FOUNDERS FORUM, INC.
MELBOURNE, FLORIDA

THE LEGACY OF FOUNDERS FORUM THE LEGACY OF FOUNDERS FORUM The Mission of Founders Forum is to Inspire, Educate and Connect Entrepreneurs. Founders Forum was established in 1985 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the needs of entrepreneurs within Brevard County, Florida. Originally a forum where new businesses could meet with funding sources and potential investors, Founders Forum has evolved into an educational and networking organization where entrepreneurs can learn from and build relationships with many of the regions’ most successful business leaders. As part of our mission, Founders Forum seeks out and honors business excellence within our community through our Founder of the Year Award, as well as presentations and moderated panel discussions with accomplished local business men and women discussing issues important to today’s entrepreneur. businesses: 2016: Bryan and Donna Scott, Barn Light Electric Company and Playalinda Brewing Company The Founders Forum Board is comprised of business and community leaders from across the Space Coast. The make up of the Board is engineered to represent the interests and best practices of a wide range of industries. For a list of current Board members, click Christine Thompson is the Business Development Executive for Carr, Riggs and Ingram CPAs covering all of East Central Florida. Her philosophy for business growth is to be a “people connector” and a “success resource” to help local businesses to grow and thrive. She was formerly in charge of Business Development and Marketing for Hayworth, Chaney and Thomas, PA an Intellectual Property, Corporate and Personal Injury law firm in the Central Florida area. She has owned two successful businesses of her own. Christine founded Hip Hop Hooray, Inc. in 2000, developed and then sold it in 2006. Hip Hop Hooray, Inc. continues to grow in the South Florida area today. She then started Personal Assistant for a Day, Inc. which grew and eventually led to her position at the law firm. She is a Florida native and has a passion to help our local economy flourish. Lee Garner is President of Lee Garner, CPA in Melbourne, Florida. He has been a Florida Certified Public Accountant since 1992 and has experience in both public and private accounting for small and medium sized businesses as well as individuals. His company provides on-going advising for business and personal financial development and growth, spending, accounting, tax planning as well as tax preparation.Lee received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Central Florida. In addition to Founders Forum, he is a member of the Community Advisory Board of WFIT Radio and has served on many nonprofit boards throughout his business career. He also leads seminars through the Small Business Development Center at Eastern Florida State College on small business tax and accounting issues. Moses is Chief Operating Officer at American Services Technology, Inc. (ASTI). He oversees business and program operations, provides day-to-day leadership, develops operational and strategic policies, and serves as a complementary asset to the CEO. Since 1995, ASTI has delivered world-class mission support services to government and private sector clients nation-wide. ASTI’s portfolio of capabilities include logistics support, facilities maintenance and support services, and base operations support services. A Cut Above Video Productions, Inc. Bill Williams grew up on Long Island and received an electrical engineering degree from New York University. His early career fulfilled one of his childhood dreams of becoming a scientist and working on rockets after he worked as a missile guidance engineer for General Electric at Lockheed in Sunnyvale California & Cape Canaveral and Martin Marietta in Orlando. Another childhood dream was to be in the television or movie business, and in 1988 he started A Cut Above Video Productions. A Cut Above provides production of advertising placed in movie theaters, television and the web, instructional and informational videos, and marketing videos. As a business owner Bill has been involved in the Space Coast community with long term involvement as a leader and member within the American Advertising Federation – Space Coast, Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast, Melbourne Regional Chamber of East Central Florida, International Television Association (now Media Communications Association – International), Florida Motion Picture & Television Association (and other independent filmmaking groups), Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival, and Founders Forum. His passion is to develop simple solutions to solve complex problems; to help his clients and partners produce results for their business online. Joshua is involved in many areas of business and entrepreneurship in the marketing world with ownership of and in multiple companies. He is also proud to sit on the board of directors for Founders Forum. He believes in always doing the best he can in everything he does and likes to quote Colossians 3:23 - "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord..." Built and developed a multi-million dollar business in the Melbourne area while raising a family and serving on various church committees, charitable organizations and other community projects. Strong engineering and quality assurance background allows unique understanding of building processes and materials to assure quality processes and products. Areas of ability and oversight include multimillion dollar building projects…land development….core management…product and market direction…new direct sales…customer satisfaction…pre-sales support that carries beyond the end of projects. Michael Crown is Founder and President of FracTEL, a nationwide provider of next-generation telecommunications services for businesses. A serial entrepreneur, he has been a founding member of numerous Space Coast based startups, including two resulting in exits to Fortune 500 acquirers. An experienced manager, he has served in multiple executive roles including CTO, COO, and CEO. Michael began his career at General Electric as a Software Engineer, and remains a technologist at heart. In addition to Founders Forum, Michael works to support entrepreneurship as a Space Coast Tech Council Committee Chairman, a member of the EDC Innovation Council, and as a TrepHub mentor. He was recently selected as "One to Watch in 2015" by Space Coast Business magazine.