Ryan Berg

Principal
Source Capital

Ryan Berg is a Principal at Source Capital, where he sources and leads the execution of new investment opportunities primarily across the healthcare, business services, and technology-enabled services industries. Prior to Source, Ryan was a Principal at Arcspring and New Capital Partners.

Founded in 2002, Source Capital is a lower middle-market private investment firm that makes both equity and debt investments in founder-owned businesses across a variety of industries.

Christy Brown

CEO
Dr. Noze Best

Christy Brown is the dynamic CEO of Dr. Noze Best, based in Atlanta, Georgia. With over two decades in the realms of professional services, digital commerce, and technology, Christy's entrepreneurial journey boasts the successful foundation and exit of four companies, both public and private.

In 2010, she pivoted to Angel Investing and mentorship, with a laser focus on elevating female founders. By 2018, as a General Partner, she spearheaded the inception and nationwide replication of a venture studio model from her home turf in Atlanta. Her fervor for merging venture capital with underserved entrepreneurs led her to take the helm as President & CEO of Launchpad2X in 2020. This non-profit accelerator, which Christy ardently supported both financially and as a mentor, zeroes in on amplifying female founders, readying them for venture capital through comprehensive education and a tight-knit community. By 2022, Christy was back in the entrepreneurial hot seat, taking charge as the CEO of Dr. Noze Best — a rapidly growing pediatric wellness brand devoted to premier health and preventative care products for youngsters.

In addition to her corporate achievements, Christy actively uplifts, mentors, and invests in female founders and founders of color. This is evidenced by her roles as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Emory University, Venture Partner in various funds, Lead at the Emory University Startup Accelerator, and board member for numerous non-profits and burgeoning companies.

Mark Buffington

Managing Partner and CEO
BIP Ventures

Mark Buffington is the founder of BIP Capital and the Managing Partner of BIP Ventures. Since founding BIP Capital in 2006, Mark has led the venture capital firm to its position as one of the most active and recognized brands outside of Silicon Valley. Mark has led investment rounds in over 80 companies in numerous industries (Healthcare, Digital Media, Ed Tech, Enterprise SaaS, FinTech, and Advanced Computing). Notable investments include Vendormate, Ingenious Med, QA Symphony/Tricentis, PlayOn! Sports, Huddle Tickets, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Cypress.io, ConnexPay, REACH Health, Trella Health, Shareholder InSite and Aspirion Health Resources. Mark serves on the board of directors of several companies, including the NFHS Network, AchieveIt, Trella Health, PlayOn! Sports, UserIQ and ConnexPay. He also serves on several nonprofit boards, including Buckhead Coalition, Inc. and the Georgia Tech College of Computing.

Sara Burden

Principal
Walden Businesses, Inc.

Sara specializes in owner representation in the small to middle market with light manufacturing, distribution and select service companies primarily in the southeast. She is heavily involved in the firm’s valuation services. Sara’s M&A expertise has led her to be a guest speaker for talk radio shows, M&A Source and IBBA Conference as both speaker and trainer.

Lisa Calhoun

Managing Partner
Valor VC

Lisa Calhoun is the founder and managing partner at Valor VC. Valor leads seed rounds in AI and B2B software companies headquartered in the South. Business Insider ranks her among the nation’s top 30 women early stage investors. Lisa is a Kauffman Fellows Leadership Award honoree. She speaks frequently on early-stage investing for organizations including NASDAQ, SuperReturn, PeWIN and Kauffman and has been quoted in Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur and the Wall Street Journal.

Eric Carter

Director
Brady Ware

Eric Carter leads Brady Ware’s Atlanta office and focuses on developing and implementing financial and tax planning strategies for his clients. He spends most of his time in consulting work, helping clients with compliance, buying and selling business, and other transactional needs. Eric also helps lead the firm’s Business Solutions Group, providing customized tax services and consulting for small-market business clients.

Eric’s experience includes working at Marsh & McConnell before joining Brady Ware as a result of a merger in 2010. Eric was named a director in 2012.

