Mahdi Chambers
Member

​Mr. Chambers is a member of the board. He has extensive experience in management, technology, entrepreneurship, and consulting. He began his career as a Bell Labs Electrical Engineer and manager working on a variety of different technologies. He left Bell Labs and joined a venture-backed technology startup and has continued to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Mr. Chambers has been mentoring underserved youth for many years but realized that while mentoring is important, more can be done to develop technology and entrepreneurial skills, encouraging students to develop a mindset of creating their own opportunities. He has partnered with City Startup Labs as an Accountability Coach and Business Mentor. He also served as a mentor for the Charlotte Housing Authority Scholarship Fund (CHASF).  He is also President of Jecha Networks, Inc. which works with aspiring entrepreneurs turn a concept into a business.  To learn more, visit www.jecha-networks.com.

​Gurtej Singh
​Member

Gurtej Singh is a member of the Board. He leads the software programming portion of the Hack & Hustle Academy curriculum. Mr. Singh utilizes his knowledge of the technology industry and professional skills as a software engineer, as well as his appreciation of Hip Hop culture, to educate Hack & Hustle scholars, helping them build upon their revived and refurbished computers via Hip Hop-inspired technical programming projects. To learn more, visit gurtejsingh.com.

Dr. Victor Lawrence
​Member

Victor B. Lawrence joined our Board as a Member. He is a Charles Batchelor Chair Professor of Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, and Chairman of Baharicom Development Co. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2016. Lawrence was Vice President at Bell Laboratories where he spent most of his career. He has made a significant impact on the global telecommunications industry in the last 30 years. His pioneering work has improved transmission for the modern Internet, made high-speed connections more universally available, and stimulated the growth of the global Internet. His work has advanced data encoding and transmission, modem technology, DSL, silicon chip design, ATM/IP switching and protocols, speech and audio coding, and digital video. Born in Ghana, Lawrence received BSc, MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of London. An advocate of bringing Internet access to the world’s poorest countries, Lawrence has spearheaded efforts to lay high-capacity fiber optic cable along the west coast of Africa.

Terrell Allen
​Treasurer

Terrell Allen joined our board as the Treasurer. He is a Finance and Accounting specialist with an M.B.A. from the Wharton School.  He is a financial and strategic analysis professional with corporate, consulting, and public sector experience. He also has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Howard University. He professional achievements demonstrate excellent analytical, organizational, managerial, and communications skills as well as uncompromising standars of performance.

Marcus Kornegay
​Secretary 

Marcus Kornegay, has joined our Board as the Secretary. He is a technologist and strategist with 17 years of leadership experience in technology and business development, currently leads a digital transformation consulting practice. He is also very active in his community serving on several for and non-profit boards, mentoring students, and consulting with societal impact driven entrepreneurs on business model design and value capture strategies. He is a Board member of the Charlotte Housing Authority Scholarship Fund (CHASF). Marcus is highly accomplished professionally and academically with 16 patents issued, membership in the Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society, and a recipient of several industry awards. He is a graduate of Morgan State University. He has also obtained his M.B.A from Wake Forest University.

Joseph Dixon
​Member

Joe has joined our Board as a Member and has a wealth of experience leading startups as a CEO as well as corporate 500 senior level management experience.
Joe leads advisory boards enabling significant improvements in business growth, personal wealth and quality of life for member CEO's and Business Owners. He brings a considerable background in business leadership (from multiple CEO appointments), management consulting, mentoring, coaching and leadership training. As CEO of a high technology optical-semiconductor start-up company, he grew revenues over 5x in only 3 years and raised over $27 Million in venture capital funding.
While at Alcatel-Lucent (formerly AT&T Bell Labs), he grew one division 2.5x from $100 Million to $250 Million per year over a 30 month period and has managed P&L in excess of $400 Million per year. In another AT&T division, he improved cash flow from - $10 Million to + $10 Million in a single year and rapidly gained a strong positive reputation as being a business turn-around specialist.
Throughout his career, he has been active in mentoring numerous professionals and lecturing at colleges and universities encouraging students to pursue careers in engineering, science, IT and other technical fields. Last but not least, Joe has been active in several church organizations serving in multiple service ministries.