The Advisory Board reflects the unique integration of practice and research that is at the core of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Board of Advisors
- Ashish Arora, Rex D. Adams Professor of Business Administration
- Jeffrey Barnes, General Partner, Bioventures Fund IV
- Danny Briere, CEO TeleChoice, Inc. Startup Connecticut
- David C. Carroll, CEO, Oak Circle Capital, LLC
- Jefferson Clark, Managing General Partner, The Aurora Funds
- Wesley M. Cohen, Faculty Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Ann Elliott, Solertis
- Josh Felser, Co-Founding General Partner of Freestyle Capital
- Jon Fjeld, Professor of the Practice of Strategy
Executive Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation - Don Haile, Former Chief Information Officer, Fidelity Investments
- Peter Heffring, President, Alera Financial
- Jeffrey M. Hurst, General Partner and Co-Founder, Commonwealth Capital Ventures
- T. Reid Lewis, President & Co-Founder of GroupLogic
- Bill Luby, Seaport Capital – Managing Partner
- Catherine E. Massey, Co-Founder, LawDocsXpress
- Matthew Megaro, President & CEO of Quill Medical, Inc.
- Shep Moyle, CEO of Shindigz
- Mitch Mumma, General Partner, Intersouth Partners
- Michael D. Olander, President, Apple Gold Group
- Manju Puri, J.B. Fuqua Professor of Finance
- Howie Rhee, Managing Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University
- David Robinson, Research Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Terry Tucker, Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel to Georgia Family Council
- Derek Wilson, Co-Founding Partner of Manhattan Pacific Partners
Ashish Arora
Rex D. Adams Professor of Business Administration
Ashish Arora is the Rex D. Adams Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University in 1992, and was on the faculty at the Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University, where he held the H. John Heinz Professorship, till 2009.
His research focuses on the economics of technology and technical change. Arora's research has included the study of technology intensive industries such as software, biotechnology and chemicals, the economics of information security, and the role of patents and licensing in promoting technology startups. He has studied the rise of the software industry and the pharmaceutical industry in emerging economies. His current research focuses on the management of intellectual property and licensing in corporations, and innovation based entrepreneurship.
He serves as co-editor, Research Policy, and Associate Editor for Management Science and is on the editorial board of Strategic Management Journal, Industrial and Corporate Change, Information Economics and Policy, and Journal of Evolutionary Economics. In the past, he has served on advisory panels to the Secretary of Commerce, the National Academy of Sciences, and The Association for Computing Machinery.
He has taught a variety of courses, including Economics of Information Security and Risk Management. He currently teaches Entrepreneurial Strategy for Innovation Based Ventures, and Emerging Markets Strategy.
Email address: Ashish.Arora@duke.edu
Office phone: 919-660-7746
Jeffrey Barnes, MS, MBA
General Partner, Bioventures Fund IV
Jeffrey Barnes joined BVI as an Investment Advisor in 2010 and will become a Managing Director and General Partner at the closing of Fund IV. He brings over 30 years of start-up, operating and investment experience in the life sciences and healthcare sectors as well as a lengthy history of collaborating with BVI as a co-investor on a variety of investments, including Claros Diagnostics, Applied Spine Technologies, and HydroCision.
Jeff spent 10 years as a Managing Partner at Oxford Bioscience Partners, a venture fund, responsible for building and leading the firm’s investment strategy in medical devices and diagnostic instrumentation, as well as originating and overseeing investments in 18 portfolio companies. He was instrumental in the successful acquisition of seven medical device companies by strategic acquirers, including Edwards Lifesicences, Medtronic, ThermoFisher, Boston Scientific and Olympus Corp. Prior to venture capital, Jeff spent eight years in investment banking within the healthcare groups of Needham & Co. and Robertson, Stephens & Co.
He has over 12 years of operating experience in the medical products field, including eight years in management positions in research and development, manufacturing, and marketing within the Medical Products Group of Hewlett-Packard Corp. He has served on the Board of Directors of more than 20 public and private healthcare technology companies, and has been a co-founder of numerous medical device start-ups, including Mitralign, Circulite, Accelerated Technologies, Percutaneous Valve Technologies, Applied Spine Technologies, and Claros Diagnostics.
