks.

  Trey has worked in business, government, and government affairs prior to founding NGH. He served in executive capacities with some of the largest non-profits in the United States. In his role, Trey led government relations and public affairs that delivered legislative and regulatory impact to millions of consumers. Before his private-sector career, Trey worked for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.

  Mr. Addison received his Executive MBA from The Ohio State University Fisher School of Business, an Executive in Energy Certificate from The Ohio State University’s Fisher School of Business, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toledo. Mr. Addison serves as a Governor Appointee to the Ohio Alzheimer’s and Dementia State Taskforce, as a Presidential and Governor Appointee to the United States of America Selective Service Board Region 1, Guest Lecturer at The Ohio State University Fisher School of Business, Venture Mentor with The Ohio State University Buckeye Venture Mentoring Service, and as an Advisory Board member to several Ohio companies.

  

  Matt Armstead is an entrepreneur, senior executive, strategic investor, and advisor, his talents combine vision, product and business development, and the ability to nurture a seedling of an idea into something tangible— a scalable business. Matt believes there is 'Success in Failure' and has evolved to think it starts with big ideas and taking calculated risks, learning and improving at every step. Matt was the co-founder and the Executive Director and board member of Fintech71, a global accelerator based in Columbus. As a founder and partner at Horizon Two Labs, Matt primarily oversees strategy and business development. He has led accelerators, sits on boards, and advises two early-stage startups, BYBE and RoamHR. He is a founding partner in Root Insurance and was previously the CEO and co-founder of Sprout It, a DIY gardening app sold to Scotts Miracle-Gro. Before that, Matt successfully started and sold MobileWait, a guest management solution for restaurants, as the CEO and co-founder. In addition, Matt has been a Director at Fair Isaac and Experian, focusing on digital marketing, big data and predictive analytics, product and business development, and strategic partnerships.

  

  Jason Black is currently a Senior Vice President and the Director of Analytic Insights at Huntington National Bank where he is responsible for conducting analytics across the enterprise, with an emphasis on implementing new analytic solutions. He was previously a Research Leader in Battelle’s Energy Systems business and a Senior Researcher at General Electric Global Research with over 20 patents pending or granted and over 20 academic publications. He also has extensive experience in Management Consulting. Jason retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army after over 20 years of service as a Military Intelligence Officer. He has previous deployments to both Iraq and Haiti, and has numerous decorations, including a Bronze Star. He received his PhD from MIT in Engineering Systems, and has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Notre Dame. Jason volunteers with several Veteran’s organizations, the Boy Scouts, and as a Youth Sports Coach.

  

  Scott Griffin joined The Ohio State University July of 2021 and is currently the Director of Entrepreneurial Programs at Fisher College of Business where he teaches courses on New Product Development and Innovation. He brings three decades of experience in starting, managing, and growing businesses across a variety of industries nationally and globally, with a proven track record for building high-performing teams. Griffin is a patent holder and has led the successful commercialization of several new products, including the Earthminded Rain Station and the social venture. He also served on the Board of Directors for several non-profit institutions, including Ohio State Parks and Columbus State Community College.

  Griffin joined Ohio State from LC Capital Partners where he served as Chief Operation Officer and Executive Vice President. Griffin’s primary responsibilities included strategy, land development, acquisition, and new business development. While at LC, Griffin made significant advancements in expanding operational excellence and played a critical role in the development of LC’s business portfolio and people infrastructure. He has been instrumental in the creation of the company’s long-term strategic direction, formalizing the strategic-planning processes and establishing greater transparency and accountability within the organization. Scott also led the company’s Human Resource efforts – including talent acquisition and development, compensation and benefits, succession planning, and employee engagement programs – to support the company’s growth, innovation, and profitability.

  Griffin spent 11 years at Greif, Inc., a worldwide leader in industrial packaging products and services, in numerous executive leadership roles including Chief Sustainability Officer, Vice President, Communications, and Investor Relations. While at Greif Inc., Griffin was part of multiple corporate strategy teams that made significant contributions in the areas of commercial excellence, operational excellence, and acquisitions to operationalize the company’s strategic initiatives.

  Griffin spent 14 years at Dow Chemical holding global marketing and business leadership roles and 4 years at Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society.

  

  Faith Voinovich is a Principal at Ohio Innovation Fund, where she's led investments spun out of top research institutions, assisted companies in raising tens of millions in follow on funds, provided reverse due diligence and other exit-related analysis, and served in a variety of board, board observer, and advisor roles including for Invirsa, Clarametyx, Genetesis, Complion, DatAnchor, and Stirling Ultracold (BioLife Solutions, NASDAQ: BLFS).

  Faith's love of the startup world is balanced with a deep curiosity surrounding engineering and biotechnology, and she received her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering where she attended as a Cutler Scholar. Prior to OIF, Faith spent time as a Stanford University Innovation Fellow and worked to research, design, and raise funds to construct CoLab, a space built to foster creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship while encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration on Ohio University's Athens campus.

  In addition to Faith's investment work, she believes in building bridges across early career VCs, as well as providing access to demographics who are historically underrepresented in VC. To this end, she serves as a mentor for the National Venture Capital Association's Venture Forward program, "Investor Swarm" mentor for the Cleveland and Cincinnati branches of gBETA, as well as an executive board member for VentureUP.