SPEAKERS

Prior to joining Bill Miller Bar-B-Q in December of 2016, Jim Guy Egbert led a successful initial career with AT&T holding a number of management positions both in San Antonio and Austin.  Before resigning from AT&T in 2007, Jim Guy worked within the Network Services division of AT&T where he was responsible for the management of 80+ personnel in the design and infrastructure build out of AT&T Network assets within the South Texas Market.  In 2007 Mr. Egbert then joined Roalson Interests Inc. a commercial real estate firm serving greater San Antonio market.  In this capacity, Jim Guy represented a large number of commercial real estate projects including Medical, Retail, Single Family, Apartments, Mini Storage and investment properties with a transaction value of over $325,000,000.00. 

Throughout his 10 year real estate career, Mr. Egbert maintained a strong relationship and reputation with the owners of Bill Miller Bar-B-Q managing both their personal and company real estate needs. While in this capacity, he was asked to join the Bill Miller Companies full time as President and CEO, replacing Balous Miller who has been running and managing the family business alongside his brothers, sister and late brother in law.  Mr. Egbert is responsible for the day to day operations and management necessary to run 79 restaurants in San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Austin.  Bill Miller Bar-B-Q employs over 4,500 people in these 3 cities.

Mr. Egbert, a 3^rd generation San Antonio native, received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture Economics from Texas A&M University.  Jim Guy held numerous jobs throughout college including property management and kitchen staff for a local food distribution facility while also playing baseball his freshman year in college. 

Outside his professional pursuits, Jim Guy is a member of Currey Creek Baptist Church in Boerne Texas, a life member of The San Antonio Livestock Exposition, a past volunteer and speaker for the Junior Achievement Foundation, past fundraising events coordinator for United Way San Antonio, Geneva School of Boerne Board member, Kendall County MUD board member, Board of Governors Mays Cancer Center at UT Health Science Center, Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Board of Directors and City of Boerne Master Planning Committee Board Member.  Mr. Egbert has been married for over 21 years to his wife, Heather Egbert, and they have 3 children together: Rider Egbert (17), Madeline Egbert (15), and Levi Egbert (10).

Parties to complex mergers and acquisitions and other large and multifaceted transactions may not all be on the same team, but Jeff Gifford knows how to get them on the same page. Leader of Dykema's corporate finance practice, Jeff leverages his collaborative nature and talent for bringing people together to efficiently shepherd and consummate high-stakes deals. 

Clients rely on Jeff's practical and pragmatic guidance when new opportunities arise or risks emerge. He listens carefully to each client's concerns and goals and charts a clearly defined course of action to address the former and accomplish the latter.

Combined with his problem-solving acumen, Jeff's intuitive understanding of what it takes to protect his clients' interests in complex commercial and securities transactions or when structuring, drafting, and implementing joint ventures makes him an invaluable partner for businesses.

Jeff works closely and seamlessly with accountants, investment bankers, and other professionals to address and resolve the complex issues that characteristically arise in the transactions he handles. He tailors his role in each deal to align best with his client's objectives and is equally adept at quarterbacking a deal as he is running with the ball.

Counseling clients on mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities transactions, joint ventures, and domestic and international commercial transactions, Jeff prides himself on his responsiveness, professionalism, and high ethical standards. Active in many philanthropic and charitable endeavors, Jeff is as committed to his community as he is to his clients.

Michelle Lewis is a Principal at Capstreet and a member of the firm’s investment committee. Michelle currently sits on a few external committees. She sits on the board for Hardwoods Distribution Inc. (TSX: HDI), where she serves as the Chair of the Nominating/Compensation & Governance Committee and she also sits on the Audit Committee. Previously, Michelle served on the board of Energy Tubular. Prior to joining Capstreet, Michelle was the chief strategy officer at DistributionNOW (NYSE: DNOW)], where she was responsible for strategy, corporate development and investor relations. Prior to DNOW, she was the senior vice president of Strategy, M&A and Shared Services for the Distribution and Transmission segment of National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV). Prior to that role she served in various roles in corporate development for the Distribution & Transmission segment. Before NOV, Michelle spent several years in various management and interim management roles in consulting and restructuring in the public and private sectors where she worked across industries from energy to healthcare and public education. Michelle serves on the Board of the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council, where she sits on the Board Development Committee. She also serves on the Houston Advisory Council for GenerationServe. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The University of Texas and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

The CapStreet Group is a private equity firm that builds leading software, tech-enabled services, and industrial business services companies. They’re a true partner to entrepreneurs seeking to accelerate their growth trajectory. Since their inception in 1990, they have developed a time-tested and repeatable approach to help drive transformative change in their portfolio companies, increasing their value, and successfully positioning them for the next stage of their growth. They are thesis-driven investors who identify, research, and become educated in the areas in which they invest. This enables them to deploy capital and resources quickly and with deep conviction in opportunities where they can work with management teams to build scalable platforms and drive meaningful business transformation.

