Ajey Kaushal is a senior investment associate at JLL Spark, responsible for sourcing, evaluating, investing, and scaling early-stage PropTech startups. Prior to joining JLL Spark, he held roles across strategy, tech investing, commercial real estate, and management consulting, most recently serving as Chief of Staff at Anderson Holdings and as an investment associate at PLG Ventures prior to that.
Ajey holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he served as student body President. After graduating with his MBA, Ajey has been an official mentor for current UCLA Anderson MBAs looking to launch startups post-graduation.
Christine leads marketing and communications for JLL Spark. She is responsible for elevating the Spark brand within the venture capital, tech, and real estate communities by developing and executing the media strategy for the global venture fund. Christine also partners with the JLL and JLL Technologies corporate communications teams to amplify internal awareness of Spark.
Prior to joining the JLL Spark team, Christine was the communications lead for BakerHughesC3.ai, a joint venture developing industrial AI and machine learning. Before that, she managed marketing programs for tech and consulting firms.
Christine holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.Â
Eddie Carroll, a native Iowan, is a growth principal for the Americas at JLL Spark. Prior to Spark, Eddie worked in strategic partnerships at Roofstock, Twitter, TellApart, and Accenture.
Not only is he focused on growing PropTech companies, cash-flowing small businesses, and accumulating frequent traveler points, he is also invested in growing the potential of youth in under-served communities as co-chair of BUILD Bay Area.
Kelly is business operations lead at JLL Spark, focused on process improvement for the investment and growth team. Previously, Kelly joined JLL in 2018 where she was a data analyst for the global research team performing market analysis for Silicon Valley and developing operational playbooks for JLL’s global research team. Kelly became a driver of tech adoption within the CRE industry because of the impact products (like Aero, BlackBird and JET) made on her and her colleagues’ day-to-day.
Kelly holds a B.S. in International Business from San Francisco State University. She was introduced to CRE through the Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA) mentorship program, where she learned the importance of building relationships between owners, tenants and their buildings.
Kitty is an investment principal with JLL Spark, a strategic venture fund that invests in early-stage PropTech companies. She previously worked at carpooling startup Scoop, LinkedIn, and management consultancies Bain and The Monitor Group. Kitty is passionate about mentoring and collaborating with startups of all sizes on strategy, business operations, and growth.
Kitty holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Laurent is an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist collaborating with start-ups to successfully build scalable teams, strong company cultures, and disruptive products. Laurent believes there is a need for additional support within the early-stage ecosystem in budding technology hubs in the US and globally. His desire to support these growing tech communities led to his current role as Partner at JLL Spark in April 2021, focusing on strategic PropTech investments.
Laurent has founded, expanded, and managed multiple start-ups ranging from a tech-enabled corporate catering company, Eat Club, to a leader in the mobile health and wellness space, Zeel. His experience working in the early-stage startup scene has given him the tools necessary to understand the needs of founders in the infancies of their companies.
Laurent holds a B.A. in International Relations and Occupational Science from the University of Southern California. He is based in Los Angeles.
Meagan Riley is a growth principal for JLL Spark, serving as the liaison between Spark’s portfolio companies and JLL business leaders and clients. Prior to joining JLL Spark, Meagan led business development and strategic partnerships for a Mark Cuban-backed startup in the Bay Area. Her previous experience includes leadership positions at iHeartMedia, where she led the political and advocacy division, and 1776, a global incubator and venture fund based in Washington, DC.
While at 1776, Meagan led the corporate partnerships team and helped develop UNION, a global software and content platform that connects startup founders, mentors, investors, and corporate innovators around the world. Earlier in her career, she held various positions at Frontier Strategy Group, which provided venture-backed information and advisory services for emerging markets executives.
Mihir Shah is co-CEO of JLL Technologies (JLLT), a business division of JLL dedicated to commercial real estate (CRE) technology, where he draws on his nearly two decades of experience in building and leading teams to bring successful technology-based products to market. Mihir is also a member of the JLL Global Executive Board.
Previously, Mihir served as co-CEO of JLL Spark Global Ventures, JLL’s global venture fund investing in early to mid-stage startups to fuel and accelerate innovation in PropTech. Prior to his time at JLL, he was a senior executive at Groupon, the co-founder and CEO of Mob.ly (acquired by Groupon), a product leader at Yahoo!, and a management consultant at R. B. Webber & Company. Additionally, Mihir has been an angel investor and adviser to a number of startups, including Uber and Boom Supersonic.
Mihir holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is based in San Francisco, California.
Natalia is an executive assistant supporting JLL Spark’s managing partner and partner. Before her venture capital career, Natalia worked in family-owned businesses and luxury hospitality brands throughout the globe. Natalia has since worked for venture capital firms such as Menlo Ventures and Fort Ross Ventures before joining JLL Spark in June 2021.
Natalia holds a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Business Management from Switzerland. Natalia is also trilingual, speaking Russian, French, and English.
Raj is the managing partner of JLL Spark, the corporate venture capital group of JLL, focused on strategic PropTech investments. Previously, he was interim co-head/managing director of investments at JetBlue Technology Ventures, the corporate VC of JetBlue Airways.
Prior to that, Raj served as CEO and co-founder of London-based Sooqini, an on-demand economy task delegator for small businesses. Before that, Raj co-founded and led a Geneva-based consulting firm and worked with various governments to foster entrepreneurship. As a general partner and co-founder of Pervasive Technology Ventures—and also as a principal for the New York-based VC arm of Investcorp—he was responsible for sourcing, negotiating, and closing new investments in tech startups. At Booz Allen Hamilton (now Strategy&), Raj led strategy and technology projects in ecommerce; technology, media, and telecommunications; and financial services. He also held multiple positions at IBM at the start of his career.
Raj holds an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and a B.S. in computing science from Imperial College London. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
