Reviewers and Judges

All eligible applications were evaluated by external panels of experts.

Judges and Reviewers represent a variety of professional backgrounds and technical expertise. Our panels include individuals with expertise across relevant disciplines, including (but not limited to) the fashion industry, textile and materials science, microfiber shedding and microplastic pollution, conservation science, biotechnology, and innovation & entrepreneurship. Some of the Judges and Reviewers come from our coalition of partners.

Final Judges

Twelve finalist teams delivered pitch presentations to a panel of Judges listed below in January 2022. Judges had the opportunity to ask questions of the Finalists to inform their final decisions. Our Judges listed below have agreed to share their names and/or affiliations. Judges sign an NDA.

 
 

Judges in this category are representing Under Armour. Their input was considered together as one group vote.

Kyle Blakely, Vice President, Materials and Manufacturing Innovation

Kyle Blakely is the Vice President of Materials and Manufacturing Innovation at Under Armour. He came to the Brand over 13 years ago with a Textile and Apparel Management Degree from the North Carolina State University Wilson College of Textiles and also graduated with the University’s inaugural Entrepreneurship minor. During his time at UA he has primarily focused on textile and technology development and Innovation with a focus on Apparel amassing 38 global patents with 15 pending. In addition to Apparel, he has recently inherited oversight of Footwear and Accessories Materials Development as well as the Pre-textile Development, Lighthouse Manufacturing, Proving Grounds Lab, Virtual Materials, Innovation Wear Testing, Color, Technology Validation, and Custom Manufacturing groups. He has a significant passion for performance driven sustainability and developing transformative, long-term technologies that aren’t just best for UA, but for the entire industry. In addition to UA, Blakely sits on the Industry Advisory Board for the Wilson College of Textiles and is an avid industry networker and advocate.

Lorin Hamlin, Senior Lead, Innovation Partnerships

Lorin Hamlin joined Under Armour in 2011 to manage the grand opening of the state-of-the art Innovation Lab, and served as legal liaison between Innovation and the UA business units. She has built out that role to include business development, with a special interest in sports tech accelerator programs. Lorin now leads the Open Innovation practice at Under Armour, searching for the new and next idea to make all athletes better.

Jeremy Stangeland, Senior Manager, Materials Lab, Apparel and Footwear

You can visit Jeremy Stangeland’s LinkedIn profile here.

Individual Judges:

 

Vanessa Barboni Hallik, Founder and CEO, Another Tomorrow

Vanessa Barboni Hallik is the founder and CEO of Another Tomorrow, an end-to-end sustainable design company and platform for discovery and action committed to technology-enabled transparency and a circular economy. She is also an investor in early-stage companies with strong ESG commitments positioned to catalyze systemic change. Vanessa serves on the Board of the Accountability Counsel and on the Advisory Boards for Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and the Trust for Public Land. Prior to founding Another Tomorrow, Vanessa was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where she held several leadership roles in the emerging markets institutional securities business.

Victor Friedberg, Founder and Managing Partner, New Epoch Capital; Founder and Chairman, FoodShot Global; Co-Founder, Seed 2 Growth Ventures (S2G); Executive Chairman, Tiny Organics; Board, Kiverdi/Air Protein

Victor has been at the forefront of innovation, investment and sustainability for over 20 years. As Co-Founder of S2G Ventures he was a principal force in developing the S2G mission, culture, strategy and team. Through his work at S2G, he pioneered system investing as a strategy for investing into food and agriculture and applied this approach in building the S2G portfolio. As Managing Director, Victor led the S2G investments into 3 food unicorns: Beyond Meat, sweetgreen, and Apeel Science as well as Maple Hill Creamery, Ataraxis and Lavva among others.  Beyond Meat, which Victor served as Board Observer from 2014-2017 became the most successful IPO in 2019 and one of the most successful food IPO’s in the last decades. Sweetgreen will IPO in 2022.

