Allyson Eman has more than 30 years of marketing, communications, sales leadership, and business development experience. In 2007, Allyson took on the role of Executive Director for the newly created Venture Atlanta annual conference. Allyson has worked with key business leaders across the country and founding organizations Metro Atlanta Chamber, Atlanta CEO Council, and Technology Association of Georgia to build Venture Atlanta.

In 2020, Eman was promoted to CEO. The conference is now in its fifteenth year and has become the largest venture capital conference in the Southeast with over 1,200 attendees including venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and senior business executives. Venture Atlanta’s primary mission is to connect companies with capital and it has helped emerging technology companies raise over $6.5B to facilitate growth.

Prior to joining Venture Atlanta, Allyson was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for SouthStar Funding, a wholesale mortgage lender headquartered in Atlanta. During her nine-year tenure with the firm, she helped the company grow from eight employees to 800 with 30 nationwide offices. SouthStar Funding grew to be one of the most reputable, respected, and trusted wholesale mortgage lenders in the country under Allyson’s leadership. Prior to joining SouthStar, Allyson worked for SouthTrust Bank as a branch marketing manager overseeing the marketing platform for 100 branches across Georgia.

Allyson received a BS from the University of Florida and resides in Marietta with her husband and two children.

Mark is a General Partner and the Chief Operating Officer at Panoramic Ventures overseeing fundraising, investor relations, marketing/branding, talent acquisition, and portfolio acceleration. Before joining BIP Capital in 2015, Mark worked for 4th Strand, a product performance consulting firm that was acquired by Intertek in 2012.

He has held leadership roles covering project management, product development, HR/recruiting, operations, and sales. Previously, Mark worked at Medarex, a biotech startup developing therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases and in the oral care division of Church & Dwight, a consumer products company. Mark also serves on the board for AchieveIt and VoApps and is an avid father, cyclist, runner, and skier, both downhill and water.

Mark has an MBA in General Management and Entrepreneurship from The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School and a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University. Additionally, he was a member of the US National Rowing Team from 2001-2008.

Jason is a General Partner and Co-Founder of Bull City Venture Partners. Prior to co-founding BCVP, Jason co-founded Southern Capitol Ventures. Previously, he was at Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) in their finance group through the successful IPO in 1999. Before joining Red Hat, Jason was at Harrison Hurley and Company, an investment banking and business-consulting firm headquartered in Providence, RI.

Jason currently serves on the board at Spiffy and is a board observer at Circonus, Levitate, ServiceTrade and ReverbNation. Past Board or Observer seats include ChannelAdvisor (NYSE:IPO), Contactually (acquired by Compass), DoublePositive (acquired by OSG), Etix (management-led buyout), Medfusion (acquired by NextGen Healthcare), Synthematix (acquired by Symmx Technologies) and WeddingWire (acquired by Permira).

He is also on the Investment Advisory Board for the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) consistently the most active seed investor in Virginia.

Jason received his BS in Finance from Bentley College. He lives in Raleigh, NC with his wife, son and two daughters.

Jackie is a partner with Chicago Ventures.

Prior to joining Chicago Ventures, Jackie was a principal at Hyde Park Venture Partners, working with portfolio companies such as RoadSync, Podchaser, Fixer, FactoryFix, and PartySlate. Before that, she worked at Silver Spring Networks (now Itron), an IoT company for critical infrastructure, driving development and pilot projects for emerging smart city technology. She began her career as a consultant at Accenture in the Business & Technology practice, focused on ERP (enterprise resource planning) software and SaaS enablement projects.

She is also a member of the Board of Directors for Starting Block Madison and Chicago:Blend and a Venture Partner at Republic.

Jackie holds a B.S. with honors in General Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Mr. Estevez is a Venture Partner with Accel Partners, a global leader in venture capital with past investments in top companies such as Atlassian, Dropbox, Facebook, Jet.com, Lynda.com, Qualtrics, Slack, Squarespace and Spotify. As Venture Partner, Mr. Estevez helps existing portfolio companies based outside of Silicon Valley with their growth opportunities and scale challenges. Mr. Estevez is also a personal investor in leading U.S. software companies based outside of Silicon Valley, including BetterCloud, FullStory, Pindrop and UIPath. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board for Venture Atlanta, one of the top venture tech conferences in the country.

Prior to Accel, Mr. Estevez worked in San Francisco as CFO of Atlassian (Nasdaq: TEAM), a global leader in team collaboration software. During these three years, Mr. Estevez helped triple bookings to a $300 million runrate, and he helped grow shareholder value from $400 million to $3.3 billion via minority investment with T. Rowe Price.

