Peter Barth

Peter is an alumnus of Vanderbilt University, where he studied computer engineering. After school he moved to Manhattan and became a registered options principal and general securities principal at Duke & Company before sliding over to Morgan Stanley. After a couple of years on Wall Street, he realized that he really was a hacker at heart so he moved to Indianapolis and took a development position with SinglePoint. He worked his way up to CTO then purchased a stake in the business. In 2006, Peter relocated to Greenville, SC and has taken a leadership role in the development of NEXT, the NEXT Innovation Center, InternGreenville, and The Next Big Thing.

Peter married his college tour guide, an amazing woman, and has 5 incredible kids. In the rare circumstance when he's not at work or with family he can be found on the golf course or heads down in the latest fantasy or science fiction novel.

Terrell Mills

Terrell serves as general counsel for us here at The Next Big Thing and comes to us with a wealth of experience providing legal counsel to start-ups, many of which are now successful, established businesses. Terrell has been practicing law with Wyche for eleven years and serves as the head of the firm’s Entrepreneur Services team, through which he works with businesses from initial formation, through the various phases of growth, to maturity and success. Throughout all of these phases, he routinely provides advice on securing and structuring financing through private placements with angel investors, venture capitalists, or private equity funds, or through loans from traditional lenders.

Prior to attending law school, Terrell spent eight years as a management consultant, specializing in software design, development, implementation and integration. For this reason, he brings unique business experience to the table when working with his clients, many of whom are in the technology sector. Terrell is a graduate of the Leadership Greenville program and was recently involved in putting together the Greenville Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 Economic Scorecard report, which provides an analysis of the economic development trends in Greenville County and the surrounding region.

Matt Dunbar

Matt is Managing Director for the Upstate Carolina Angel Network and is responsible for the day to day operations of the organization. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University and an MBA and Masters in Education from Stanford University. Matt has previously been a strategic management consultant with The Boston Consulting Group in Atlanta and a manufacturing and plastics engineer with Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, TN.

Robert Hughes

Robert Hughes, Jr. is President of Hughes Development Corporation, a regional real estate development firm located in Greenville, SC. He also is Chairman of South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities and serves on the Board of Directors for the Greenville County Schools Foundation, The Next Big Thing, and others.

Mr. Hughes is an alumnus of Duke University, where he received a B.A. in Economics and Political Science, graduating cum laude in 1973. After Duke, he entered University of South Carolina School of Law, earning a J.D. in 1975. He is a member of the South Carolina Bar Association.

Since the inception of Hughes Development Corporation in 1991, Mr. Hughes has directed a variety of projects around the Southeast, specializing in complex development projects, including mixed-use and public-private ventures. Some significant Greenville projects include the NEXT Innovation Center, the Wachovia Building, Cross Creek Medical Office Park, RiverPlace, Poinsett Plaza, and renovation of the Old Courthouse in downtown Greenville. Perhaps his most important contribution has been the creation and oversight of a $1 billion school financing and construction program for the local public schools.

Brenda Laakso

Brenda Laakso is Vice President of NEXT, the economic development initiative of the Greenville Chamber, which has the mission to support the start-up and growth of globally-impactful, knowledge-based companies in the Upstate through concierge service, infrastructure development, and public advocacy.

In this role, Brenda has facilitated the development of the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem:

• InnoVenture: Executive Director, 2004 – 2007
• Upstate Carolina Angel Network: 2007 – 2008
• NEXT Innovation Center: 2007 –2009
• TEDxGreenville: 2009 – 2011
• Peer CEO Best Practice Forums: 2006 -2011
• Intern Greenville: 2011
• Advocate for Legislation to foster entrepreneurial ecosystem:
  • State tax incentive legislation for angel investors
  • Federal legislation to support angel investors
  • SBIR/STTR reauthorization bill
  • Greenville business license abatement incentive for NEXT companies locating to Greenville

In prior roles at the Chamber, Brenda was Vice President for the Small Business Division where member participation in Chamber Small Business events doubled, and the Small Business volunteer infrastructure grew from 10 to over 100 Small Business volunteers. Prior to working at the Chamber, Brenda worked at AT&T Global Information Systems as the senior executive responsible for developing the global communications strategy to support the re-engineering of the supply chain strategy for the computer division. Prior to this, she also worked at NCR Corporation in the Retail and Computer Divisions leading engineering and manufacturing plant managers in developing participative management teams among employees in the organizations. Born in Texas, Brenda grew up as one of three children of a military officer whose family was stationed throughout the continental U.S., Alaska and Europe. She holds a bachelor’s degree in general physical science, nuclear engineering from Kansas State University.

She is married to Daniel Freeman, a software developer at IBM, and together they live with their beloved pets: two Plott hounds, three cats and one leopard gecko lizard.

Little known facts: worked as a firefighter while going through college; won top award for Latin American dancing during Ballroom contest.

John Moore

John Moore is the Executive Vice President with the Greenville Chamber in Greenville, S.C. John returned to the Chamber in 2009 after a two year absence to launch and manage ACCELERATE! – the Chamber’s five-year initiative to improve the region’s economic competitiveness.

In prior roles at the Chamber, John restructured the organization’s Economic Development Division and led the creation of several successful new programs including NEXT – a strategic effort supporting early-stage knowledge-based companies in the region. He also launched the area’s first talent recruiting program, helping organizations like Clemson University, Hubbell Lighting, and GE to attract world-class talent to Greenville. John also served as Interim President of the Chamber in 2003.

John left the Chamber for two years to return to the private sector as Vice President of Marketing at Zipit Wireless, a local technology startup. In that role, John created social marketing and PR strategies that helped Zipit secure international press coverage and position the company for growth.

Prior to these roles, John’s career included management roles in brand marketing and accounting and he has been a principal in four startups.

John’s marketing experience includes brand management positions with The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia and with Kimberly-Clark in Neenah, Wisconsin. At Coca-Cola, John managed the strategic brand relationship with two national customers – Chick-Fil-A and Aramark. With Kimberly-Clark, John held several brand management positions and led the merger of Kleenex® and Cottonelle® bathroom tissue into a single $500 million brand following the acquisition of Scott Paper.

John’s accounting & finance experience includes audit positions with Multimedia Inc. and Bank of America’s international division.

He is a Greenville native and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Clemson University and an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Peter Waldschmidt

Peter is an entrepreneur with a passion for innovative technology. He is the founder and CEO of Gnoso Inc., a company that researches and commercializes software products. Gnoso’s flagship product is an innovative tool named NCover (ncover.com) that helps software teams improve code quality by reporting the effectiveness of their automated tests. Thousands of companies around the globe in banking, insurance, healthcare and many other industries use NCover to manage and improve the quality of their software.

Peter’s desire to grow entrepreneurship in Greenville, South Carolina has driven him to participate in various leadership roles with TEDxGreenville, NEXT, UCAN, the NEXT Innovation Center and InternGreenville.com among others. Peter is honored to participate as a Liberty Fellow in the class of 2012.

In 1997, Peter co-founded TetraData Corporation, serving as its Chief Technology Officer. While at TetraData, he and his team designed an analytical software platform that enabled school administrators to gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses ( i.e. business intelligence for schools). During this period, he and his partners grew the company nationally becoming the market leader for educational analytics. In 2004 they raised venture capital to fund their continued growth and eventually sold the company to Follett Software Corporation in 2006.

While at TetraData, Peter served on the technical board of the Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA), a standards body that produces interoperability standards for software in the education industry. During this period, Peter co-chaired the SIFA Technical Board, the Data Warehousing Workgroup and the Web Services Task Force. He also authored the SIF Web Services Reporting specification, and the SIF Extended Query specification.

Before starting TetraData, Peter designed and built software for Geerdes International that modeled global commodity trade-flows. He also created motion control software for various robotics and factory automation projects at Carolina Motion Controls and developed control software for a 3D rapid prototyping machine built by BPM Technology. Peter holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Bob Jones University with a focus on Math and Computer Science. Peter also studied for an MBA at Clemson University.