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Panelists of the Virginia Tech Global Entrepreneur Challenge

Eva Doss has over twenty years of experience in pre-seed and seed investment fund establishment and management, fundraising, business consulting and business development both in the United States and in Europe. During her career, Eva established new business ventures and investment funds and developed strategic business partnerships internationally. In addition to The Launch Place (TLP), Eva has worked with Booz Allen, RTI International and the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. In 2005, Eva became the first Executive Director of the Southside Business Technology Center (SBTC), a business consulting entity. In 2012, under Eva’s leadership, the SBTC expanded its business model and became The Launch Place (TLP). The Launch Place is a lead entrepreneurial development organization offering pre-seed and seed investments to startups through its two equity funds. In addition, TLP continues to offer business consulting, training and office space and subsidies to entrepreneurs in Danville, Virginia and in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Eva

has an MBA and B.S. in business administration, a post-graduate Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership from MIT Sloan School of Management, serves on several for profit and non-profit boards in North Carolina and Virginia and speaks several languages.

Lisa K. Garcia is an adjunct instructor for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, the mission of which is to commercialize technology developed inside universities. She is also an NSF Program Manager at Virginia Tech where she works with faculty, students and administrators to empower the entrepreneurial ecosystem inside and outside the university in its role as a site for the D.C. Node of the I-Corps program. Lisa also works with both domestic and international clients to reduce the risk of commercializing technology as a consultant. Her clients include the regional business accelerator RAMP in Roanoke, Virginia and government entities such as South Korea’s Korea Innovation Center with offices in Vienna, Virginia, and Seoul, South Korea. Focused on the fuzzy front end of innovation and business development, Lisa has worked with startups and small and medium-sized enterprises to expand client companies’ business development and business intelligence, often starting with domestic work and expanding to international territories. She has worked with a variety of companies but

most recently enjoyed expanding relationships with EHS professionals for work with the Slip Simulator™ developed at Virginia Tech and commercialized by Industrial Biodynamics. Her international sales work includes work with clients in Canada, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and several EU-member countries. Lisa’s professional experience goes beyond business development and I-Corps’ lean launch instruction. After graduating from Virginia Tech, hear early career began as a daily newspaper reporter covering crime and the courts and eight years in development work for a foundation before diving into work as both an entrepreneur and a business coach.

Todd Headley is currently an angel investor and active advisor/board member for multiple cybersecurity companies, as well as an investor in the Global Good Fund. The Global Good Fund accelerates the leadership of social entrepreneurs around the world to develop sustainable businesses. Since early 2014, Todd has been semi-retired after a 30-year career, which started at Arthur Andersen and went on to include senior financial positions at five technology startups in the Washington, D.C. area. His last full-time venture was as CFO of Sourcefire (Nasdaq: FIRE), which he helped take public in 2007 and sold to Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) for $2.7B in 2013. He enjoys being involved at Virginia Tech. He's been a big sponsor for the INNOVATE program, a member of the VT Investor Network and an executive board member for the Apex Center for Entrepreneurs. Todd is a 1985 graduate of Virginia Tech (B.S. in accounting). During his senior year, he met his wife, Julie (B.S. in finance, 1986). They currently reside near Asheville, North Carolina and have three adult children.

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