Meet Our Mentors
Bob Smith
High Tech manufacturing, international operations, mergers and acquisitions
Ray Crumbley
Ray is an expert in manufacturing, engineering and quality, product development, business operations, business planning. Also has experience with productivity consulting in food products, wood products, pulp & paper, plastics and minerals industries. He is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and also Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.
Steve Lucchi
Restaurant startup and operation, sales, computer information systems
Tim Zimmerman
Tim Zimmerman started his first business in the industrial rubber fabrication/distribution industry at the age of 23 with his wife and one other employee. His business acumen allowed him to hone his skills in sales, accounting, fabrication, distribution, customer service, and employee retention which helped him grow that business to over 160 employees in a 25 year span. He has a wide range of experience in the day to day running of a successful business and currently owns a small business in Little Rock, AR.
Wayne Crolley
I bring over 30 years of experience to this project, in the areas of leadership, technology and intellectual property development and in business to business and business to government markets. From my technology roles, I bring experience of analyzing customers’ strategic and tactical needs, which I translated into technical and operational requirements for multi-million-dollar solutions. My experience with reading, analyzing and responding to Request for Proposals from customers will be beneficial in developing the set of Requests for Quotes associated with this project. I also have extensive experience with product development and marketing of global voice, collaboration, and complex network solutions, as well as their supporting processes and operational models. I have extensive experience in product marketing, presenting the strategic and operational value of global-scale technology solutions to managers and executives from many countries. I currently hold 21 patents for various technology ranging from location-based systems, to “Internet of Things” endpoints, to data encryption systems. In my 20 years in a leadership role as an Area Manager for AT&T, I have been assigned to the management of existing teams for their redesign to achieve peak efficiency and effectiveness as well as been assigned by senior leadership to recruit for and built new teams that supported global technology solutions. The majority of resources I managed were highly skilled, deeply technical resources such as system engineers and service operation architects, who developed complex solution designs in support of Fortune 100 customers.
Rudy Woodward
Rudy is an Information Technology (IT) professional and Six Sigma Black Belt specializing in project management, information technology strategy, disaster recovery, change management, software implementations, business strategy and process improvement. He worked nine years at NASA Johnson Space Center in the International Space Station Program in the strategic operations directorate and was the sole IT liaison to international partner contacts in Russia, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Canada. He has managed several large software implementations, software upgrades, planned & executed disaster recovery, and data center moves for NASA and private industry companies. Some of the software implementations and upgrades: Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Microsoft CRM, and Ultimate Software’s UltiPro.
Rob Castleberry
Financial leader with 25+ years of hands on advanced experience in all aspects of financial planning (budgeting and forecasting) and analysis, stakeholder reporting, risk management, business valuations, M&A, Demonstrated leadership in ERP system implementations, project management, and Key Performance Indicators. Leadership in managing legal entity footprint for operational and tax savings, addition to establishing foreign legal entities. Sectors include Aerospace, Consumer Goods, Manufacturing, Construction, Oil and Gas, Automotive, Distribution, among others.
Brian Kutsch
Brian’s professional background involves creating impactful and profitable programming. He is currently the conservation education curator at the Little Rock Zoo and is also active with groups focused on areas such as education, diversity and inclusion and business development. He serves on the board of the Arkansas STEM Coalition, the board of the Little Rock Regional Chamber’s (LRRC) young professionals program Create Little Rock, the LRRC Diversity and Inclusion Committee, as a member of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Rock Star program and on the planning committee for the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Sunday Soup Sunday fundraiser.
Jeff Weidauer
Jeff has been involved in food retail for nearly four decades, starting out in stores and later running advertising for a 2,500-store chain. He has experience in operations, marketing, strategy, and holds several patents. He is currently a career coach and owns a marketing and strategy consulting business in Central Arkansas.
Sesha Krishnamachari
Sesha is a biomedical research scientist involved in studying neurodegenerative diseases. His interest in promoting small business and support local entrepreneurs led him to volunteer with SCORE.