Wayne Gordon is located in Southlake, TX and has more than 40 years of finance, commercial/investment banking and management experience.  Wayne started his finance career in 1981 and, over the following 18 years, worked for well-regarded commercial and investment banks.  During this period, Wayne completed debt and equity financing transactions for public, private and government-owned companies on four continents.  In 1999, Wayne co-founded Glaucon with the goal of delivering unrivaled expertise in debt and equity capital placement services and mergers & acquisitions advisory services to middle market and lower middle market companies.

Glaucon Capital Partners is an investment banking firm delivering mergers and acquisitions advisory and debt and equity placement services to privately held, entrepreneurial-driven companies with revenues from $10 million to $250 million.  Established in 1999 and consisting exclusively of professionals with more than 30 years of experience, Glaucon has completed transactions totaling more than $5 billion for companies across a wide range of industries, including Energy, Manufacturing, Distribution, Business Services, Construction, Healthcare, Consumer Products, Food and Beverage and Retail.

Paola Retes joined LiveOak after graduating from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where her main extracurricular activity was as a founding board member of Galvanizer, a nonprofit incubator for female founders. Before business school, Paola was an early employee at Ironspring Ventures. She assisted in all aspects of company formation and served as lead associate in the firm’s investments in ICON, Fast Radius, and Mercado Labs. Her investment experience covers multiple stages and industries, focusing on enterprise software. Earlier in her career, Paola held various operating and investing roles at Holt Ventures, Becton Dickinson, Deloitte, and Matterhorn Capital Management. Paola also holds a CFA® charter.

LiveOak Venture Partners is comprised of early-stage, lead investors who invest in exceptional entrepreneurial teams, not pre-determined sectors or business models. Together they have invested nearly $500MM in companies based in Texas and successfully created over $5B of enterprise value.

Micah Adams is a Vice President of Panos Partners. He is a finance executive with operating experience leading emerging growth companies into new markets. He joined Panos Partners after a 10-year span rolling up litigation finance firms that included a focus on working with law firms and healthcare providers. Micah led or was a part of the senior management team of 2 successful exits and 2 follow on acquisitions for the litigation finance platform.

Formed in 2016, Panos Partners is a Dallas-based private equity sponsor focused on making investments in middle-market healthcare, business services and industrial companies. Panos' managing partners are seasoned operating executives who have a track record of building businesses and assisting entrepreneurs grow their enterprises. Panos' approach includes partnering with lower middle market companies to build a growth oriented scalable platform that includes an active add on acquisition strategy.

Adam Love graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000 with a degree in Communications. He began his real estate career shortly thereafter at Colliers Oxford Commercial, where he was the #1 Producer in Austin, TX (2005). He has been a Partner at SCC Development for over 19 years and continues to split his time between the Fort Worth and San Antonio offices. He was also recognized in Austin as a recipient of the Top 40 Under 40 in 2005. Outside of real estate, Adam currently serves as CEO of Epic Western Cocktail Company. He, along with his business partners, co-founded Epic Western, which creates premium ready to drink cocktails. In the past year, he has built a team of 20 employees, facilitated several key partnerships, and led a successful capital raise. His focus is now on the national expansion of the brand. Adam and his wife, Katie, along with their two daughters, attend St. Andrews Church in San Antonio. They enjoy any active time spent outdoors, especially traveling and enjoying family and friends. The family also donates their time to help in their local community, with their schools and other philanthropies they are passionate about.

In 2019, after countless backyard BBQs, hunting trips, and weekends at the lake - always summoned to mix Ranch Waters for our family and friends - the founders came up with the idea having a REAL Ranch Water in a can, just like they make at home. They wanted the convenience of a beer, but the purity of a homemade Ranch Water –with 100% Blue Agave Tequila, mineral water, salt and lime, and nothing else. After months of research and development, and a passion for getting it right, the idea of Epic Western Cocktail Company became a reality. Epic Western's first cocktail-in-a-can is the best version of a homemade Ranch Water. It’s all there… the premium, 100% Blue Agave Tequila, the burn of the certified Mexican Mineral Water, real lime flavor, and a hint of sea salt. At 10% ABV, Epic Western is not your typical RTD cocktail. You will want to drink it like a mixed drink and not like a typical adult beverage in a can. Epic Western serves up all the classics from Ranch Waters to Palomas with 100% Blue Agave Tequila and since it does not contain mixto like other canned Ranch Waters, you can keep it in the freezer and serve it ice cold.

