Mentor Network
Progress through connections
Connect with entrepreneurs in our ecosystem to accelerate your progress — whether that's learning about entrepreneurial thinking, or putting it to use.
Highlights
As a W&M student, faculty, staff, and Launchpad member, you'll have access to this network of educational, business and industry experts provides benefits that span the spectrum — everything from inspiring emerging entrepreneurs to connecting startups to customers, partners and investors.
- Weekly access
- In-person or remote
- 1:1 support
- Hand-picked
Meet the Hub Mentors
Our mentors have been there, done that and are ready to help. They bring dedication, expertise and passion to your project. Select a mentor below to learn more about their background on LinkedIn, then request a mentor sesssion.
Erin Bonilla
Erin is a semi-seasoned entrepreneur, financial strategist, and community leader with over 10 years of experience in business management and brand development. She is deeply passionate about empowering the next generation of leaders and has a wealth of knowledge in areas ranging from strategic planning to crisis management. Erin holds an unwavering commitment to excellence and brings a unique blend of analytical and creative skills to every endeavor.
David Cassidy
David Cassidy, a senior executive with 31 years of experience, specializes in corporate and revenue growth strategies. In his 24-year government IT contracting career, he secured over $425 million in revenue, acquired 30+ government clients, grew a small business from 7 to 225 employees, and won $3 billion in contract vehicles. Dave is dedicated to supporting businesses that drive community and employee success.
Mike Descher
Mike is an entrepreneur with extensive experience in trade show and exhibit sales and management, product introduction and channel development, commercial printing consulting and execution, partner relationship building, and building and delivering dynamic presentations.
Stephanie Gelman
As a pioneering thinker, Stephanie successfully launches new products. She is a trend-spotter, futurist, scientist, foodie, and multi-functional executive with P&G, Kraft, and Gillette. Currently managing director of Gelman & Associates New Products Development, she partners with startups, early stage, and established clients to identify and solve product ideation, launch, and relaunch challenges.
Scott Goodrich
Scott has an entrepreneurial spirit that's been burning since his teenage years when he built a lawnmowing service and managed multiple paper routes – a business owner in training. After graduating William & Mary in 1991, Scott had a successful career as a sales and operations executive, but his desire to be a business owner was never far from his heart. Seven years ago, he and his wife, Jenn, took the plunge and started their own business. Like many others, they spent all their time on the struggle bus – dealing with cash flow issues, trying to make payroll and handling staffing issues. Now, Scott is dedicated to helping others avoid the pitfalls he faced, fulfilling his purpose as a coach, and helping owners and teams achieve their dreams.
Brian Forrester
Brian is a marketing expert, co-founder of Genie Jar Digital in Williamsburg, Virginia, and a mentor. He teaches marketing at Old Dominion University and organizes the 757 Executive Luncheon for business leaders. With national recognition for his copywriting skills, Brian has authored two business books and a novel. He simplifies marketing with engaging storytelling and is a sought-after speaker and workshop instructor.
Natalia Hernandez
Natalia has over 16 years of experience in marketing and strategy for multinational companies in the US expanding across Latin America. Expertise in technology and payments transaction processing business worldwide, User Experience and, Sommelier. She is creative and passionate, always helping others to grow, building strong business relations, and helping this to be a better world than how we found it.
Brandon Hennessey
Brandon Hennessey is a seasoned leader in fostering innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. Prior to joining W&M, he spearheaded collaborative entrepreneurship programs across Southern Virginia. He has taught finance, management, and social entrepreneurship at Longwood University. Brandon's also flexed his creative side during his five-year tenure as an art teacher. Holding a BFA and MBA from Longwood University, he now dedicates himself to creating opportunities for students, faculty, and the community to leverage entrepreneurial thinking for transformative change.
Graham Henshaw
Graham is an entrepreneur turned educator, teaching at the Mason School of Business and as the Assistant Provost for Entrepreneurship at W&M. Graham previously served as the Director of Venture Development at New Richmond Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups.
Michele King
Michele is a Lecturer at William & Mary and has taught courses on public speaking, principles of small groups, nonverbal communication, intercultural communication, entertainment education, and presentation skills for international graduates.
Justin Klingenberger
Justin is an engineer turned entrepreneur with experience in rapid prototyping, design thinking, digital technologies, early-stage startup formation, and pitch delivery.
Andrew Lloyd-Williams
Andrew has extensive experience in web design, database design and implementation, search engine optimization, computer telephony (CTI, IVR), home automation, speech recognition, assistive technology, and finding solutions to complex problems.
Jennifer Murray
Jennifer has worked in the small business sector as a Human Resource Consultant - initially providing competitive benefit packages, HR process automation, and human resource support to small businesses in a wide range of industries. More recently, she has leveraged her background to help organizations compete for top talent by strengthening their employee value proposition, increasing employee engagement, and implementing policies and programs that reduce employee turnover.
Tom Powell
Tom Powell, the visionary behind The Addison Group, a marketing and advertising powerhouse, has reshaped industry standards since its inception in 1996. In 2019, he co-founded Genie Jar Digital in Williamsburg with Brian Forrester. With a long list of prestigious awards, Tom is recognized as a pioneer and a leader in the marketing industry. His career represents unparalleled success and innovation, recently crowned as one of Williamsburg's Top 15 Under 50.
William Raymond
Over 30 years experience in the residential home service industry (plumbing, heating, cooling and electric service and replacement) as a business owner, general manager, business coach and master trainer. Expertise in leadership, management, training content creation, coaching and public speaking.
Rebecca Scheetz
Rebecca is an Operations Expert who is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs in gaining clarity, direction, and a creating plan. She understands no matter how hard you try, you can't (and shouldn't) do it all. With that, through her business, The 25th Hour, she supports leaders as they leverage their time and tap into its abundance through strategic planning, operational efficiency, and project & team leadership.
Asher Smith-Rose
Asher has experience taking ideas from concept to launch at two Fortune 500 innovation labs. As a product manager with an eye for design, he specializes in coaching students on user research and launch strategy. Asher has worked at Capital One’s innovation Lab, Audi’s Innovation Lab, and Map My Customers.
Adam Stackhouse
Adam Stackhouse is a Emmy-award winning multimedia and event producer, and co-owner of AVAdventure, a Williamsburg production company. Since 2011, Adam and his AVAdventure business partner Liz Sykes have produced a variety of live events, interactive installations, and promotional videography work for city governments, universities, corporate clients, and non-profit organizations.
Terry Walker
Terry is a business development strategist with experience in team-building, change management, entrepreneurship, sales process, execution, negotiations, CRM, and e-commerce. His areas of expertise include sales, marketing, web-based marketing, finance, and warehouse and distribution operations.
Cody Watson
Cody is a marketing leader with a background in developing award-winning, tactical and targeted marketing campaigns, marrying data-driven marketing operations with innovative creative treatments. He brings years of agency experience in client services, project management, and creative strategy.
Bill Woodward
Bill has a background in product merchandising as well as product development and has over 30 years of product experience within retail big box, e-commerce, & distribution. Bill has worked for Lowe’s as Director of Merchandising and is currently the Sr. Product Category Manager with Ferguson Enterprises.
Mike Zung
Michael Zung is the CEO and Founder of Bloomist, a sustainable direct to consumer home décor brand. His background is in internet marketing, ecommerce, and finance. He was an early employee of internet ad pioneer DoubleClick, now Google. He also started and sold his own digital ad agency and managed internet banking for HSBC. He also mentors start-ups at NY’s leading tech accelerator, ERA.
