Dana Harrison, Ph.D
Dr. Harrison is an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Stanley P. Williams Faculty Fellow at East Tennessee State University. Prior to her work in academia, Dr. Harrison spent many years assisting software companies and channel resellers with marketing and sales management. In 2019, she was a recipient of the College of Business and Technology New Faculty Award recognizing dedication to teaching, research and service. She trains students at undergraduate and graduate levels in Marketing Research and Analytics, Marketing Management and Marketing Strategy.
In addition to being extensively published in leading professional journals, she is also a co-author of the Essentials of Marketing Research 5th edition (McGraw Hill, 2020), as well as, the Essentials of Marketing Analytics 1st edition (McGraw Hill, 2021). She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, as well as on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Business Research and Journal of Marketing Education.
Sarah Frankel
Bill McTier
Bill McTier has 23 years experience in small business including starting his own insurance and financial services business. Additionally, Bill has worked as a consultant, owned a multi-media marketing company, and worked in the banking industry. He has an MBA with a BS in Business Administration, with a concentration in Management Information Systems(MIS)/System Analysis.
Sonu Mirchandani
Sonu brings competencies in evaluating startup business models, eco-system partners and proforma financial assessments. With a background in product marketing and business development, he has helped startups and growth organizations with idea incubation, market development and makes early-stage investments across retail, healthcare, biotechnology, food & beverage, loyalty, and supply chain. Sonu’s teaching experience includes entrepreneurship, Marketing, advertising and promotion, global business, world trade and ethics for US and undergraduate and graduate international students. He is currently a faculty member and the program developer and coordinator for the ETSU Student Entrepreneurship Minor as well as the iBUCS Student Pitch Competition. His passion is to accelerate student engagement into community entrepreneurs and angel investors. In conjunction with his students, he provides small businesses and non-profits with go-to-market consulting assistance. Sonu holds several patents and is a published author with John Wiley. He has a Masters in Computer Science/Engineering from San Jose State University, California.
David Nelson
David Nelson is a serial Entrepreneur and has founded 5 companies including, BrewFund, Duffek Mobile – with BrewFund currently growing outside of the region into multiple states across the country. He is the Director of FoundersForge, a 501c3 non-profit with the mission of cultivating the underdog entrepreneurs in the region. David holds Bachelor’s degree in Computer Graphics from Purdue University.
Raj Savoor
Raj is an experienced technology leader in systems engineering supporting network management solutions and analytics across wireless, broadband/IP networks and SDN cloud platforms. Raj serves as an Assistant Vice President at AT&T Labs where he leads an organization responsible for delivering Operations as a Service for AT&T’s Network Cloud deployments supporting 5G, SDWAN and other consumer and enterprise services. He is thought leader and innovative thinker, a frequent speaker at network design and analytics forums. He brings significant experience in the design, development and operational scaling of services and analytics for cloud, wireless and broadband networks. He has a track record of innovation with over 110 awarded patents with applications across IP/IPTV, Software Defined Network Controllers, and Network Edge Clouds. Raj holds a Masters in Computer Science from UC Davis, California.
John Wood, JD
John Wood has been practicing patent law since 2008, first as a registered patent agent then as a registered patent attorney. John's law firm, Wood Patent Law, is focused on applying his uncommon in-house and law firm experience to build and develop forward thinking and best in class patent portfolios and intellectual property value propositions. Bringing vast experience across both patent drafting and prosecution, he works with stakeholders on both sides of patent portfolio due diligence and monetization, as well as with both engineers and executives, to ensure the right intellectual property is captured in the best way for the company. Previously, John served in roles as in-house intellectual property counsel and IP prosecuting attorney. As sole in-house IP counsel at a $250M venture capital funded solar photovoltaic startup, he developed and established a high value worldwide in-house IP portfolio of more than 300 issued and pending published utility and design patent applications on budget. John serves on the Board of Directors of Create Appalachia and is an advisor to various Silicon Valley and Johnson City startups. John's podcast "Let's See the Patents with John Wood" and may be found at https://www.woodpatentlaw.com/podcast. John holds BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech (go Yellow Jackets) and a JD from University of Texas School of Law, graduating in 2009. John practices worldwide and is based in beautiful downtown Johnson City TN.