Jeff is a member of the Clinical Cardiology Council of the American Heart Association, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. He is also on the Board of Advisors at the Duke University Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In addition, he holds patents in diagnostic imaging technology and physiological signal processing.
He is a Trustee of Dedham Country Day School; is on the Board of Overseers of the MSPCA/Angell Animal Hospital; is a Corporation Member of Partners Healthcare; and is an Overseer of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital where he serves as a Trustee of its Charitable Foundation.
Jeff holds a B.S. degree in Physiology and Biophysics and an M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, and an M.S. degree in Management from Stanford University.
Danny Briere
CEO TeleChoice, Inc.
Startup Connecticut
Danny Briere has a global, strategic background in business having been involved in management consulting, corporate management, business development, and worldwide alliances for more than 25 years in the technology, software, and aerospace/airline industries. His consultancy, TeleChoice, was a well-respected and well-known worldwide Internet and network management consultancy in the 1990s/early 2000s, growing to nearly 100 consultants worldwide. In his strategic role, he advised CEOs of startups, boards and senior management of major corporations like Lucent and Sprint, and even the leadership of entire countries like Ukraine, Jordan, and others – on how to launch and exploit broadband and wireless networks, services, and applications. This ranged from corporate strategy for specific products and firms to country-level economic impact studies and financial analysis related to broadband deployment. Since the mid-1990s to date, he has been involved with the launch and early business operations of more than 200 startups, working closely with venture capitalists, clients, and industry alliances to optimize startup success and exit in the market. Over the past 25 years, he has started and managed companies on his own and with partners, ranging from three Caribbean airlines to social media monitoring services to education-focused social network and communications products to "Big Data" technologies. Danny has worked with government officials, standards bodies, associations, trade groups, vendor alliances, and other groupings of diverse personalities to achieve business goals. He has been sought out for technical and business design, public policy advice, boardroom guidance, and industry leadership. Danny has started industry alliances from scratch, worked with countries’ most senior political and royal leadership, served as on-air commentator for CNN, written more than a dozen books and a thousand articles, spoken at dozens of conferences including keynotes, testified as an expert witness in corporate cases, and patented his own inventions. Danny has lived and worked globally in more than three dozen countries, including long range stints in Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Most recently, Danny has been leading job growth and startup initiatives as the head of Startup Connecticut, advising universities and communities on entrepreneurship and innovation programming, counseling many student teams on their startups, working with a number of non-profits including the Connecticut Invention Convention -- which annual trains nearly 10,000 kids to be inventors, and helping advise and launch new companies in the mobile, social networking, and education spaces -- consulting on technologies and business aspects of the startups. Danny has a Masters in Business Administration and undergraduate degrees in Public Policy and Economics from Duke University. Danny lives with his wife, Dr. Holly Fitch, a professor and neurobiology researcher at the University of Connecticut, and their four children, two sets of twins, in Mansfield Center, CT. The eldest twins attend Duke, in Engineering and Trinity.
