Team

ATDC TEAM

Having access to serial entrepreneurs, industry, and functional experts is key to startup success. ATDC Educate members; and companies in the ATDC incubator program can access coaching on a one-on-one basis via ATDC’s staff of experienced entrepreneurs, industry partners, and startup subject matter experts. They can also seek advice from ATDC’s talented pool of pay-it-forward volunteer mentors.

Not a member? Learn more about ATDC Educate member services and benefits.

Already have a minimal viable product, beta customers, and a full-time commitment to working on your startup company? Click here for details on how to apply to the ATDC incubator program for portfolio companies.

Interested in connecting with an ATDC staff member? Meet with one of our Catalysts at Coffee with a Catalyst the first Friday of every month from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the ATDC Lobby.

COACHING STAFF

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Tripp Amos

Tripp Amos has worked in a variety of sales and executive-level positions at Aflac for more than two decades. In 2018, he purchased Piedmont Payment Services, a leading premium processor that had 38 insurance carriers in its portfolio. Under his leadership, Piedmont was named to Inc. Magazine’s list of “America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies” in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Tripp sold Piedmont in April 2020 and has since been engaged as a consultant for a number of insurance companies and private equity firms. He is excited about his role as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at ATDC. He holds an undergraduate degree from Furman University and an MBA from Emory University.

HealthTech Catalyst

Berkley Baker

Berkley Baker has served as the vice president of sales and business development for a healthcare technology firm, was a facilitator at The Center for Leadership Studies, a strategic consultant of executive teams, and a sales representative from multiple medical device companies. Berkley has 20 years of sales experience, approximately 10 years of experience as a trainer and about 7 years of consulting.

As a sales and business development vice president in the health technology space, Berkley developed strategic thinking processes to manage national responsibilities for hospital senior executive relationships and new business development. He implemented or expanded more than 20 robotic surgery programs and was distinguished at Ethicon Endo-Surgery — a unit of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies — for continued sales excellence. He has facilitated more than 60 leadership seminars to 1,000 sales, marketing, human resources, operations, engineering, and financing leaders for one of the global leaders in leadership training. He conducted sales training and mentoring activities throughout the United States and in China.

Berkley has consulted with more than 100 executive teams in the implementation of disruptive technologies or leadership processes. In his five years with the United States Army, Berkley served as a logistical officer supervising teams in excess of 100 personnel while managing equipment of $50 million. Honorably discharged as a captain, Berkley served in Haïti and conducted four leadership rotations with two humanitarian relief deployments. He holds a doctorate in business from Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Berkley’s Office Hours:

Location: ATDC Headquarters
Tuesdays 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Meet with Berkley

Startup Catalyst in Augusta

Chris Dickson

Chris Dickson is an experienced management consultant who has supported startups in the Augusta region since moving to the area in 2005. He founded The George Group LLC, a niche operations consulting firm, in 2008 to support the commercialization of new products and technical services.

Prior to starting his own company, he led several global Fortune 500 strategic business units and private equity funded firms in roles ranging from executive vice president to CEO. In addition, Dickson was an advisor/angel investor in two early-stage medical device companies in the Boston area before moving back to the Southeast.

As a local volunteer, Dickson has coached and/or mentored more than 100 startups and early-stage companies in the Central Savannah River Area. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Clemson University. A firm believer in lifelong learning, Dickson has attended executive education sessions at Harvard University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. For the past two years, he has taught project management, creativity, and leadership classes at the McKimmon Center for Extension & Continuing Education at North Carolina State University.

Executive-in-Residence

Ben Dyer

Ben advises ATDC companies on financial engineering, including cap table optimization for founders and on strategic customer acquisition. He enjoys working with early-stage companies that have the potential to scale. He is best known as the founding CEO of Peachtree Software, which provided IBM its accounting software offering at the launch of the PC in 1981. He has had startups in all locations of the ATDC since its inception and was chair of the alumni committee that spawned the concept in 1980. His many startups have included digital media (partnered at various times with Cox, Rupert Murdoch, and ESPN), an early-stage Cordova Ventures fund, several traditional banks, medical technology, payments, and Internet of Things (IoT) firms. He spent seven years (2011-2018) in Austin, Texas teaching entrepreneurship at the Cockrell School of Engineering, working in a leadership role at SXSW, and advising at the Austin Technology Incubator. For more than two years after returning to Atlanta he served as EIR for Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP, the Souteast’s leading tech law firm, where he worked with hundreds of clients on business matters. He is a Georgia Tech engineering alumni with an MBA from Georgia State University. He is a member of Georgia’s Technology Hall of Fame. Read his blog at StartupDecisionMaking.com.

