Mentors: HIGH GROWTH BUSINESS
Doug Carleton
Summary of Qualifications Doug Carleton is Chairman of the Board of BizWorks, a small business incubator in Chesterfield County. Doug Carleton has been a SCORE mentor for over three years. He has over 20 years of experience in small business finance, including twelve years in SBA lending. Prior to that, he spent 18 years in real estate development, construction and finance. He has been a frequent speaker and author on SBA and small business finance, and is also Chairman of the Board of BizWorks, a small business incubator in Chesterfield County. Ready to meet with this mentor? Talk with your Lead...
Tom Lawrence
Summary of Qualifications In Tom Lawrence’s forty-year entrepreneurial career, he has progressed from owner of a Valpack franchise, to President of the Valpak Dealers’ Association, to VP of franchise operations for Valpack. As founder and CEO of Richmond-based FranNet, Tom makes time to consult, teach, and speak at the Small Business Development Center, the SBA, and SCORE. He enjoys putting his experience to use helping others who wish to start their own business. Tom began his entrepreneurial career in 1975 with the purchase of Valpak of Virginia. Initially specializing in direct sales, in 1981, he became President and the sole owner of that business. Valpak of Virginia was repeatedly ranked in the top 5% of the over 200 Valpak franchises. In 1987, Tom was elected President of the Valpak Dealers’ Association and served three terms in this position. In this role (held concurrently with ownership of his own franchise), Tom represented, to the franchisor, the interest of all Valpak franchisees, heading policy-making and marketing committees and was the chief adjudicator of intra-franchise disputes. In 1991, Tom sold the Valpak of Virginia franchise and was hired by Cox Enterprises, the corporate parent of Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, Inc. His new role involved the design and implementation of Valpak’s first Field Support program and involvement in the recruiting of potential franchisees. In 1994, he was promoted to Vice President of Franchise Operations. In this position, he retained responsibility for field support, had increased involvement in franchisee recruiting and was given management responsibility for Valpak’s five franchisor-owned operations. Additionally, he assumed responsibility for designing training programs for new franchisees as well as...
Jerry Fox
Jerry Fox is a Managing Partner and Market Leader of Richmond Practice at Cherry, Bekaert, & Holland, LLP and the Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee and Chairman’s Circle of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce.
Christopher Gatewood
Chris is a lawyer, startup founder, and tech industry guy who departed big law firms in 2010 to build better things. Chris is the founder of Threshold Counsel, a Richmond law firm with a focus on startups, intellectual property, and outside general counsel services.