Judy Albers is the Chief Operating Officer at Excell Partners, Inc., where she co-manages a state-supported Seed Fund.  The Excell fund provides pre-seed and seed stage capital to start-ups across New York State and currently has over 20 companies in its portfolio.  Prior to joining Excell, Judy was a Vice President at Trillium Group, another Rochester-based Venture Capital firm, where she co-managed the University Technology Seed Fund.

 

She is also one of the co-founders of Pre-Seed Workshop-New York.  PSW-NY is currently serving Buffalo, Rochester, Ithaca, Syracuse, Binghamton, Potsdam, Albany, and Long Island.  Over 200 teams and 1,200 high-level professionals have participated in nearly 40 PSWs resulting in over 60 company start-ups formed.  Judy is also a co-founder and Managing Partner of Neworks, the managing umbrella organization for the Pre-Seed Workshops.   

 

Judy is a frequent speaker and panelist at local, regional, and national entrepreneurship conferences, business plan competitions, and venture forums.  An academic at heart, she is an ardent analyst and author of studies related to entrepreneurship.  Her papers have reached a regional, national, and international audience and can be downloaded at www.excellny.com, www.seedny.org, and www.psw-ny.org. 

 

In previous careers, Judy has served as an adjunct chemistry professor at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, a research chemist at 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a defense analyst for U.S. Sixth Fleet in Naples, Italy.

 

Judy holds a B.S. in Chemistry with Distinction from Duke University, a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Brandeis University, and completed her post-doc in Chemistry at Princeton University.

 

She is a member of the Board of Directors of AndroBioSys and the Western New York Venture Association.