Jefferson Innovation Summit for the Commonwealth

Senator Frank Ruff was elected to serve in the Virginia Senate in November 2000 to fill the unexpired term of the late Richard Holland. Prior to Frank’s election to the Virginia Senate, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates since first elected in 1993.

Frank serves on the Senate Standing Committees of Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources, Rules, Finance, Local Government, and General Law and Technology of which he is chairman. His is on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, Virginia Roanoke River Basin Advisory Committee, Chairman on the Center for Rural Virginia Board of Trustees, the Small Business Commission, Southern Virginia Higher Education Center Board of Trustees, Vice-chairman for the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission as well as serving on several committees, the State Water Commission and the Virginia Workforce Council. Frank is also involved in several national organizations.

For the last several years Frank has focused on economic development, education and workforce training in rural Virginia. He has worked with prospective job creators throughout Southern Virginia. Frank led the effort to create scholarship and forgivable loans through the Tobacco Commission as a way to educate the tobacco region’s young people and to encourage them to return to the region to re-establish their roots in this region.

He has been a leader in the fight for the small-town communities across the Fifteenth Senate District. Frank has worked to establish workforce centers throughout Southern and Southwest Virginia as well as specialized training programs at the community colleges.

Frank and his wife Jessie have four children – sons Frank M. “Miller”, III, (his wife Jessica) who have now made him a proud grandfather with the arrival of Juliana; Thomas, David and daughter Genny. They are active members of Clarksville Presbyterian Church where Frank serves as an Elder.

Lisa Hicks-Thomas is a native of Chesapeake, Virginia.  She graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, receiving a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History in 1991.  She went on to the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary where she received her Juris Doctorate in 1994 and was admitted to the bar shortly thereafter. 

Mrs. Hicks-Thomas began her six-year career as a prosecuting attorney in the Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office where she prosecuted thousands of cases in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations, General District and Circuit courts.

In 2001, former Attorney General Mark Earley asked Lisa to join his office as an Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the newly-formed Computer Crimes Unit.  As chief, she oversaw investigations into child exploitation cases, Internet fraud, identity theft, and infrastructure security breaches and prosecuted the cases in state and federal court. 

During her tenure with the Office of the Attorney General she sat on several technology-related panels, including various Advisory Committees to the Joint Commission on Technology and Science and is an active member of the National Association of Attorneys General Computer Crime Working Group.  She is credited with working with the Virginia General Assembly to pass various pieces of legislation addressing cybercrime and child exploitation,

spearheading a statewide initiative to promote youth Internet safety and authoring Virginia’s Anti-Spam law, which went into effect July 1, 2003.  She then used this new law, touted as the toughest anti-Spam law in the nation, to pursue the criminal prosecution of Jeremy Jaynes, listed by ROKSO as the #8 spammer in the world.  Jaynes was convicted and the jury recommended a nine-year prison sentence for his crimes.  This was the first-of-its-kind prosecution in the nation.

In 2007, Attorney General Bob McDonnell appointed Lisa as his Deputy Attorney General managing a staff of attorneys and overseeing the legal work for the Transportation, Real Estate, Environmental and Technology Division of the Office of the Attorney General.  In addition to her duties at the Office of the Attorney General, she served as a member of the Board of Governors for the Education of Lawyers Section of the Virginia State Bar and has taught a Cybercrime course at the University of Richmond.

Governor McDonnell appointed Lisa to serve as Secretary of Administration for the Commonwealth of Virginia. In her capacity as Secretary she oversees a number of state agencies, including the Department of General Services, the State Board of Elections, the Department of Minority Business Enterprise and the Department of Human Resource Management. Lisa is married to Samuel Thomas, a native of Portsmouth Virginia and they have two beautiful children.

Donna Harris is Managing Director of Startup Regions. Having founded or been on the senior leadership team of four separate companies, Donna is working with entrepreneurs all over the country to build strong startup communities that can generate more successful startups and accelerate the trajectory of their growth.

Prior to joining the Partnership, Donna was Vice Chair of Interpoint Group, a government markets, government relations, and public affairs strategy and management firm, which generated nearly $8 billion in revenue, passed/defeated legislation and executed public affairs campaigns for corporations, non-profits, foundations, and governments globally. She was also previously Founder and CEO of Kinderstreet, which sold SaaS enterprise management, commerce, and communication solutions company in the municipal, education, sports and recreation markets. She was also Vice President of Strategic Planning, Marketing, and Product Management for Centromine, a provider of

web-based clinical/fiscal systems in the Health and Human Services industry. Donna has also previously held a variety of roles at Oracle Corporation and EDS.

Donna is an alumna of Springboard Enterprises, a non-profit focused on scaling high-growth, women-led businesses, which has helped nearly 450 women-led companies raise $5 billion in equity financing. She is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Georgetown University and a founding member of FounderCorps, a Washington, DC non-profit that organization made up of experienced technology entrepreneurs working to promote a broader and deeper technology entrepreneurial community in the Washington, DC, Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland region.

Donna received her bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University and her MBA from The University of Michigan Ross School of Business. She resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.

Mr. Rogers has been the Director of the Clean Energy Research & Development Center in Southwest Virginia since July 2009. Mr. Rogers leads the CER&D’s work in structuring compelling strategic and financial opportunities for early growth-stage energy technology companies to establish and expand their businesses in Southwest Virginia. In his current position Mr. Rogers also is involved in statewide energy projects involving landfill gas and compressed natural gas.

From 2003-2009 Mr. Rogers was the president and chairman of an animal food technology company he founded using university-developed intellectual property. Mr. Rogers led the company through formation; a technology transfer agreement with a leading research university; fund-raising; implementation of in-house manufacturing; and product distribution on five continents and in 3,000 Wal-Mart stores within just a few years of starting the company. Mr. Rogers also handled most of the company’s legal needs, and led the company’s performance under a National Institutes of Health Small Business Technology Transfer Research grant.

Under Mr. Rogers’ leadership the company (a) created what Field & Stream magazine named as one of the “50 Greatest Fishing Lures of All Time” (April 2006), (b) was featured in Technology Transfer Works: 100 Cases from Research to Realization, a 2006 publication of the Association of University Technology Managers, and (c) developed several diverse product lines including animal vaccine delivery products for wildlife reservoirs of zoonotic diseases, animal repellents for the lawn & garden industry, and hunting accessories for a major outdoor recreation brand.

Mr. Rogers has negotiated business agreements with multi-national corporations; small businesses in multiple countries; research universities; government agencies; and non-profit organizations.

Prior to his start-up experience Mr. Rogers practiced law for 11 years and worked 1 year in private equity. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia (Bachelor of Arts, Echols Scholar, 1988) and the University of Virginia School of Law (Juris Doctor 1991).

Mr. Rogers and his wife have two young sons. He and his family live near Bristol, VA. Mr. Rogers coaches youth lacrosse in the Bristol area. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator.

Mark Crowell is the founding executive director of University of Virginia Innovation and associate vice president for research.

Crowell joined U.Va. after serving as Vice President for Business Development at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter FL. His responsibilities at Scripps included innovation management and commercialization, new business development, bio-pharmaceutical industry partnerships, and venture capital relations. Mark has extensive experience in technology licensing, start-up company formation, seed capital development, innovation-based economic development initiatives and planning, and research campus planning.

