Meet The Team

As a self-proclaimed lifelong learner, the concept of curiosity has driven Gabe for as long as he can remember; he’s always loved that feeling of satisfaction you get when you learn something new.  Now a father of young children, Gabe is reminded every day how powerful the concept of curiosity can be in helping one grow. It’s for this reason that Curiosity.com is such an exciting adventure for him. Gabe is driven by the idea of creating a platform that is effective in igniting a sense of true curiosity, inspiring people to want to learn new things. You don’t have to come here with a plan—just come with an open mind, a desire to learn, some free time and Curiosity will do the rest. When not working on Curiosity, Gabe enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, being active outdoors and all forms of fishing. And for those last few remaining moments of his free time, Gabe also enjoys teaching entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management where he teaches a course on new venture development.

Andy is a startup guy with a background in tech and mobile, and is committed to improving the way people get inspired to learn using new technology. Product management, development and UX geek, he is an outdoorsman living an urban life and a mediocre guitar player. Andy thrives in startup-stage, creative and highly technical teams...and loves building those teams. His favorite things to learn include music, history, psychology and anything John Green creates. Andy moved to Chicago in 2011 when his company was accepted into Excelerate Labs (now Techstars Chicago) and fell in love with the city.

Mike is a world citizen who has settled back in Chicago to raise a family and live the next great adventure helping to transform the world of education. Mike is passionate about learning and is proud to be a part of the Curiosity team. Mike’s favorite daily learning topics include physics, evolutionary biology, ancient history and archeology. His dream is to one day be able to travel through Africa, the Middle East, parts of Europe and Asia to study early pre-human societies and track the development of the modern day human species. In addition to learning, Mike loves a good movie and is currently introducing all the great movie classics to his son. To help maintain a healthy mind, Mike keeps his body fit by exercising nearly every day. He also enjoys great food and drink with friends to keep his spirit healthy, too!

Andy is a Chicago native with a finance and accounting background from the University of Michigan. He spent his early career in investment banking and private equity before joining Curiosity. His greatest curiosities are classical & Renaissance history, food & drink, and unique philosophies.

Creating value from Curiosity's audience of life-long learners as well as monetizing the capabilities of the platform is at the core of Burke's responsibilities. A seasoned executive with experience at Yahoo!, as well as the founder of Mobile Advertising business which he ran for the last 7 years, Burke brings a solid background of growing businesses and establishing partnerships.

With a background in journalism, it's no surprise Amanda loves learning about other people and their stories. She also finds endless inspiration in nature and the humanities. In her free time, Amanda practices and teaches yoga, volunteers with 826CHI, and rides her bike (weather permitting).

Brandon is a technologist who lives in a cornfield. He enjoys fooing bars and quuxing quxes. When he isn't writing his bio in the third person, he enjoys building Lego castles with his daughter.

A former computer science major at UW-Milwaukee, Nick dropped out in order to remain in Chicago and work with startups. He enjoys travelling the world, but is happy to call Chicago his home. Nick enjoys naps, playing with his puggle, video games, drums, micro brews, and fitness.

Drew, a native of the Chicagoland area, was raised on AIX, Slackware, and copious amounts of pizza. With extensive experience building full-stack solutions crossing many domains, Drew is most passionate about blending creativity with technology to deliver optimal solutions. When he’s not playing the piano or the guitar, he can be found either perfecting his pizza recipe or smoking beef briskets.

Born and raised in Chicagoland, Joanie studied journalism and art at DePaul University. She makes colorful paintings, sees live music and eats a lot of candy in her free time. Joanie loves learning about otters, Nikola Tesla, brains, feminism and any Vsauce thing.

Mel has lived in Chicago for most of her life, but spent her formative years near the swamps of Florida, which ignited her enduring fascination with nature (bugs included). Having studied English at the University of Chicago, she now pursues the intersection of great science and great prose. She loves the horror genre, unfamiliar foods, and every dog she meets.

Zach is a Badger from the north, with a background in finance and muggle studies. Having grown up controlling item markets in video games, he likes opportunistic problem-solving. He loves being introduced to new ideas and understanding, which is a daily occurrence at Curiosity.

Chase grew up in Charlotte playing with pianos, Legos and Nintendos. He moved to Savannah to study graphic design at SCAD before moving to Chicago in 2005. He is a self-taught developer who now spends his free time playing with pianos, Legos and Nintendos.

Ben grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and has been living in the city ever since attending college at the Illinois Institute of Technology. When not writing or reading code, he loves to discover new music, read about philosophy, and hone his culinary skills. He is also active in Chicago's cycling community, and spends a large amount of time training for bike races.

Rose has been a bit of a nomad living in eight different states before moving to Chicago in 2013. With degrees in design and animation she also dabbles in painting, sculpture and ceramics. When not doing art her free time is taken up with board games, books, and watching horror movies on netflix.

Julie is a designer and an artist who graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When she isn’t staring into her computer screen, she finds comfort in dogs and sweets.

Roy loves solving problems and answering questions with code, data, and graphs, though not necessarily in that order. He's a full stack developer with a strong focus on the frontend and user experience. When not in Chicago, you can usually find him deep in the woods on vision quests trying to find balance between solitude and noise.

Luke is a lifelong Chicago area resident with a penchant towards learning new things. When Luke isn't working to enhance the curiosity experience, he can usually be found running along the lakefront or exploring the city in pursuit of the perfect sushi roll.