Raj Chokshi

CEO & Wealth Manager
Bluerock Wealth Management LLC

Raj is a partner and chief executive officer at Bluerock Wealth Management. He is a Certified Public Accountant and started his career at an elite global accounting firm. Over 20 years ago, Raj founded his own wealth management firm based on what he saw as an unmet need in the industry: financial planning with a strong foundation of tax planning and tax mitigation consulting. His approach is integral to Bluerock Wealth Management’s process. As CEO, Raj directs the mission of the company, while working with clients to deliver a high level of service.

With an MBA in finance, a master’s in financial planning, and the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation, Raj has a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of finance. A great believer in education, Raj has endowed a chair at the University of Georgia, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Jeff Cunningham

Partner
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Jeff Cunningham serves as outside general counsel to growth-phase businesses. He enjoys helping entrepreneurs design ambitious deals and buy, build, and sell profitable companies. He often represents companies that do not have internal legal departments. His clients include closely held businesses, emerging businesses, and established companies in a range of industries, including manufacturing and distribution, business and professional services, construction, and technology.

Jeff advises clients through all phases of the business life cycle, from start up to operations to exit. He has assisted clients with choice of entity, business plan development, capital raising (debt and equity), and equity and ownership agreements, as well as commercial transactions and agreements, intellectual property licensing, consulting services, tax structuring, business acquisitions, joint ventures and other corporate partnership transactions. For clients ready to exit their businesses, Jeff has provided strategic planning, marketing, sale, and post-transaction counsel. He regularly represents both borrowers and lenders in asset-based, cash flow, and other lending transactions.

In addition, Jeff is a frequent speaker and presenter on topics related to high-growth companies.

Traci Cupp

Principal
Reign Executives

Traci Cupp is the founder of Reign Executives. She partners with high-growth companies to secure transformational executives that drives operational excellence, revenue growth and shareholder value. Traci has led over 150 executive searches in various sectors in key roles across the U.S. These placements have contributed to billions in total transaction value creation for lower middle market and middle market private and growth equity sectors. Traci is a Vistage Chair to an Atlanta-based CEO peer group.

Jon Dangar

Director
Stonehenge Capital Company

Mr. Dangar is responsible for the origination, underwriting and management of mezzanine and equity investments from the Atlanta office. Prior to joining Stonehenge, Mr. Dangar led business development for transaction services for Aprio, LLC, a regional tax and accounting advisory firm focused on growing, middle market companies. Prior to that, Mr. Dangar was the National Deals Sales Leader for PwC, responsible for driving M&A conversations and advice with the firm’s U.S. clients. Prior to that, Mr. Dangar worked for 20 years in the investment banking field, providing buy-side M&A and financing advice to privately-held, growing companies in the US and abroad for Westminster Securities, Wachovia Securities and E&Y. Mr. Dangar earned a BS in Building Construction and a Minor in Economics from The Georgia Institute of Technology and his MBA at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Mr. Dangar was recently named one of Georgia's 500 Most Influential People by Georgia Trend Magazine.

Javier Davila

Principal
o15 Capital Partners

Javier is a Principal at o15 and is primarily responsible for originating and executing private credit & equity investment opportunities, as well as portfolio management.

Prior to joining o15, Javier was a Vice President at Truist Securities where he held various roles including Healthcare Services industry coverage, M&A, and capital markets transaction origination and execution. Javier also had responsibility for Healthcare cash flow underwriting while at Truist Securities.

Prior to Truist Securities, Javier held roles at Boyne Capital, CVS Health, and BMO Capital Markets. Javier received his BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dolan Falconer

Chairman
Reveam, Inc.

Mr. Falconer is Co-founder and Managing Member of ScanTech Holdings LLC. A 2007 graduate of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), ScanTech is an electron beam and X-ray technology holdings company.

Mr. Falconer is responsible for all corporate operations and has led the company to numerous local and national awards including the Best New Emerging Homeland Technology Company, the Top Ten Most Innovative Technology Company in Georgia, Finalist for Georgia’s International Deal of the Year and Runner-up at the Global Security Challenge.

