Meet our mentors who are guiding Tennessee advanced energy startups to success!
Dennis Corley is the Director of Small Business Lending and Investing at Three Roots Capital. He manages the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP), is responsible for sourcing, vetting, and underwriting commercial/industrial/real estate loans, as well as equity and equity-like investments.
Previously, Dennis served for more than 15 years as the founder and CEO of Digital Crossing Networks. Digital Crossing Networks is a 16,000-square-foot commercial data center services company in Knoxville, Tennessee. Prior to Digital Crossing Networks, Dennis served as the Chief Technology Officer of Technology 2020, a public-private partnership whose mission was to develop and support technology companies in the Tennessee Valley Corridor. Dennis was awarded the “Vision Award” by Technology 2020, its highest honor. The award’s purpose was to honor individuals who have provided outstanding leadership in the effort to create a technology-based economy in the Tennessee Valley Corridor and who have made an exceptional contribution to the Technology 2020 organization. Dennis has more than 30 years of experience in the information technology industry. The first half of those years were spent with IBM Corporation and SAIC, where Dennis worked in software development, client/server performance engineering, network application tuning, and as a consultant to the financial industry. Dennis received his B.S. in Computer Science, with a minor in Physics/Electronics from Louisiana State University in 1985.
Dr. Pete Kay spent 20 years with Fortune 20 companies, helping create and grow businesses ranging in size from $10M to $3B. For the last 35 years he has consulted with small to mid sized companies, helping them create and implement a culture of strategic management. Today he spends most of his time mentoring entrepreneurial businesses in Indiana and Southwest Ohio. Pete has served on a variety of planning, academic, and development activities for Purdue University, where he earned his doctorate. He has also served on local zoning/planning commissions and sports organizing committees. He competed in and coached rowing and was an international rowing official, including six world championships, the Pan Am Games, and two Olympic Games.
Pete has been a member of the Civic Leaders Program for the United States Air Force Materiel Command for more than twenty years, and was a long time chair of that program. He works with professionals throughout Southwest Ohio to facilitate Air Force engagement with the entrepreneurial community.
Mark Hagan has over 25 years of energy industry experience working for large companies, consulting firms and start-ups. Mark most recently led the origination of biofuels projects for BP’s energy trading division, where he designed, evaluated and pitched business plans and financing structures for new investment opportunities. He has worked across the renewable fuels, power/utility and natural gas sectors, and began his career as an R&D engineer designing and testing hydrogen fuel cell systems. His ongoing interest is solving complex technical, financing and policy problems to grow businesses while addressing integrated energy and environmental challenges.
Mark moved with his family to Chattanooga in 2021 and looks forward to supporting regional entrepreneurs as a mentor in the Spark Cleantech Accelerator.
Brendan Boyd is currently a consultant on various topics related to changes in the chemical industry structure, as well as materials research and development. He was previously an executive with Eastman Chemical Company for 25 years, with senior roles in R&D, external innovation and recurring assignments in mergers and acquisitions. He also served as a board member of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation Board. He is currently chairperson of the Investment Advisory Board for the UT Accelerate Fund and advises start-ups in the specialty chemicals and materials space.
I have over two decades of proven global business management leadership with companies like General Electric, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and also VC-backed companies. I bring with me world-class experience in commercializing analytical solutions and leveraging both product and building vibrant ecosystems to accelerate global business growth. I have a passion for AI/ML and the Internet of Things and am a big advocate for a cleaner, greener planet. During my career with GE, I won four GE Innovation awards in healthcare informatics and SaaS/big data analytical offering in Energy.
Chris Trump, a graduate from the University of Tennessee College of Law, specializes in providing outside general counsel services to businesses of all sizes throughout East Tennessee. An active participant in the area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Chris is particularly passionate about representing start-ups and early stage companies, guiding them through the complexities of formation, financing, growth and exit. In addition, Chris has overseen all merger and acquisition transactions for one of the largest private companies in the State of Tennessee, has represented area banks and borrowers in both commercial and real estate financing transactions, and has assisted economic development boards in various tax abatement and public financing transactions. In his free time, you can find Chris watching the Vols, cheering on the Cubs and enjoying Knoxville’s urban wilderness with his family.
Gary Hearl is the Senior Vice President for Sustainable Industries-ESG at Young America Capital and the President and CEO at Elevation Energy and Elevation Ventures.
Jonathan Snover assumed responsibilities for the Western Office of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in January of 2016. He works with regional stakeholders to expand opportunities for biotechnology-based business growth. Snover serves as the region’s contact to the Biotechnology Center’s grant and loan programs as well as the many other support services available from the Center. He coordinates activities among regional universities, entrepreneurs, industry and civic leaders and the Center to achieve regional goals prioritized by the advisory committee.
Snover has extensive experience bringing new technologies to market in corporate, small business and startup environments. He started his career in corporate research and development and worked alongside new product development, manufacturing and marketing and sales to complete commercialization projects. He holds a B.A. in chemistry from Middlebury College, a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University and a postdoctoral fellowship from North Carolina State University.
Courtney Weinstein is an independent advisor to VC and early-stage climate tech startups.
Kevin Heaslip became Director of the Center for Transportation Research and a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on July 1, 2022. He previously was a Professor, CACI Faculty Fellow, and a Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Fellow at Virginia Tech. He was the interim director and associate director of the Information Systems Laboratory of the Hume Center for National Security and Technology. Heaslip was an Appointed Member of the Resilient America Roundtable of the National Academy of Science from 2014 to 2020.
Heaslip has been awarded over $25 million in research grants and contracts from federal governments, state governments, and industry as an expert in transportation engineering, transportation technology, and critical infrastructure cybersecurity. He has over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, and technical reports on the topics of transportation engineering, connected and automated vehicles, transportation big data, and transportation cybersecurity. Heaslip received a BS and MS in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Mr. Pullins has more than 45 years of electric and gas industry experience in operations, maintenance, engineering, microgrids, and renewables project development. Mr. Pullins was previously CTO of AlphaStruxure, a joint venture of Carlyle Group and Schneider Electric, and previously CEO of Horizon Energy Group where he led the nation’s Modern Grid Strategy for DOE and worked with more than 20 utilities in Smart Grid strategies, renewables strategies, microgrids, energy storage, and power system optimization. Since 2004, he has designed more than 80 microgrids. He has advised several international utility and government organizations on Smart Grid technologies and operations, microgrid development, integrating intelligence, new power generation, and waste to energy technologies. He holds a BS and MS in Engineering.
ResSET advises on developing microgrids and other distributed energy infrastructure under capital projects and energy-as-a-service (EaaS) business models.
By joining TAEBC, you can be part of this exciting effort to grow Tennessee’s economy through advanced energy innovation, generation and manufacturing.
Mark Hagan has over 25 years of energy industry experience working for large companies, consulting firms and start-ups. Mark most recently led the origination of biofuels projects for BP’s energy trading division, where he designed, evaluated and pitched business plans and financing structures for new investment opportunities. He has worked across the renewable fuels, power/utility and natural gas sectors, and began his career as an R&D engineer designing and testing hydrogen fuel cell systems. His ongoing interest is solving complex technical, financing and policy problems to grow businesses while addressing integrated energy and environmental challenges.
Gary Hearl is the Senior Vice President for Sustainable Industries-ESG at Young America Capital and the President and CEO at Elevation Energy and Elevation Ventures.
