Baltipreneurs Accelerator Mentors

Current Mentors

Gillet Boyce
Gillet Boyce started Red Hawk, a golf cart parts and accessory company in 2001 in Baltimore MD. As President, Gillet grew this business to over 250 employees with 5 locations around the US distributing products globally.  In September of 2021 he sold his company to a private equity backed strategic business. In 2022 Gillet lead an effort to acquire a large competitor and integrate the 2 businesses together.  As a hands on leader of a growing organization he has experience in many areas of owning, operating, managing and growing, and selling a distribution business. Gillet Boyce is a graduate from Denison University and received an MBA from The Sellinger School of Business at Loyola University.  

Mark Eber
As an owner and Board Member of imre, Mark works to support imre and it's 200 plus employees. In his 25+ years of experience, he’s led integrated marketing communications programs for brands such as Baltimore Orioles, Dickies, Milwaukee Power Tools, NFL, Ryobi, STIHL, Travelers and Toyota and steered imre’s growth to $45M in fee income. Now working as an Agency Operations Business Consultant, he helps small to mid-size marketing firms power through all of the various stages of growth.

A former Division I college baseball player, Mark understands the commitment and dedication it takes to build and maintain winning teams. Mark lives in Baltimore with his wife and four daughters – all Baltimore Ravens fans. Mark is the president of the Eber Family Foundation, which was started in 2021. Mark volunteers his time at St. Paul’s School for Girls coaching middle school soccer. In his down time, you can find him on the sidelines watching his daughters play lacrosse or working to lower his 7.2 golf index.

Chris Haug
Chris Haug is an entrepreneur, founder, CXO, Executive in Residence, mentor, advisor, and investor whose career includes developing and leading high performance, collaborative teams and executed strategic roles that created more than $300MM in corporate value, including increased revenue by $150MM, reduced costs and improved operations by $40MM, and raised $70MM of equity and debt financing. He has started three of his own ventures, including 360 Venture Management Group and Startup Grind Maryland where he is CEO and Director respectively.

Brad Hennessie
Brad Hennessie, CEO of NextStep Robotics, a startup originating from the University of Maryland Baltimore, is dedicated to commercializing technology that aids mobility recovery in stroke survivors. He is fervently committed to enhancing technology translation from Baltimore's well-funded research labs, focusing on educating both academics and entrepreneurs in effective practices for this process. Besides leading NextStep Robotics, Brad also serves on an NIH Standing Committee, where he evaluates innovative neuro devices seeking funding for translational activities.

Shannan Herbert
Shannan Herbert is the Executive Vice President of Inclusive Credit for Stratyfy, a woman-led mission focused fintech company that works to accelerate financial inclusion by eliminating bias in critical financial decisions.  She leads strategy and program creation for Community Development Financial Institutions and large to mid-size community banks. Before joining Stratyfy, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer for City First Bank, one of the largest Black led Community Development Financial Institutions and Minority Depository Institutions in the country. With more than 20+ years of experience, she has served in key leadership roles for most of her career, leveraging her expertise to direct enterprises in the strategic development and delivery of value-driven, user-friendly solutions in the commercial credit and financial services arena.   Her work has focused on providing capital to under-resourced groups that have historically been denied access to funding.  Her commitment to community development and small business lending has helped hundreds of companies owned by people of color and women thrive. 

Stephen Layne
Stephen is the Chairman and CEO of Red Vector, where he leads a team of security experts and innovators delivering advanced insider risk analysis solutions to essential institutions globally.  He is an accomplished entrepreneur and executive with over 35 years of experience in developing and scaling cutting-edge technologies across multiple sectors and markets globally.  He is passionate about solving complex and impactful challenges with innovative and scalable solutions that can change the world.

Steve Schaefer
Over the past 30+ years, Steve Schaefer has been developing companies into global leaders in healthcare, technology and life science.  Steve has overseen development of novel therapeutic medical devices and the clinical trials that are necessary for regulatory compliance, payer acceptance, and market adoption.  A former CPA, he has been responsible for eight successful exits and over a billion dollars of transactions.