Mr. Falconer has also played a key role in securing investment capital to fund the successful spin-off of ScanTech’s technology into a homeland security company, ScanTech Identification Beam Systems, LLC (www.scantechibs.com) and a food safety company, Reveam, Inc. (www.reveam.com).

Mr. Falconer still plays an active role in both spin-offs serving as founding President and Chief Executive Officer at ScanTech Identification Beam Systems and Chairman of the Board and a senior technical advisor at Reveam.

Ed Fisher

Managing Partner
SouthPointe Ventures, LLC

Since 2003, Ed has been co-founder and managing partner of SouthPointe Ventures, LLC, an Atlanta-based lower middle market control buy-out fund. SouthPointe focuses on the industrial manufacturing, distribution, and business services sectors, typically in the Southeast and Central U.S.

Prior to SouthPointe, Ed held senior management and operations roles in a family-owned equipment distribution business, and as CFO for the 3rd largest Wendy's franchisee. Ed started his career in leveraged lending at successor banks to Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Ed serves on the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of Georgia, on the Investment Committee for Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School, as FP&A committee chair for the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, and on the Host Committee for the Beloved event. Ed graduated with a B.B.A degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame.

David Gamsey

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
First Advantage

David Gamsey is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at First Advantage Corporation (NASDAQ:FA). Over his CFO career, he has led two IPO’s, participated in over 40 acquisitions, and raised billions in capital. David attended Emory University and recently earned recognition as Atlanta's CFO of The Year by the CFO Forum in 2022 and The Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2019.

Levar Haffoney

Managing Partner
Vedere Capital Group

Levar Haffoney is the founder and Managing Partner of Vedere Capital Group (VCG), a private investment firm. He is responsible for all aspects of strategy, deal sourcing, due diligence, negotiations, financing, and post-acquisition management.

Mr. Haffoney is a board member with ArtsATL and chairs the Resource Development Committee. He is also the former board Chair with Spectrum Health Services, Inc., a federally qualified health center, based in Philadelphia.

Mr. Haffoney began his career in financial services. He earned a B.S. in Business, Management, and Economics from the State University of New York and an M.B.A. from the Eastern University College of Business and Leadership.

Shuron Hall

Atlanta Metro Business Banking Market Executive
Bank of America

Shuron Hall brings a wealth of experience spanning more than 20 years in the banking industry. She currently leads a group of commercial bankers specialized in providing exceptional advisory services to our commercial clients. Shuron is driven by helping to advise our clients and serving our communities.

Jeff Hawkins

Partner, Director of Transaction Advisory Services
Carr, Riggs & Ingram

Jeff Hawkins is partner and director of CRI's Transaction Advisory Services. Jeff is CPA and focuses all of his time on assisting clients with sell-side or buy-side diligence and consulting needs. He focuses exclusively on middle to lower-middle market buyers and sellers and takes a white glove approach of helping client solve some of their most complex problems will seamlessly integrating into the overall deal team.

Michael Hollingsworth

Partner
Nelson Mullins

Michael is co-head of the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group and its Investment Management Group. He focuses on middle-market corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures. He also serves on the firm's Executive Committee, the governing body of seven partners who oversee firm standing committees, strategic initiatives, and firm operations.

Lonnie Johnson

Founder
JTEC Energy

Dr. Lonnie Johnson began his career as a research engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. While in the Air Force, Johnson served as: Acting Chief of the Space Nuclear Power Safety Section at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory;Advanced Space Systems Requirements Officer at Strategic Air Command (SAC) HQ;Chief of the Data Management Branch, SAC Test and Evaluation Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base. Dr. Johnson then joined NASA. He served as Senior Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where one of his inventions was incorporated in the Galileo mission to Jupiter. He also contributed to the Mars Observer project and the early stages of the Cassini (Saturn) project.

Johnson is most well known as the inventor of the Super Soaker squirt gun, which became one of the most popular toys in the world and has generated billions of dollars in retail revenue under the license. Propelled by the success of the Super Soaker, Johnson founded Johnson R&D, where he spearheads development of technological advances in clean energy and batteries.

Dr. Johnson also hosts and sponsors the national FIRST® Robotics Competition, a program that inspires young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. Johnson holds a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and an honorary doctorate in science. In 2022, Johnson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame

Rob Kissling

Principal
Source Capital

Rob Kissling has nearly two decades of principal investing experience across credit and private equity and covers Source Capital’s credit strategies practice, where he is primarily responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and structuring new investments. Source Capital is currently investing out of its fourth fund, which is a $200 million SBIC fund focused on senior debt investments with meaningful equity co-investments in, primarily, independent sponsor transactions.

Prior to joining Source, Rob worked at Antares Capital, a middle market sponsor finance firm, where he was a member of the Credit Advisory practice, responsible for restructuring troubled portfolio companies. Before that, Rob was a Vice President at Chatham Capital, an Atlanta-based mezzanine debt investment firm, where he was responsible for sourcing, structuring, and underwriting new investment opportunities. Rob started his career in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he spent time in both Leveraged Finance and Sales & Trading.

Rob received his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School with a concentration in Alternative Investments and was a John Robson Memorial Scholar. He received a BA in economics from Vanderbilt University and graduated magna cum laude

Lee M. Koury

Managing Partner
Smart Business Network Inc.

Lee is managing partner of Smart Business Network Inc., a national events, media and marketing company founded in 1989, primarily responsible for expanding the company’s Aspire deal-making conference throughout the U.S. He plays a key role in establishing corporate policies and developing long-term strategy and growth plans. Previously, he founded and chaired the Growth Group at national law firm Arter & Hadden LLP (now Tucker, Ellis & West), which focused on working with middle-market and high-growth technology companies. 

Whalen Kuller

Partner
Hartman Simons & Wood LLP

Whalen J. Kuller is a partner at Hartman Simons & Wood LLP. He leads the firm's corporate practice group. He has an earned a reputation as an expert in representation of corporate clients for a wide range of transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital, public offerings and private placements of debt and equity capital. He is also adept at advising clients on a range of corporate issues, such as employment contracts, corporate governance, organization and formation of business entities and licensing and supply and distribution agreements.

John E. Lepto IV

VP Portfolio Sales & Commercial Excellence
Crown Capital

John E. Lepto IV oversees Sales & Commercial Excellence at Crown Capital, where he helps steer the portfolio companies towards unparalleled growth and efficiency. His responsibilities stretch horizontally across Crown’s diverse portfolio ensuring a cohesive and robust Go-To-Market strategy that encompasses sales, marketing, and customer success, with a dotted line to product.

Prior to Crown, John has worked in several Sales & Consulting roles – Business Development, Strategy, Operations and Management across many different private equity backed, financial and healthcare organizations. He recently made the switch to Private Equity where he finds true value in helping founders focus on maximizing revenue growth.

Founded in 2014, Crown Capital is a lower middle-market private investment firm focusing on a diverse range of founder owned companies.

John Marsh

Founder & Managing Partner
Marsh Creek Advisors

John Marsh is the Founder and Managing Partner of Marsh Creek Advisors, a national sell-side M&A Advisory and Business Brokerage Firm with offices in Atlanta, GA and Dallas, TX.

Jane McCracken

Chief Growth Officer
Corps Team

Jane McCracken has experience as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She co-founded 4 companies, raising $100+ million and achieved exits in each via IPO or trade sale. She also raised 2 venture capital funds and established a 50-person business angel network.

Jane currently serves as the Chief Growth Officer at Corps Team, a nationwide search and staffing firm that works with startups to the Fortune 500. Before this role, Jane was Assistant Director and Entrepreneur in Residence at the ATDC, the state of Georgia’s technology incubator.

She is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust and Radyus Research.