Prior to Atlassian, Mr. Estevez served as CFO of Silicon Valley-based BigFix from 2007 to 2010. During this time, Mr. Estevez helped triple revenues for the company, resulting in the successful sale of BigFix to IBM (NYSE: IBM) in what became the largest private software M&A transaction of 2010. This event also represented a 5x increase in shareholder value during his three year tenure.

Before BigFix, Mr. Estevez led South Carolina-based Datastream (Nasdaq: DSTM) as a public company officer for 9 years, transitioning from CFO to President during this tenure. Datastream sold to Infor at a valuation nearly 3x its IPO price.

Mr. Estevez began his career in the investment banking group of Raymond James in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. At Raymond James, Mr. Estevez helped East Coast technology companies like Datastream manage through their respective IPO and M&A processes.

Mr. Estevez earned an MBA with distinction from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree with honors from Harvard College where he lettered all four years in soccer.

Mr. Estevez relocated in October 2014 from the Bay Area to Greenville, South Carolina, his wife’s hometown and his new springboard for investment and advisory opportunities outside of Silicon Valley.

Elizabeth Stephens joined NMP as a Vice President in January 2020. She supports the firm’s investments in information technology and healthcare companies. Elizabeth currently serves as a board observer for Ekos and Whitebox.

Prior to joining NMP, Elizabeth served as a Consultant and Case Team Leader at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, primarily working on business transformations within the technology and telecommunications industries. Elizabeth also previously worked as an Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Transfer Pricing group, primarily serving clients in the healthcare industry.

Elizabeth received a BS in Engineering and Economics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the Darden School of Management at the University of Virginia.

Rich is a Partner at Knoll Ventures, an Atlanta-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in pre-Series A technology businesses focused on B2B markets. He has been active in the southeastern technology ecosystem for more than 10 years and is currently involved with investments in Belongly, Brightwell, ConverseNow, Daupler, Fetch Trucks, Freede, Lendflow, Repvue, and VoApps, amongst others. In addition, Rich serves in leadership and mentorship positions with multiple local technology organizations.

Barry Givens is a techie, an entrepreneur, and a lover of all things helping to bring racial parity to the economics, education, and workforce of the tech industry. Based in Atlanta, he currently serves as Managing Director for the Cox Social Impact Accelerator powered by Techstars and also as Managing Partner of Collab Capital where he supports and funds promising Black founded startups.

Barry is a graduate of GA Tech and founded a cutting edge hardware technology company named Monsieur in 2012. At Monsieur, he and his team developed a patented mixing technology that evolved the way the hospitality industry markets, sells, and dispenses mixed adult beverages (cocktails). Barry and his team successfully raised nearly $5MM in seed and Series A funding and grew the company to a successful exit in 2017.

Barry has been featured in notable publications such as CNN, CNN Money, Wired, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine, Huffington Post, Fast Company and many more.

As chief economic development officer at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, David leads the team focused on the retention, recruitment, and expansion of existing and start-up companies within key clusters, e.g., Mobility, IoT, Cybersecurity, Fin Tech, Digital Media, Supply Chain, Bioscience, and Health IT.

Before joining the Chamber, Hartnett served as the president and CEO of Maco Pharma® (formerly United Pharma) a privately held US medical device/pharmaceutical company based in Duluth, Georgia, headquartered in Lille France. Before Maco Pharma, Hartnett was president and CEO of SteriFx® Corporation, a specialty chemical start-up, contracted by U.S. Department of Defense (DARPA). Prior to SteriFx, he was the executive vice president of the North American headquarters of Given Imaging, Inc. an Israeli start-up with corporate headquarters in Yokneam, Israel. Under his leadership, the company commercialized the “PillCam” video capsule, a disposable capsule that captures video after it is ingested by the patient. Hartnett helped to raise close to $30 million in a private placement for corporate infrastructure development and product commercialization before the company going public in 2001 (GIVN-NASDAQ). Hartnett served as vice president of marketing at ERBE Electro-surgery, the largest manufacturer of electrosurgical systems in the world, where he was responsible for commercial marketing throughout North America.

He has also served in a variety of other senior sales and marketing roles for the following companies: Karl Storz Lithotripsy, Genzyme (formerly Deknatel), STERIS (formerly AMSCO) and the XEROX Corporation.

He holds a B.A. in Communication from San Diego State University with a master’s equivalent in marketing through post-graduate studies.