Prior to joining Scripps in 2008, Mark spent 8-1/2 years as Associate Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and Technology Transfer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after holding similar positions at North Carolina State University (1992-2000) and Duke University (1987-1992). During the past 24 years, the technology transfer programs Mark has directed - UNC, NC State, Duke and Scripps - have helped to launch more than 135 start-up companies and numerous products and services. In North Carolina, Mark served on the Boards of key economic development and entrepreneurial support agencies, including the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, and the Orange County Economic Development Commission.

Throughout his career, Mark has been a leader in a number of major strategic initiatives focused on enhancing innovation-based business development and academic-industry collaborations, including the Carolina North research campus at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Centennial Campus research campus at NC State University. Another highlight includes co-founding a US $10 million seed fund

at NC State University (in partnership with the NC Technology Development Authority). At U.Va., Mark works closely with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, and other state, regional and local initiatives focusing on economic development. He is also active nationally and internationally in policy matters related to innovation, and has testified twice in the US Congress on legislations related to innovation and small business during 2010-2011. In September 2011, Mark was invited by the White House to be present at President Barack Obama signed the “America Invents Act”.

Mark was the 2005 President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and was the founding President of the recently launched AUTM Foundation. Currently, Mark serves as Chair of BIO's Technology Transfer Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of Southeast BIO, and Executive Committee for APLU’s Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Prosperity. He has extensive national and international speaking, consulting, and management experience related to technology transfer and innovation-based economic development, and has been instrumental in forging international research and innovation transfer partnerships on behalf of UNC and of Scripps. His consulting and advisory activities have included a number of US and international academic and policy groups and associations, including the National Science Foundation, the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), the National Academies of Sciences, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and many others. Mark also served on the inaugural Board of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership, an initiative coordinated through the National Academies of Sciences designed to expand collaborations between university and industry.

Jonathan is the founder and Managing Director of the Fund. He possesses substantial venture capital, financial and managerial expertise, gained over a career spanning venture capital, law and investment banking. Since 2005, when he formed Amplifier, Jonathan has been integrally involved in evaluation and execution of its investment opportunities. He is primarily responsible for evaluating and selecting the remainder of the Amplifier Team, and directs and manages Amplifier’s investment process. As a member of the board of directors of portfolio companies, Jonathan plays an active role in recruiting executives, soliciting and closing funding rounds, licensing technology, identifying alpha and beta customers, and charting strategy.

Jonathan was a practicing lawyer from 1990 to 2004. During that time he represented many venture capital backed technology businesses, as well as family- and closely-held businesses. His clients looked to him for counsel and advice in all of the important challenges that a family business or closely-held company could face – for example, family disputes, transitional issues, corporate governance, transactional planning, business sales, human resources, distribution and sales, and financing. Jonathan’s clients valued his commitment to their business objectives and his ability to manage complex situations with a positive attitude. He was also well respected by his colleagues and was asked to manage large practice groups and offices several times. Jonathan was a partner in the nationally-recognized law firms of Fenwick & West, Fish and Richardson, and Pillsbury Winthrop.

As Amplifier’s Managing Director, Jonathan is applying the managerial experience he gained by managing the growth and business activities of branch offices for two international law firms, including a $45 million business unit with more than 200 employees. Prior to entering legal practice, Jonathan worked in the investment banking industry in London, England (Daiwa Securities, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette and Goldman Sachs International), where he applied his financial analytical skills in mergers & acquisitions and international interest rate and currency trading.

Jonathan is also an educator, and he teaches subjects relating to family- and closely-held businesses, including corporate finance, business planning, organizational development and new venture creation. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. He is also a regular speaker on topics related to business formation and expansion for groups such as the National Academies of Science, the National Science Foundation, the Northern Virginia Technology Council and others. He is frequently interviewed and quoted on business topics by national and local news organizations, including the Deal, Potomac TechWire, the Washington Post, the Washington Business Journal, ThinkTalk Television and Left Jab Radio on Sirius/XM.

Jonathan holds a BA (with honors) in Political Science and Economics from George Washington University, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa. He received an MSc in International Economics with Distinction from the London School of Economics. He also holds two law degrees, an MA from Downing College, Cambridge University and an LLM from the New York University School of Law.

As Secretary of Commerce and Trade, Jim Cheng manages the jobs and opportunity agenda for Virginia. In this role, Secretary Cheng oversees thirteen state agencies focused on promoting the growth of Virginia’s vibrant business community and attracting new investment into Virginia’s economy.

Secretary Cheng has over 20 years of experience in information technology and government contracting, and is active in angel investment and early stage entrepreneurial ventures of various types. He was most recently the President of Totus Lighting Solutions, a startup efficient-energy firm, and mentored several emerging companies.

From 1994-2005, Secretary Cheng was founder and CEO of CHM, a government contracting company specializing in Information Technology, which he grew from a staff of 5 people to 550 and $90M in revenue at the time of sale in 2005. In 1999, his company was

named Virginia Business Magazine's fastest growing private company in Virginia and #12 fastest growing private US company in Inc Magazine's "Inc 500". In 2001, he was named SE Virginia's KPMG Entrepreneur of the year. From 1981-1994 at ECI, a government IT contracting firm, Secretary Cheng held various management and technical positions, rising to the position of Sr. Vice President of Marketing.

Secretary Cheng is active in the community and has served on the boards of non-profits, state-level and community organizations. He was a board member of the Virginia Small Business Finance Authority from 1999-2007, and is currently a Trustee of the Darden School Foundation at UVA, and a member of the ODU Education Foundation Board. Secretary Cheng holds a BS Degree in Computer Science from Old Dominion University, a MBA from the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business (UVA) and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center.

Bobbie Kilberg is president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), a position she has held since September 1998. NVTC is the largest technology council in the nation with about 1,000 member companies employing 200,000 people in the Potomac region. In December 2001, she was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) during his term in office.

Kilberg is a graduate of Yale University Law School (J.D.), Columbia University (M.A.) and Vassar College (B.A.). As a White House Fellow, she served on the staff of President Nixon's Domestic Policy Council. Following that position, she was an attorney with the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter and vice president for academic affairs at Mount Vernon College. She served as associate counsel to the president under President Ford, as director of the Aspen Institute's Project on the Future of Private Philanthropy, and as vice president and general counsel of the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies. She held two consecutive positions for President George H.W. Bush, as deputy assistant to the president for the Office of Public Liaison and as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

In Virginia, Kilberg has served on the Speaker's Citizens Advisory Committee on Legislative Compensation; on the Joint Judicial Advisory Committee for the merit selection of judges; on the Attorney General's Task Forces on Identity Theft, Regulatory Reform and Economic Development, and Youth Internet Safety; and on the Governor's Northern Virginia BRAC Working Group. In November 2009, Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell named her as one of the five co-chairs of his Transition Team. In May 2010, she was named to the Governor's Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring and, in August 2010, she was named to the Governor's Commission on Military and National Security Facilities.

Kilberg has been very involved in her community. She is a member of the board of trustees of George Washington University and the boards of directors of the Equal Footing Foundation and Grandma Rita's Children, a special trips camp for at-risk children. She is also a member of the board of directors of United Bank. Kilberg formerly served on the board of trustees/directors of public television station WETA, the Wolf Trap Foundation of the Performing Arts, The Potomac School, U.S. Naval Academy (Board of Visitors), U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, Lab School of Washington and the Greater Washington Sports Alliance.

In July 2009, Bobbie Kilberg was named Business Leader of the Year by Washingtonian magazine. Washingtonian also named her as one of the 100 Tech Titans of Washington in 2011 and 2009, one of Washington’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2009 and 2011, and one of the region's 150 Most Powerful People in 2007. In 2011, Kilberg was named one of the 25 People You Need to Know by Virginia Business magazine, a "heavy hitter" on Washington Life magazine's Power 100 list, one of the Influential Women of Virginia by Virginia Lawyers Weekly, and was named the inaugural recipient of the NOVAForward Award from the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. She has also received the 2001 Anti-Defamation League's Women of Achievement Award, a 2001 Award for Excellence from the Virginia-Israel Technology Trade Summit, the Volunteer Fairfax 2003 Community Champion Award, the 2003 Girls Inc. D.C. Celebration Honoree Award, the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Technology, the 2005 Women Who Mean Business Award from Washington Business Journal, and the 2007 BRAVO! Women Business Achievement Award and 2008 Choice Award from Washington SmartCEO.

Kilberg has sought elected political office twice in Virginia, in 1987 as the Republican candidate for the State Senate and in 1993 as a candidate for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.

She resides in McLean, Va., with her husband Bill Kilberg, a senior partner and member of the executive committee of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. They have five children and six grandchildren.

Mark Seale is the CEO and co-founder of Blue Ridge Produce, in Culpeper, Virginia, which specializes in locally-grown fresh-market fruits and vegetables, both organically and conventionally grown on small-to-large-sized diversified farms.

Mark is a serial entrepreneur, creating such businesses as Countryside Dry Cleaners, successfully owning and operating several satellite area locations, as well as providing services for many of the military bases in Virginia. As owner and operator of Simply Fresh Produce, a fresh market produce retail outlet in Charlottesville, Virginia, Mark grew the business into Blue Ridge Produce.

Mark also helped create Virginia Sustainable Business Incubator, which provides business entrepreneurs with startup information and an affordable location to do business using offices located at his Culpeper facility. Mark co-owns Farm Community Consulting, the first Benefit Corporation in the state of Virginia, which consults in the food hub industry, both nationwide and internationally.

Mark’s successes can be attributed in part by his ability to create long-lasting relationships, as well as his passion and vision for entrepreneurship.

Trip Davis is the Senior Associate Dean for External Relations and the President of the Darden School Foundation. He has responsibility for the foundation’s endowment, development, finance, and administration as well as the school’s Executive Education business, hospitality operation, corporate relations, alumni relations, media relations, marketing and communications. He accepted his appointment at Darden in February 2011. Mr. Davis is the non-executive Chairman of TRX, Inc., a global leader in travel technology and data services. Previously as Co-Founder and CEO for nine years, he led the company from start-up in 1999 to revenue of $110 million in five years and raised over $100 million in growth capital.

He was named Chairman of the Board in December 2008 and non-executive Chairman in January 2011. Prior to co-founding TRX, Mr. Davis was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Travel Industry Practice Group at Atlanta-based iXL and CEO and Co-Founder of Green Room Productions, a San Francisco-based Internet travel technology company, which he started in 1995 and sold to iXL in 1998. Before starting Green Room, he worked in new ventures for the Travel Channel at Landmark Communications in Norfolk, Virginia. From January 2007 through May 2011, Mr. Davis was a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. In 2009, he was named the Co-Faculty Director of the Galant Center for Entrepreneurship.

Karen Booth Adams is the CEO of Hot Technology Holdings, an investment group that has launched 10 successful businesses in Richmond since 1993.  She served as CEO for many of those companies and has led seven successful exits for the group.  Karen currently advises the management teams in their portfolio on strategic planning, operations management and M&A.  Her diverse ventures have been in SaaS software, internet strategy and technology consulting, online retail, financial consulting, legal and e-discovery services, and social media marketing.  Karen is a founding partner in firms such as Ironworks Consulting, Create Digital, The Fahrenheit Group, Genesis Consulting, PoshTots, PartnerJD, RaceIt.com, and others. 

Karen is a frequent speaker on the subject of entrepreneurship, and currently serves on the boards of The Community Foundation, World Pediatric Project, University of Richmond's Robins School Executive Council, Richmond’s Technology Council, Governor McDonnell’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates and Center for Innovative Technology (CIT).  

In this cabinet-level position, Jasen Eige oversees the Governor's Policy Office, including directing the creation of Governor McDonnell's policy agenda and the Administration's legislative efforts.  Eige will also manages the Counsel's Office.  Since the beginning of the Administration, Jasen Eige served as Counselor and Senior Advisor to the Governor.  In that position, Eige's duties included providing legal counsel and advice to the Governor and his Administration, and assisting with policy and legislative matters.  Following law school, Eige clerked for the Honorable Glen M. Williams, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Virginia. He then joined the Abingdon law firm of Penn, Stuart & Eskridge as an associate. Eige then served in the Office of the Attorney General, beginning with Attorney General Jerry Kilgore.  In the Attorney General's Office, Eige served in several roles, including as an Assistant Attorney General in the Trial Section of the Civil Litigation Division, as a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the Finance Law and Government Services Section and Acting Section Chief for the Government Services portion of the Section. 

In 2007, Eige began serving as Chief of Staff and Counsel to then-Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell. Among other duties, he oversaw the Administrative Division of the Office and also took over oversight responsibilities for the Financial Law and Government Services Division.  

In 2009, Eige joined Governor-elect McDonnell's gubernatorial campaign as Chief Counsel. Among other duties, he assisted with the campaign's policy development efforts.  After the election, Eige served as Counsel to the Governor-elect's Transition Office. 

Eige earned his Juris Doctor and Masters in Public Policy degrees at Regent University, after attending King College in Bristol, Tennessee, where he received a Bachelors of Arts in political science and history. 

Bob Sledd was appointed by Governor Bob McDonnell in January 2010 to serve as Senior Economic Advisor to the Governor. As Senior Economic Advisor to the Governor, Bob works closely with Governor McDonnell and cabinet on job creation and economic development initiatives.

Prior to this appointment, Bob was Chief Executive Officer for Performance Food Group (PFG), a Fortune 500 company, from the company’s inception in 1987 to August 2001 and re-assumed the CEO’s responsibilities in March of 2004 thru 2006. Bob served as President of PFG from 1987 to February 1995 and served as Chairman from February 1995 to May 2008 until the company was taken private. Bob was most recently managing partner of Pinnacle Ventures LLC.

In addition to his business duties, Bob believes that it is important to support the communities in which we live. He is active in many community activities, including: Board of Advocates of Homeward; Virginia Foundation of Performing Arts Trustee; Executive Member of the Richmond Management Roundtable; Member of Capital region collaboration; Board Member of Venture Richmond; and Board Member of the Community Foundation.

Bob is a Richmond native and is married to Melinda Sledd. They have three children and reside in Richmond, Virginia.

Dendy Young is the Managing Partner of McLean Capital, LLC, a private equity firm, based in McLean, VA, which focuses on investments in government information technology as well as other angel investments.

Mr. Young serves on the Executive Committee of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, where he holds the position of Chairman of the NVTC TechPAC, and on the Board of Directors of Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International.

He is Chairman of the Board of NavantiGroup, LLC, which specializes in risk assessment and the use of social media in countering violent extremism, and Qlarion, Inc., which provides expertise in business intelligence. In addition, Mr. Young is Lead Outside Director of Obsidian Research, a Canadian company that provides long distance, high-bandwidth data transmission products, and is on the boards of Omnilink Systems, Inc., Internet Broadcasting Corporation, and Optoro, Inc. Mr. Young is Chairman and co-founder of the Personalized Cancer Therapy, Inc.