Chris McDaid

Managing Director
BMO

As the Southeast Region Head for Commercial Banking, my focus is to effectively grow our business, which provides customized lending solutions to mid-sized, public and private companies, primarily in the Southeast.

Leveraging over two decades experience, I’m able to make use of the Bank’s global suite of capabilities for our valued clients, providing for a differentiated experience. Creating brand awareness, my deep-seated commitment, and an ability to foster pertinent connections both internally and externally, are all strategic assets I bring to the table.

I lead by example, using an accessible, hands-on approach to mentor a team of dedicated thought leaders who create unique, value-added ideas in our market. Working with our partners across all of BMO’s specialties allows clients to access a host of services in addition to commercial lending, including treasury management, equipment financing, interest rate protection, foreign exchange, trade finance, wealth management, asset management, cross-border solutions, and the broader Debt Capital Markets and M&A advisory in conjunction with BMO Capital Markets. What distinguishes us most is our dedication to understanding our clients, their industry, and ultimately, providing innovative solutions to finance their vision for growth.

Chad Merrill

Partner
Garden City Equity

Chad Merrill has a long history as a successful entrepreneur, having been involved in the creation and leadership of multiple businesses. Most recently Chad founded Impact 2:52, LLC which owns and operates 7 athletic facilities in the Atlanta area operating as D-BAT Baseball & Softball and TOCA Soccer. The mission of Impact 2:52 is to Inspire, Influence & Impact.

Prior to Impact 2:52, Chad was a Founding partner in Onepath Systems. Founded in 2006 it has grown to a $200 million dollar technology company with over 1,500 employees. Prior to Onepath Systems, his companies included a technology and cabling company operating in seven states and a travel and technology company that was sold to Synovus in 2001. His special strengths lie in leadership, strategy, strategic partnerships and out-of-the-box thinking that leverages partner skill sets to create Win-Win-Win relationships.

In late 2017, Chad became the President of the Fellowship of Companies for Christ International. FCCI is a 40 year old ministry whose vision is transforming the world through Christ one business leader at a time.

Neil Metzheiser

President & Partner
Lockton Companies - Southeast Series

Neil Metzheiser is the President of Lockton Atlanta, Partner of Lockton Companies and a member of its Executive committee for the Southeast Series. Prior to joining Lockton in 2004, Neil was the Managing Director at Hobbs Group for four years and a VP at AIG for 8 years. Lockton is the largest private & independent insurance broker in the world offering full service property & casualty and employee benefit solutions to companies.

Sid Mookerji

Managing Partner
Silicon Road Ventures

Sid Mookerji is the Founder and Managing Partner of Silicon Road Ventures, a family of US funds with over $100M under management, investing in early-stage tech startups disrupting the retail, e-commerce, and CPG industries.

Sid is also a General Partner in Bengaluru-based fund StartupXseed and has made many angel investments through his family office. In addition, Sid is co-founder and CEO of Silver Spirit Global LLC which operates tech parks in the US and India. Sid Mookerji is also a Founding Partner of the Atlanta chapter of the Creative Destruction Labs and President of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE Atlanta).

Sid’s contributions to industry and the city of Atlanta were celebrated as he was inducted into the Kennesaw State’s Coles College Hall of Fame for 2019. Sid was also recognized as an Entrepreneurial Leader for Southeast USA by TechBridge in 2019.

Jennifer Moseley

Partner
Burr & Forman LLP

Jennifer Moseley is a corporate and securities partner at Burr & Forman LLP, where she counsels public and private companies on an array of transactional, regulatory, capital raising, financing strategies and corporate governance matters. She enjoys assisting clients in her role as counselor and helping clients navigate the intricacies of securities laws with practical solutions to meet their goals.

Sig Mosley

Managing Partner
Mosley Ventures LLC

Sig Mosley is the Managing Partner of Mosley Ventures, a venture fund investing in early stage technology startups in the Southeast. Widely regarded as “The Godfather of Angel Investing”, a title Sig Mosley earned as president of Imlay Investments, Inc.