He currently serves on the following boards:

-Chairman, of the Board, Atlanta Science Festival™
-Board of Trustees, Georgia Global Health Alliance
-Vice Chairman, Innovation Crescent Regional Partnership
-President Emeritus, Southeastern Medical Device Association
-Director/Co-Founder, Venture Atlanta Coalition
-Director, Georgia Bio statewide trade association
-Director/Co-Founder, Health IT Leadership Summit
-Director/Co-Founder, Institute for Healthcare Information Technology
-Quick Start, statewide advanced training program, Board of Advisor
-President’s Community Board (CAB), Kennesaw State University

Hartnett is married with four sons, was raised on Coronado Island, California and is an active member of the Atlanta business community.

Vanessa Larco joined NEA as a Partner in 2016 and focuses on Enterprise SaaS and Consumer Services investing. She is passionate about technology, services and products that enable people to be more productive and efficient at work and at home. Vanessa has led investments in EvidentID, Cleo, Greenlight Card, Feather, and Lily AI. She is also a board observer at Robinhood and OmniSci.

Prior to joining NEA, she was the Director of Product Management at Box (NYSE: BOX) where she worked on building the next generation of productivity apps across web and mobile. Her passion for design and analytics stems from her experience in the gaming industry, which includes leading the Speech Recognition Experience team at Xbox Kinect v1, and building a top grossing gaming studio at Disney Social.

Vanessa holds a BS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Scott Lopano is a Principal at Tech Square Ventures where he is responsible for sourcing new companies, deal execution, and supporting the portfolio’s growth. Since joining TSV in 2017, Scott has led the execution of 50+ new investments across both funds focused on early-stage enterprise (B2B) and marketplace technology companies.

Previously, Scott worked at UBS Investment Bank in New York where he advised clients on capital structure and funding strategy, raising more than $26B in debt and preferred stock capital for clients over his tenure.

Scott graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business with a concentration in Finance. He was a 4-year starter for the Penn Quaker Football Team during 3 Ivy League Championships. He currently holds the record for most punts and most punt yardage in the school’s history and maintains strong ties to Penn. Scott was a top 5 NFL prospect punter and was invited to Rookie Mini Camp with the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Palaniswamy “Raj” Rajan is currently the Managing Partner of CTW Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital fund which invests in and assists seed and early-stage entrepreneurs in all industries in Atlanta and the South Eastern United States who are engaged in disruptive innovations and technologies. CTW focuses solely on companies which are started by expert technical founders with strong domain expertise. CTW partners with technical entrepreneurs and companies in markets with large opportunities and no identifiable competitors. CTW typically supplies the first capital, often at the concept phase. CTW works as active partners with our entrepreneurs, helping with all aspects of strategy, market definition and execution.

He is also Chairman & CEO of Softwear Automation, Inc, an Atlanta, Ga. based company with the sole focus of developing innovative robots (sewbots®) for the apparel manufacturing and sewn products industries by harnessing its experience and expertise in machine vision, robotics, and computing. The Sewbots® automate the transfer and sewing of fabric, eliminating the need for trained seamstresses. SoftWear technology allows for redesign of the apparel manufacturing supply chain and enables sewing to be performed locally resulting in a disruptive transformation of the industry.

He is also the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Virima Technologies, Inc, a leading Data Center & IT Operations software developer. He brings more than 19 years’ experience in the technology industry and combines a deep understanding of current technologies with the ability to articulate the application of these technologies in various business contexts and models.

He is also an investor and past Chairman (2009 to 2017) of Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd (A World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2015 Company). The company’s patented solvents extract CO2 and other unwanted gases from flue gas streams, replacing conventional amines CCS’s technology dramatically reduces the cost of capturing CO2, making it economic for industrial and power plants to re-use waste CO2 to produce economically viable products.

Mr. Rajan is an active investor and has invested in over 38 companies since 1998. He serves/ed on the Board of Directors of some of his portfolio companies and as well on the advisory boards of several early stage technology firms in the USA and India.

A leader in the business community is also involved in several professional and community related organization. Mr. Rajan was instrumental in establishing the Atlanta CEO Council, a non-profit networking group of more than 1000 CEOs, CxOs, and investors in the Southeast. Mr. Rajan serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta CEO council from 1999 to present. In 2002, Mr. Rajan launched the Atlanta CEO Council Venture Forum that is now known as Venture Atlanta Conference which has helped Atlanta entrepreneurs raise over $2 Billion in venture capital with exits of over $14 Billon since its inception.

Mr. Rajan also co-founded and served on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) from 1998 to 2015, a global mentoring organization for entrepreneurs. Mr. Rajan also served as TiE Atlanta President in 2012-2013. Mr. Rajan served on the Board of Councilors for The Carter Center (President Jimmy Carter’s non-profit initiative), a leadership advisory group that serves to promote understanding of and support for The Carter Center and its activities among private-sector opinion leaders in Georgia.

