Advisory Council

Rick started PurFoods in 1999 and has grown the company to over 1000 Employees. Under his leadership, this high growth company is averaging a 26% increase in sales per year. PurFoods makes fully prepared, nutritionally specific refrigerated meals, delivered to homes nationwide.

Dr. Vlad Coric is the CEO and Director of Biohaven Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: BHVN). Vlad led the company in its’ initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange and has raised over $1.5 B in financing since the company’s inception. He was the Ernst & Young New York Region Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Award Winner and is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

Co-Founder, CFO/CAO of ettain group Inc. Led the company from a start-up Charlotte-based IT Staffing firm to a nationally recognized IT Staffing and Solutions company.

Owner and President of DiRusso Electric, a full service electrical contracting company based in NYC. Owner and Managing Partner at T&D Management, a real estate management & development company that owns and manages real estate in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.

Cofounder and CEO of flourFLOWER and owner of Carolina Fernandez Creative: artist, author, social entrepreneur.

Pinn High Capital, LLC managing partner and founder. He previously was one of five who founded Plexus Capital, LP and has served in management capacity at various investment banking firms. He serves as a Board Member of Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County. He enjoys golf, hunting, fishing, hiking, and snow skiing and is a 2-time Ironman finisher.

Founder of The Well Appointed House, LLC. Melissa Hawks brought her early experience in publishing, advertising, global branding, new business and finance together and successfully built one of the first home decor e-commerce shopping destinations, online since 2001. She held various roles at Hearst Publishing, D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B), Grey Advertising and Foote Cone & Belding. She is on the WCS Council for the Wildlife Conservation Society, has been a trustee of the Greenwich Historical Society, on the Executive Board for the Wall Street Tennis Challenge and been involved for many years at the American Museum of Natural History.

Michael Heffernan is the Founder and Chairman of Collegium Pharmaceutical (COLL), a publicly-traded pharmaceutical company that he founded that is focused on developing and commercializing products for the treatment of chronic pain and related disorders. He served as its President and CEO from company inception until June 2018. Mr. Heffernan recently co-founded Avenge Bio, Inc., an immuno-oncology company that he is actively managing and serves on the board.

Jack Huffard is an accomplished start-up and growth software company executive with more than 20 years of executive leadership, go-to-market, operational and strategic planning experience. Jack has the rare perspective of taking a company from founding through IPO and beyond. Jack co-founded Tenable, Inc (NASDAQ: TENB) in 2002 and currently serves on Tenable’s Board of Directors. He has served on Tenable’s Board of Directors since the co-founding the company.

Tenable is the Cyber Exposure company. Over 40,000 organizations around the globe rely on Tenable to understand and reduce cyber risk. As the creator of Nessus®, Tenable extended its expertise in vulnerabilities to deliver Tenable.io®, the world’s first platform to see and secure any digital asset on any computing platform. Tenable customers include more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500, more than 40 percent of the Global 2000 and large government agencies.

He served as COO of Tenable from 2018 to 2019. From founding until 2018, Jack served as President and COO. Jack was responsible for driving Tenable’s global corporate strategy and organizational growth. Tenable was bootstrapped during its first decade. In 2012, he led the raise of its Series A round of $50M from Accel Partners. In 2015, he led Tenable through its Series B funding round which was, at the time, the largest capital raise for a private cybersecurity company. He then helped take the company public in 2018 in one of the largest raises for a U.S. listed security company since 2013. Before co-founding Tenable in 2002, he was the Director of Corporate Development for Enterasys Networks. Prior to Enterasys, he held various management and sales positions at John Hancock and Marriott.

Mr. Huffard currently also serves the Board of Directors of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC),  Immersive Labs, Ltd. (Chairman), Strivacity, Inc. (Exec Chairman), and Nivelo Tech. Mr. Huffard was also appointed by the White House as a member of NSTAC (National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee) in 2020, an advisory committee that provides advice to the President on our Nation’s critical national security and emergency preparedness. He also is a member of the Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator. As an advocate for entrepreneurial leadership education, he sits on the on the Washington and Lee University Williams School Board of Advisors and the NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) Advisory Board.

Mr. Huffard received the 2013 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for defense and security. He holds a BS from Washington and Lee University ‘90 and a MBA from Babson College ‘00.

Jack lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife, Katie, and their three teenage sons.

20 years of experience as a corporate attorney from Wall Street to start-ups. Currently CEO & Chief Strategist of Zizi Strategies, formerly General Counsel of Upside Business Trave , General Counsel of Virgin Mobile Latin America and Associate General Counsel of Kerzner International (who operated Atlantis and One&Only hotels).

Independent Board Director for Nu Skin Enterprises. A seasoned executive having spent her career in the media field working for several industry leaders including BBDO, Grey Advertising, NBC, Fox Broadcasting in its infancy, as well as Disney for the last twenty years. In her most recent role at Disney Ad Sales, she worked to streamline business operations and embraced the need for advanced ad technology to enable data-driven sales capabilities.

Founder/Managing Partner of NYC-based Pilot Mountain Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm. Formerly Managing Director at Deutsche Bank and Senior Consultant at Accenture. Wake Forest (BA ’91) and Harvard Business School (MBA ’98).

Co-founder and owner of Millennium Restaurant Group, Inc. For over 25 years Guy has owned and operated multiple hospitality concepts including Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ and Splitsville Luxury Lanes. Splitsville now boasts locations at Disney Springs in Orlando, FL and a west coast flagship at the Downtown Disney District in Anaheim. In addition to his responsibilities as a managing partner, Mr. Revelle is primarily involved in directing the marketing and promotional efforts, oversight of concept brand and interior design and the ongoing nurturing of company culture.

President of Apartments.com, a CoStar Group, Inc. company in Atlanta, Georgia. Former President of LoopNet.com and CEO of Cityfeet.com.

President and CEO of Ciena, Gary has led the networking company from $300 million in annual revenue to more than $3 billion. Gary is a member of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, and serves on the board of directors for CommVault Systems.

Eric Storch is the Managing Director at Oak Hill Advisors.

Eric Storch shares responsibility for investment product development and client coverage. Prior to joining OHA, Mr. Storch was a Managing Director and Co-Head of Marketing and Client Relationships at GSO Capital Partners, where he was responsible for business development with a focus on customized strategies. Prior to GSO, he was a Managing Director and Senior Investment Manager at Seix Investment Advisors with primary responsibility for the Structured Products and Alternative Product Groups. Before joining Seix, Mr. Storch served as a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at MBIA Asset Management Group. He started his career as a Portfolio Manager and Fixed Income Trader at Kidder Peabody & Co., Inc. Mr. Storch earned a B.S. from Binghamton University and has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

CFO & Treasurer of Bigbelly Solar, the world’s leading smart city infrastructure provider with over 50,000 solar-powered smart waste units located in all 50 states and nearly 60 countries. Jeff has a long record as a financial entrepreneur leading technology-based companies from start-up through private fundraising and into the public markets.

Owner, President, and CEO of Rockville Fuel & Feed Co., Inc. of Maryland.

Dr. David Weill is Principal and Founder of the Weill Consulting Group, a biomedical consulting group focusing on transplantation, lung disease, and healthcare-related investments. Dr. Weill has been involved in the transplant and advanced lung disease fields for over twenty years, directing programs and providing clinical care to those afflicted with significant lung diseases.