Mentors: YOUNG SMALL BUSINESS

Tom Lawrence

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

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

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.

Jeff Kelley

Jeff Kelley

Summary of Qualifications Jeff is a founder of Kelley Communications and has helped companies large and startup with communications guidance, issues management, and public relations strategy. A former business reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Jeff Kelley has worked in PR and digital agencies. Prior to starting his own communications group, he served as director of marketing and public relations for Health Diagnostic Laboratory, a national cardiac lab in downtown Richmond. He has a particular interest in media and public relations, content development and digital strategy, and crisis and reputation management. He regularly contributes to the city’s Grid magazine, and can probably found on or in the James River, with his family, or firing up a charcoal grill. Ready to meet with this mentor? Talk with your Lead...
Andrew Davies

Andrew Davies

Summary of Qualifications Andrew Davies’s multifaceted interests have taken him from small beginnings in advertising at the largest agency on the island of Barbados, to the bowels of Mississippi where he helped build the ad agency now known as MadGENIUS Creative Fusion. In between, he managed to throw in some stints at The Weather Channel, Eyevox Film and Video Production and co-found award winning, multi-disciplined design firm Paragon Design Group to boot. As “the most Jamaican person at Paragon”, Drew now leads the creative team where, in addition to speaking to groups on matters of design and creativity, he straddles the worlds of print, web and motion graphics, working in concept and production of all three. He’s also managed to convince venues like the One Showcase, Layers magazine, American Corporate ID, Hoffstra University Press and the Travelling Caribbean Film Festival to show his work, somehow. He’s recently released his own DVD of animated Jamaican folk stories while working on a few high falutin’ projects for clients like American Express, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, CNN International, Gulfstream Aerospace and Anthem Healthcare, along with some top-secret ones that he can’t even mention. While those are fun, he likes to stay grounded by changing the world, working for non-profits like TEDxCreativeCoast, Deep Center, AWOL (All Walks Of Life) Inc. and CAVU (Clear Air Visibility Unlimited). Ready to meet with this Lead Mentor? Schedule An...