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Atlanta Business Radio

TiE Atlanta

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Today’s show features guest host Michelle Matthews with Matthews Consulting Group.

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Raj Rajan/TiEAtlanta 

Palaniswamy “Raj” Rajan is currently the co-founder, Chairman & CEO of Virima Technologies, Inc., an IT Operations and Datacenter software developer serving the fortune 5000 companies. He brings more than 15 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. A highly versatile and proven entrepreneur, he has co-founded several ventures including, Vigilar, Inc, a leading network security technology firm; eLaunchpad, LLC, an early stage venture capital firm/incubator focusing on Internet infrastructure and network security technologies; and Resourcis, an executive recruiting firm. During his tenure at Vigilar, he conceived the company’s business plan and methodology, raised venture capital funding, recruited a talented management team and grew annual revenues from $0 in 2000 to $32M in 2005 in probably the most difficult technology industry climate. Another previous success, VerticalOne, a financial aggregator; was sold to S1 in 1999 in a deal valued at $166 million.

Mr. Rajan serves on the Board of Directors of the above companies and as well on the advisory boards of several early stage technology firms around the country. A leader in the business community, he is also involved in several professional and community related organizations. 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 served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CEO council from 1999 through 2011 and is currently one of its Board members. Mr. Rajan also co-founded and is the current President of the Atlanta Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), a national mentoring organization for entrepreneurs.

Barry Patel/Total Therapeutic Management – Indegene TTM Linkedin

Barry Patel has a Doctorate in Pharmacy from Mercer University and started his career in clinical research with Warner Lambert, before moving to medical affairs with Merck. In 1995 Barry left Merck to found Total Therapeutic Management, a unique physician focused quality improvement and education outreach company that services the healthcare industry’s needs for data driven solutions. Under his leadership, TTM has been recognized as a leader in the healthcare industry providing a unique way of improving quality through the abstraction, analysis and dissemination of vital health information. Since 1995, TTM has worked with hundreds of health systems and managed care organizations. As President, Barry maintains many client relationships and is hands-on as it relates to strategy development and implementation among various facets of the organization. The company has been recognized by various business publications for its entrepreneurial approach to solving problems within healthcare. TTM was acquired on December 31st, 2013 by Indegene, a leading global provider of solutions to pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations.

Shelley Saxena/Sevamob LinkedinTwitterFacebook

Shelley has managed several multi-million dollar products for IBM and co-founded a cash-flow positive mobile technology startup, Saasmob. He has an MBA from Cornell and B.E. from IIT Roorkee. He has extensive experience in all aspects of a business including product management, R&D, marketing, channels, sales, support and financials.

 

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Raj Rajan/TiEAtlanta 

Palaniswamy “Raj” Rajan is currently the co-founder, Chairman & CEO of Virima Technologies, Inc., an IT Operations and Datacenter software developer serving the fortune 5000 companies. He brings more than 15 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. A highly versatile and proven entrepreneur, he has co-founded several ventures including, Vigilar, Inc, a leading network security technology firm; eLaunchpad, LLC, an early stage venture capital firm/incubator focusing on Internet infrastructure and network security technologies; and Resourcis, an executive recruiting firm. During his tenure at Vigilar, he conceived the company’s business plan and methodology, raised venture capital funding, recruited a talented management team and grew annual revenues from $0 in 2000 to $32M in 2005 in probably the most difficult technology industry climate. Another previous success, VerticalOne, a financial aggregator; was sold to S1 in 1999 in a deal valued at $166 million.

Mr. Rajan serves on the Board of Directors of the above companies and as well on the advisory boards of several early stage technology firms around the country. A leader in the business community, he is also involved in several professional and community related organizations. 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 served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CEO council from 1999 through 2011 and is currently one of its Board members. Mr. Rajan also co-founded and is the current President of the Atlanta Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), a national mentoring organization for entrepreneurs.

Karen Robinson/NanoLumens LinkedinTwitter

Karen Robinson is the EVP – Business Development with NanoLumens.  Karen leads the sales team and oversees all new business development and marketing at NanoLumens, a privately held corporation engaged in the research, product development, marketing and sales of unique flexible and fixed large-format LED displays that address a yawning technology gap in the $14 billion digital display industry. NanoLumens technology is not constrained by standard sizes and shapes, or by the weight, noise and cost issues traditionally associated with commercial LED products. Robinson has been instrumental in the planning, strategy and growth of NanoLumens.

Karen is a serial entrepreneur who has been CEO of four different high-growth, venture or angel-backed companies over the last 20 years. Most recently, Karen was president and CEO of Prime Point Media, one of the largest alternative out of home advertising companies in the United States which she successfully led to a lucrative exit when it was acquired by a publicly traded company in 2006.

