Michael W. Ferro, Jr is an inventor, investor and philanthropist. He is the Founder and CEO of Merrick Ventures LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm comprised of some of the nation’s most influential business and civic leaders. The firm is invested in a number of private and public US companies including Wrapports LLC, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and more than forty media publications, MERGE healthcare, highschoolcube.com and higi LLC.

An inventor of a number of proprietary products and processes, Ferro holds multiple patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Most recently, Ferro was issued a patent for his innovations in medical imaging for MERGE healthcare, and several of Ferro’s developments are currently patent pending.

Best known for founding Internet software company, Click Commerce at the age of 28, Ferro’s success in his early career made him one of the youngest people named to the Forbes “Tech’s 100 Highest Rollers” list and earned Ferro numerous business honors. During this time, Ferro was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, and won the KPMG Illinois High Tech award as well as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Technology award.

An established business leader, Ferro is active in the Midwest’s budding tech scene, where he focuses on mentoring young entrepreneurs, and architecting regional programs that help fund and develop Illinois’ up-and-coming business leaders. For his professional and civic impact on the city of Chicago, Ferro was named to the “100 Most Powerful Chicagoans” list and is a perennial honoree on the “Who’s Who” list by Crain’s Chicago Business.