Michael Burcham, President and CEO

LinkedIn

Michael has extensive experience in healthcare innovation, entrepreneurship, and startup venture coaching.  He served as President of ParadigmHealth, a provider and integrator of care and disease management services for health plans and employers, from 2001-2007. He also founded and served as President of Theraphysics, a venture-backed specialty healthcare firm managing rehabilitation services, from 1992-2000.  He is founder and Director of the Accelerator Summer Business Institute, a 4-week intensive immersion program designed to challenge undergraduate students to develop their own personal brands and business skills. At the Owen Graduate School of Management, Michael teaches healthcare innovation and strategy. He is passionate about helping the creative class transform their ideas into real businesses, and looks to the Entrepreneur Center as an opportunity to revolutionize Nashville’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and creative venture development on a large scale. Michael received his PhD in Healthcare Administration from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2003.

Sam Lingo, Chief Operating Officer
LinkedIn

Sam Lingo is a Nashville entrepreneur specializing in the development of new technologies. He is a founding partner of U. S. Cryogenics, LLC, a solution-focused company extending the usable life of industrial wear parts. At the Entrepreneur Center, Sam oversees operations, business development and the Incubator Studio. He received his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University in 2005. Sam lectures about entrepreneurism and adapting business plans to the real world at both Vanderbilt University and the Owen Graduate School of Management.

Clay Jackson, Director of Marketing and Business Development
LinkedIn

Clay Jackson is a Nashville native with a background spanning communications, advertising, product marketing and brand strategy from Nashville to New York. While working with CitiCards in New York he managed national account growth initiatives for the High Net Worth Portfolios of CitiCards, including the Black (Chairman), Platinum and Smith Barney cobranded product lines. While working with Citi, he launched 2 products into those portfolios and reinvigorated account growth initiatives. In addition to extensive experience in marketing to the high net worth sector, his background and account experience includes experience in Construction and Building Products (Louisiana Pacific), Casual Dining (O'Charley's), Fashion (Queen Mab - Startup), Mobile Social Media (Face2Face Application), Finance (Fundspire), Expedia and American Airlines (co-branded Citi Products). Before returning to Nashville, he started PanJanus Solutions, a strategic marketing company focused on developing market entry strategies for European clients looking to expand into the US market. He recieved his bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University in 2004. He manages marketing, corporate sponsorships, memberships and business development for the Entrepreneur Center.

John Murdock, Director of Communications and Programming
LinkedIn

John Murdock is a Nashville native specializing in strategy execution.  Prior to joining the EC, John served as the Airport Manager for Enterprise Holdings, Inc., at the PTI airport where he managed three distinct brands: Alamo Rent A Car, National Car Rental, and Enterprise Rent A Car.  John received his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Wake Forest’s Calloway School of Business, with minors in Global Trade and Commerce Studies and Mandarin Chinese.  He manages communications and programming at the Entrepreneur Center.  You can keep up with John periodically on the EC Blog or regulary at the YP Blog.



David Warren, Director of Operations, Startup Tennessee

David leads Operations for Startup Tennessee, part of Governor Haslam's entrepreneurship initiative for the state. With nine physical locations to assist entrepreneurs across the state, Startup Tennessee is developing entrepreneurial ecosystems in all regions -- urban & rural -- unlike any other state in the nation. David is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he was Top 15% of his class first year.  He has founded two companies and raised over $700,000 in seed capital from Angel investors.  David is a frequent guest speaker and has been invited to speak multiple times at the White House, on job creation strategies through the cultivation of entrepreneurial ecosystems in communities across the nation.  Startup Tennessee is headquartered in the Entrepreneur Center in Nashville, one of the leading business accelerators in the Southeast.    



EC Master Mentor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Dr. David Furse has 35 years of experience as a marketing professor, business entrepreneur and strategy consultant. He founded NCG Research in Nashville and grew it into an international leader in consulting and healthcare outcomes benchmarking. He is currently Director of the Mentor Program at the Entrepreneur Center and an Adjunct Professor of Management at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. He is a sought-after speaker and consultant in strategic planning and leadership development. Furse received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Georgia State University, the Masters in Advertising from the University of Illinois, and the B.A. in Journalism from the University of Georgia. He served as an infantry lieutenant with the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg and the Ninth Infantry Division in Vietnam where he received the Bronze Star, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and Purple Heart.