David C. Lucien is currently CEO and founder of DCL Associates. Since 1990, Mr. Lucien has served as an advisor or director for various consulting or information technology companies providing strategic advisory services. He also assists various equity funds in the review of current and potential portfolio companies that focus on information technology services, federal services, telecommunications, and the Internet. Mr. Lucien has an extensive background in information technology within both the commercial and government sectors including federal, state, and local government markets.

He has held several senior-level executive positions for private and public technology companies involved in consulting, information technology, computer systems manufacturing, technology services, and systems integration. In March 2003, Mr. Lucien assumed the role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CMS Information Services, Inc. (“CMS”), a professional services company focused within the federal market place, until CMS was sold to CACI International in March 2004. Prior to his work at CMS, Mr. Lucien was the founder and principal of Interpro Corporation, a strategic advisory services and M&A firm, from January 1990 until December 2002. Prior to forming Interpro, Mr. Lucien was President and Chief Executive Officer of Tempest Technologies, Inc., a NASDAQ listed company.

Mr. Lucien is Chairman of the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), a nonprofit corporation that accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies. CIT creates new technology companies through capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology startup companies and advanced technology consumers.

CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean tech and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

He is Chairman of The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority, the parent authority for the CIT, is a founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, Chairman Emeritus of the Virginia Technology Council and is a recipient of the Earle C. Williams Award for Leadership in Technology.

Todd Haymore became Virginia’s second Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry in January 2010, succeeding Robert S. Bloxom. In addition to serving in Governor McDonnell’s Cabinet and his duties as the chief marketing and development officer of the state’s two largest industries, Haymore is responsible for two of the state’s most well known agencies, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) and the Virginia Department of Forestry (DOF). He is also responsible for the Virginia Agricultural Council.

Prior to his appointment as Secretary, Haymore served as Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services from August 2007 to January 2010. The Department is responsible for over 60 laws and more than 70 regulations relating to consumer protection and the promotion of agriculture. It is organized into four units, the Commissioner's Office, the Division of Animal and Food Industry Services, the Division of Consumer Protection, and the Division of Marketing. VDACS has an operational budget of $57 million and employs just under 500 full-time staff. The agency’s mission is to promote the economic growth and development of Virginia agriculture, provide consumer protection and encourage environmental stewardship.

The Virginia Department of Forestry protects almost 16 million acres of forest land from fire, insects and disease and manages 19 state forests and other state lands totaling approximately 58,000 acres for timber, recreation, water, research, wildlife and biodiversity. DOF assists non-industrial private forest landowners through professional forestry advice and technical management programs. The Department has an operational budget of approximately $26 million and employs 260 salaried staff. The agency’s mission is to protect and develop healthy, sustainable forest resources for Virginians.

Haymore is a native of Pittsylvania County and was born and raised on his maternal grand-parent’s farm. He began his professional career as a legislative intern in Richmond to former Virginia State Senator Onico Barker (R-19th). From there, Haymore moved to Washington, DC to serve as a legislative assistant for former United States Representative L.F Payne (VA-5th). Haymore spent most of the 1990’s with Rep. Payne where he also served as the congressman’s communications director, as well as deputy campaign manager of Payne’s lieutenant gubernatorial bid. Following his tenure with Congressman Payne, Haymore worked in Danville for DIMON Incorporated, a leaf tobacco company that later merged with Standard Commercial Corporation to form Alliance One International. Haymore then joined Richmond-based Universal Leaf Tobacco Company. He served in various leadership positions from 1999-2007, concluding his time with the company as Corporate Director, External Affairs and Vice President of The Universal Leaf Foundation.

Todd graduated from George Washington High School in Danville. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of Richmond and his Masters of Business Administration Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Todd also completed training at the Performance Management Group’s Virginia Executive Institute at VCU.

Todd is married to the former Margaret Cary Lewis and they have three children, Catharine Cole Haymore and Elizabeth Whichard Haymore (twins), and Lillian Bryan Haymore.

Prior to co-founding NBVP in 1996, Jack was President and CEO of InterCAP, a venture-backed computer graphics software company. From 1987 to 1990, Jack rose from Senior Associate to Partner at Vanguard Atlantic, Ltd., a merchant banking group focused on M&A advisory work and control investments in software companies. At VAL, he served as turnaround CEO of a system software company and then as COO of an application software company. Earlier in his career he was an IT Industry Generalist, focused on Telecommunications Technology at the Gartner Group, where he was also Executive Assistant to the CEO, Gideon Gartner.

He began his career in 1983 in Austin, Texas at Business Development Partners, an early stage venture capital partnership. Jack holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia.

Jack currently serves on the Boards of WealthEngine, Vision Chain (Chairman), CorasWorks (Chairman), Triumfant, eMinor/ReverbNation , Starfish Retention Solutions, Shoeboxed, FiberZone Networks, and Appian Corporation.

Susan K. Roth leads the Research & Entrepreneurship team in the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University as well as other academic initiatives. The R&E team includes Matt Woolman, Director of Creative Entrepreneurship and Sarah B. Cunningham, Executive Director of Research, formerly with the NEA. Activities support faculty and students across departments and schools including interdisciplinary initiatives with a focus on externally funded research, professional growth, and sustainable venture development. The R&E team supports collaborative opportunities with community programs, external agencies, and corporate partners.

Professor Roth previously served as Dean, Faculty of Design at Ontario College of Art & Design, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at VCU, Chair of Industrial, Interior and Visual Communication Design at The Ohio State University and in other administrative positions.

She co-founded and co-directed the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Art & Design (with Richard Roth) at The Ohio State University, a graduate seminar and public lecture series partially funded by a grant from the Battelle Endowment for Technology & Human Affairs. With design faculty and students at OSU she engaged in interdisciplinary research and design projects for Ford, Thomson Consumer Electronics, Apple, and others. At OCAD she initiated the Design Research Centre for sponsored projects in healthcare design, accessible housing, and new media. In 2008 she participated in development of the VCU da Vinci Center for Innovation, a partnership of the Arts, Business, and Engineering in collaboration with corporate and government affiliates.

She is an elected member of the Commission on Accreditation, National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) and formerly served as Vice President, member of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Council of Arts Accrediting Associations, and the Working Group on the Future of Design and Design Education. She publishes and presents on design research and interdisciplinary education and consults for government and academic institutions.

Her research on voting system design and usability was widely covered in the media following the Presidential election of 2000 resulting in invitations to testify before the National Commission on Federal Election Reform and present recommendations to state and federal government agencies. During 2002-04 she served as expert reviewer and member of the Project Advisory Board for an NSF-funded project grant awarded to the Center for American Politics & Citizenship, University of Maryland to assess voting technology and ballot design. Research findings were cited in the Columbia Journalism Review, New Yorker, Financial Times, the Congressional Research Service/Library of Congress, National Institutes of Standards and Technology, Social Science Information Gateway (UK), Visual Language Project at Stanford, the Digital Voting Group, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and others.

A native of Pittsylvania County, Robert began his time in public service in 2001 as a member of the Chatham Town Council. From 2002 to 2007, Robert served in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing parts of Pittsylvania County, Henry County, and the City of Martinsville. Starting in 2008, Robert represented the 19th District in the Senate of Virginia for two years, which includes the City of Danville, Pittsylvania County, Franklin County and part of Campbell County.

Now representing Virginia’s 5th District in the House of Representatives, Robert is a member of the Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over all aspects of the nation’s financial and housing sectors. He is the Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity, and a member of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises.

Additionally, he was appointed by House Leaders to the Cybersecurity Task Force, which seeks to address issues that affect both our national and economic security.

Robert graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1991 and received his law degree from Mississippi College School of Law in 1995. From 1999 to 2010, Robert was engaged in a general law practice in the courthouse town of Chatham.

Robert lives in Chatham, Virginia with his wife, Kathy, and their three sons, Charles, Clement and John.

Laura W. Fornash was appointed Secretary of Education by Governor Bob McDonnell on August 23, 2011. As a member of the Governor’s Cabinet, the Secretary assists the Governor in the development and implementation of the state’s education policy. In addition, Secretary Fornash provides guidance to the 16 public universities, the Virginia Community College System, five higher education and research center, the Department of Education and the state-supported museums. Prior to this appointment, she served as Deputy Secretary of Education and as the Executive Director of the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education Reform, Innovation, and Investment.

Before joining the McDonnell administration, Mrs. Fornash spent 20 years with Virginia Tech in a number of different divisions including student affairs, continuing education, distance learning, and government relations. She most recently served as the Director of State Government Relations for the University.

She was the school's Restructuring Project Director with the responsibility of managing Virginia Tech's implementation of the 2005 Restructuring Act that created new levels of operational autonomy for all public higher education institutions in exchange for meeting certain academic performance measures. She was Director of the Virginia Tech Richmond Center, an extended campus center, where credit and noncredit programs were offered to working professionals.

In 1998, as the Director of Information Technology Programs, Mrs. Fornash launched an innovative web based interdisciplinary masters degree program to help transition professionals into the information technology field as result of research conducted for the International Technology Association of America.

Mrs. Fornash received her undergraduate and masters degree from Virginia Tech. She is a native of Chesterfield, Virginia and is a graduate of Virginia public schools. She is married and has 3 children.

Allyson Rothrock has been with the Foundation since it opened in 2002. She previously worked as Interim Executive Director and Assistant Executive Director, where she spearheaded the launch of a major initiative that has since transformed the Henry County and Martinsville Schools Systems. Ms. Rothrock led in the creation of the five-year K-12 partnership among the school systems and the Foundation. She works closely with The Harvest Foundation Board and staff, and the Martinsville-Henry County community to develop effective strategies for community revitalization and enhancement through education, health, arts and economic development.

The Harvest Foundation was established from the sale of Memorial Hospital and is committed to honoring the legacy of the hospital using the foundations assets to produce resources for the citizens of Martinsville and Henry County. The Harvest Foundation researches and responsibly invests in programs and initiatives to address local challenges in health, education, and community vitality.

Gregory Fairchild is a faculty member in the Strategy, Ethics and Entrepreneurship area of the Darden School. He teaches strategic management, entrepreneurship and ethics in Darden’s MBA and Executive Education programs. He has received a number of awards for teaching excellence at the Darden School.

His research is likewise renowned, as he was recently the lead investigator studying business models and public policy issues in the field of community development finance, an initiative supported by a three-year $850,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Fairchild was named one of five high impact research professors, and the sole scholar focused in entrepreneurship by the Financial Times (January 2010). 

In 2009, he received a faculty Pioneer Awardpresented by the Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education for his leadership and risk taking in integrating ethical, environmental and socialissues into the MBA curriculum. In 2011, he was the only academic named as one of "25 Virginians to watch" by Virginia Business Magazine.  His multidisciplinary work has been cited by Inc. Magazine, The Economist, National Public Radio, New York Times and the Washington Post, among others. 

Fairchild worked in marketing positions for such industry leaders as Kraft General Foods, Procter & Gamble and Saks Fifth Avenue before embarking on his doctoral studies. Fairchild serves on the Virginia Retirement Service (VRS), the Commonwealth's public pension fund.  In addition to his teaching and research, he is a consultant to corporations, nonprofits and governmental agencies.  

Karl Stauber is President and CEO of the Danville Regional Foundation, based in Danville, Virginia. DRF’s mission is to be a catalyst for innovation and transformation in the area of Caswell County, North Carolina, Pittsylvania County and Danville in Virginia. DRF invests in efforts to improve the health, economic development, community capacity, education and workforce development of the people of its region.

Stauber has held various philanthropic, government and non-profit positions in Minnesota, Ohio, Colorado, and North Carolina.

Stauber earlier served as a senior appointee in the Clinton Administration at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C. as Under Secretary for Research, Economics and Education.

Stauber holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, a certificate from the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School, and a B.A. in American Studies from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

William L. “Bill” Murray is currently managing director of public policy for Dominion, a Fortune 200 energy company doing business throughout the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Midwest. He previously served as Legislative Director for Governors Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. Prior to working in the Governor’s Office, Bill was Vice President for Policy at the Virginia Hospital Association and a senior staff member for the Virginia General Assembly.

He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in public policy from Virginia Tech. Bill serves on the Virginia Board of Medical Assistance Services and the Board of Bon Secours Health Source.

Philippe Sommer, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, is responsible for managing Darden’s entrepreneurship program as well as its broader educational efforts around innovation including the recently launched i.Lab. Sommer also works extensively with the larger U.Va. community on new university-wide entrepreneurship initiatives, such as the U.Va. Entrepreneurship Cup. Prior to joining Darden, Sommer was a founding partner of WestMed Venture Funds, publicly registered life-sciences venture-capital funds affiliated with CIBC/Oppenheimer, Inc.

He has also served as director of business development in the medical products group for Pfizer, Inc. Sommer has extensive experience in fund management, venture capital, private investments, M&A, licensing and technology transfer. The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership is part of the Batten Institute.

Sommer holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. with Honors from Amherst College.

Don Rainey joined Grotech Ventures as a general partner in September 2007 and currently serves on the boards of Grotech portfolio companies Clarabridge, GramercyOne, HelloWallet, LivingSocial, Personal, SnappCloud, and Zenoss.

Currently, he is an emerging technology consultant to the Chief Information Officer of the US Department of Defense through the DeVenCi Program, which is tasked with researching and nominating companies to solve the DOD’s unmet technology needs. In 2011, Don was appointed to the James Madison University Board of Visitors by Governor McDonnell and he also serves on the Board of Directors of James Madison Innovations, Inc.

As an Organizing Board member of MindShare forum, Don helps CEOs from the DC region’s most promising start-ups build long-term sustainable companies.

He was included on Washingtonian’s Tech Titans list in May 2011. The Northern Virginia Technology Council presented Don with its prestigious “Lifetime Navigator” Award for his work with entrepreneurs in March 2011.

John is a seasoned technology investor and entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience investing in and managing rapidly growing, high-technology companies. Prior to founding New Atlantic Ventures in 1998, John was a founding investor and the President and Chief Executive Officer of InteliData Technologies and led it's predecessor, US Order, through a successful $65 million IPO in 1995. John currently manages a $225 million venture portfolio at New Atlantic Ventures.

He currently serves on the board of directors of AppTap, Invincea, Koofers, Healthwearhouse.com, & Spotflux.  He is the past Chairman of the Wolf Trap Foundation Board, the past Chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council Board, the founding Chairman and current Board member of the NVTC TechPAC, and was appointed by former Virginia Governor Mark Warner to co-chair the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission.  John began his career at Bain & Co. and Bain Capital.