Ben Jones is a serial entrepreneur who has found his passion in the tech industry. He is the founder and CEO of on-demand delivery company Skipcart. His passion is being involved with the community, church, and various local organizations that help the tech community thrive.

Skipcart is a white-label delivery fleet providing same-day and on-demand delivery for a variety of industries. They pride themselves on their expansive owned and partner courier network, feature rich API and industry agnostic approach, while offering a scalable and reliable outsourced delivery fleet to their partners.

Cat Dizon is Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Active Capital, a venture firm based in San Antonio that is focused on leading seed rounds for B2B SaaS companies. She was Executive Director of Alamo Angels, the San Antonio based group of Angel Investors that invest in Texas based startups and was a founding member of the Beam Angel Network, an organization with the mission to advance women founders striving to scale their businesses in Texas.

Prior to her venture capital experience, Cat built her career operating businesses and creating incredible value delivering on both levels of strategy and execution.  For 11 years, she worked at Rackspace where she was a Director of Corporate Strategy & Development leading in areas of Mergers & Acquisitions, Post-Merger Integration, Growth Businesses and Staff Operations.  Cat proudly serves as the Chairman of Geekdom’s Board of Directors and is a member of the Board of Directors for Girls Inc. of San Antonio. She is a military spouse, a mother of one and is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice.

Active Capital is a seed-stage venture firm for ambitious founders building the future of cloud infrastructure and B2B SaaS.

Brandon is a founding partner of TXV. He focuses on investments across consumer technology and software. Prior to TXV, Brandon was a management consultant for Chartic and Stax. In 2019, Brandon was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to serve on the board of the Texas Chiropractic Examiners. Brandon was recognized as a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 class for 2022. He received his B.A. from Princeton. In Brandon’s free time, he loves to cook, hunt, read and explore the backroads of Montana and Texas.
A few fun facts about Brandon are: he can speak 3 languages, and converse in 5, he was on the varsity curling team in high school, and the first time Brandon learned how to drive, which was when he was 23 (Boston is a unique place), he crashed Marcus’s brand new truck..talk about a true friendship/partnership!

TXV Partners is an an early-stage venture capital fund focused on software & human performance. The health & performance of people will be shaped by systemic, holistic approaches to everyday physical & mental wellness. We are a Texas-based firm with a growth mindset. We focus on building up and investing in companies that embrace the ideals that have made Texas one of the best states to grow in – however, our view of the world and where we invest is global.
It doesn’t matter if you are building a company in a town with one stoplight, or scaling in a metropolitan megahub – we believe innovation can be birthed anywhere.

J. Randoph “Randy” Harig is the CEO of the Texas Research and Technology Foundation (TRTF) and VelocityTX. Prior to this position, Mr. Harig had over 40 years of experience in the medical industry. This includes direct sales to customers as well as all levels of management within health care. Randy has experience in sales and marketing and has held executive level positions in various businesses relating to the health care delivery system. He has been a serial entrepreneur from a young age and held positions such as president of a medical equipment leasing firm, president and CEO of an investment firm directed at medical properties, managing general partner of the Nix Medical Center, president and CEO of a regional manufacturer’s representative company and Chairman of the board of a contract research organization.

Mr. Harig served in the U.S. Air Force and Army Reserve for 10 years. Mr. Harig is a founding member of The Clocktower Bourbon and Cigar Club, an organization founded to further communication and goodwill between the senior military leadership and community leaders. Mr. Harig serves as the San Antonio Chamber representative to the Commander of Army South.

In December 2013, Mr. Harig retired and sold his company as president and CEO of RH Medical Inc., a marketing and distribution firm serving the U.S. and Mexico. Mr. Harig most recently served in the position of business development for OfficeSource Ltd.

Mr. Harig was appointed Chairman of Texas Research and Technology Foundation (TRTF) in December 2016. Since then he has redirected the focus of the foundation by forming VelocityTX and developing an innovation hub in downtown San Antonio focusing on bio sciences. On September 1, 2017, Mr. Harig changed position to president and CEO of TRTF to oversee its growth. Mr. Harig was then appointed to president and CEO of VelocityTX to oversee both VelocityTX and TRTF. As of March of 2018, Mr. Harig is CEO of both companies.

