Highly regarded and experienced technology leader will lend guidance to IoT inventors and entrepreneurs
CHICAGO, IL.– August 27th, 2019: Rocket Wagon Venture Studios today announced Tony Wilkins will contribute to their evolution and growth as the latest Advisory Board member appointed in the last several weeks. Wilkins is an early stage investor whose passion for mentoring and supporting entrepreneurs focuses on disruptive products and services that improve efficiency, business and social outcomes.
Wilkins began his career as an electrical engineer at Chrysler Corporation. His corporate experience has been largely in institutional asset management sales, including a 15-year career at Northern Trust.
He began in investing personally in 1992 and has contributed to the growth of over 40 startups. He was the Membership Chair of Hyde Park Angels and is a former Executive in Residence at Excelerate Labs, currently Techstars Chicago.
“Our Advisory Board is deliberately an assembly of a variety of skills, viewpoints, and backgrounds on the belief that we are a stronger team as a result,” said Don DeLoach, founder and CEO, Rocket Wagon Venture Studios. “The common thread is a passion for innovation and helping aspiring entrepreneurs be successful. Tony has a long career of doing exactly that, and we are delighted to have him joining what will surely be a better team by virtue of his involvement.”
“I am honored and excited to join this team,” Wilkins said. “Contacts, perspective and alternative insights are essential ingredients for increasing the probability of success in the early stages of a company’s development. I’m delighted to help add this rocket fuel to accelerate the development of companies that come through our suite of studios.”
Through his personal investment vehicle, AEWilkins Holdings, Inc., which he established in 1991, Wilkins continues to support the development and growth of early-stage companies focused on coachable, resourceful entrepreneurs whose ideas hold the potential to create globally scalable, disruptively efficient digital companies.
Wilkins has mentored entrepreneurs through the Polsky Exchange at the University of Chicago, the Garage at Northwestern University, 1871 (Chicago’s leading Technology & Entrepreneurship Center), and The Junto Institute. His professional experiences include serving as a Relationship Executive at BNY Mellon, based out of Chicago, Illinois, where he was responsible for ensuring the satisfaction of multi-billion dollar, domestic corporate, public and not-for-profit pension and endowment plan trustees. He has also played instrumental roles as part of Hyde Park Angels, a 100+ member angel investment organization active in the Healthcare, IT, Business and Financial Services and Consumer Services.
Wilkins’ work as a Senior Vice President at Northern Trust Asset Management for fifteen years gave him deep experience in institutional asset management sales focused on consultant relations and crafting solutions to financial challenges facing large corporations.
His early career included working as an engineer on software and firmware projects, leading the design, development, documentation, testing and implementation of airborne anti-submarine detection systems.
Wilkins is married with three children and is an avid tennis player and long-distance cyclist.
Earlier this month, Rocket Wagon Venture Studios announced the formation of its Advisory Board, and appointment of its first member, Max Wolff, the Managing Partner of Multivariate strategic consulting services. This was followed by the announcement of Dr. Richard Soley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Object Management Group, Inc. (OMG) and Executive Director of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC).
The RWVS Board of Advisors will ultimately extend to six members and assist in providing a varied set of insights and support for the executive team. Subsequent announcements will be made over the coming weeks.
About Rocket Wagon Venture Studios
Rocket Wagon Venture Studios helps to build startups for the cyber-physical world by providing a team of experienced entrepreneurs who also have strong experience in IoT and specific vertical expertise. The RWVS parent organization provides the architectural cyber-physical framework including considerations regarding devices, security, privacy, data governance and ownership, communications, and a broad range of analytics, as well as shared legal and financial services, underlying operational systems, and corporate relationships. The related subsidiary studios are vertically focused venture studios that combine entrepreneurial expertise to de-risk startups and accelerate them to market with vertically aligned, IoT specific expertise to drive targeted startups at higher valuations.
Learn more at rwvstudios.com.