Mohamed Ndoye

SVP, Sr. Relationship Manager
Bank of America

Mo is a Senior Relationship Manager on Bank of America’s Atlanta Metro Business Banking Team, acting as a client advocate and primary banking contact for clients in the Healthcare, Manufacturing, Transportation, Government Contract space and diverse other industries. In his role, Mo advises clients, helps them navigate the bank and delivers a full spectrum of banking, treasury, credit and other innovative financial solutions. Mo has worked in the financial industry for the past 13 years. Prior to joining Bank of America, Mo worked at J.P. Morgan Chase in the Healthcare, Education & Not-For-Profit banking group and in the Private Bank.

Lyle Newkirk

CFO Partner
SeatonHill Partners

Lyle Newkirk is a CFO Partner with SeatonHill Partners in Atlanta. He has over thirty-five years of experience as a chief financial officer and in executive finance roles, with a significant background in technology and SaaS. Lyle has worked with public and private companies based both in the US and internationally, where he developed the strategies to achieve significant and sustainable top line revenue growth.  Lyle has extensive experience in both buy side and sell side M&A, including three exits to Fortune 500 companies. He has served as CFO for both public and private companies and has led one IPO.

Shantanu Nigam

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, SeedtoB
Co-Founder & Former CEO, Jvion

Shantanu is a veteran entrepreneur with a passion for Artificial Intelligence and patient wellness. His experience spans healthcare and transformative AI solutions, offering him a unique strategic perspective on the complex problems being solved in the healthcare technology space today. Shantanu began his career as a founder in the late nineties, when he developed an AI platform shifting search algorithms from keyword-based to intent-driven via Eigenspace. Shantanu later moved into Accenture’s Healthcare practice, where he helped some of Accenture’s most innovative offerings go to market.

Shantanu then partnered with Ritesh Sharma to build and exit a healthcare services company, growing the business to $8M of revenue in less than 18 months. In 2011, the two went on to found Jvion, an industry-leading clinical AI platform recognized as the nation’s largest in terms of both hospitals served and patients impacted by Blackbook and KLAS (2018). Shantanu served as CEO of Jvion from its inception through exit via private equity acquisition in 2019. 

Shantanu earned his Bachelor of Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Stephen Opler

Partner
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Stephen Opler concentrates his practice on the distinctive characteristics of liquidity transactions by and with entrepreneurs. Stephen helps private equity funds, strategic acquirers and entrepreneurial buyers and sellers achieve their goals by leveraging his three decades as an M&A lawyer, entrepreneur, business founder, investment banker, in-house lawyer and CPA.

George Pfeil

Vice President, Corporate Development
Applied Technical Services LLC

George has over 30 years experience with investment banking, private equity, c-level operations management and corporate development. Currently George leads the efforts of Applied Technical Services, a PE-backed platform that has completed over 30 acquisitions in the past eight years.

Sarah Powell

Business Performance Advisor
Insperity

Sarah Powell is a trusted advisor at Insperity, supporting small to medium sized organizations and investors providing an array of human resources and business solutions designed to help improve business performance. We're dedicated to helping businesses succeed by taking care of the things that could be distracting them from the bigger picture. We do this by helping control expenses, minimizing risk exposure and maximizing opportunities for revenue generation.

Will Seippel

Founder & CEO
WorthPoint

Will Seippel successfully negotiated over 20 acquisitions and structured complex transactions surpassing $5 billion in capital. A lifelong collector, he created WorthPoint to bring pricing transparency to the $360 billion fine art, antiques, and collectibles market. Today it is the world's largest valuation resource, with 1.3 billion images and 700 million pricing data points of vintage and antique items.

Tom Singh

Managing Director, Senior Resident Director
Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

Tom has spent the last 22 years at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch where he considers himself an “Intra-Preneur”. He is the founder of a 9 person boutique within the company called Singh & Associates.

He and his team specialize in pre-exit planning for business owners looking to sell their company in 12-36 months. By using their Proprietary financial Modeling Process, they run various simulations and prescribe strategies to help owners maximize their desired outcome.

He also oversees the Avalon location of Merrill Lynch managing 9 Billion of client assets and has been named the top 13 “Best in State Wealth Advisors” list by Forbes Magazine – 4 years in a row.

Paul Sparrow

Managing Partner
Chief Outsiders

Paul Sparrow joined Chief Outsiders in 2015, today serving as Managing Partner of the South. A former business owner, he is an operational CMO, CSO, and revenue growth expert with over 30 years of strategic development and execution in various industries and organizational settings, including Fortune 50, startups, turnarounds, and emerging growth.

Dave Sutton

Managing Partner
Blue Rhino Capital

Dave Sutton is a globally recognized marketing strategist and investor, with over 30 years of experience transforming businesses through innovative marketing practices. He is the founder of Blue Rhino Capital and TopRight, a transformational marketing consultancy. An accomplished author, Sutton has contributed to significant works in marketing, including “Marketing Interrupted,” “Strategic Analytics,” and “Enterprise Marketing Management: The New Science of Marketing.” His expertise covers a broad spectrum of marketing disciplines, including branding, digital marketing, and leveraging artificial intelligence in marketing. A sought-after speaker, Sutton is known for his insights on marketing ROI, brand strategy, and the impact of technology on marketing. His leadership roles in organizations like YPO and his academic background in computer engineering and marketing enrich his unique perspective on marketing’s role in business growth and innovation.

Patrick Taylor

Venture
TechOperators Venture Capital

Patrick Taylor is a Venture Partner at TechOperators. Throughout his career in software, he has held operational roles in sales, marketing, product management, business development, and engineering. Patrick co-founded Oversight Systems in 2003 and served as CEO and board member until the sale of the company to TCV in 2020. He was a member of the founding management team at Internet Security Systems.

Glenda Waldschmidt

Vice President - National Relationship Manager
National Christian Foundation

Glenda Waldschmidt is a Vice President with the National Christian Foundation, an innovative leader in charitable planning. NCF leads with creative and strategic solutions incorporating the gifting of non-cash assets, including private businesses. In her role, she advises high-net-worth business owners comprehensively on financial and non-financial aspects of charitable giving and the stewardship of family wealth, often multi-generational wealth. Glenda previously worked for Deloitte, specializing in taxation. She then transitioned into a career focused on providing comprehensive wealth management counsel to high capacity and ultra-high capacity families.

Gordon Watt

Managing Director
Ascent Advisory Partners

Gordon R. Watt is a Managing Director & Co-Founder, Ascent Advisory Partners. Gordon has over 30 years of M&A and investment banking experience. He has both middle-market and Wall Street experience, having advised clients ranging from small, founder-owned businesses to large, publicly traded companies. He was a Managing Director at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey (now Truist) responsible for the execution of both M&A and capital raising transactions. Prior roles included Managing Director in the investment banking group at The Robinson-Humphrey Company (a division of Citigroup). He started his career in the corporate and investment banking group at Chemical Bank (now JPMorgan) in New York City. In 2019, he co-founded Ascent Advisory Partners to provide M&A advisory services to family and founder-owned companies in the lower middle-market.

Dan White

Chief of New Revenue Streams, The Coca-Cola Company
General Partner, Venture 53

Marvin Willis

Partner-in-charge, Accounting & Advisory practice
Smith + Howard

Marvin continually adds value for our clients by demonstrating management accounting expertise, determination and commitment to achieving sustainable business success.

Marvin joined our firm in 1999. He is a partner in charge of our Accounting and Advisory practice and oversees the firm’s Cyber Risk Management + Compliance solutions for clients. He is also a member of our Audit and Construction groups.

Prior to joining Smith + Howard, Marvin spent several years as CFO of a large Atlanta business. He has extensive experience in accounting, auditing, information systems, business management and consulting. Marvin’s background as CFO and his financial knowledge provides tremendous value to our clients in the areas of SOC engagements, internal control reviews, cyber risk management + compliance, corporate governance, general business advice, accounting and technology services.