In 2012, Karen received the Inspiritor Award presented by Turknett Leadership Group. She has been recognized by Atlanta-based Women in Technology when she won its Woman of the Year in Technology Awards in 2000, and is the incoming President of the Atlanta chapter of TIE, an organization that fosters entrepreneurship globally. Karen also serves as the Governors Chairman and board member for Opportunity International, the largest faith-based microfinancing organization serving over 20 countries.

Karen is also an investor and board member at numerous private and public companies in the United States and Canada. Her passions are her family and her involvement in micro-lending in both Sub-Saharan Africa and Central America.

 

Ashish Thakur with TiE Atlanta

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Ashish Thakur/TiE Atlanta LinkedinTwitter

Ashish Narayan Thakur is a recovering banker, had a failed startup and successful non-profit entrepreneur. Ashish is currently Executive Director at TiE Atlanta, a global non-profit that fosters entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking & education. Ashish has raised over $750k and rose to a chapter rank of #4 from #40 for TiE Atlanta in the past 4 years. Previously, he spent over 12 years in sales and management roles with the globe’s largest financial institutions: Deutshce Bank, Merrill Lynch, Invesco & Bank of America.

Ashish is a board observer on 5 privately held companies and a non-profit, equity investor in the public markets & volunteers his time mentoring at risk youth at Usher’s New Look Foundation, The Nicholas House, Raksha and GA Pacific’s Young Entrepreneurs Atlanta program. He is a past Oglethorpe University Young Alumni Award winner & VP of Career Services on the OU Alumni Board for the past 4 years where he has assisted over 300 OU students in career related mentoring. His hobbies include running, yoga, public speaking, juggling and mentoring youth around the world.

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Sandra Hofmann/Emerge Scholarships Twitter

Sandra Hofmann is an innovative and inspiring executive who understands and drives the value of alignment across the enterprise. Sandy’s broad management experience, including 14 years with IBM, has enabled her to effectively guide teams to realize goals and deliver desired results. Particularly adept at addressing issues associated with acquired and merged businesses, Sandy has frequently been recruited to address the most difficult and challenging environments.

Sandy has repeatedly demonstrated her exceptional strength of character and leadership, as well as her ability to serve as a change agent. She led the transition activities for one of the first application spin-offs from IBM. As Vice President of Technical Services, she faced the unique challenge of breaking the gender barrier at Simplex, while concurrently transforming the way service was delivered. She joined MAPICS, their first woman to be a member of the executive team, as the Vice President and General Manager for a newly acquired business unit and was then a lead participant in the company’s re-engineering as a functional organization. She then stepped into the unique dual role of CIO and Chief People Officer.

Sandy’s management philosophy, leadership characteristics and business results have been acknowledged by numerous industry recognitions: Georgia CIO Leadership Association (GCLA) selected Sandy as the Georgia CIO of the Year in the 2003 regional category and in October 2010 Sandy received the organization’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003 she was selected as one of five finalists for Woman of the Year in Technology by Georgia Technology Association and again in 2004 she was one of seven finalists. Articles highlighting Sandy’s results have been published in CIO and CFO Magazine, CIO Insight, CIO Quarterly, Workforce Management, Human Resource Executive, and PINK Magazine.

Ashish Thakur/TiE Atlanta LinkedinTwitter

Ashish Narayan Thakur is a recovering banker, had a failed startup and successful non-profit entrepreneur. Ashish is currently Executive Director at TiE Atlanta, a global non-profit that fosters entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking & education. Ashish has raised over $750k and rose to a chapter rank of #4 from #40 for TiE Atlanta in the past 4 years. Previously, he spent over 12 years in sales and management roles with the globe’s largest financial institutions: Deutshce Bank, Merrill Lynch, Invesco & Bank of America.

Ashish is a board observer on 5 privately held companies and a non-profit, equity investor in the public markets & volunteers his time mentoring at risk youth at Usher’s New Look Foundation, The Nicholas House, Raksha and GA Pacific’s Young Entrepreneurs Atlanta program. He is a past Oglethorpe University Young Alumni Award winner & VP of Career Services on the OU Alumni Board for the past 4 years where he has assisted over 300 OU students in career related mentoring. His hobbies include running, yoga, public speaking, juggling and mentoring youth around the world.

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Bobby John/Band of Coders

KP Reddy/Ampirix LinkedinTwitter

KP Reddy is an author, entrepreneur, second generation civil engineer, speaker and thought leader with over 25 years experience in technology and the building infrastructure industry. He is a nationally-recognized expert on advanced construction technologies, including Building Information Modeling (BIM), Collaborative Communication, Artificial Intelligence, Semantics Database Technology, Mobile Applications and Cloud computing and is currently focused on innovation and sustainability for the Built Environment. In 2012, KP published his first book BIM for Building Owners and Developers: Making a Business Case for Using BIM on Projects a go-to-guide for increasing transparency, and creating a more integrated design and construction process, leading to better quality buildings at a lower cost and in a shorter time frame. KP is currently a Managing Advisor with AMPIRIX Consulting, a firm that recommends innovative solutions, identifies and helps launch new products, expand into new markets, direct strategic acquisitions and forge corporate relationships.