Sergeant De'Andre B. Wells
Sergeant De'Andre B. Wells, a retired member of the US Army's 5th Special Forces Group, has transitioned seamlessly into a prominent role as Founder and CEO of AGX LLC. With a distinguished military background, including three combat tours and service during the intense "Battle of An Najaf" in 2004, Sgt. Wells is a trailblazer in national and global economic development. His visionary approach spans diverse sectors, from Quantum Literacy to smart infrastructure, agriculture, energy, telecommunications, housing, and logistics. Sgt. Wells is recognized for his intersectional work in policy, technology, socioeconomics, and ESG, fostering inclusive hubs that drive innovation and community enrichment. He actively contributes to global initiatives, provides strategic advice to nations, mentors aspiring entrepreneurs, and directs capacity building in farming innovation programs. His recent accomplishments, including securing multimillion-dollar contracts, exemplify his commitment to national modernization principles. Sgt. Wells' engagement in the National Small Business Leadership Council underscores his dedication to grassroots advocacy on critical issues shaping our world.

Previous Mentors

Jaqueline Albright, MBA
Jacqueline Albright holds two degrees from Loyola, her BBA, as well as her MBA in Information Systems. She has worked in the entrepreneur support, economic development and transportation industries, most recently leading local operations for Lyft in Maryland, supporting over 10K drivers in the region and managing a customer support team. A 2019 graduate of the GBC’s The Leadership program, Jacqueline is currently supporting early stage startups in operations, project management, and strategy.

Kerri Shea Beers
Kerri has worked in tech for over 15 years – at startups, large corporations, and fast-growing small businesses. Prior to her current role as Head of Marketing at Boomtown Accelerators, Kerri was the Marketing Director for Techstars, where she worked on branding and communications strategy, content marketing, and lead generation. Before Techstars, Kerri founded a marketing consulting firm that provided strategic marketing and communications guidance to clients, including Dell, AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco for $3.7B), Rally Software (acquired by CA Technologies for $480M), SolidFire (acquired by NetApp for $870M), and SendGrid (acquired by Twilio for $2B).  She holds a BA in English and Communications from James Madison University. 

Carlos Bortoni
Carlos Bortoni is the Principal Industry Advisor for Qualtrics' Education practice. He brings almost 20 years of experience across private sector and education consulting in the U.S. and Mexico. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia's dual MBA/Masters in Education program, Carlos has spoken at length on education and youth issues in print and live media, including CNN Espanol. He has also done extensive policy and advocacy work abroad, including with the Y20 Summits in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as with state government officials in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Kevin Conklin
Kevin Conklin is the Vice President of Operations at Pandora Jewelry Company, with oversight for operations, logistics, supply chain, loss prevention, procurement, inventory control, facilities, transportation, customer service, trade and customs and e-Commerce for AME. Prior to joining Pandora, Kevin served as Director of Distribution and Logistics for The Clorox Company’s Burt’s Bees Division, and Sr. Director Supply Chain Operations, Training and Engineering for Office Depot. Kevin serves as a Vice Chair of the Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital Foundation Board and is an advisory board member for Transportation Impact, LLC.

David Cross, MBA
David Cross is Assistant Director of Venture Creation at Towson University, where he manages the Towson University Incubator and it’s member companies, and fosters an environment of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship that includes the wider entrepreneurial community. David has 30 years of experience in economic development, technology transfer, commercialization, and entrepreneurship, including leading Business Development Centers in Georgia and Florida, and launching the award-winning Hillington Park Innovation Centre in Scotland.

Jen Glass
Jen Glass is a digital marketing professional with over 10 years of digital channel strategy, ad technology, and demand gen experience. In her current role as Director of Digital Marketing for Pandora Jewelry, she develops and executes fully integrated digital marketing efforts including all owned and paid media. Jen drives digital strategy and activation in addition to analytics, and CRM/email. Prior to joining Pandora, Jen oversaw the Google Marketing Partnership at Jellyfish, selling and servicing over 112 clients in the entire Google Marketing Platform technology stack, and helping Fortune 100 and 500 companies organize and activate their data and training in-house teams in platform.

Alejandro Gutierrez
Alejandro, Loyola class of 2012, is a business strategy, culture, and marketing consultant. He has been involved in various web companies and startups from Santiago, Chile, to Baltimore, MD, and is completing his Master's degree in the spring in Organization Development from Penn State University. He enjoys soccer, traveling, snowboarding, and probably too many audiobooks.