Mr. Harig is active in civic and church affairs and is a former member and chairman of Centro 21 (a San Antonio City Council appointed task force directed to promote downtown growth). Mr. Harig has been a board member of the Research Park foundation since 1985 and has held numerous positions within this board and is currently the CEO. Mr. Harig was in Leadership San Antonio Class of 10 and on the Steering Committee for 11. He is Chairman of the University Hospital Foundation, and on the board of the San Antonio Medical Foundation. Mr. Harig is a member of the Order of the Alamo and his daughters, Kay Kay and Jenness were Duchesses in 2006 and 2013. He is active in the Consejo organization. Randy is a member of the Chevaliers du Tastevin and travels around the world to meetings for the organization.

Randy has four children, five grandsons and a granddaughter. He is active in outdoor sports such as golf, hunting, fishing and bicycling around town. He and his wife Kay enjoy traveling around the world extensively.

For over 35 years, the Texas Research & Technology Foundation (TRTF) has been successfully promoting and developing emerging technologies and the life science industry in the San Antonio area. In that time, it has established strong relationships within and become an integral part of the innovation ecosystem.

In 2010, TRTF established the McDermott Pre-Seed Fund to provide early stage funding to small and startup ventures and the McDermott Legacy Fund to continue investing in emerging technology ventures.  To date, the Fund has invested in 31 small, growing bioscience and technology ventures, either through direct investment, or through investment in local venture capital funds.

In 2017, TRTF purchased the five-acre Merchant Ice complex which is located near Ft. Sam Houston. The Merchant Ice complex is being developed as an innovation center and includes an accelerator/incubator

TRTF’s primary purpose and objective is to establish a strategy centered around propelling economic growth in biotechnology especially focused on local start-ups and entrepreneurial development. A robust and growing life science industry is critical to San Antonio’s future economic success and is dependent on the community’s support of a thriving entrepreneurial culture and the ecosystem we invest in.

Our flagship initiative will be the development of physical space – the VelocityTX Innovation Center. Through VelocityTX, a subsidiary of TRTF, this innovation superhub will create a nexus of expertise designed to facilitate access to local resources which launch, accelerate, and incubate innovative technologies, especially those related to the life sciences and military missions. The ultimate desire is to have a world-class superhub of innovative activity as a part of an innovation district for science and technology that benefits the San Antonio community, the life science ecosystem, the military, and the network of partners.

The purposes of VelocityTX are to: (1) stimulate company research, development, and formation; (2) encourage economic development and attract companies in the high-tech, life sciences and biotech industries (3) improve and diversify the economy; (4) create high-paying and high-tech jobs; and (5) leverage life science, high-technology and biotech assets within the city of San Antonio and across the region.

Don Douglas serves as the Founding Partner at 186K Ventures LLP, as CEO & President at Liquid Networx Inc., and he's Senior Managing Director at Geekdom LC, Investment Arm. Don has used his extensive knowledge of Information Technology and Communications to assist companies in various industries around the world such as: IBM, AFCE, Sequa, Weil Gotshal & Manges (legal) and Boeing in a variety of capacities such as Programmer, Project Leader, Network Manager, Manager Enterprise Systems, and Director of IT. 

Geekdom Fund is a venture capital fund that invests in early stage tech startups led by the strongest founders. Our partners are in the trenches with our companies. From weekly calls to biannual deep dives, we are always looking for ways to help out our portfolio companies. Whether it be pitch meetings, talents referrals, or grant writings.

Alamo Angels, formerly San Antonio Angel Network (SAAN), was founded in December 2016 to provide the community with educational resources, high-quality deal flow, accredited investor network, and growth of more early-stage companies to spur economic development.

In July of 2020, Alamo Angels integrated into the Texas Research & Technology Foundation (TRTF) family of businesses. The direct early investment focus of Alamo Angels combined with the resources and expertise of TRTF creates a more direct pathway of success for early-stage companies. TRTF provides an expertise in their commitment for the last 35+ years of economic development.

Alamo Angels is headquartered in the VelocityTX Innovation Center, a state-of-the-art center for entrepreneurs and expanding businesses. Alamo Angels maintains a professional staff and focuses on identifying high-quality deal flow while providing educational opportunities for its members.