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The Chicago Velo Campus at 8615 S. Burley is only the beginning of Chicago Velo Campus’s vision. This temporary structure for cycling is supported by metal undercarriage and utilizes Marine-grade plywood with “SkidGard” sandwich lamination to maintain maximum safety. Bicycles made specifically for the track featuring higher bottom brackets and fixed gears are available to rent at the facility. Elite and professional riders can reach up to 45+miles per hour and juniors over 10 can reach speeds of 25+ miles per hour on the track.

ABOUT THE FOUNDERS:
Emanuele Bianchi, President
President and CEO of PetEgo LLC
Emanuele is an award-winning Italian designer, manufacturer and retailer of boutique pet products. Founded in 2000, PetEgo has grown from a sole proprietorship to achieve international distribution. Emanuele moved his operations from Italy to the U.S. in 2004, and settled into Chicago full-time in 2006. Since then he has continued to broaden his business scope through new products and business ventures.
Emanuele is also an active cyclist that managed the Junior Development Program of of XXX Racing – AthletiCo’s. In the 2010 season Emanuele grew the program to one of the largest and most successful cycling programs of its kind in the region. His work has seen the program grow to its largest size to date and has been instrumental in the team’s larger success. His work has also led to several new team sponsorships.

 
Nik Rokop, Executive Vice President
Managing Director of the Jules F. Knapp Entrepreneurship Center at the Illinois Institute of Technology
Nik is past President & CEO of nLake Technology Partners, a management, business development and technology commercialization group specializing in nanotechnology. He has 30 years successful entrepreneurial experience in engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing and international operations. His career spans the iron and steel industries, manufacturing, consulting and the Internet.
Nik is involved in support of the entrepreneurial community as founding member and current President of the Chicago Microtechnology & Nanotechnology Community, founding member of the BIG Idea Forum, Vice Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Chicago, and member of the Steering Committee of the Technology Commercialization Task Force. Nik was named one of i-Street Magazine’s Top 100 in Technology & Economic Development in 2002.
A Chicago-area cyclist himself, Nik holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

 
Christos Komissopoulos, Secretary
Principal, Aspire Capital
Christos has more than twenty years of investment, finance, taxation and legal experience. He was a Principal at First National Development LTD for more than twenty years where he negotiated and closed hundreds of transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Since 2003, Christos has been an adjunct professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law (IIT) where he teaches classes on legal writing, negotiations, real estate and comparative property law between the US and the European Union.
Christos earned a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree from Northwestern University School of Law (doctoral dissertation on comparative indirect tax systems in the United States and the European Union). He also earned a Master of Laws degree from Northwestern University School of Law, a Master of Laws in taxation from DePaul University College of Law, and a Master of Arts in economics from University of Illinois at Chicago. He also holds a Law Diploma from the University of Athens Law School in Athens, Greece.