Startup Success

Jim is a Partner, Member of the Board of Directors and Management Committee at WithumSmith+Brown, is Director of Firm Technology and Managing Director of Advisory Services. Jim has been a frequent speaker around the globe to many Accounting Societies and International Accounting and Trade Associations, the AICPA, Industry Technology Organizations, Incubators, Accelerators and others on topics specifically related to various accounting, technology, practice management and advisory services topics.

In Jim’s role as Managing Director of Advisory Services, Jim heads-up the Firm’s cloud solutions, business advisory, cyber, data analytics, info-security and transactional services initiatives for the firm.

He is Past President for the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and past Board and Council Member for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Jim has been continually named by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Most Influential people in the Accounting profession and has been named by The CPA Technology Advisor as a Top Thought Leader in Public Accounting Technology year after year.

Chris Whitlow is the founder and CEO of Edukate, a workplace financial wellness provider on a mission to give every person access to expert financial guidance. Chris works with the Edukate team to solve problems that ease the financial stress most Americans experience each day. Using cutting edge technology, Edukate helps employers provide the best financial wellness benefits, thus helping employees manage their financial stress, increase their productivity, and live happier, healthier lives.

Prior to starting Edukate, Chris spent 10 years as an institutional retirement plan consultant for UBS and Morgan Stanley, managing over $2.5 billion in Institutional Assets, servicing more than 50,000 participants.

In 2006, Chris built the Regent Crown Group, a fiduciary consulting firm, which notably provided the highest standard of fiduciary care prior to the formation of the Pension Protection Act. Regent Crown transitioned to UBS in 2008.

Chris has earned the CRPS ® designation from the College for Financial Planning in 2009 and the AIFA® designation from the Center for Fiduciary Studies in 2006. Additionally, he has completed level I of the Chartered Financial Analyst Exam and studied music and theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York.

Gregg Pollack is the founder of three area firms: Code School, which teaches programming online, acquired by Pluralsight for $36 million; Envy Labs, which builds web applications; and Starter Studio, Orlando's first technical accelerator which has had a significant impact on the local tech startup community. He is currently working on my new startup teaching software developers innovative technologies like Vue.js (Vue Mastery, Vue Mastery Blog, Official Vue Newsletter & Podcast).

Gregg is also one of the founding members of Orlando's downtown digital tech community. He's created the Orlando Tech Events Newsletter, started BarCamp Orlando, and serves on the advisory board for the FireSpring Fund, Orlando Chamber of Commerce, Canvs Co-working space, and the Rollins Center for Advanced Entrepreneurship.

Scott Ritchey is an operations and finance executive with 25 years of experience in building and scaling businesses from start-up to exit stages with experience in technology, real estate, construction and energy industries.  Scott has overseas experience with operating businesses in South America, Europe and Southeast Asia and began his career as a CPA with Ernst & Young LLP.