Nithya Ramanathan, Ph.D.

President & Founder

Nithya Ramanathan is a Founder and President of Nexleaf Analytics, and an Assistant Research Professor at UC Los Angeles. Nithya began developing mobile phone sensing applications after joining UCLA as a research faculty member, where she received one of the highly competitive NIH $1M Challenge Grants to develop mobile platforms to improve the cardiovascular health of women. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA and holds a BS degree from University of California at Berkeley in Electrical Engineering. Developing innovations in wireless sensor networks for the study of water, her doctoral work led to key advances in the understanding of arsenic contamination of groundwater wells in Bangladesh. Before commencing her graduate studies, she worked as a Lead Engineer for large scale servers at both Intel and Hewlett-Packard.

Nithya lectures regularly, most recently at the University of California, Los Angeles; the Anderson Business School; and University of Southern California. Nithya has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and has presented at, and served on the program committee for, conferences throughout the world. Additionally, she has served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development and is a Switzer Environmental Fellow.

Martin Lukac, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer & Founder

Martin Lukac is a Founder and the CTO of Nexleaf Analytics, and a Visiting Scientist at the University of California Los Angeles. Martin holds a B.S. from Haverford College, and received his Ph.D. from UCLA for innovations in wireless seismic and acoustic sensing systems. His research experience includes building, deploying, maintaining, and evaluating embedded systems for seismic, structural, environmental, and public-health applications. He developed, deployed, and maintained one of the first large scale wireless seismic networks as part of his thesis work. This system, delpoyed in Peru and Mexico, was deployed for over two years and spanned over 250 Km. Over the course of his work at UCLA he has worked closely with geophysicists, structural engineers, and ecologists. Martin Lukac has presented and published his work at peer-reviewed conferences and journals in computer science and earth science.

For Nexleaf, Martin leads the technical design and architecture. His work has led to one pending patent, and several more in the works.

Ian Leong, Ph.D.

Chief Operating Officer

Ian serves as Nexleaf’s Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of Nexleaf’s business services and projects organization.

Prior to joining Nexleaf, Ian practiced law at international law firms in Los Angeles and Houston in the areas of leveraged finance, project finance, oil and gas transactions and mergers and acquisitions. His clients included Fortune 100 and 500 companies as well as local and regional business owners and nonprofit organizations.

Ian received his law degree from the University of Virginia, and he also holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan, a Masters of Library and Information Science from UCLA, and a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ian brings these diverse experiences, along with his recent academic research in information architecture, user-experience design, and information visualization to his role at Nexleaf.

Nishith Nalin Bhatt

Nishith has over fifteen years of experience in media and public relations, branding, and marketing communications. He is currently the Director of Communication at the District for Child and Family Services for Los Angeles county. He also works with a brand strategy consultancy, nineindustries, where his clients have included Microsoft, Nike, Kobe Bryant, and Proflowers.com. He serves on the advisory boards of several non-profit organizations, advising them on branding and communications as well as business strategy.

Previously, Nishith was deputy communications director for United States Senator Patty Murray from the state of Washington, and Director of communications and marketing for the American Heart Association's Western States Affiliate. He has also taught language and literature at the university level as an assistant professor. Nishith attended the University of Maryland, College Park, did post-baccalaureate work at Oxford University, and has a Master's from UC Irvine and UCLA. He lives in Santa Monica, California.

Thomas Lee, M.D.

Thomas is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA, and co-founder and executive director of Global Health Access Program, a non-profit that builds capacity with local community-based organizations to provide health and public health services in Burma and border areas of China, India, and Thailand. He is also a managing partner of Antelope Valley Emergency Medicine Associates which runs one of the largest Emergency Departments in California. He is the author of numerous publications on infectious diseases, reproductive health, and the interaction between health and human rights.

Mark Sugarman

Mark is a founder and managing partner of MHS Capital, a new $35M early stage venture fund backed by an LP base of world class technology entrepreneurs and executives. MHS Capital focuses on leading the first institutional rounds for bootstrapped software and Internet companies raising $500K-$2.5M and sponsors serial entrepreneurs to do small tech buyouts. Mark has invested in fifteen companies over the past twelve years with six exits, including two companies with market capitalizations of over a billion dollars, and seven active investments. Prior investments include Edusoft (acquired by Houghton Mifflin), Getsmart (acquired by Providian/IAC), Nutrisystem (NTRI), Savi Technology (acquired by Lockheed Martin), Verticalnet (VERT), and 1stup (acquired by CMGI). Mark currently sits on the boards of Fonality, iLike, magnify360 and Positive Energy, and is an investor and board observer at Courttrax and Venturebeat. Mark has a B.A. from Stanford University.