MEET OUR BOARD
Who makes up the leadership of Startup Champions Network? Black Belt Ecosystem Builders who are dedicated to advancing the field, working to build their ecosystems and volunteering to keep Startup Champions Networking thriving.
Mark Lawrence is our Board Chair. Mark is currently the founder and managing partner of Inncuvate, a full-stack entrepreneurship-led economic development enterprise that specializes in creating purpose-built programs and places that create an environment that merges ideation, invention, incubation, commercialization, and collaboration into local innovation centers that transforms the communities where they are located. Mark is an advisor, investor, and active part of management teams of a couple of the Mid-Atlantic region’s most promising high-growth startups. He is active on the boards of several entrepreneur support organizations and a mentor for several entrepreneur development organizations. Read more about his work here.
Tom Chapman is our immediate Past President and is the founder and principal at Chapman & Company, one of the premier organizations for measuring early-stage ecosystem metrics. He has helped hundreds of early-stage companies grow and has worked on product validation in healthcare, software, government, e-commerce, and other fields. Tom is also the instructor and designer of our Ecosystem Health Challenge.
Toni Eberhart is our Vice Chair and serves as the Executive Director of the Urban Engine in Hunstville, Alabama. Urban Engine's mission is to propel the growth of Alabama’s economy by connecting aspiring entrepreneurs and established business leadership to educational resources, talent, and community.
Chris Cain is the Board Treasurer. Chris works on the front lines empowering people to open businesses by educating them on business planning, navigating the process of getting a business loan, and lending an ear of support and empathy. She currently works as the Microfinance Program Manager at Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Read more about her work here.
Rick Turoczy is our Board Secretary and the Cofounder and General Manager at PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment), Co-founder of Built Oregon, writer of all things Portland at Silicon Florist, and about a dozen other things. Rick is engaged in supporting any number of projects around the Portland, Oregon, startup community, as well as working with other accelerators, incubators, and founders around the world. All as part of an effort to recognize the work of amazing entrepreneurs and highlight interesting startups in Oregon.
Paulo Gregory Harris serves as Chair of our Intercultural Unity (ICU) committee. He is the inventor of Cohado, a flexible design structure and tool to understand collaborative and sustainable design. Paulo is also the President of Cohado Consulting, a social enterprise dedicated to leveling the economic game through developing models and vehicles for economic ascension of economically starved communities, and the Director of Ignoma Foundation, whose mission is to develop sustainable solutions to poverty. He recently launched the Black Butterfly Network and Exchange in Baltimore (more about that here).
Christina Oldfather is the Chair of our Membership Committee. Christina is an entrepreneurial community builder in Lincoln, Nebraska (startuplnk.com) and is currently working as the Workforce Development Director for Rabble Mill. She is also the Founder of the LaunchLNK initiative, NMotion Accelerator mentor, and an organizer for 1 Million Cups Lincoln, Lincoln Startup Week, and JumpStart Challenge.
Jenny Poon is the Founder and CEO of CO+HOOTS, a coworking space, incubation and ecosystem development hub for entrepreneurs in Phoenix, Arizona. She is also the founder of HUUB, an entrepreneur/small business platform that brings all your city’s resources together in one place to create more equitable entrepreneur communities. Read more about her work here.
Cecilia Wessinger is the Director for Global Community at the Global Entrepreneurship Network where she serves as the primary interface between GEN and its leadership teams in nations around the world as they seek to nurture more robust ecosystems and build GEN’s brand and presence in those economies. Read her recent interview in Authority Magazine here.
2023 New board positions at scn
Liz Truong is the Director of Operations for SCN. She has over 15 years of work in executive leadership and organization management for non-profit organizations. She received the Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) certification distinction from CFRE International and the Certified Association Executive (CAE) certification from ASAE. Whitney Wilkinson will work in a support role for SCN. Liz & Whitney are based out of Gig Harbor, WA.