Michael Papay is sector vice president of Cyber Initiatives for Northrop Grumman. He leads Northrop Grumman’s cyber strategy development and associated activities to advance the company’s leadership role in the cybersecurity community. Dr. Papay works closely with Northrop Grumman corporate leaders, customers and partners to grow the corporation’s cyber business by identifying and pursuing new opportunities to increase market share both in the U.S. and globally.

Dr. Papay has 25 years of experience with Northrop Grumman. He has extensive experience in engineering and developing solutions for the Department of Defense and intelligence community, including intercontinental ballistic missiles; a variety of missile defense systems; command and control systems; networking solutions; satellite and ground systems; airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms; modeling and simulation programs; and military training tools.

Dr. Papay has a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech, and is a Northrop Grumman Technical Fellow.

Thomas Bowden is Co-Founder of Integrity Broadband Networks (a pioneering company in the broadband wireless industry) and was formerly a partner and counsel in multiple law firms. He is currently the solo practitioner as principal of Thomas L. Bowden, Sr., Attorney at law, PLC.

In addition, Thomas serves as a board Member to Virginia Bicycling Federation, Chairman of BikeVirginia (Statewide cycling advocacy and educational organization), Vice Chair of Virginia Business Leadership Network (B2B organization helping businesses successfully hire, train and retain people with disabilities), President of University of Pennsylvania Alumni of Central Virginia, and Co-Founder of CyCor Sports (Professional Cycling Team and Amateur Cycling Club).

Thomas is an author on bicycle issues, including safety, economics and cultural aspects and has articles published in national magazines and cycling websites. He is also an avid amateur inventor, boat builder and published photographer.

Tonya Mallory is an award winning American entrepreneur whose pioneering work in the field of chronic disease management has helped propel the field of cardiology and related diseases into the forefront of diagnostic care. HDL, Inc. is a disease management company with clinical laboratory services for both adult and pediatric patients in the areas of cardiovascular disease, heart failure, stroke, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Since the opening of HDL, Inc. in 2009, Tonya Mallory has won several career awards including: Governor's Award for Science Innovation; Top 25 Businesses of the Past 25 Years by Venture Forum; Muse Award by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Influential Women Award by Virginia Lawyers; Companies to Watch by Venture Forum; Hometown Hero Award by Allen & Allen; All Stars Healthcare Technology Finalist; Style Weekly Executive Women in Business Award 2012, Ernst & Young’s 2012 Greater Washington Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Dr. Glenn DuBois has worked in community college education for more than 30 years. He was hired in the summer of 2001 to serve as the chancellor of the Virginia Community College System. Since then he has led the 23-college system through its first and into its second strategic plan while enduring both unprecedented enrollment growth and unprecedented cuts in state operating funds.

Virginia’s Community Colleges, during the last decade, have signed groundbreaking guaranteed transfer agreements with more than 30 public and private universities; become Virginia’s leading provider of workforce development services, helped Virginia close headline-grabbing economic development deals; diversify community college funding sources, doubling foundation-led private fundraising; and maintained a tuition rate that is one-third of the comparable rate at Virginia’s universities. The Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society presented DuBois with their State Community College Award of Distinction at its national convention in 2008.

Ted Zoller is director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School where he teaches new ventures, business plan and enterprise development, and global venturing courses. Ted is the founding instructor of “Launching the Venture,” a startup creation program that has significantly increased the number of companies to spin off from UNC-Chapel Hill. His research focuses on entrepreneurial firm performance and the social networking implications of entrepreneurial and venture dealmaking networks.

He is also an active entrepreneur as the founder of CommonWeal, LLC, a venture analytics firm and accelerator; as a small business owner; and as an advisor on numerous boards including for the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, Idea Fund Partners, Southeast TechInventures, and the Autism Society. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, engaged in core strategies of the Foundation in the area of entrepreneurship.

Douglas Muir is a former captain with a US airline and is an authority in business strategy for small to midsize companies, having successfully built several multimillion dollar enterprises from the ground up.

He is considered the start-up guru and speaks internationally on topics of entrepreneurship, innovation, and business growth. He has been interviewed by Gerri Willis of CNN and by Bloomberg Radio, and has been published and quoted in numerous publications including Business Week and The Scotsman Guide, a prestigious magazine for the banking, mortgage, and investor industry.

Douglas was the host of The Doug and Eric Show on ABC, “Exposing the Hidden Truths about the Three Credit Bureaus and the Banking and Finance System”. He was recently featured in Kaihan Krippendorff’s business tactics book, Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile, which described how Muir infiltrated the insurance industry and locked out his competition.

Ghosh is also Research Professor and Chief Scientist in the Center for Secure Information Systems at George Mason University. He was previously Senior Scientist and Program Manager in the Advanced Technology Office of the DARPA where he managed an extensive portfolio in information assurance and information operations programs. He previously held a role as Vice President of Research at Cigital, Inc. In his career he has served as principal investigator on contracts from DARPA, NSA, and NIST’s Advanced Technology Program and has written more than 40 peer-reviewed conference and journal articles.

He was awarded the NSA’s Frank Rowlett Trophy for Individual Contributions in 2005 and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service for his contributions while at DARPA. Anup was named to the Naval Studies Board for a National Academies Study in 2008 on Information Assurance for Network-Centric Naval Forces and currently sits on a number of advisory boards informing the future of American cyber-defenses.

Michel Zajur was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and immigrated to the Richmond, Virginia, area with his family in 1960.   His family established the iconic La Siesta Restaurant which he owned and operated for over 35 years.  In the 1990s as Virginia’s Hispanic population grew, La Siesta restaurant increasingly became the information hub of Richmond’s Hispanic Community.  Because the Zajur family was so long-established in the region, their restaurant became the place that many came looking for assistance in finding employment, loans, recommendations for places to live, and general advice.

Also in the 1990s, Michel and his wife Lisa started Siesta Town, a cultural program for young students to motivate them to learn Spanish and give them the opportunity to experience the Hispanic culture.

This program served over 100,000 school children throughout Central Virginia. In 1996 the Spanish Academy and Cultural Institute (SACI) was created to teach Spanish and English to businesses and individuals in an innovative practical method of teaching. Today SACI trains Fortune Five Hundred companies, government agencies, and United States military personnel. 

It was out of this calling to help Virginia’s Hispanics and teach mainstream Virginians the value of Hispanic culture that led Michel to found the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in May 2000 to be the bridge linking the Hispanic community with the community-at-large, and Latin America.  In 2003, he founded the VAHCC Foundation to provide education, information and resources to the Community. He has developed the Chamber into a powerful state-wide organization with hundreds of members. 

In January, 2010 the Honorable Robert F. McDonnell appointed Martin to serve as his Chief of Staff. Martin serves as the Governor’s deputy personnel and budget officer for the Commonwealth, oversees the daily work of the Governor’s Office and his cabinet secretaries, and is a primary liaison to the Virginia General Assembly and Virginia’s congressional delegation.

Until 2001, Martin was in private practice where his emphasis was criminal defense and civil litigation. From 2001-2010, he served in various capacities in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office including Chief Deputy Attorney General.

His responsibilities included oversight of the operations of the Office and advising the Attorney General on issues of statewide significance as well as managing the Attorney General’s policy and legislative agenda.