Mr. Rajan was also honored as Georgia Trend’s “40 Under 40” Rising Stars in 2000.

Jon (also known by friends and co-workers as “Rosie”) is a Principal at Insight Partners. He focuses on vertical and horizontal application software at the venture and growth stage, and is responsible for executing transactions and assisting in portfolio management post-close. He has also specialized in helping portfolio companies source and execute M&A.

He currently is a board director at a number of portfolio companies, including 6sense, Templafy, OpenWeb, Skilljar, and LeanTaaS. Some of his notable exits include DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU), Frontline Education (acquired by Thoma Bravo), CloudCraze (acquired by Salesforce), and nCino (NASDAQ: NCNO).

Jon is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology. Outside of work, he plays soccer, enjoys reading, struggles to learn guitar, and is an unabashed Philadelphia sports fan.

Kim Seals is an investor in early-stage technology, health care, energy, fintech, and consumer products companies. Since 2013, The JumpFund has invested in more than 30 woman-led, Southeast based companies across our two venture capital funds.

Kim began her investing career as a member of Golden Seeds, an investment firm and angel investor network, with over 300 members, dedicated to sourcing and funding high-potential women-led businesses. Over the last 17 years, Golden Seeds has invested more than $160M in 220+ companies. Kim co-founded the Atlanta chapter of Golden Seeds.

In addition to her work as an investor, Kim has more than 25 years of global experience in human resource consulting, corporate and leadership roles. Her expertise includes leading M&A transactions, service delivery transformation, talent, compensation, benefits and recruiting program design, as well as technology development, selection, and implementations. Kim is a Managing Partner at Sapient Insights Group, a research and advisory HR firm, and previously held leadership and consulting roles at Mercer and PwC.

Kim received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Louisiana State University.

Rachel Spasser is a Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer for the Accel-KKR Consulting Group. In this role, Rachel provides leadership across commercial functions including strategy, sales, marketing and business development for Accel-KKR’s portfolio companies. Prior to joining Accel-KKR’s Consulting Group, Rachel was the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for SAP Ariba. At Ariba, she led the design and execution of the company’s marketing strategy and programs. With over 25 years of experience in marketing, business development and general management, Ms. Spasser has spent the past 25 years focused on the business-to-business technology space. Prior to joining Ariba, she worked in executive roles with numerous cloud software and Internet-related companies including IBM and KnowledgeStorm Inc (acquired by TechTarget.) Ms. Spasser sits on the board of directors at Cendyn, Click Dimensions, Energy Services Group, Smart Communications, SugarCRM and TravelTripper. Rachel holds an MBA with honors from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Emery is passionate about finding, funding and furthering high-potential software businesses delivering products that improve lives, in big ways and small. As Principal at Vocap Partners, a Series A venture capital firm focused on B2B software, his primary areas of focus include the future of work and media. Post-investment, he specifically concentrates on accelerating growth and building durability through strategic frameworks, financial and capital planning, and organizational health. Emery has held various fractional roles with rapidly scaling software businesses including head of strategic initiatives, among others. He also loves to write about his experiences, authoring numerous startup blog series including the Vocap Org Health Guidebook.

Prior to joining Vocap, Emery spent several years with VRA Partners, an investment banking firm focused on providing mergers and acquisitions advisory to entrepreneurial middle-market companies. While at VRA, Emery helped numerous clients in the technology sector raise capital, acquire new businesses, and achieve successful exits.

Emery graduated with concentrations in Finance and International Business from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He currently resides in Atlanta with his wife and enjoys getting outdoors and finding the latest fitness gadget.

Ryan Whittemore is the Chief Investment Officer for Florida Funders, a hybrid Venture Capital Fund and 1400 member accredited investor syndicate focused on early stage seed to Series A stage tech. Ryan’s team reviews 1,000+ deals per year across 3 managed funds which has resulted in 36 portfolio companies in the primary fund. Ryan leverages a diverse background including venture, private equity, legal, corporate operations, capital market portfolio management and research analysis to identify the best tech investment opportunities for Florida Funders.

Prior to joining Florida Funders, Ryan was corporate counsel to a private equity group handling responsibilities including all legal work, as well as all financial modeling & analysis of existing & new investments, operational oversight of certain assets, and leading M&A transactions completing 12 deals in 4 years. Ryan has prior experience in investment banking at Raymond James, leading an equity hedge fund, and seven years as a portfolio manager and analyst for a large trust company.

Ryan is a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in Finance as well as an MBA, and a Juris Doctor from Stetson College of Law, and is a licensed attorney in Florida. Ryan outkicked his coverage with his amazing wife Ashley, and loves spending his time with his little girl Finley. When not changing diapers, Ryan is an avid fisherman and spearfisherman, paddleboarder and golfer. Ryan also has given his time as a past board member of the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, and co-founded the 1Voice Foundation for Childrens Cancer.

Larry K. Williams, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). Williams, A recognized leader in economic development, brings more than 20 years of experience in global branding, international trade and finance, public and industrial policy, and administration and management to one of the largest state technology trade associations in North America.

Prior to joining TAG in 2016, Williams served as President/CEO of The Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County’s official economic development partnership. Under Williams’ leadership The Beacon Council created and executed a new economic development framework that resulted in $687 million in new investment, 119 company relocations or expansions, and more than 4,500 new jobs.
Previously, Williams helped shape the vision for Atlanta’s technology industry as Vice President of Technology Development at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. He provided leadership and direction to the Chamber’s Mobility Task Force, the effort to position Atlanta as a global hub of mobile technology, and the Technology Leadership Council.

In the State of Washington, Williams garnered a list of special assignments and honors including serving on the Governor’s Global Competiveness Council, where he created and led all processes and committees. The council’s report served as the basis of the state’s new 10-year economic initiative.

In 2008, Williams was appointed by Gov. Christine Gregoire as co-chair of the newly created Washington State Tourism Commission and the following year he was appointed to serve on her executive cabinet.

As Director of International Trade for Washington State Department of Commerce, Williams managed the merger of the International Trade and the Economic Development Divisions of the State Department of Commerce. His responsibilities increased from managing 14 employees with a $6 million budget to 66 employees with a $130 million budget.

Williams recruited, retained or expanded 692 companies statewide; created or retained more than 17,000 jobs; and generated more than $1.8 billion in private investment in fiscal years 2008/2009. He developed and implemented initial sales goals for each team member and exceeded three-year projections by more than 40 percent, documenting more than $43 million in actual sales.
Under his leadership, Washington State opened its first foreign offices in Mexico City, Frankfurt, Germany and Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, China.

In his native North Carolina, he rose through the ranks to Director of Operations of the International Trade Division for the North Carolina Department of Commerce. He developed business opportunities for client companies throughout Canada and Latin America.
Williams is a graduate of North Carolina State University, and the Darlington School. Williams also studied in Costa Rica and Spain and speaks Spanish.

Joey Womack’s goal is to positively impact 1 billion people by the year 2039. Part super-connector, part startup coach, he is the Founder/CEO of Goodie Nation, a national support nonprofit that is closing the relationship gap for for tech-focused social entrepreneurs and diverse founders, and the Founder/CEO of Amplify 4 Good, a mission-driven agency that uses rapid problem-solving to help large companies, nonprofits, and government agencies create social impact. Since starting this journey in 2014, he’s on pace to reach this goal by working with the likes of CARE USA, Google, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, Google For Startups, United Negro College Fund, Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, Village Capital, and the White House HBCU Initiative. Joey is also the Co-Founder of the Atlanta Black Tech initiative where he serves as the Lead for the Startups and K-12 divisions.

Evident as a Hive Global Leader, Inaugural White House Demo Day Invitee, and Outstanding Atlanta Alumnus, he has received the Technology Association of Georgia’s (TAG) Diversity in Tech Game Changer Award for Community Engagement and Equity Champion Award by Startup Atlanta, named one of the Top 10 social entrepreneurs in Atlanta by Hypepotamus, featured in McDonald’s Black Your Story campaign, recognized by PepsiCo as a Champion For Change and Atlanta Magazine as part of the Atlanta 500, and listed by Huffington Post as one of the Top 20 Innovators in the Atlanta Tech Startup Scene. Currently, he serves on the boards for Startup Atlanta, Venture Atlanta, and the Georgia Social Impact Collaborative as well as advisory boards SXSW and SOCAP’s Spectrum Conference.

A “Rebel with a Cause” at the leading edge of change, Joey was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug in 2002 when he launched digitalguestlist.com as a graduate student at Florida A&M University. He grew the site to 80,000 users, and advertised thousands of events for Fortune 500 companies, agencies, and high-profile promoters during special events like NBA All-Star Weekend, Super Bowl Weekend, and Essence Music Festival. He also used forward-thinking digital marketing strategies to execute events in the Southeast for well known brands such as Crown Royal & Warner Bros.

Joey received his MBA from Florida A&M University in the Spring of 2003, where he was also initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Inc. He has been named one of the Top 40 Under 40 Alumni and received an Outstanding Alumni during FAMU’s Quasquicentennial (125th) Anniversary Celebration.