Will Holmes
Will Holmes is Founder of WHC, a business management and technology consulting firm serving government agencies, banks, universities and growing organizations in North America, Africa and Asia. Will is also Chairman of the Board of the Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce and Advisor to the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and the Morgan State University Earl Graves School of Business. Additionally, Will Holmes recruits for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and teaches the Baltimore Means Business Entrepreneur Growth Program. Will was born and raised in Baltimore and is the proud Father of one Son named William.

Logan Jackson, MPP, MSc
Logan is a consultant at ENGIE Impact, a sustainability solutions and services business unit within a $70B global energy services company. Prior to that, Logan was an associate at Anzu Partners, leading deal sourcing, diligence, and portfolio support activities within cleantech, advanced materials, and medical device sectors. Logan holds a Master of Public Policy and an MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance from Oxford University, and a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University.

Phil Lazzati
Phil Lazzati is a graduate of Loyola UMD and President and Founder of Capital Affinity Partners, Inc. and is regarded as an industry expert in credit card, personal loan, and fin tech go to market strategy bringing institutions such as US Bank, Capital One, Commerce Bank, One Main Financial, Lending Point, SoFi and others into financial service niches within the U. S. consumer market. He brings 25 plus years of experience across a wide variety of consulting and sales leadership positions. A native of Baltimore, he and his wife enjoy three children and are happy to be back in Baltimore attending many functions on campus while supporting a variety of local charities.

Chase Poffenberger
Chase Poffenberger is Executive Vice-President and Co-Owner of Academic Travel Abroad, a Washington, DC-based educational travel company founded in 1950. In addition to operating adult educational tours for non-profit organizations, ATA is also a study abroad provider for universities, a donor cultivation specialist, a professional delegation organizer and association travel manager. Ms. Poffenberger holds a BA from Wellesley College and an MBA from the University of Maryland.  

Allyson Redpath, MBA
Allyson Redpath is Director of Entrepreneurship at the Maryland Department of Commerce, supporting new business formation. A former investment banker, she is skilled in mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and investment analysis, with over $1.4B raised including IPOs, follow-on public offerings and private placements. She has advised on the strategy, structuring, valuation and execution of over $1.0B in mergers and acquisitions transactions, both buy-side and sell-side. In 2019, she founded the angel investment group, Citrine Angels. Allyson earned a BS (Accounting) from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA (Finance) from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Jim Shumadine, MBA
James H. “Jim” Shumadine is co-president of The Employment Guide. Prior to acquiring the company in 2014, he was a portfolio manager of private investments at Signature Family Wealth Advisors. Before Signature, he spent four years at Dominion Enterprises in acquisitions, and earlier in his career, he held various roles at the web services firms of Musictoday, InstantObjects and InfiNet. He is a graduate of Davidson College, and received his MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.

Raquel Shutt, MBA, CWP
Raquel Shutt, MBA, CWP is owner and president of Advantage WSI. Raquel is an experienced event planner and executive with over 17 years of experience as the CEO of the highest-rated event planning firm in the nation. Raquel has hospitality experience as well as experience growing, positioning and marketing valuable brands and event properties.

Mustafa Wahid, MBA
Mustafa Wahid is an award-winning entrepreneur and co-founder/CEO of TransitioningU, an early-stage educational technology start-up. During his time at Loyola, Mustafa served as a member of Green and Grey, the Jiu-Jitsu club, and the starting goaltender for the Loyola Club Roller Hockey Team, and earned his B.S. in biology/psychology. He was in University of Baltimore’s first class of entrepreneurship fellows program in conjunction with his MBA program. Mustafa is proud to be the first in his family to go to college.

David Wise, MALD
David Wise is an active advisor to entrepreneurs through his service to the Momentum Fund (where he was the first Managing Director), as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Maryland Baltimore, a Board Observer for Veralox Therapeutics, Inc, and a member of the board of the Maryland Venture Fund Authority. He has also been a Venture Advisor to The Abell Foundation, and led multiple companies in President, CEO, CFO, and COO roles. He graduated with highest honors from the University of Dayton and received an MALD degree in international business from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy.