Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From Knoxville:

There’s been a change in the top leadership at RegScale, the real-time Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) software company that has its R&D operations in Knoxville and its headquarters in the Washington, DC area.

Co-Founder Anil Karmel is stepping down from active management, and Travis Howerton, the other Co-Founder and a resident of Oak Ridge, is moving up to take his position as Chief Executive Officer. Howerton had been Chief Technology Officer of the company that was itself a spinout from C2 Labs in late 2021.

In a social media post announcing the change, Howerton wrote that “we owe Anil an enormous debt of gratitude for all he has done for RegScale. His fingerprints are all over RegScale – he was a larger-than-life personality, an inspirational founder, and friend to us all.
As he leaves, he has helped us solidify our strategy to bridge security, risk, and compliance beyond legacy GRC by unlocking the power of Continuous Controls Monitoring. What Anil started, the RegScale team will drive forward with our focus on powerful and easy-to-use products that modernize manual and expensive compliance business processes. We are excited about the chance to honor his vision, continue our rapid growth, and modernize compliance processes by making your GRC less painful, embracing a future of automation, and leveraging AI to give analysts back their lives and weekends.

Howerton concluded his tribute to his Co-Founder with these words: “RegScale has a chance to make every compliance and risk program significantly better, just as we are all better for having worked with Anil.”

From Nashville:

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) has announced key changes in the department’s executive leadership team.

Jessica L. Johnson will serve as Assistant Commissioner of Administration and Operations, succeeding Paul VanderMeer  who has retired after a 46-year career in state government.

In a new role created by the department, Lyndi Berrones will serve as Assistant Commissioner of Strategic Initiatives. That resulted in the naming of Erin Hutchens to succeed Berrones as Northern Middle Tennessee Regional Director.

VanderMeer retired on October 31. He began his career in public service in 1977 in the Office of Child Development and served in several other state agencies before joining TNECD in 2004.

Another from Music City:

Dakota Simpson is the new Vice President of Programs at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. A lifelong resident of the Volunteer State, Simpson has called Nashville home for the last decade. He has spent his entire life in the public sector and has made significant contributions to various departments within the Tennessee State Government including the Department of Economic and Community Development, Department of Human Services, and Department of Finance and Administration.

“I am honored to join the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, an organization that embodies the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship, and community,” he said in a social media post. “I’m thrilled to be part of this remarkable team and look forward to contributing to our mission of connecting entrepreneurs with critical resources to create, launch, and grow businesses.”

From Franklin:

After a decade of dedicated service, Elizabeth McCreary is stepping down from her role as Chief Economic Development Officer at Williamson Inc.’s Economic Development Office. McCreary has been at the helm of the office since its inception. Her successor is Nathan Zipper, who is the Economic Development Office’s current Vice President of Business Development and Investor Relations.

Prior to assuming the role of Chief Economic Development Officer, McCreary spent a year building the Williamson Inc. Economic Partnership, helping to develop a five-year strategic plan for economic development and raising the funds to help support that plan through a new public-private partnership.

During his almost five-year tenure at Williamson Inc., Zipper has overseen numerous successful relocation and expansion projects in Williamson County including Kaiser Aluminum, In-N-Out Burger, and Educational Media Foundation (K-Love). Zipper was also recognized as one of the 2023 Top 50 Economic Developers in North America by Consultant Connect.

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