Rheaply's Founders

Dr. Garry Cooper is CEO and Co-founder of Rheaply, a climate technology company working to scale reuse and the circular economy by bringing better visibility and utilization of physical resources; therefore reducing waste, costs, and carbon emissions. He also serves as a founding General Partner at LongJump, the most active pre-seed venture fund based in Chicago, designed to invest in the next generation of underrepresented founders and overlooked ideas.

Previously, Dr. Cooper was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Northwestern, helping trainees, faculty, and staff more seamlessly connect to the Chicago business community. Prior to his faculty position, Dr. Cooper facilitated supply chain and performance improvement for leading biotechnology enterprises at Ernst & Young. Before this, he began his career as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where he led the drug discovery effort to find a selective L-type calcium channel inhibitor for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, for which he holds a US patent. In addition to Vice-Chair of P33 Chicago, he also serves as a board member of 1871, Northwestern’s Master of Product Design and Management program, and startups Mycocycle and Improovy.

Dr. Cooper is the Chairman of the Board of Rheaply. He has been twice recognized as a Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs 2021 & 2022, an Emerson Collective Dial Fellow, one of Crain’s 40 Under 40 Chicago, Chicago Power 30, and Forbes Next 1000. He is a former Google for Entrepreneurs Fellow and a member of YPO Chicago Chapter, the Forbes Chicago Business Council, and The Economic Club of Chicago. Dr. Cooper is a member of the 2023 Class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute.