Team

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Carnellia Ajasin

Carnellia is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Mind Katalyst, a humanity-centered, tech-innovation, and sustainability venture studio. She was named a 2022 Georgia Titan 100, which recognizes business visionaries in the state.

Her background makes her a great fit for ATDC, where she looks forward to continuing to work in the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem alongside the next generation of entrepreneurs.

She stays active outside of work, pursuing interests that include travel, cycling, yoga, and cooking.

She graduated from Drexel University in Pennsylvania, with a bachelor’s in computer science and a master’s in information science and computer technology.

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.

Lead Startup Catalyst

Marc Carson

Marc leads a team of startup catalysts who provide services to help ATDC companies grow, connect, and scale.

Marc was the founder, president, and CEO of startup Keystone Industries and founder, president and CEO of HOTPACK. He also serves as chair of the planning commission for the city of Braselton, Georgia.

His extensive business experience will go a long way at ATDC, where he looks forward to helping mentor young tech entrepreneurs as they make the tough decisions that will move their companies forward.

A fan of the outdoors, Marc enjoys hunting, fishing, playing golf, and spending time with family. He graduated from Gannon University in Pennsylvania, with a bachelor’s degree in finance.

FinTech Catalyst

Robert “Red” Daniel

In this role, Robert will manage the ATDC FinTech program, provide incubation and acceleration efforts to portfolio companies, and foster their development and encourage growth. He will also manage and cultivate ATDC relationships with investors, prospective business partners, CEOs, and community technology leaders to promote market outreach and business development in the FinTech ecosystem.

Meet with Robert

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.

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Ben Dyer

Ben advises promising ATDC companies on a wide range of strategic decisions and deep tech opportunities.  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 Southeast’s leading tech law firm, where he worked with hundreds of clients on business matters. He is a Georgia Tech engineering alumnus with an MBA from Georgia State University. He is a member of the state of Georgia’s Technology Hall of Fame.

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.

Adam’s Office Hours.

Sustainability Catalyst

Miguel Grainer

Miguel provides incubation and acceleration support to Georgia-based technology startups that specialize in supply chain/logistics, retail technology, and/or sustainability.

Prior to joining ATDC, Miguel was founder and managing director of Invested Development (ID), an impact investment management firm. Before founding ID, Miguel was the founding Investment Manager for First Light Ventures and founder of MCAP Consulting. Early in his career he served as a loan officer for ACCION New York and had also worked for insurance giant Fidelity National Financial in New York, and the Delter Business Institute in Beijing.

Miguel holds or has held board positions on more than a dozen startups including Simpa Networks (acquired by Engie), OnFarm (acquired by SWIIM Systems), BRCK, and iHub (acquired by ccHub). Miguel earned his master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech,  and his bachelor’s in English from Texas State University. He has served as adjunct faculty at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies, Northeastern University, and Georgia Tech.

Startup Catalyst, Macon

Robert Grant

Robert seeks out tech entrepreneurs in the Macon area to become part of ATDC’s portfolio of companies.

The entrepreneurial bug hit Robert hard after being laid off from a series of jobs. His business ventures have included the YouTube channel That Guy You Met Today, where he v-logged about travel and restaurants. He now owns Print Your Sheet, an Etsy business of pop culture greeting cards.

He and his wife, a medical lab scientist, own EZ-Genetics LLC, a lab for noninvasive prenatal genetic testing and at-home prenatal gender tests. In addition to being a serial entrepreneur himself, he also serves as the executive director of business incubator SparkMacon.

Robert is a graduate of Armstrong State University (now part of Georgia Southern University), with a bachelor’s in information technology.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Supply Chain Catalyst

Alex Rhodeen

Alex will assess, advise, and connect supply chain startups. ​

​ATDC, the state of Georgia’s technology startup incubator, helps entrepreneurs learn, launch, scale, and succeed in creating viable, disruptive technology companies.​

​A U.S. Army veteran, Alex is co-founder of two supply chain companies and has worked at startups since leaving active duty. He co-founded Kanga which was an ATDC Portfolio company until its acquisition by GEODIS. ​

​An optimist and a capitalist, he believes the state of Georgia’s commitment to startups is a key component of our thriving economy. ​

​Alex received his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He enjoys sports of all kinds with his son who is a student in Atlanta Public Schools.​

Executive-in-Residence

Clinton Richardson

Clinton Richardson is a retired attorney and business advisor who has spent his career advising growing businesses and the investors who fund their growth. For more than 40 years, he has helped entrepreneurs raise private and public funding, advised growing companies and venture funds, served on the boards of venture-backed businesses, and has made angel investments. He also held senior management roles in two major law firms — one a regional Atlanta firm with 100+ attorneys. The other a national, Am Law 100 firm of 1,000+ professionals with 11 offices across the United States from Boston to Silicon Valley. Clinton also served on the national firm’s five-person Executive Committee. He co-founded and served in a long-term capacity as an officer and director of The Southern Capital Forum, the oldest and largest venture capital and private equity trade association in the Southeast.

Clinton has written extensively about the entrepreneurial process and venture funding ecosystem. Those writings include the acclaimed “Growth Company Guide” about legal strategies, fundraising, and deal-making. First published in 1987 as “The Venture Magazine Complete Guide to Venture Capital,” it remains in print retitled and updated as the 5^th edition “Growth Company Guide 5.0.” The Guide series has been used by venture capital firms to train associates, business schools (including the University of Virginia, University of Southern California, and Clemson University) to train students, and by business accelerators. An investor-focused, Chinese language edition has been used by State of Georgia Trade Delegations.

Mr. Richardson has a BA degree in Economics, summa cum laude and phi beta kappa, from Albion College and a Juris Doctorate degree, with distinction, from Duke University School of Law. While at Duke, he served on the Editorial Board of the Law Journal, the Moot Court Board and received the Dean’s Cup for appellate advocacy.

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.

Startup Catalyst, Albany

Jud Savelle

Jud works with tech entrepreneurs in the Albany area to become part of ATDC’s portfolio of companies.

The Albany native also owns his family business, Bishop Clean Care, a local residential and commercial cleaning and restoration company. Before moving back to his hometown, he worked for several years in Atlanta, including as department manager for airport customer services continuous improvement at Delta Air Lines.

The Georgia Tech graduate has both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial and systems engineering. He jumped into community involvement as a board member and previous board chair for Leadership Albany, as the volunteer and fundraising chair for Georgia FIRST Robotics in Albany, and as a member of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce.

5G Connected Future Startup Catalyst

Bob Siegel

Industry veteran Bob Siegel serves as ATDC’s 5G Connected Future Startup Catalyst. Siegel comes to ATDC with 25 years of mobility experience, including senior roles at Accenture and Verizon Telematics. He leverages his extensive network to discover high-potential startups that can benefit from ATDC’s program. In this new position, Siegel leads recruitment efforts of startups working on 5G technology and guides their growth while in the incubator. He is based at Curiosity Lab’s Innovation Center in Peachtree Corners.

Startup Catalyst in Athens

Ashley Steele

Seasoned entrepreneur Ashley Steele serves as ATDC’s local Athens Catalyst, coaching Athens startups and connecting them to  ATDC programs, coaching, and resources.  As an experienced tech, marketplace and service start-up founder and lifelong entrepreneur, Steele has a particular focus on community-building and entrepreneurial ecosystems.  Utilizing her own experience as the founder of multiple startups, including a high-growth tech startup and a national multi-market service startup, she guides the growth of local entrepreneurs in the Athens area.

Ashley’s Office Hours:
Mondays 9:00am – 11:00am
Meet with Ashley