MBDA@ATDC Startup Catalyst

Blanca Catalina García

Blanca Catalina has more than 15 years of experience as an educator, ecosystem builder, coach, mentor, and leader in multicultural communities. Blanca creates spaces where people with diverse stories can feel safe and experience transformational growth. She has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and innovators across the Southeast start, launch, and fund their entrepreneurial ventures.

As an MBDA @ATDC Startup Catalyst, Blanca’s expertise in serving multicultural communities will be foundational to ATDC’s work with entrepreneurs in traditionally underserved communities.

Blanca is well known for successfully launching multiple innovative learning programs, as well as creating the culture and ecosystem to support and sustain them. She has successfully implemented specialized and sustainable learning and mentorship programs in diverse communities and across divides. After leading the award-winning BIG Incubator in Atlanta — which is focused on Black and Latina women-led tech companies — for digitalundivided, Blanca focused on being a coach and educator for emerging entrepreneurs, as well as an expert instructional designer and ecosystem builder in the tech entrepreneurship space.

She is founder and CEO of BCG Innovation, an innovative program design consultancy, and co-founder of Flagship Founders, an educational platform for emerging entrepreneurs. She helped develop the Intentionally Good program for Goodie Nation, and led the Startup Division. She also leads the Walker’s Legacy PROSPECTUS Latina Accelerator.

Blanca’s Office Hours:

Location: ATDC Headquarters
Tuesdays 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Meet with Blanca

MarTech Catalyst

Adam Gautsch

Before joining ATDC, Adam spent most of his career helping to run a website development company in Greenville, South Carolina. For fun, he helped start and run different organizations and events in the tech and entrepreneurial sectors. These included a co-working space, a social entrepreneur meetup, an idea collection website for cities, an app tracking the Greenville trolleys, and Startup Week Greenville.

Adam has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Clemson University.

Startup Catalyst in Athens

Chris Hamilton

Hamilton, a 2005 graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, is founder and CEO of Novarata, a consultancy focused on technology support, Web and mobile app development, and website monitoring.

He also is founder and CEO of Ecomio, a software and marketing automation consulting firm that serves businesses in the consumer products, e-commerce, digital media, and advertising sectors.

Prior to starting his own companies, Hamilton was chief technology officer at Clever Training in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida area, and before that he was senior lead developer at Definition 6, an Atlanta-based content marketing and digital agency.

Startup Catalyst in Savannah

Radford Harrell

Radford Harrell is the Savannah Startup Catalyst for the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC). He is an incessant entrepreneur, startup coach and connector, and keeper of way too much information. His most recent venture was as CEO of TalentSoup.com and an innovation and business growth consultant. His broad spectrum of experience includes US Navy, Commercial Diver, Dive Boat Captain / Instructor, Medical Device Designer, and Biologic Implant Marketer. He is passionate about helping people doing the hard work of creating technical businesses. Rad relocated to Savannah from Atlanta in 2009, after SEDA’S Creative Coast invited him to experience the rich life, living and working on the Georgia coast. He adventures with his wife, 3 kids, and 2 crazy cattle dogs.

Email:radford.harrell@atdc.org

Startup Catalyst

Bill Hogan

Bill has always had a strong interest in technology and business, an interest that led to his obtaining his bachelor’s degree in applied physics from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Early in his career, Bill ran the European operations of a U.S.-based music services business. Stationed in London for three years, he created a pan-European satellite distribution network using cutting-edge MCPC technology. This new technology changed the industry paradigm for delivering music to customers. In 2000, he co-founded a technology-based startup called EGT, an ATDC company. EGT was focused on building products to improve the bandwidth efficiency of transmitting video over various networks. The company raised more than $30 million in venture capital, developed the first software-based video encoder for the cable television industry and generated more than $12 million per year in annual revenue.

ARRIS acquired EGT in 2009, and Bill led the integration of the EGT business into ARRIS and directed product management for ARRIS’ video encoder business. Most recently he directed internal operations for ARRIS’ Video Systems business, which generated more than $300 million in 2015.

BILL’S HOURS:

ATDC Alpharetta

Fridays 11:00am – 12:00pm

Meet with Bill in Alpharetta

HealthTech Catalyst

Greg Jungles

Greg has served as CIO, CTO and chief data officer for multiple healthcare/health technology companies ranging from startup to $1B in annual revenue in size. He brings executive-level experience and has played key roles in leading technology transformation while driving growth and organizational change in multiple venture capital or private equity-backed companies. Most recently, Greg has helped multiple self-funded healthcare start-ups as a strategy consultant and technology advisor.

Greg began his career as a technology developer and has led software, data and product development teams to deliver right-sized technology solutions that anticipate future strategy pivots and scalability needs. In addition to Greg’s technology development expertise, he has extensive practical and leadership experience in technology strategy, roadmap development, project/product management, data governance, analytics, business intelligence, and HIPAA compliance.

Over the course of his professional career, Greg has proven to be effective at quickly understanding business goals to develop aligned technology strategy and execution roadmaps. He is adept at translating technology concepts and discipline into business terms and has a recognized ability to build engaged teams and deliver innovative, right-sized technology solutions that are aligned with strategic business needs.

Greg obtained his bachelor’s degree from James Madison University. He and his wife have lived in metro Atlanta for about 15 years and spend much of their spare time renovating an 1890s farmhouse.

Greg’s Office Hours:

Location: ATDC Headquarters
Tuesdays 3:00pm – 5:00pm

Meet with Greg

FinTech Executive-in-Residence

Tommy Marshall

Tommy is managing director of Fernbank Advisors in Atlanta, a FinTech-focused advisory firm. Tommy has spent more than two decades in his management consulting career focused on digital financial services and fintech. His role aims to bring a depth in payments, banking, capital markets, and finance and regulation, along with FinTech ecosystem participants to craft meaningful capabilities for financial services institutions. Tommy is a graduate of Davidson College and holds a master’s degree in business administration from Vanderbilt University. He has called Atlanta home for the past 10 years.

Manufacturing Catalyst

Shane Matthews

Shane is listed as inventor or co-inventor on more than a dozen patents with others pending. Best known for his work on the Nerf AirJet brand, Shane also has helped to develop manufacturing processes for lithium ion batteries. He is a mentor and coach to inventors through the My Inventor Club, which he established here in Atlanta.

Senior Startup and Deep Tech Catalyst

Nakia Melecio

Nakia helps researchers commercialize their technology in biotechnology, energy, defense, military technology, education, government technology, and aerospace. He also helps them secure investments from a network of federally funded laboratories, universities, and corporations. Throughout his career, he has worked with industry, academia, and government. As a result, Nakia has a unique and deep understanding of the early-stage innovation ecosystem and technology transfer, proven scientific and technical expertise, and decades of operational experience in technology-driven, high-growth companies. He has successfully helped startups and to develop businesses worldwide in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Nigeria, and Ghana.

Nakia’s passion as a business advisor, deep-tech, deep-science mentor, and startup coach inspires and helps entrepreneurs and startups spun out of university research. A seasoned entrepreneur, Nakia allows entrepreneurs execute on their ideas while guiding them in the total startup journey — from product development and selling to the government, to their go-to-market strategy and customer discovery to scaling a company and getting capital. He has worked with more than 700 startups worldwide, with more than 15,000 hours of classroom time working with entrepreneurs.

Nakia is an active member and mentor of the technology community and a frequent contributor to numerous business organizations, including the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). He is a longtime technology startup mentor, having served in that role at the:

- Advanced Technology Development Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology
- the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps)
- the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM)
- Georgia Tech Create-X mentor
- MIT Hack Medicine
- Department of Defense lab mentor
- NSF I-Corps Adjunct Instructor at Georgia Tech
- Hack for Defense Instructor (H4D)
- Defense Innovation Accelerator Mentor (DIA)
- StartMe at Emory University

He also has a deep understanding of SBIR-STTR. He has been intimately involved with many new emerging growth technologies, including government, universities, and corporate innovation. He is a board member for several startups and is involved in two health-tech medical device startups, which are being actively funded by SBIR Phase I NIH and SBIR Phase I NSF grants.

Nakia has a master’s degree in education, teaching, and learning, and educational technology; a bachelor’s degree in psychology; and a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science. He also has a doctorate degree in psychology, educational psychology, educational leadership.

Nakia’s Hours:

ATDC Headquarters
Tuesday-Thursday 10:00am – 11:30pm
Meet with Nakia in Atlanta

Sustainability, Circularity and Retail Tech Catalyst

Monique Mills

Monique Mills is a degreed electrical engineer turned serial entrepreneur. She attended Rochester Institute of Technology for her engineering degree and completed her Executive MBA at Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a licensed Realtor(R) as well as a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Monique began her career in the semiconductor industry then went on to hold positions in the energy, aviation, real estate, and technology industries.

Monique has founded four companies, one of which was a SaaS technology startup targeting the commercial real estate and retail industry. Monique is the CEO of TPM Focus and currently serves as an Advisory Board Member for Stem to Market, a Kauffman Foundation-funded accelerator of the Association for Women in Science that supports STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) entrepreneurs seeking commercialization of their research and technology. She coaches entrepreneurs regarding product development, go-to-market strategy, digital marketing, financial modeling, fundraising, customer discovery, strategic partnerships, sales funnels, and operational needs.

At ATDC, Monique focuses on startups with a Sustainability, Circularity, and Retail Technology focus.

Monique’s Hours:

Alpharetta Location
Mondays 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Meet with Monique in Alpharetta

Venture Capitalist-in-Residence

Sig Mosley

Sig is Managing Partner of Mosley Ventures, a venture fund that invests in early-stage, Southeast-based technology startups. Widely regarded as the “Godfather of Angel Investing,” a title he earned as president of Imlay Investments, Sig has been one of the most prolific investors in the Southeast since 1990. He has invested in 120 startups with 82 liquidity events and is the current record holder of the largest Southeast venture deal with Ariba’s $5.7 billion acquisition of Tradex.

Early in career, Sig was a staff accountant at Peat, Marwick & Mitchell as a staff accountant. He then joined Management Science America as a staff accountant and served as secretary-treasurer, before being named vice president.

Sig currently serves on the boards of 16 private companies.

In addition, he is a director of the Imlay Foundation, Techbridge, and Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Southeast. He also is a director of GATV, the CEO Council, TiE-Atlanta, and the Technology Association of Georgia. He also serves on the advisory board of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center, the investment committee of Gray Ghost DOEN Social Ventures Coöper, and the Georgia Research Alliance Venture Fund Board. He is managing member of Flashpoint Investors, LLC.

Sig has received numerous awards and accolades for his contributions including being inducted into Georgia Technology Hall of Fame in 2007, getting the Lifetime Achievement award from TiE is 2011, and being named the 2012 Speaker of the Year award by the Emory Pelham Education Foundation. He is a member of the Invest Georgia Roundtable, a joint venture capital initiative comprised of Georgia House, Senate, and private industry leaders

He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Emory University.

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Chris Nedza

Founder and the ignition fuel for ZeeZor, Chris Nedza is a creative thinker, enthusiastic helper, and an eternal optimist. Chris believes the role of leadership is to build an unbeatable and sustainable culture by catching people doing the right things — and letting them know.

Chris is a serial entrepreneur and a glutton for punishment. He loves diving into a startup business and doesn’t quit until it’s a success. He’s built an Inc. 500 company, successfully served as the turnaround CEO of a restaurant point-of-sale business, and became CEO of an Ozone-based technology firm. He even brought his creative thinking and love of students to Gwinnett County Public Schools by becoming a teacher and ultimately coordinator of academy business partnerships in 2015.

He developed ZeeZor as a real-time mobile reporting tool so his wife could better manage their chain of hair salons. He quickly realized the power of ZeeZor was not in the speed or flexibility of its mobile reporting, but the ability for leadership to connect, recognize, and show immediate appreciation to their staff.

ZeeZor has become the leader of employee engagement and counts the most influential, leading salon organizations and manufacturers as clients.

He also is founder of CMD Services, a single-source provider for print, on-demand print production, variable data programming, and all fulfillment requirements through direct mail services.