His new fund New Epoch Capital invests in best of class entrepreneurs building transformative companies defining a new era of Health and Wellness to support their visions of providing healthy, sustainable, efficacious, personalized and traceable products and services for the conscious consumer. New Epoch mandate is to invest into scaling brands and enabling technologies across food, beauty and self care, health tech, sustainable apparel and home.

Corinna Chen, Partner, Material Impact

As a Partner at Material Impact, Corinna is focused on applying fundamental technologies across sectors to meet new needs. Her areas of interest include synthetic biology, bio-based materials, advanced electronic materials, and next gen computing.

Prior to her time with Material Impact, Corinna held leadership roles that spanned strategy, corporate development, finance, and product development. She has a successful record of transactions totaling over $1.25B across many geographies and products. 

Corinna received her MBA from Duke University and her BS in Electrical Engineering from Boston University. Over the course of her career, she has advised and supported the launch of several startups.

Jake Hanft, Program Manager, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners

Jake works as a program manager for Schmidt Marine, helping to research and analyze economically viable solutions to complex ocean health problems. A San Francisco native, Jake graduated from University of California, Davis with a B.A. in international relations with a global environment emphasis, and a minor in English. He is passionate about preventing bycatch and restoring coral reefs.

 

Second Round Reviewers

Each Reviewer received a subset of semi-finalist applications. Applicants do not know who has evaluated their application. The Reviewers listed below have agreed to share their names and/or affiliations. Reviewers sign an NDA prior to accessing applications.

Reviewers

Anna Posacka, Ocean Diagnostics

Nancy Diniz, Central Saint Martins

Daniella Russo, Think Beyond Plastics Foundation

Karen Sim, Forum for the Future

Abigail Barrows, Ocean Analytics

Carolynn Box, Microfiber Innovation Challenge Advisor

Neva Murtha, Canopy

Jerome DiGiovanni, Ignite Platform

Debbie Luffman, Finisterre

Haley Barkley, Under Armour

Victoria Geaney, Central Saint Martins

Beth Jensen

Charles Ross

Anni Sharp, Fauna & Flora International

Kaan Şen, EreksGarment

First Round Reviewers

The first round applications were evaluated by Reviewers representing a variety of professional backgrounds and technical expertise. Each Reviewer received a subset of applications. Applicants do not know who evaluated their application. Reviewers did not have access to the demographic information provided in applications. Reviewers only evaluated the Essay Questions in Section 2 of the applications. The Reviewers listed below have agreed to share their names and affiliations. Reviewers signed an NDA prior to accessing applications.

Reviewers

Krystle Moody-Wood, Materevolve / Challenge Advisor

Alicia Lee, Taraph Technologies

Cassia Patel, Oceanic Global

Sylvanie Meignie, HYPERBASE / Challenge Advisor

Rachael Miller, Cora Ball/Rozalia Project

Kellen Klein, Future 500

Edmir Silva, Unifi Inc.

Laura Hardman, Ocean Wise

Nicholas Mallos, The Ocean Conservancy

Mary Catherine O'Connor, Activate

Jake Hanft, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners

Patricia Holden, University of California Santa Barbara

Matthew Pattinson, Empowered Startups Ltd.

Zoie Diana, Ph.D. Candidate, Duke University

Megan Schuknecht, The Biomimicry Institute

Grace Ha, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners

Erika Montague, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners

Lorin Hamlin, Under Armour

Shaya Faraji, Under Armour

Rebecca Locker, Modern Meadow

Graham Page, VF Corporation

James Rodgers, The Real Real / Challenge Advisor

Katy Stevens, European Outdoor Group

Candace Rubenstein, Under Armour

Anukriti Jain, Student at MIT and former CXL Fellow

Matt Trexler, Under Armour

Alexandra Refosco, The Ocean Foundation

Nancy Diniz, Central Saint Martins

Frank Melendez, City University of New York

Sophie Billi-Hardwick, Billi London

Marie Bouhier, Billi London

Tim Silman, Lonely Whale

Nicole Rawling, Material Innovation Initiative

Jason Landrum, Pew Charitable Trusts