Scott Rouse, Entrepreneur-in-Residence
LinkedIn
IdeaBang, LLC

Grammy nominated producer Scott Rouse began his career working as a session musician in Boston while attending the famed Berklee College of Music.  He learned to write, arrange and produce pop songs as well as market and brand the acts he was involved with from the very best in the business. Outside the music business, Scott is the Founder of IdeaBang, an innovation consultancy and product development-for-license firm. Scott believes developing products and ideas is the same as producing, marketing and branding recording artists, TV shows and movies.

“A startup company is very similar to a band or an artist.  The songs that make up the startup’s album are its business model and product or system prototype.  If you arrange and produce each song so they are attractive to your band’s demographic, you’ve got a shot at having not just a hit single, but a hit album and an band with a long shelf life.  The same goes for a startup.”

Rouse’s main role is to help startups with everything from questions about licensing, branding and copyrighting their products or systems to packaging and marketing so they look good “out in the wild”.  Rouse says “Its important for me to help a person or a new company with their nose pressed against the glass, just staring at their new idea, to take a look at it from another perspective.  If their idea was a song demo we would choose the right instrumentation, tighten up the melody, add as many ‘hooks’ as possible and arrange so it was a pop song.  If it’s a hit, we start on their next idea.”



Joe Galante, Chairman of Sony Music Nashville (Ret.), Entrepreneur-in-Residence Digital Media and Entertainment

Joe Galante brings with him nearly 40 years of experience in the music publishing and entertainment industry, having led some of the biggest labels in the business including RCA and Sony Nashville. In April 2010, Joe Galante stepped down as Chairman of Sony Music Nashville after 39 years with the same label family. He began his career with RCA Records in 1971 and moved to Nashville in 1973. In 1977, Galante was named director of Nashville operations for RCA Records Nashville, then became vice president of promotion and vice president of marketing. In 1982, he succeeded Bradley as head of RCA Nashville, becoming the youngest man ever to lead a major Nashville label.

His impact was immediate; RCA became the #1 country label in 1982 and held onto the top spot for an unprecedented 11 consecutive years. In 1990, Galante moved to New York when he was named president of RCA Records Label - U.S. He successfully tackled the seemingly insurmountable challenge of streamlining the label’s vast roster while restructuring the label so that it became more artist-oriented and focused on creating a lasting catalog. He returned to Nashville in 1994, when he was named chairman of RLG/Nashville.

After restructuring the RCA and BNA labels under the RCA Label Group (RLG) umbrella. In 2001, Arista Nashville emerged as the year’s #1 country promotion label for the first of seven times in eight years. Throughout this time, RLG’s three-label country powerhouse continued to develop its artists and set new benchmarks for the industry – a feat that was on clear display when RLG became the first label group since the inception of SoundScan to have three country albums reach #1 (and debut at #1) on Billboard’s pop sales chart in a calendar year.

In the spring of 2006, Galante oversaw yet another chapter in the evolution of the Nashville music industry as the former Sony Nashville was welcomed into the RCA Label Group along with the Christian label group, Provident, collectively becoming Sony BMG Nashville under Galante’s leadership. Adopting the new name and a fourth label imprint, Columbia Nashville, the roster expanded. At the beginning of 2009, Sony BMG Nashville became Sony Music Nashville. In April of 2010, after 39 years within the same label family, Galante announced his decision to step down from his post as chairman of Sony Music Nashville.

Keith Gregg, MBA, CLP, Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Health Information Technology
LinkedIn

Keith Gregg is Chairman of JRG Ventures, and a Certified Licensing Professional.  Mr. Gregg specializes in assisting entrepreneurs, investors, and executives implement growth strategies to accelerate ideas into value.  Mr. Gregg has over 25 years of operational and advisory experience in high growth life science, healthcare IT, and disruptive information systems environments.

Prior to founding JRG, Mr. Gregg held key positions at multiple biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical companies. His management roles and responsibilities have encompassed corporate development and licensing, operations, federal government liaison, marketing, financing, mergers, and public offerings.

Mr. Gregg is an advisor to select US and non-US investor groups; a member of multiple entrepreneurial healthcare technology boards; a founding Partner in creating the healthcare technology centric park oneC1TYnashville; the Entrepreneur in Residence for Health Information Technology at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center; a former Clinical Adjunct Professor of Healthcare Technology at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University; and an invited lecturer in the areas of corporate business development, growth strategy, healthcare technology, and finance.

Mr. Gregg received his MBA in Finance & Marketing from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, and his BS in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University. Mr. Gregg holds a certificate in executive business strategy from The Wharton School.

JRG Ventures, LLC

JRG is a multinational retained business development and growth strategy firm specializing in life sciences, healthcare IT, and novel corporate information technology systems. JRG’s client portfolio encompasses start-up ventures to multinational corporations.