Martin received a B.S. degree from the University of Richmond and a J.D. degree from Mercer University. He has been a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Virginia since 1993.

Robby Demeria is Executive Director of RichTech, the Richmond Technology Council, a position he has held since April 2011. RichTech is a member-driven association of businesses and organizations working together to ensure the continued growth of Central Virginia’s dynamic technology-based economy.

Prior to joining RichTech, Demeria was the former Vice President of Policy and Chief Lobbyist for the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce in Northern Virginia.

In December 2011, Demeria was appointed to serve on the VCU School of Business IS Program Advisory Board. He also enjoys serving on the Community Idea Stations’ Science Matters Leadership Team.

Demeria is a graduate of George Mason University and resides in Richmond, Virginia with his wife, Sara.

John S. Serafini is an early stage technology investor at Allied Minds with sector concentration in dual-use/dual-return communications, cyber, mobile, defense, and energy technologies and intellectual property originating from US federal research institutions. John’s investment interests center upon the intersection of profit-maximizing private capital and the unique requirements and R&D capabilities of the US Government.

Previously, John was a Principal at Good Harbor Consulting where he partnered with the Honorable Richard Clarke, the former Special Advisor to three Presidential Administrations, and Paladin Capital as a venture capital/growth equity investor and M&A specialist with expertise in managing investments impacted by U.S. national security regulations.

A former Airborne Ranger-qualified US Army infantry officer with duty stations at the 82d Airborne Division & the Korean DMZ, John earned a B.S. with highest honors from the United States Military Academy, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Martin D. Chapman, PhD, is President and CEO of Indoor Biotechnologies, a company he founded and spun out of the University of Virginia. Indoor Biotechnologies is a biotechnology manufacturing company which produces molecular products for allergy and asthma research. The company has manufacturing and R&D facilities in Charlottesville, sales and marketing offices in the UK, and distributors in Japan, Korea and China, with product sales in over 50 countries. In 2011, Dr. Chapman formed CityCampus LLC to preserve and re-develop a historic Art Deco Coca-Cola Bottling Works in Downtown Charlottesville as the CityCampus Biotechnology Center.

CityCampus will provide infrastructure for emerging biotechnology and technology-based companies, including a new headquarters for Indoor Biotechnologies. It will create 20,000sf of laboratory space, with the potential to provide ~50,000sf when fully developed. CityCampus will provide essential infrastructure to support innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development in Central Virginia.

Jean Clary Bagley was the first woman Chairman of Virginia State Chamber of Commerce, and has also served on the Board of Directors of Virginia Dominion Power, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Virginia Health Care Foundation and the Board of Visitors of VMI.

Jean has a passion for helping children in rural southern VA and co-authored an educational program CARES (Children Are Really Special) encouraging corporations to adopt a grade of children and mentor them until they graduate from high school.

She and her staff adopted the entire kindergarten in South Hill Elementary in 1995. Partnering with Southside VA Community College, the Century 21 Clary team committed to provide college scholarships at SVCC for all students that graduated from Park View High School in 2008. 83 CARES students attended SVCC, plus 44 enrolled in other colleges and universities.

Barbara Comstock was elected in 2009, to represent the 34th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. She currently serves on the Transportation, Science and Technology, and the Commerce and Labor Committees.

Barbara and her husband Chip, an assistant principal at Oakton High School, are 30 year residents of McLean, Virginia. She served as a senior aide in the 1990s to Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf.

She then was recruited to serve on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, the largest House committee where she became Chief Counsel and led hearings and oversight of investigations into waste, fraud and abuse. She also served as Director of the Office of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice from 2002 through 2003. Barbara currently is a founding partner of Comstock Strategies. She also was a founding partner of Corallo Comstock and a partner and principal at Blank Rome, LLP and Blank Rome Government Relations, LLC.

Toan Nguyen’s passion is creating entrepreneurial opportunities for people who don’t have access to capital or training so they can pursue their dreams. He believes in the power of business to implement social change. Toan was the driving force behind the creation of the Community Investment Collaborative, a micro-lending institution in Charlottesville that provides business training, funds, and mentoring to minorities and formerly incarcerated individuals.

Toan is also currently spearheading the Green Dot Project, a for-profit cooperative business that will provide training and employment for the chronically unemployed, and will serve as a community incubator space. Toan has been a professional photographer for the Houston Astros, gourmet chef, and a construction manager. After graduating from the Darden Business School, he joined Carrier Corporation, a division of United Technologies Corporation. After leaving Carrier, he co-founded with his wife a furniture manufacturing corporation, an internet-based cookie company, and C’ville Coffee, a coffee shop in Charlottesville.

Jim Murray is Managing Partner of Court Square Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in early stage media technology, communications and information technology investments. Prior to Court Square, he was a founding partner of Columbia Capital, which today manages funds aggregating over $3billion. Jim is currently a director of four technology firms and the NeuroVenture Fund. He is also co-founder of Aegis Forest Capital.

Jim previously served as a director of over two dozen technology companies including seven firms that were IPOs, publicly listed, or merged into public companies. He is the author of Wireless nation: the Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America (selected by Booklist as one of the “top ten” business books of 2001). Jim holds a U.S. patent for a wireless maritime ignition control system. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia and both a J.D. and honorary degree from William and Mary.

Pamela C. Gavin is the founding member of Gavin Law Offices, PLC, which is a boutique firm located in Richmond’s West End providing intellectual property and entertainment law services. Ms. Gavin began her legal career by practicing at McGuireWoods LLP, and ReedSmith, LLP where she was a member of the Corporate and Intellectual Property practice groups of each. She was also a member of McGuireWoods’ Technology and Venture Capital team, and ReedSmith’s Media and Entertainment team and Marketing and Advertising team.

She is a Master of the Bench in Intellectual Property, founding member and Vice President of the Thomas Jefferson Intellectual Property Inns of Court, serves on the Internet Governance and Contractual Relations Committee of the International Trademark Association, and is a current and active member of various Virginia State Bar Committees, and has published articles in her field and served as a speaker in intellectual property related forums.

Theodore L. Chandler, Jr. is the Managing Principal for New Richmond Ventures, LLC, a venture development firm dedicated to supporting and growing high impact early stage enterprises in the Richmond Region. NRV’s broader vision is to help develop a thriving community of innovative leaders and world-class, well-funded entrepreneurs. Ted has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. and as Lead Director of Hilb, Rogal and Hobbs Co.; two Virginia based NYSE-listed financial services companies.

In addition, he has over 25 years of experience serving on the boards of companies across a variety of sectors. Ted began his career as an attorney at Williams Mullen where he specialized in business, mergers and acquisitions, and securities law. Ted currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Capital Region Collaborative (Co-founder), Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence (Chairman), Richmond Performing Arts Center, Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges and the VCU Massey Cancer Center (Chairman).

McCollum joined Cox Communications in 1989 as a manager trainee in Hartford, Conn., and was later promoted to a variety of management roles. In 2006, Gary was promoted to lead the Cox Hampton Roads system and then led the consolidation of all locations into one Virginia operation in 2010. Gary was honored with the prestigious Vanguard Award for Cable Operations Management from the National Cable Telecommunications Association in 2003.

He is also the recipient of the Northern Virginia Community Foundation’s Community Leadership Award and the Fairfax County NAACP Corporate Trailblazer Award, and has appeared for five years on the CableFAX list of Most Influential Minorities in Cable. McCollum served eight years on active duty as a military intelligence officer and the elite U.S. Army Rangers, and is currently a major in the U.S. Army Reserves. Gary & his wife, Cookie, reside in Virginia Beach and have two daughters.

