Jason Townsend

Jason is a Managing Director and Founder of Resonant Venture Partners. He has over twelve years of experience in the semiconductor, software, clean tech, automotive, and real estate industries. Jason has been an active investor for over eight years and was recently named to the Crain’s Detroit Business 2010 “40 Under 40” List.

Prior to Resonant, Jason served as a managing director of the Wolverine Venture Fund’s student advisory board at the Ross School of Business. During his time with the Wolverine Venture Fund, Jason conducted due diligence and invested in companies across the information technology, manufacturing, life sciences and clean tech sectors. He was also responsible for implementing a fully integrated solution for the deal acquisition, collaboration, document tracking and knowledge transfer procedures. In recognition of his leadership to the Fund, he was awarded the David T. Shelby Award from the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.

While at Ross, Jason also founded and was the CEO of Ikanos Power, a clean energy startup commercializing a fuel reforming technology set to revolutionize the way electricity is generated from fossil fuels. Due to his entrepreneurial achievements, he was the recipient of a Mondry Scholarship, a Marcel Gani Grant, the Williamson Award, the DTE Clean Energy Prize, and the Dow Sustainability Award.

Prior to his acceptance at Ross, Jason started his career as a product engineer at both ITT Automotive and then at Chrysler. With a burgeoning interest in high tech, he went to work at Intel as a lead execution engineer, advanced to a technical sales engineer role, and ultimately became the youngest business development manager in North America. He influenced $30M of sales in the Great Lakes District while forging trusted advisor relationships with senior level executives at F500 companies. Due to his outward-facing role at Intel, Jason built a strong personal network of 700+ C-level executives, VP’s, and senior managers in the global technology industry.

While at Intel, Jason founded and was the CEO of Townsend Investments, a real estate investment company. Along with his partners, he initially focused on procuring single-family homes and lakefront condos before quickly finding a niche in multi-family properties. Jason’s most notable deal was the structuring of a $13M acquisition of a 240-unit apartment complex. The property management arm and single-family homes have since been sold, but the multi-family properties continue to yield superior returns.

Jason is a Wolverine at heart and holds both an MBA with High Distinction and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate he was a member of the Michigan Marching Band, where he met his wife, Devonie, and performed in front of 100k+ fans at every football game for five years. Jason and Devonie have multiple generations of families in Michigan and have proudly chosen to establish roots in Ann Arbor in order to continue that tradition.