Dr. Bill Rayburn, CEO and Chairman of mTrade based in Oxford, Miss., is the new chairman of the board at Innovate Mississippi. Rayburn brings laser-focused experience and expertise as a successful founder, CEO and investor to Innovate Mississippi’s leadership.
Prior to co-founding mTrade, Rayburn co-founded FNC, which he led from startup to “exit” over a 17-year period. When FNC sold to CoreLogic for $500 million in 2016, it was the largest technology company sale in a generation in Mississippi, creating 45 millionaires from their investors and employees.
“We’ve spent the past year talking to our stakeholders and studying best practices for implementing entrepreneurial development services at the statewide level,” said Tony Jeff, president and CEO of Innovate Mississippi. “As a result, we’ve focused on recruiting successful real-world entrepreneurs, investors and mentors from the Private Sector to our board. And, we’ve enlisted a powerful group of ‘in-the-trenches’ leaders from the Public Sector who are building the entrepreneurial ecosystem around the state.”
“That’s a key reason we’re thrilled to have Bill leading us as chairman,” Jeff said.
Members of the board’s Executive Committee are very familiar to the entrepreneurs and investors who interact with Innovate Mississippi because most of them are participants in our Mentor Lounges and VIP sessions at the Accelerate conferences, where startup CEOs and CFOs can get one-on-one time to discuss ideas.
Innovate Mississippi’s Executive Committee members are:
- Jan Farrington, investor and mentor
- Mayo Flynt, president of AT&T Mississippi
- Ashby Foote, president of Vector Money Management
- Mike Forster, investor and retired IT executive
- Tony Jeff, president and CEO of Innovate Mississippi
- Richard Sun, immediate past interim chairman of the board at Innovate Mississippi, investor, entrepreneur and Jackson Director of the Mississippi Coding Academies
Newcomers from the Private Sector to the board including Gerard Gibert was CEO of Venture Technologies until he sold it to ConvergeOne in 2019 for over $90 million; he’s currently the vice chairman of the board for the Mississippi Lottery and a SuperTalk radio host.
Colby Lane is CEO of Veriforce, and was CEO of PEC Safety before overseeing its successful merger with Veriforce to become a leader in technology-driven workforce safety compliance and assurance.
Dr. Nashlie Sephus is the former CTO of Partpic before its sale to Amazon.com, where she is now an Applied Science Manager working on Artificial Intelligence for Amazon Web Services. Sephus is also the founder of The Bean Path, a non-profit focusing on technology education and support in Jackson.
Other Private Sector board members who remain in their positions are Barry Cannada, chairman of the business department at Butler Snow law firm; Greg Cronin, president and CEO of Charter Bank in Biloxi. Miss; Dave Dennis, president of Specialty Contractors & Associates in Gulfport, Miss; Mark Henderson, co-founder of Loglinear Group, LLC and Lazy Magnolia Brewery in Kiln, Miss; and Brad McMullan, president of BFAC.com.
The board also welcomes an entirely new slate of Public Section members to its ranks. These are academic leaders directly involved in entrepreneurial development and technology transfer in Mississippi’s centers of higher learning.
Allyson Best (University of Mississippi), Dr. Almesha Campbell (Jackson State University), Jeremy Clay (Mississippi State University), and Dr. Brian Cuevas (University of Southern Mississippi) are directors of technology development and/or technology transfer at their respective universities. They’re joined by Dr. Rachel DeVaughn, curriculum specialist with the Mississippi Community College Board and Kim Gallaspy, assistant commissioner for government relations with Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.
“Many of our new board members were part of the outside team that helped us reevaluate who should be on our board and what sort of expertise should be represented,” Jeff said. “I’m thrilled that several of them got excited about the new direction and decided to join us to further that mission. Their expertise and positioning in Mississippi’s entrepreneurial ecosystem will be invaluable.”
Visit https://www.innovate.ms/board/ to learn more about Innovate Mississippi’s board of directors.