David C. Carroll
CEO, Oak Circle Capital, LLC
Mr. Carroll has over 20 years of experience in a wide range of trading, structuring and management roles within the credit markets, spanning both cash and derivative products and varying market conditions. Mr. Carroll is presently CEO of Oak Circle Capital, a management company owned by its employees and XL Group Plc (NYSE XL). Oak Circle is the investment advisor to the mortgage REIT Five Oaks Investment Corp. Previously, Mr. Carroll formed a specialized investment management company that he co-founded in 1999 (which was part of Stanfield Capital Partners from 2001-2007) to focus upon the establishment and management of structured finance operating companies. The primary operating company during this period grew to become one of the largest independent structured investment vehicles in the market with over $14 billion in assets, and was active in purchasing a wide range of asset types including bank, finance, insurance and structured or secured credit within the consumer, commercial and corporate sectors. Mr. Carroll spent 13 years at Morgan Stanley & Co. in a variety of management and trading roles. Initially, Mr. Carroll traded corporate and bank credit risk. In 1991, Mr. Carroll became a founding member of the Derivative Products Group where he established and managed the firm’s structured products trading desk. In 1996, Mr. Carroll established a joint venture between the Derivative Products Group and Mortgage Securities Group, which focused on ABS/MBS and derivatives trading. His prior affiliations and responsibilities have given him very broad experience in the structuring, trading and hedging of a wide range of credit market products whether expressed in cash, derivative or hybrid formats. Mr. Carroll graduated with an M.B.A. from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Jefferson Clark
Managing General Partner, The Aurora Funds
Jeff Clark co-founded The Aurora Funds, Inc. in 1994 and is currently Managing General Partner responsible for life science investments in Aurora’s five existing funds, which encompass in excess of $234 million. Jeff currently serves on the boards of several of Aurora’s life science portfolio companies, including Aldagen, Argos Therapeutics, Hyperbranch Medical Technology, Metabolon, Regado Biosciences and Xsira Pharmaceutical, assisting in the strategic direction of each. Prior to forming Aurora, Jeff worked in development and external affairs for Duke University. Jeff has extensive strategic planning and operational experience and has overseen more than twenty life science investments since 1995. Jeff is a former Chairman of the Board of North Carolina’s Council for Entrepreneurial Development and is on the board of overseers of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. Jeff holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Wesley M. Cohen
Faculty Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Wesley M. Cohen (Ph.D., Economics, Yale University, 1981) is Professor of Economics and Management and the Frederick C. Joerg Distinguished Professor of Business Administration in the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. He also holds secondary appointments in Duke’s Department of Economics and School of Law, is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and serves as the Faculty Director of the Fuqua School’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
With a research focus on the economics of technological change and R&D, Professor Cohen has examined the determinants of innovative activity and performance, considering the roles of firm size, market structure, firm learning, knowledge flows, university research and the means that firms use to protect their intellectual property, with a particular focus on patents. Most recently, he has been conducting research on the “division of innovative labor,” where he considers the ties across firms, and between firms other institutions that importantly influence innovative performance.
He has published widely in scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, the Economic Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Management Science, the Review of Economics and Statistics and Science, and has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Kauffman Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Ford Foundation, among others. He served for five years as a Main Editor for Research Policy and served on the National Academies’ Committee on Intellectual Property Rights in the Knowledge-Based Economy, the National Academies' Panel on Research and Development Statistics at the National Science Foundation, and, more recently, the National Academies’ Committee on the Management of University Intellectual Property. He has taught courses on the economics of technological change, industrial organization economics, policy analysis, organizational behavior, corporate strategy, entrepreneurship, technology strategy and the management of intellectual capital.
E-mail address: wcohen@duke.edu
Office phone: 919-660-4072
Ann Elliott
Solertis
Ann Elliott brings over 25 years of logistics, marketing and general management experience to client engagements. Prior to founding Solertis, she managed third-party warehouses for Chep USA, the largest pallet and container pool in North America. As an Operations Manager with Exel Logistics, she managed the Kellogg Company's largest distribution center. At the Ingram Book Company, Ann helped develop and implement a warehouse management system for seven distribution centers, each with radio frequency capabilities and a real-time inventory status of more than 350,000 SKU's. Ann also worked in the brand management and product development areas of Hallmark Cards. This marketing experience enables her to assess how sales, marketing and customer service functions relate to various logistics matters.
Ann's knowledge and insight produce impressive results for her clients. For example, a $3.5 billion distribution company was able to reduce case costs by 52%, decrease order fulfillment errors by 53% and increase productivity by 30% due to the efforts and execution of Ann and her team.
Ann is actively involved in all consulting projects and is often viewed by clients as an extension of their team, providing both experienced leadership and specific subject matter expertise. In a recent engagement, Ann served as Interim Vice-President of Operations for a high-growth company. Packaging rates increased 30% as a direct result of improvements in processes and people.
Additionally, Ann also shares her expertise through speaking and training. She has addressed audiences at the Warehousing Education and Research Council, the Supply Chain Expo and the National Confectioners Logistics Council. Ann is a regular presenter at the Executive in Residence program at Georgia Southern University.
In 2008, Ann was named “Logistics Professional of the Year” by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Ann is also a past President of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals - Atlanta Roundtable, a former Roundtable Advisor, former Chair of the CSCMP Roundtable IT Committee and served as Finance Chair for the CSCMP Annual Conference. Ann received the President’s Award for Distinguished Service from the CSCMP Atlanta Roundtable. She was also named one of DC Velocity’s Rainmakers.
Ann graduated cum laude from Duke University and was elected to the Duke Alumni Association Board of Directors in 2004 and to the Executive Committee in 2007. She is a past President of Duke in Atlanta and a recipient of the prestigious Charles A. Dukes Award, the University’s highest honor for volunteer service.
Josh Felser
Co-Founding General Partner of Freestyle Capital
Mr. Felser is a serial entrepreneur and early stage investor. He is the co-founding General Partner of Freestyle Capital, an early stage venture fund. He is also a co-founder and board member of The Start Project, a bay area startup incubator. Mr. Felser was the CEO and co-founder of Crackle (formerly Grouper), an Internet video community, acquired by Sony for $65 million in 2006. Until February of 2001 he was GM of AOL Time Warner's music brands' Spinner, Winamp and Shoutcast. In October 1997 he became co-founder and President of Spinner.com, a leading Internet music destination until its 1999 purchase by America Online for $320 million. From 1994 to 1996 he was Head of business and product development in Qwest/U.S. West's Multimedia Group. From 1990 to 1994 he was an executive with News Corp., working with Fox Inc. in Los Angeles and BSkyB in London. Mr. Felser obtained a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University in 1986, an M.B.A. in Marketing from Duke's FUQUA School of Business in 1990 and is currently on the Board of Fuqua’s Center for Entrepreneurship.
Jon Fjeld
Professor of the Practice of Strategy
Executive Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
John Fjeld has been teaching entrepreneurship and leading the entrepreneurship efforts at Fuqua since 2005.
He has spent over twenty years in marketing, engineering and general management in start-ups and public companies, as well as over ten years in academia.
From December, 2000, until July, 2004, he served as vice president of engineering for Align Technology in Santa Clara, CA. Between 1995 and 2000, he served as CEO of two RTP venture backed firms: Geomagic, a 3D software company and NetEdge Systems, a data networking equipment company. Prior to that, Fjeld spent 13 years at IBM, where he served in a number of management and executive positions within the networking and software business units. He began his professional career as an assistant professor in the philosophy department at Duke University.
Fjeld holds a Ph.D. and MA in philosophy from the University of Toronto, an MBA from Duke University, an MS in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a BA in mathematics and philosophy from Bishop's University.
Don Haile
Former Chief Information Officer, Fidelity Investments
Don Haile has spent 40+ years in the Information Technology field, with two companies, IBM and Fidelity Investments. He is currently retired and consulting with several companies.
From 1964 until 1998, Don was employed by IBM at various US and European locations. He was involved in development of many of IBM’s hardware and software products and managed several key IBM development laboratories, in the US, UK, Italy and France.
Mr. Haile joined Fidelity in 1998 as executive vice president responsible for the worldwide development of infrastructure and application products that support the processing needs of Fidelity. He moved to the position of CIO in January, 1999 and in that position reported to Fidelity’s Chairman, Edward C. Johnson until October, 2005.
From October, 2005 to the end of 2007, Mr. Haile was the site General Manager for Fidelity’s operations in NC. During that period, Fidelity grew from 1000 NC employees to nearly 3000 people.
Haile received a BA degree in mathematics from St. Vincent College in 1963 and a BS degree in electrical engineering from Penn State in 1964. He is currently serving as a Trustee on the Board of Directors for St. Vincent College, and is an advisor to the Information Science and Technology College at Penn State. He is also a board member of the NC MicroElectronics Center (NCMC).
Don is married to Mary Higgins and they have three adult children, Matthew, Kathryn, and Andrew. They have seven grandchildren.
Peter Heffring
President, Alera Financial
Alera Financial was founded in 1996 as Southeastern Residential Mortgage. The company came under new ownership in 2003 with Peter Heffring as President and a new name, Southeastern Lending.
In 2006, the company name was changed to Alera Financial with Peter Heffring still at the helm to reflect the increased expansion of his mortgage business across the United States. Today, the company operates as a correspondent mortgage lender in multiple states and closes over $300 million in loans per year. Prior to his mortgage lending experience, Peter spent many years in the software industry.
As founder, driving force, and Chief Executive Officer of Ceres – and then as President of Teradata CRM Division, Peter Heffring lead his CRM solution to remarkable revenue growth and industry acclaim. Founded in 1996, Heffring’s young organization gained strong momentum and attention by winning CRM contracts from top-tier companies including Wal-Mart, Office Depot, JCPenney, Lowe’s, Neiman Marcus, National Bank of Australia, Eddie Bauer, and Wells Fargo.
Founded in 1996, Ceres Integrated Solutions quickly became a leading provider of Intelligent Operational Software and analytical services. In 1998, Ceres became an NCR Teradata strategic partner, and NCR bought Ceres for $90M in April 2000. Dedicated to meeting the growing demand for high-performance target marketing and CRM software, Heffring and his team helped Teradata further expand and enrich its analytical solutions across all industries worldwide.
Prior to founding Ceres, Heffring rose through the IBM organization, taking on a series of leadership roles in marketing, manufacturing, corporate finance, forecasting and international management – crossing many professional disciplines and residing in the U.S. and Europe. In 14 years with IBM, his range of responsibilities spanned many products, from PCs to mainframes.
Born in Canada, Heffring graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS degree in Engineering. He is an auto-racing enthusiast, plays hockey, and coaches youth basketball. Heffring currently serves on the North Carolina Museum of History Board, serves on the advisory board at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business Entrepreneur Center, and serves on the Pastoral Council for St Francis. Heffring resides with his wife and two children in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Jeffrey M. Hurst
General Partner and Co-Founder, Commonwealth Capital Ventures
Jeffrey M. Hurst is a general partner and a co-founder of Commonwealth Capital Ventures. Jeff has more than 25 years of venture capital and private equity experience. Before co-founding Commonwealth in 1995, Jeff was a senior vice president with GE Capital’s Corporate Finance Group. Jeff previously served as a managing partner of Cox Partners, a private equity firm in Dallas, after starting his career with Bankers Trust Company in New York City. Jeff earned a BA in History and Economics from Duke University and an MBA from Tulane University. Jeff is a past member of the Trinity College Board of Visitors of Duke University and a Trustee of The New England Aquarium. Mr. Hurst resides outside of Boston.
T. Reid Lewis
President & Co-Founder of GroupLogic
As GroupLogic's President & Co-Founder, Reid Lewis helps drive the strategic direction and growth of the company's product lines, and works to ensure the success of customers who use mobilEcho, ExtremeZ-IP and Mass Transit. Reid represents GroupLogic at industry conferences and in online communities related to GroupLogic's products, customers' successes and related technologies.
As Co-Founder and Co-Chair of The Duke Global Entrepreneurship Network (DukeGEN), Reid both oversees and contributes to the implementation of DukeGEN's many programs, each designed to help entrepreneurially minded students and alumni achieve their goals.
Reid serves on the Advisory Board of The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke's Fuqua School of Business.
Reid has a B.S. in computer science and a minor in economics from Duke University.
Bill Luby
Seaport Capital – Managing Partner
Bill Luby has been investing in private equity for 20 years. Currently, he is the Managing Partner of Seaport Capital, a private equity firm which he co-founded in 1996. Seaport Capital specializes in investing in communications, media and information services companies,. Prior to this, Mr. Luby was a Managing Director at Chase Capital, the equity-investing arm of The Chase Manhattan Bank, and was also a Managing Director in Chase's Merchant Banking Group, where he financed leveraged buyouts. He is currently a Director of Equinix ((NASDAQ:EQIX), Chairman of the Board of the Derby County Football Club, and is a Board member of numerous private companies, including Logicworks, Mandalay Baseball, FTJ Fundchoice, Bay Towers and Story Worldwide.. Mr. Luby holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a BA in economics from Trinity College. He is married and has 4 children.
Catherine E. Massey
Co-Founder, LawDocsXpress
Catherine Massey is the Co-Founder and Chairman of LawDocsXpress (LDX), the largest domestic-based outsourcing services for legal support services. LDX clients include some of the country's largest law firms, corporate legal departments and government entities. The firm has been in existence since 2002 and continues to experience dramatic, annual year-over-year revenue growth.
Prior to co-founding LDX, Catherine owned and managed Legal Resources, Inc. (LRI) for nearly sixteen years. LRI was a traditional legal staffing agency providing personnel to law firms and corporate legal departments in four states. Based on her knowledge of the legal community and the challenges faced by law firms to remain competitive, Catherine developed the concept for LDX to address industry concerns for productivity enhancement and a growing shortage of experienced legal support personnel. This business model, which allows LDX to deliver high quality, on-demand services at cost-effective prices, is unique in the industry has enabled LDX to become the preeminent service provider in its field.
Catherine is a recognized expert in workflow management and staffing in the legal industry. She has authored several articles and spoken on these issues both domestically and internationally. Currently she serves as a consultant to several law firms engaged in evaluating organizational structure and staffing
.Before acquiring LRI, Catherine held various positions in Southern California Gas Company including: Manager of Personnel Services; Customer Services Manager for an operating division; and Manager of Community and Local Government Affairs. She also spent several years in Washington, D.C. with the National League of Cities/U.S. Conference of Mayors as a policy analyst and legislative coordinator and in Atlanta as a staff member to the State Planning and Community Affairs Committee of the Georgia House of Representatives.
Catherine holds a B.A. from Duke University and a M.S. in Business and Public Administration from Georgia State University. She is a member of Women in Technology International (WITI), the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Catherine serves on the Board of Advisors to the Atlanta Chamber Players and informally advises a number of arts organizations on fund raising and management. She was a member of the organizing task force for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and currently serves on the CEI Advisory Board.
Matthew Megaro
President & CEO of Quill Medical, Inc.
Matt has extensive experience in starting and developing biotechnology and medical devices ventures. Most recently, he was President and CEO of Quill Medical, Inc., a medical device company that he co-founded in 2000 in Research Triangle Park, NC. The Company achieved profitability in 2006 following the successful commercialization of a series of minimally invasive cosmetic surgery devices. Quill was sold to Angiotech Pharmaceuticals in 2006. Prior to this, he was President of Trimeris, Inc., a Durham, NC biotechnology company focused on treatments of infectious disease. At Trimeris, he led the Company’s business development and financing initiatives including private and public stock offerings and an IPO in 1997. Prior to Trimeris, he was Chief Financial Officer of Athena Neurosciences which developed treatments for neurological disorders. At Athena, he was responsible for various product licensing and acquisition programs and for financing initiatives including Athena’s IPO in 1991. He was also a co-founder of Transprobe, Inc. (later named Signal Pharmaceuticals), a transcription factor inhibition company located in San Diego, CA that was sold to Celgene, Corp. in 2001. Matt is an inventor on numerous issued and pending U.S. and foreign medical device patents. He serves as an advisor and board member of several life science companies. He received his B.S. in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley.
Shep Moyle
CEO of Shindigz
Shep is Owner, CEO and Chairman of Shindigz, a leading internet retailer and manufacturer of party supplies, decorations, favors and personalized products Shindigz sells over 36,000 items nationally and in 55 countries overseas through a variety of on-line and catalog brands.
He currently serves as a Vice-President of the Duke Alumni Association Board of Directors, the Duke Athletic Leadership Council, Chairs the Duke Network Advisory Board and serves on the AAAC. He is also a past International Chairman of the Young President’s Organization, past Chairman of the Parkview Health System and a Trustee of the Canterbury School.
Shep graduated from Duke Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude. When a student, he was a member of BOG living group, student body president and member of the Chronicle staff. He received his MBA with honors from Harvard in 1986 and worked as a Brand Manager at Frito-Lay in Plano, Texas.
Mitch Mumma
General Partner, Intersouth Partners
Mitch is primarily responsible for Intersouth's information technology portfolio. He joined Intersouth in 1989 at the inception of Fund II. Mitch has full-cycle venture investment experience and has held management positions with various companies throughout his career, including three start-up companies, all of which subsequently went public.
Mitch is known for board and syndicate leadership as well as tireless focus on portfolio company success. He has provided early financing and venture leadership for numerous successful companies. He currently serves on the boards of five portfolio companies. He also served as CEO of an Intersouth portfolio company.
Prior to joining Intersouth, Mitch worked in finance and operations for a high growth computer hardware and software company. Previously, he worked as a manager in the high growth business practice at Touche Ross & Co. (now Deloitte & Touche).
Mitch is a leader in the entrepreneurial community and a sought-after speaker. He is an adjunct professor at the UNC Kenan-Flagler School of Business and has long held leadership roles in the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) and North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA). He also has served as a mentor to the Kauffman Fellows Program. He earned a degree in Management Science from Duke University.
Michael D. Olander
President, Apple Gold Group
Michael D. Olander is the president and owner of the Apple Gold Group, which he founded in 1979 after graduating from law school Cum Laude at the University of Buffalo. The Apple Gold Group currently owns and operates a total of 80 restaurants in four states. Over the years the Apple Gold Group has also divested itself of another thirty restaurants in two states.
Apple Gold has received numerous awards and recognitions in the past few years. It received the National Restaurant Association “Good Neighbor” award for North Carolina in 2000. In 2006, it ranked #28 on Restaurant Monitor’s List of 200 largest restaurant franchise operators and ranked #9 on the listing of top fifty privately held companies based in the Raleigh/Durham area. Since 2003, Apple Gold has been a member of the “Fast Fifty.”
Throughout his career, Olander has been a franchisee for a wide variety of restaurants including, Burger King, Applebee’s, Rio Bravo, and Johnny Carinos. He also developed and opened Syzygy, an upscale casual dining restaurant in 1997.
In 1999, he was recognized as the North Carolina Restaurant Association “Restaurateur of the Year” and in the following year received the North Carolina Restaurant Association “Distinguished Service” award.
Michael has been on the NCRA Board of Directors and the National Restaurant Association Board of Directors. He was the past chair of the Burger King Regional Franchise Association and a previous member of Applebee’s Franchisee Business Council.
Michael is very involved in the community and had been a part of the Triangle Wine Experience Board of Directors, the Wake Education Board of Directors, the Communities in Schools of Wake County Board of Directors, and the Triangle Leadership Academy.
Michael currently lives in Raleigh with his wife and two young sons. He also has an older son who is displaying entrepreneurial qualities, having started his own chain of health clubs.
Manju Puri
J.B. Fuqua Professor of Finance
Manju Puri is the J. B. Fuqua Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. She was earlier Associate Professor of Finance at Stanford Business School, which she joined after earning her Ph.D in finance at New York University. Professor Puri has been an executive and consultant in the banking industry, and is a leading scholar in banking and venture capital. Her research interests are in the area of empirical corporate finance and financial intermediation, with focus on commercial banks, investment banks, venture capital and entrepreneurship.
Professor Puri has published widely in the leading finance journals including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Financial Studies. Her research has won multiple awards including two Western Finance Association best paper awards, and two Fama-DFA awards in Journal of Financial Economics. Professor Puri is a co-editor of the Journal of Financial Intermediation, and serves as associate editor of several journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Financial Research and Journal of Financial Services Research. She is a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her work has been supported by the FDIC, National Science Foundation, and Sloan Foundation Fellowship.
Professor Puri teaches an elective she created on “Raising Capital” for the MBA students at Fuqua. She also teaches a Ph.D class on Empirical Corporate Finance and has taught Advanced Corporate Finance, and Venture Capital Financing at Fuqua and Stanford Business School. She has mentored a number of Ph.D students who have been placed at the leading schools including Columbia, Northwestern, MIT and Yale University.
Howie Rhee
Managing Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University
Howie Rhee is the Managing Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. In his role, he develops and maintains the relationship between the center and the entrepreneurial community both locally and globally.
Prior to coming to Fuqua, Howie developed extensive entrepreneurial experience in a variety of industries including software, media, energy and biotechnology, and executive search. For several years, he has worked on technology startups. He helped over a hundred entrepreneurs develop and grow their companies, while at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation. Previously, he co-founded Internet Games Corporation, a leading games provider, that was acquired by Go2Net in the late 90s. Howard also worked in marketing and strategy for TechTrader, a software company based in Washington D.C, and earlier in his career, he worked at MicroStrategy in product development. Howard is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Howie was the president of the MIT Club of RTP (2004-2007), and was a board member of Leadership Triangle, a non-profit created to build leadership capacity to foster regional awareness and cooperation in the Triangle. He served on the Board of Directors for the Global MIT Enterprise Forum which has 24 chapters around the world.
David Robinson
Research Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
William and Sue Gross Distinguished Research Scholar and Professor of Business Administration
Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research
David is the William and Sue Gross Distinguished Research Scholar, and Professor of Business Administration. He also is a Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is the Research Director in the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he teaches Entrepreneurial Finance in the daytime MBA program. In 2007, he was awarded the Daimler-Chrysler Award for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching, Fuqua’s highest teaching honor. He has published numerous research articles in leading academic journals in finance and economics, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Law and Economics.
Professor Robinson earned an MBA and PhD from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor of Arts with highest honors in economics from the University of North Carolina. Prior to joining the faculty of Duke University, he was an Assistant Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University.
Terry Tucker
Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel to Georgia Family Council
Mr. Tucker currently serves as Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel to Georgia Family Council. In this role, he manages all operational, legal and financial aspects of the state-based think-tank as well as leads the national expansion efforts. He has previously served as a consultant to senior management of both large national and international organizations as well as small start-up companies for over 16 years. His career includes stints with Coopers-Lybrand (Now Price Waterhouse Coopers), Ernst & Young and the international law firm of Troutman Sanders. Mr Tucker also has served as Managing Director of NexGen, a media production firm, and as Executive Director with The Sullivan Center, an organization focused poverty prevention and self-sufficiency.
Terry is a member of both the American and Georgia Bar Associations and is admitted to practice law in all Georgia Courts. He has authored several articles regarding trademark and copyright law. Mr. Tucker also served as an Ad-Hoc professor at Duke University’s School of Law. He has served on several advisory boards including those of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, The American Association of Gifted Children and the United Way Young Professionals.
Terry earned his B.A. degree with honors from Troy University and his M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He later earned a J.D. degree from Duke University’s School of Law.
Derek Wilson
Co-Founding Partner of Manhattan Pacific Partners
Mr. Wilson has 25 years of extensive entrepreneurial and managerial experience and has helped to successfully build several businesses. Mr. Wilson is a Co-Founding Partner of Manhattan Pacific Partners (MPP), an investment business comprised of a hedge fund, merchant bank and a pledge fund.
Prior to MPP, Mr. Wilson co-founded and was Chairman of NeoSpire, Inc., a technology company in the web hosting industry. Mr. Wilson and his partner started the company from scratch, raised angel funding, built data centers, and lead all divisions within company. Mr. Wilson recently sold the company to a strategic buyer giving his angel investors an unlevered 6X return and a 16% IRR over twelve years. Mr. Wilson also was a Principal and President of Suntex Ventures, a fund that partnered with Harrison Street Partners and raised $1 billion in buying powers to invest in, operate, and own mixed-use waterfront properties including marinas, office, retail, hotel, and other select assets. In the past, Mr. Wilson worked in the Strategic Planning Department of the Walt Disney Company where he specialized in merger and acquisition analysis in the media and entertainment industry. Prior to the Walt Disney Company, Mr. Wilson was a Partner and Analyst with Wings Partners on the $4 billion LBO of Northwest Airlines.
Mr. Wilson has an AB in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business. He is a graduate of the Directors’ Consortium from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is also an NASAA Registered Investment Advisor.
Mr. Wilson serves on many non-profit Boards. He is member and past Chairman of the North Texas Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He is a founding Board member of the Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Fuqua School of Business. He is a Trustee of the Dallas Museum of Art, serves on the Board of the Nasher Museum at Duke University and serves on the International Council of the Tate Modern in London.