Chris is in constant contact with industry thought leaders and has a voracious appetite for studying the data and identifying patterns and trends within the industry ZeeZor serves. He is a frequent contributing author, keynote speaker, devoted husband, father to six sons, drummer at church, and championship level pizza eater.

He is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in economics and earned his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.

Chris’ Hours:

ATDC Headquarters
Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00am – 5:00pm
Meet with Chris in Atlanta

Angel-in-Residence

Charlie Paparelli

Charlie advises ATDC Signature companies on the funding process. For 23 years, Charlie has invested in early-stage companies and coached entrepreneurs. He began his career with a successful startup and exit, enhanced his experience with 10 years in general management and chief operating officer roles, and now is a full-time angel investor.

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Scott Ryan

Scott has more than 20 years of experience building and exiting companies and leading teams to develop and sell products in the IT infrastructure and media technology industries. His exits include Concurrent Computer, a microcap Internet of Things (IoT) and video delivery provider; Senoia Systems, a provider of cloud migration solutions; Asankya Networks, a WAN Optimization solution provider, and Elastic Networks, an IPO in the DSL market.

Additionally, Scott’s leadership experience includes successful stints with storage leader, EMC; networking leader, Nortel Networks; and consulting innovator, North Highland.

He received both his Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from Vanderbilt University.

FinTech Catalyst

Kristin Slink

Kristin Slink is a proven FinTech leader with expertise in consumer lending, operations, user experience and financial platforms. Kristin was most recently the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of San Diego, California-based LoanHero, which was acquired by LendingPoint in early 2018. At LoanHero, Kristin was the product leader and architect of the loan origination platform, and worked cross-functionally with all business teams and key customers to ensure product fit. Kristin has participated on a variety of industry panels spanning from POS financing to being a female founder in FinTech. In both 2017 and 2018 Kristin was named one of San Diego’s most influential business leaders by the San Diego Business Journal and has been described as a torch-bearer for tech, finance and leadership. In addition to starting her own companies, Kristin loves to dive into early stage businesses helping other entrepreneurs navigate through the product life cycle, fundraising and strategy. Outside of her passion for technology and entrepreneurship, Kristin enjoys travel and spending time with her family.

ATDC CONNECT PROGRAM & SUPPORT STAFF

ATDC has initiatives under the ATDC Connect program and dedicated team members focused on working with entrepreneurs to help them access coaches, customers, capital, and Georgia Tech resources and talent. Under the ATDC Connect program, entrepreneurs also receive support into the broader ATDC community through workshops and programming. Support staff ensure the needs of ATDC companies are met at all levels of membership — Signature, Accelerate, and Educate. Sign in to learn more about ATDC Connect and to seek help from our staff.

Ben Andrews

Statewide Program Manager

Melissa Buchanan

Administrative Manager

Connie Casteel

SBIR/STTR Connect Catalyst

Corbett Gilliam

Corporate Development Manager

Joy Hymel

Campus Connect

Lauren Lange

Event Coordinator

Aubrey Lenyard

Program Coordinator

Brad Schweizer

Investor Relations Manager

Ivy Towns

Membership Manager

Statewide Program Manager

Ben Andrews

Ben joined ATDC as Community Engagement Coordinator in the fall of 2017. After graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business in 2009, Ben began his career working for the Community and Economic Development Department for the city of Americus. While working for the city, he earned his MBA from Georgia Southwestern State University. In 2013 he was promoted to department director, becoming the youngest senior staff member in the city’s modern history. Ben oversaw a variety of boards and authorities, and worked with recruiting, retaining, and assisting small businesses. He was regularly invited to speak at various conferences about the work being accomplished by him and his team in Americus.

In 2016 he returned to Atlanta to work for the American Cancer Society in the role of Senior Market Manager for Community Engagement. There he worked with various verticals within the Atlanta market, ranging from fundraising to mission delivery.

Outside of work Ben is active in his community. He has served as a board member for several non-profit organizations and has worked to address issues ranging from affordable housing and cyclist and pedestrian safety, to improving childhood literacy. He has managed capital campaigns for various charitable organizations. Currently, he is a board member of GeorgiaForward, a non-partisan think tank focused on policy issues across the state. He also is chairman of alumni engagement for GeorgiaForward’s Young Gamechanger program. In September 2014, Rural Leader Magazine named him one of the top four selections for its inaugural “40 Under 40” publication.

Administrative Manager

Melissa Buchanan

Melissa, ATDC’s administrative manager has more than 14 years of experience in facilities/operations, entrepreneurship/startup support, and program management. She has served in a number of roles within the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Tech’s primary economic development service and outreach organization. Melissa manages and leads ATDC’s day-to-day operations, including facilities, scheduling, metrics, and finance.

SBIR/STTR Connect Catalyst

Connie Casteel

Connie serves as ATDC’s SBIR/STTR Connect Catalyst, helping ATDC members around the state understand and secure federal funding from the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs — highly competitive research awards up to $1.5 million. As an interface with Georgia’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP), she also helps connect ATDC startup companies with manufacturers and manufacturing resources. Connie’s background is in proposal development, competitive intelligence, data management, and innovation.

Connie began her Georgia Tech career helping to support technology transfer of NASA-developed innovations for three southeastern NASA field centers (Kennedy, Marshall, and Stennis), as well as promoting NASA SBIR/STTR. Prior to her work at Georgia Tech, Connie was employed by TMP’s Executive Search Division and Solvay Pharmaceuticals. Connie received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia and her MLIS from the University of South Carolina.

Corporate Development Manager

Corbett Gilliam

Corbett is a visionary leader with expertise in business operations, digital/social strategy execution, brand strategy, and content marketing. He has a proven track record of achieving exceptional results within the FinTech, mobile, livestreaming, and SaaS sectors. Corbett has a history of transforming a companies core business model and marketing strategy to achieve objectives in revenue growth and profitability.

Corbett is a graduate of the University of Georgia where he obtained a bachelor’s degree economics. He also earned his master’s degree in business administration from Mercer University’s Stetson School of Business and Economics.

Campus Connect

Joy Hymel

Joy serves as an entrepreneur evangelist connecting ATDC Signature companies to Georgia Tech resources, including student talent, faculty, equipment, and research centers. Joy has more than 30 years of business development experience, focusing on open innovation, sales and marketing, and strategic partnerships from her work at IBM, Apple and KPMG. Joy obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Event Coordinator

Lauren Lange

Lauren supports ATDC through event marketing and coordination. She manages logistics for a wide range of events including educational classes, workshops, and networking for ATDC members. She graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Affairs and Mandarin Chinese. She was introduced to the field of economic development during her time at the Georgia Department of Economic Development as a marketing, communications, and protocol intern.

Program Coordinator

Aubrey Lenyard

Aubrey’s focus is building community for ATDC tenants and program members. He is responsible for the organization’s community-based functions and social events.

Aubrey has previously held similar roles at Kids ‘R’ Kids, CNN, and the Atlanta Hawks. An entrepreneur himself, he currently designs a line of reusable market bags and gym gear. He designed custom wedding gowns for 15 years and you can almost always find a sketch on his desk. He loves classic movies, musical theater, and Wonder Woman.

Aubrey obtained his bachelor’s degree in Design from The American College for Art and resides in Decatur, Georgia with his dressmaker’s mannequin, Whitney.

Investor Relations Manager

Brad Schweizer

Brad has extensive background in venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, significant financial modeling experience and private equity as an associate at Morris, Manning & Martin (MMM). He will be able to help companies understand the impact a financing round might have on their cap table, pro-formas, and option pools, among other considerations.

As an entrepreneur, Brad was co-founder and chief operating officer of Dedo.ai, a health technology company.

Prior that, he served as COO of Aces Health, a startup with a focus on complex clinical trials. In that role, he not only gained the operating experience of leading a startup, but also the experience of navigating complex regulatory environments and communicating these intricate details to investors in a way that was easy to understand.

At Aces Health, he led the financing rounds and raised approximately $2.5 million for the company through a variety of instruments, including SAFEs (simple agreement for future equity), convertible notes, warrants, and preferred shares.

A St. Louis, Missouri native, Brad has a joint law degree and MBA from Emory University, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Membership Manager

Ivy Towns

Ivy provides ongoing support to ATDC companies through membership planning and management. She also plans, executes and leads the ATDC Startup Showcase, ATDC’s largest event of the year. She administers to the broader ATDC Community as well, through member support and programming. Ivy is a graduate of the University of South Carolina-Columbia with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration.

