The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) has named Jane McCracken assistant director for membership and programs, and Frank Tighe and lead entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR).
The promotions, which were announced by ATDC General Manager Jen Bonnett, are effective immediately. McCracken and Tighe join Johanna Kaiser, ATDC’s assistant director of administration and facilities, as the incubator’s core leadership team.
“Both Jane and Frank bring a deep well of knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm to ATDC and have been tremendous assets to our program in their previous roles,” Bonnett said. “As key drivers in our mission to create a world-class incubator experience for our startups, Jane and Frank — partnering with Johanna — will have even greater impact on our companies who come to ATDC to learn, launch, scale, and succeed.”
McCracken, a veteran entrepreneur, was CEO of an oncology-focused clinical research company, which she grew from startup to a multinational firm with $15 million in annual revenue. A larger clinical research organization purchased the company in 2012.
In her most recent role at ATDC prior to her promotion, McCracken was a startup catalyst and counseled entrepreneurs on business model validation. In her new role, she is charged with statewide outreach and connecting entrepreneurs across Georgia to ATDC’s education offerings and its ATDC Connect business development program, which she also will manage, in addition to staff assigned to those initiatives.
Tighe, another longtime entrepreneur who has deep expertise in the medical device industry, is chairman and chief executive of Atlanta-based TDH Partners. As lead EIR, he succeeds Richard Nailling who completed his term in that position.
The lead EIR is responsible for managing the EIR team — a group of successful entrepreneurs who counsel and coach the startups in the ATDC Signature and ATDC Accelerate portfolios.
About ATDC:
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is one of the longest-running and largest university-based startup incubators in the country. Founded in 1980, ATDC has graduated more than 160 companies from its ATDC Signature program. To date, those companies have attracted roughly $2 billion in investments. ATDC, which also has programs in Savannah, Athens, and Augusta, is a unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, the chief economic development arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology. For additional information about ATDC and the ATDC FinTech Program, visit atdc.org.