Jim Phillips is CEO of XMi Holdings. Jim has supported entrepreneurial companies over a 26 year career. Today, XMi supports the success of small growth oriented businesses through providing a portfolio of business infrastructure services designed to help focus each entrepreneur on revenue development activities and its competitive advantages.

Mark Patterson has 35 years of experience counseling clients in the protection, management, and enforcement of intellectual property rights, including patent and trademark prosecution and licensing. As a former electronics design engineer, Mark works regularly with complex electronic, computer, and electro-mechanical technologies. He manages patent and trademark portfolios for clients with significant domestic and global operations. Mark began his legal career as a litigator and for 30 years tried numerous cases and argued appeals in both state and federal courts. He was an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt Law School and has provided expert witness services in a variety of intellectual property disputes. He applies all of this experience in providing cost-effective, strategic IP advice to businesses throughout the U.S.

Christopher Miller serves as the CFO of Three Roots Capital. Since 2003, Chris has been involved in growing and funding exceptional companies across the U.S. Southeast. With experiences ranging from community development venture capital to managing a small and middle market loan portfolio, Chris has the background and skills to work with a diverse range of transaction structures and borrowers.

Tony Lettich is the Founder and CEO of The Angel Roundtable., the Angel Investing Network of the Appalachian Highlands Region of NE Tennessee, Western North Carolina and SE Virginia . He is also a partner of Sheehan, Lettich M&A Advisors. Tony’s interest in start-up investment dates back more than 25 years to his work with Eastman Ventures, the Corporate Venture Capital arm of Eastman Chemical Company, where he served as Business Development Director on a team focused on innovation investment of Eastman’s Venture Capital Fund in materials and digital technology start-ups. Following his role with Eastman Ventures, Tony served as Business Controller (CFO) of Eastman Developing Businesses, Eastman’s Innovation Incubator, which included approximately three dozen start-up stage businesses with combined sales revenues of approximately $1.0 Billion. He has invested in various successful start-up/venture capital investments, two of which went on to have successful IPOs in the public markets. As a member of Eastman’s M&A and Licensing Groups, he participated in numerous acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and licensing projects globally. His M&A and strategic advisory experience also includes the assessment, growth and restructuring of several businesses, as well as the shutdown of multiple non-performing units.

Tony currently serves on the Investment Committee of the Launch Tennessee Innovation Capital Continuum Fund, as an Advisory Board Member of the Angel Syndication Network, and as a Board Member or Observer on several start-up Boards. He also serves or previously served as a Mentor, Pitch Competition Judge / Panelist, and / or Advisor for organizations including, the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council, Life Sciences Tennessee, East Tennessee State University, the Boyd Venture Challenge at the University of Tennessee, Launch Tennessee’s 36/86, the Spark Clean Tech Accelerator, which supports the UT Research Park and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the New Mexico LEEP / Los Alamos National Lab Accelerator. A native of the South Carolina low-country, Mr. Lettich is a graduate of the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.

Jeff Kanel serves as the President and CEO of Renewable Algal Energy (RAE), is an entrepreneur, technology leader and R&D chemical engineer with broad experience in separation processes, patenting, and commercializing technology.

RAE has pioneered a breakthrough technology to produce sustainable, economically viable products from microalgae — from algal oil as a feedstock for renewable diesel fuel to protein, carotenoids, and omega-3 fatty acids for animal and human nutrition. RAE has won four SBIR awards under Jeff’s leadership.

He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has more than 26 years of experience in engineering research and process development through work at The Dow Chemical Company, Eastman Chemical Company and Union Carbide Corporation.

He is an inventor on more than 30 issued U.S. patents and numerous foreign patents, and serves on the President’s Advisory Council at the University of Akron. He has been invited twice to the National Academy of Engineer’s Foundations of Engineering Meetings, and he teaches a course on Liquid Extraction for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and for the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Kanel has been associated with several entrepreneurial endeavors since 1996, including: 1) the development and commercialization of technology to extract zeaxanthin from paprika; and 2) demonstration and sale to a Fortune 250 company of a process to grow and harvest algae for the production of natural beta-carotene.

John Hopkins is currently the CEO at the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI). He previously served as a consultant as well as in faculty and senior management roles at the University of Tennessee and UT Research Foundation. John has a successful record as leader of multi-institutional teams, creator of new programs and better processes to support energy innovation and technology transfer, and innovator of unique solutions for industry problems. Many of these have required the development and management of complex partnerships with diverse working teams.

His experience ranges from basic research in laser-based diagnostics and laser materials processing, through applied development of patented surface alloying methods, to the commercialization of technologies emerging from basic and applied research via licensing and entrepreneurship. John managed the $24M TN-SCORE renewable energy research program, which included complimentary STEM and workforce development outreach to more than 80,000 students across Tennessee and led to the formation of start-up companies at UT Knoxville and Vanderbilt University.

His specialties include: Research-based technology development and commercialization, technology licensing, start-up business creation and support, and program development and management.

Shawn Carson is currently Director of Technical and Operational Assistance for Three Roots Capital. Shawn has worked with a number of startup companies to develop business models, funding strategies and preparation for fund raising. He has also developed a number of educational presentations on entrepreneurship.

Coleman Adams is a partner and managing director of Crescendo Power. Crescendo is a private equity firm specializing in distributed energy and microgrid project investments. Crescendo brings a flexible investment strategy to support a variety of energy technologies and project types. The firm services the full capital stack from sponsor and tax equity to sourcing debt in order to get the project efficiently deployed for the end customer.