Ritu Shrivastava/Live Ur Dreem

Learning an Art — like the Bollywood Dance or Yoga for instance — has many proven benefits like fitness, fun, meeting like minded people. Dancing both assists children’s development and enriches the lives of adults. With more than 20 years of experience in dance lessons, Ritu at the Live Ur Dreem Dance Studio provides unique and personalized instruction to our students. Our team of instructors are motivated by their love of dance, yoga and the passion to transfer their knowledge and skills to others so their creativity and talent can shine. We can teach anyone from age 5 on. We guide each and every student through the basics of dancing and fitness activity for self expression, stage performances and weddings etc.

 

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Andre’ Schnabl/Andre’ Schnabl Advisors LLC Linkedin

Andre’ Schnabl is formerly a Managing Partner of Grant Thornton LLP, Atlanta office. He now serves on boards and provides financial consulting support to early stage technology companies and more mature companies on global matters.

Mac Martirossian/MThree Advisory LLC LinkedinTwitter

Born and raised overseas, Mac immigrated to the United States at the age of 13, speaking three languages. He graduated with honors from Long Island University’s School of Professional Accountancy and spent 12 years of his career with the New York and Dallas offices of Price Waterhouse, first in audit and then management consulting.

Mac has served as the Chief Financial Officer of two publicly traded companies, transitioning his career to positions of greater responsibility in General Management, Operations, and Sales and Marketing, globally on five continents. Most recently, he served in Senior Finance and Operations executive roles at the home services division of The Home Depot. He started MThree Advisory Services in December 2009, now serving clients in five states.

 

 

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Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Mark Carlson/Baker Donelson Twitter

Mark is the leader of Baker Donelson’s Corporate/M&A practice group. He helps his clients to structure, negotiate and execute middle market M&A deals, joint ventures and other business combinations as well as general business transactions. Mark’s industry experience includes transactions and strategic initiatives in wireless technology, manufacturing, private equity, financial services, medical devices and international transactions. After law school, Mark initially worked as a strategy consultant for a leading management consulting firm in Boston, and he has served as senior in-house M&A counsel for a large international infrastructure corporation based in San Francisco.

Sid Slover/Learn It Live FacebookLinkedinTwitter

 

 

 

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Special Edition: TiE Atlanta E2E Pillar

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Arul Murugan/Enrich

Arul Murugan is the founder and CEO of Enrich which is the largest pure play Oracle EBS solution provider in Atlanta. He founded the company in 2003 and  since then the company has consistently grown and now doing business in 20+ states in US, UK and Asia. Enrich helps organizations squeeze value out of Oracle technology. Starting with Procurement, Enrich enables savings realization across Supply Chain and Financials, by leveraging flexible technology – deployed on premise or in the cloud – and coupled with expertise to help drive success.

 

 

 

 

Lee Twitter

 

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Don Turner/The Virtual CXO LinkedinTwitter

Don Turner has 20 years of experience guiding, building and managing world-class companies on a global basis. He has played key roles in advancing the commercialization of award-winning innovations that have transformed industries such as Financial Services, Investment Banking, Biotechnology, Telecommunications, and Defense Intelligence.

Don is considered an expert at developing and implementing business growth strategies, with an emphasis on building scalable business processes that can support exponential growth. He has served as an Advisory Board Member for Cisco Systems, Committee Chairman for Mass.Biotechnology Council, Guest Lecturer on Innovation Commercialization for Executive MBA students, Conference Speaker on Emerging Areas of Innovation, and Expert Panel Member on Corporate Innovation.

Anitha Vadavatha/Covello Linkedin

Anitha Vadavatha is Chief Strategist of Covello, a collaborative growth company with a mission to be the catalyst of both industry and community by leveraging tomorrow’s technologies and creative talents to generate economic equity through collaboration.

William Whipple/Amero Global Investors

William Whipple is Founder, President and CIO of Amero Global Investors, a boutique institutional real estate investment firm availing niche investment opportunities. William leads the firm, provides vision, and oversees client relations and new business initiatives. Through over 30 years of financial, investment, risk management, construction, institutional real estate investing, credit risk analysis, portfolio management, entrepreneurial and Fortune 100 management experience, William built a solid reputation on competence, performance and integrity, the founding principles of Amero Global Investors, LLC.

While serving in management positions with two Fortune 100 companies and as a successful entrepreneur, William developed industry leading models for fiduciary responsibility and risk control that will serve institutional investors well. His roles involved top investigative organizations including the FBI.  William worked the last 15 years investing in institutional real estate. Prior to founding Amero Global Investors, LLC, William was Director, Institutional Real Estate for TIAA-CREF Asset Management, responsible for development and marketing the organization’s global real estate equity and debt products for institutional investors.

 

 

 

Lee Twitter