Frank DiGiammarino served as the Deputy and Director of the Recovery Implementation Office that reported to Vice President Biden. In this capacity, he was responsible for coordinating a complex and diverse network of government departments in disbursing $787 billion to speed economic recovery. A recognized change agent, Frank came to the Executive Office of the President from the National Academy of Public Administration where he was the VP of Strategic Initiatives.

Prior to the Academy, Frank spent many years as a senior consultant and strategist, including Director and DoD Practice Area lead at Touchstone Consulting Group, General Manager and Director of Program Management at Sapient Corporation, and Principal Consultant with the state and local government practice at American Management Systems. Frank holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts and an MPA from George Washington University. He lives in Bethesda, MD with his wife and three children.

Karl Sanchack, a results oriented leader focused on profitable growth and innovation, is the Acting Director for Innovation at Lockheed Martin Corporation. Mr. Sanchack leads a global research & development team focused on leveraging new ideas to generate shareholder value. His organization encompasses both internal innovators as well as research partners across academia, national laboratories and industry. This team advances the state-of-the-art with an objective of maximizing return on investment.

Mr. Sanchack’s vision has resulted in establishing innovation practices, enterprise-wide collaboration systems and external Grand Challenges like Innovate the Future. Mr. Sanchack has over 20 years of experience in executive management roles. Mr. Sanchack received a Bachelors of Arts in Print Journalism from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA), Technology Management from the University of Phoenix. He is also a graduate of the Lockheed Martin Program Management Development Program (PMDP).

John Stacey’s product, marketing, sales and business development skills have helped consumer, technology, healthcare and education companies build their brands, profitably accelerate revenues and achieve the leading market position.

Mr. Stacey was General Manager of IBM’s Consumer Software Group where he guided World Book to the #1 position over Microsoft Encarta and managed the integration and turnaround of Edmark. Prior to acquisition by Softkey, he was Sr. Vice-President of Marketing and Sales for The Learning Company during its rise from #3 to #1 in the educational software category.

He also served as CMO for eHealth during its transition from start-up to the leading, on-line, health insurance service nationally and as Vice-President of Marketing for Conner Peripherals during its growth over 2 years from $250 million to $1.3 billion in revenues. Mr. Stacey began his career with Procter & Gamble in brand management.

Currently, Mr. Stacey is Managing Director of The Stacey Group providing strategy, process and marketing consulting to education, healthcare and technology companies ranging from $2 billion in revenues to early stage. He is a founder of Parrot Learning and advisor to The Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA).

Mr. Stacey graduated with an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and holds B.A.’s in Economics and French from the University of Virginia.

Dali Ma is Assistant Professor of Management at Drexel University. He received his PhD in sociology from University of Chicago, and his primary interests are cognitive and economic sociology, entrepreneurship, social networks, and transitional China. His research examines academic entrepreneurship, R&D team innovation, venture capital syndication, and a variety of topics in organization theory. 

His work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal and Social Forces. He received the Louis R. Pondy Award from the Organizational and Management Theory Division (2009) and William H. Newman Award from the Academy of Management (2009), both for best paper based on a dissertation.   He is a Batten Fellow at the Darden School of Business in 2012-13.     

Bruce joined The Martin Agency, a nationally acclaimed advertising agency in Richmond, in 2002. He joined Martin’s executive management team as Vice Chairman, bringing with him two decades of agency, brand and business experience. Bruce has held management positions at DDB, Ogilvy & Mather and J. Walter Thompson, where he shepherded marketing and advertising for Proctor & Gamble, Mercedes-Benz, Lipton, Pepsi, Clairol, Sony and Citibank.

In addition, Bruce founded and served as CEO of the National Mall Network, a unique medium used by marketers to reach customers at shopping malls. Bruce has served on the board for several Richmond-based organizations, and is currently the Chairman for the Richmond Forum and Founding Chairman of the Richmond BridgePark Foundation. Bruce has a BA in Economics from Lafayette College and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Chicago. Bruce is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Rochmond, UNC and NYU.

Jonathan Ortmans serves as President of Global Entrepreneurship Week now in 125 nations, Chair of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, Senior Fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and President of the Washington based Public Forum Institute. 

Trained as an economist, with two start ups/exits under his belt, he blogs weekly on high growth entrepreneurship at entrepreneurship.org and has emerged as a chief global strategist in building startup ecosystems around the world. Jonathan lives in Virginia with his wife and three young children.

John C. Rothenberger is the founder and CEO of Strategic Enterprise Solutions, Inc. (SE Solutions), a business dedicated to helping government improve our nation’s homeland security and defense. He is a successful serial entrepreneur and seasoned business executive with over 18 years of executive leadership, strategic business planning, business development, and management experience. He started his first business, Aspire Technology Group, at the age of 26 and managed the business successfully to an exit in early 2000. Both of John’s businesses have received numerous awards including Washington Technologies Fast 50, Virginia Business Fantastic 50 and Forbes’ Inc. 500.

John graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Business Administration. He is currently the Chairman of the JMU Center for Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, JMU’s first Entrepreneur In-Residence for the College of Business and co-created and co-teaches MGMT 472, Venture Creation, a class focused on undergraduate entrepreneurs and launching viable businesses. John is also a University of Pennsylvania Wharton School Business Fellow and a founding Board of Directors member of No. Virginia based, Founder Corps, a group centered on mentorship and promoting entrepreneurial development.

In 2006, Crystal Icenhour, PhD, became President and Director of Research for Phthisis Diagnostics, located in Charlottesville, VA. She is an adjunct assistant professor at Duke University Medical Center’s Division of Infectious Diseases in their Department of Medicine. She has demonstrated business leadership in addition to her scientific capabilities and has expressed a goal of “bridging the translational gap between these two worlds.”

She has authored seven patents, has authored and co-authored 13 research articles and theses, and has been a prolific speaker and presenter at scientific conferences. She has served on review panels for National Science Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants. Dr. Icenhour currently serves on the board of the Virginia Biotechnology Association and on the editorial board for the Journal of Microbiological Methods. She is a member of the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council, Sigma Xi, Medical Mycology Society of the Americas, National Postdoctoral Association, and the American Society for Microbiology.

Ralph Alan Cohen is Founding Executive Director and Director of Mission at the American Shakespeare Center and Gonder Professor of Shakespeare and Performance and founder of the Master of Letters and Fine Arts program at Mary Baldwin College. He was project director for the building of the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton Virginia. He has directed 30 productions of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, including America’s first professional production of Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle. He also directed the first revival of Thomas Middleton’s Your Five Gallants and co-edited the play for Oxford University Press’s Collected Works of Thomas Middleton. He is the author of ShakesFear and How to Cure It: A Handbook for Teaching Shakespeare.

He twice edited special teaching issues of the Shakespeare Quarterly and has published articles on teaching Shakespeare as well as on Shakespeare, Jonson, and Elizabethan staging. He founded the Studies Abroad program at James Madison University, where he won Virginia’s award for outstanding faculty. He has frequently directed summer institutes on Shakespeare and staging sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2001 he established the Blackfriars Conference, a bi-annual week-long celebration of early modern drama in performance. In 2008 he won the Commonwealth Governor’s Arts Award. In 2009 he was the Theo Crosby Fellow at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. He earned his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College and his doctorate at Duke University.