LEADERSHIP

ATDC’s leadership team recruits and retains an incredible staff, runs multiple facilities, and spearheads statewide outreach and fundraising.

John Avery

Director

Jane McCracken

Assistant Director

Frank Tighe

Lead Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Director

John Avery

John is a serial entrepreneur who was part of four startups. A tech startup veteran with broad experience in data and wireless voice technologies, John was co-founder and chief technology officer of Convergence Corp., a maker of software that connects wireless devices to the Internet. Amazon acquired the company in 1999. Following that acquisition, he joined Amazon as engineering manager.

In 2001, John became an early employee of Mobliss, a mobile applications and messaging solutions company in the entertainment space. He later became the company’s chief technology officer. Japan’s Index Corp., a developer of mobile phone content and information and other media services such as video on demand, acquired Mobliss in 2004.

He holds six patents.

Most recently, he was engineering group manager of Panasonic Automotive Systems’ Panasonic Innovation Center at the Georgia Tech campus. At Panasonic, John oversaw the innovation center’s development projects in next-generation automotive systems including, infotainment, bio-sensing, machine vision, deep learning, and heads-up displays.

He is a Georgia Tech graduate with a bachelor’s degree in engineering.

Assistant Director

Jane McCracken

Jane returns to ATDC as a Startup Catalyst, having started her career here many years ago. She then moved into venture capital and investment banking both in the United States and Europe before joining an early-stage, medical diagnostics company as chief financial officer. During her time there, she raised $60 million and completed eight international acquisitions. The company was listed on both the London and Oslo stock exchanges.

Jane then worked with two venture-backed companies. She joined the founders of an online travel company as CEO, and took it from startup to the world’s second-largest hotel booking site before Travelocity acquired it. At the request of her venture investors, Jane then joined a computer games developer as CEO and turned around the faltering enterprise before it was sold to a NASDAQ-listed games company.

Most recently, Jane was CEO of an oncology-focused clinical research company, which grew from startup to a multinational firm with $15 million in annual revenue and offices across Europe and the United States. The company was financed through its own cash flow and was sold in early 2012 to a larger clinical research organization.

Jane continues to work with fast growing companies — in interim and full-time positions — as a consultant, board member, and angel investor. In addition, Jane has served on boards for public and private companies, as well as government-related and non-profit organizations. She is a frequent speaker and panelist at conferences, companies, and universities and is an active volunteer in her community. Jane obtained her bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University and her master’s degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Lead Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Frank Tighe

Frank is chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based, TDH Partners. He has 27 years’ experience in executive management, fundraising, sales, marketing, and corporate formation in the medical device industry. He has developed and commercialized more than 150 medical devices in his career and negotiated license agreements with major universities, physicians, private equity firms, and industry competitors that resulted in millions of dollars in funding, sales, and royalty income.

Immediately prior to joining ATDC, Frank served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Deal Team Member with PE Investors, LLC, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, a private equity firm focused on investments in technology and healthcare. He led the negotiations for a Series A investment in a German medical device manufacturer.

Prior to his time with PE Investors, Frank served as vice president of Vitreoretinal Instrumentation for IRIDEX Corp (NASDAQ IRIX). He joined Iridex as a part of the acquisition of his company, RetinaLabs. In this position, he helped lead the company’s global consumable marketing team and a network of distributors in more than 100 countries through a period of substantial revenue growth, acquisition, and portfolio expansion.

Prior to Iridex, he was the founder, chairman, and CEO of RetinaLabs, with internationally renowned investor and eye surgeon, Dr. Eugene de Juan Jr. He grew the company from a small startup organization through acquisition by Iridex, by developing an innovative global portfolio of patented products and through licensing agreements with major universities such as Johns Hopkins University.

Frank received a Bachelor’s of Arts in History from Auburn University in 1984 and an MBA from Emory University in 1996. Frank has been married to the former Ellen Marie McMullen for 27 years, and Mrs. Tighe holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Marketing from John Carroll University. She is a senior hospital executive with the pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co.

When he is not focused on founding, investing and advising new ventures, Frank serves on the Board of the Umbrella Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation, and actively mentors business school students at both the Harbert College of Business at Auburn University and the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.