Who We Are - Accelarise

Founder & CEO

Jack Harvey

Jack Harvey is a proven growth-oriented technology executive with results-driven performance in a variety of complex technical fields including data science, social media, ad tech, mobile payments and software. Jack most recently served as President & CEO of Own The Room where he led their worldwide growth bringing the Own the Room communications methodology to over one hundred Global 500 companies in twenty-seven countries in seven different languages. Prior to Own The Room Jack served as EVP, Partnerships at TechStars juggernaut Gnip where he helped set the stage for their nine-figure exit to Twitter in 2014.

By building powerful relationships with Global 200 organizations Jack has been instrumental in helping companies pave the way for IPO, acquisition, new product launches and entering new markets worldwide. During his career, he has interacted with some of the world’s most influential leaders in technology, finance, medicine, sports, media and been featured in Fast Company and MSNBC.

Executive Team

Dr. Peter Zwerner

CEO, Accelarise Health & Wellbeing

Dr. Melissa E. Milanak

Chief Wellbeing Officer, Accelarise Health & Wellbeing

Michael Jarvis

Managing Partner, Accelarise Ventures

Steve McBeth

CEO, Accelarise Media

Strategic Advisors

Peter Blacklow

Will Cruz

Wes Clapp

Krissa Watry

Jaya Plmanabhan

Bill Hughes

Caleb Goding, CFP®

Administration

Dr. Jessica Carter

Director of Customer Success

Dr. Peter Zwerner

Dr. Peter Zwerner is a nationally recognized health care executive with over 25 years’ experience leading innovation in health care delivery. He is a Professor of Medicine and recently retired as Chief Medical Officer of the Medical University of South Carolina Physician practice. He is committed to developing novel initiatives that enhance wellness and reduce burnout in the healthcare environment.

Dr. Melissa E. Milanak

Dr. Milanak is a licensed clinical psychologist, executive consultant, and internationally recognized speaker specializing in reducing anxiety and improving sleep, workplace effectiveness and quality of life. She founded MIND Impact Consulting, putting her expertise in workplace wellbeing into effective practical applications for business executives and their organizations.

Michael Jarvis

Michael Jarvis is a proven business leader with significant professional investment and startup operating experience. He began his career in New York City with Bank of America Merrill Lynch as an Equity Capital Markets analyst covering hedge fund and mutual fund clients. He then joined the investment committee at Clovis Capital Management, a generalist long/short equity fund, where he served as Head of Trading for 4 years.

In 2018, Michael moved to San Francisco to lead sales and marketing of an early stage payment processing platform. In addition to formulating a go-to-market strategy, he secured the first enterprise client and anchor investor for the company's series A fundraise. More recently, Michael led Growth for an edtech platform in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia. He is deeply passionate about supporting early stage founders and regularly serves as an advisor to startups bringing new products to market and establishing initial institutional investors.

Michael graduated from The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where he served as captain of the Men's Lacrosse team. He also earned his MBA from Darden School of Business and is a member of Going VC's 8th cohort.

Steve McBeth

Steve McBeth is a senior executive with extensive experience in entertainment, new technology, health care and early-stage companies. He started his career at Disney and was founding president of Disney Interactive Worldwide. He later served as president of Arcus Healthy Living, a division of Wellpoint, both developing a wellness center in partnership with Four Seasons Westlake Village, CA, and working on advanced DNA testing.

Peter Blacklow

Peter Blacklow is a Managing Director at Boston Seed Capital where he invests in consumer, e-commerce, marketplaces, and media businesses. Peter was formerly the President of WorldWinner, a subsidiary of GSN (Game Show Network). In this role, he oversaw the online games businesses of WORLDWINNER.COM and GSN.COM, as well as its mobile and Facebook applications. Prior to WorldWinner/GSN, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Marketing at MONSTER.COM, the largest global careers website, where he was responsible for managing a $100+ million budget. He negotiated and activated the company’s U.S. Olympics sponsorship, oversaw five Super Bowl commercials, and helped Monster become a top 20 most visited web destination. Peter spent five years at Converse, Inc., where he became the Director of Marketing for five performance business units, including its flagship basketball line, developing its worldwide business plans and overseeing the negotiations of NBA endorsements. Peter is a graduate of Harvard University, and has received numerous awards and distinctions, including being named one of the nation’s top “Marketers of the Year” by Promo magazine.

Will Cruz

Will is a proven serial entrepreneur, investor, and triathlete. He carries over 25 years of experience in the healthcare space, driving innovation, curating deal flow, and accelerating entrepreneurs and ecosystems around the globe. Will is an LP at Edge Capital and currently serves as an Investment Portfolio Manager for SCRA, a public nonprofit chartered by the state of South Carolina, engaging founders to accelerate their path to commercialization and scale. Concurrently he's an entrepreneur in residence and performs portfolio work for the Delaware Innovation Space, a collaboration between the state of Delaware, Dupont, and the University of Delaware. His education includes undergraduate studies at Purdue University and graduate studies at the Stockholm School of Economics in Stockholm, Sweden. Today, he resides in Johns Island, SC, with his wife of 30 years.

Wes Clapp

Dr. Wesley Clapp completed his doctoral work in multiple research labs across the globe. With a focus on neuro-imaging (fMRI, EEG) and behavioral research in humans as well as research into the neural underpinnings (in vitro/in vivo/in situ) of learning and memory, Dr. Clapp is interested in taking basic neuroscience research and creating real-world applications that are brought to market.

Published in over 25 peer-reviewed journals, Dr. Clapp co-founded NeuroScouting in 2007, a neuro-technology business that works with elite athletes and delivers to them tools that deliver individualized training to specific neural systems underlying real-world performance.

Now, Dr. Clapp continues to investigate how experience-driven plasticity can improve and maximize real-world performance.

Krissa Watry

Krissa Watry is Co-Founder and CEO of Dynepic®, a Charleston, SC based software firm, trailblazing the safe connection of kids into the digital world with its iOKids platform. Krissa is an inventor and engineer. She graduated #1 in her Engineering Mechanics major from the USAF Academy and has a MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT where she was a Draper Laboratory Fellow. Krissa served in the USAF achieving the rank of Captain as the Chief Engineer for 4SOPS where she led the Milstar satellite engineering teams managing the Unites States’ ultra-secure communication satellites, including presidential networks. Krissa managed the spaceflight programs at Andrews Space (now Spaceflight Industries) where she led DoD, NASA, and commercial spaceflight programs, including the development of nanosats and spaceflight hardware. Three units have now docked with the International Space Station and her nana-sat design is the basis for Spaceflight Industries earth imaging constellation. Krissa holds 4 patents and is credited for reinventing the handle with her patented Spiral Strength grips sold on various sports related products. Krissa is now working to inspire the next generation of technologists by creating iOKids – the secure platform for kids to safely connect with technology in an authentic and social manner, all under the watchful eye of the parent.

Jaya Plmanabhan

Jaya Plmanabhan is an experienced technology and data science executive who thrives on bringing new ideas and technologies to market. He has architected and developed software solutions for healthcare, finance, consumer and enterprise markets for over 15 years. Recently, he has focused his time on building innovative health IT platforms which include connecting cancer patients to relevant clinical trials and serving the Type-1 diabetes community.

With multiple data science and engineering degrees from MIT, his architectural and data science leadership has resulted in significant raising of capital at several startups in health IT. Jaya thrives in the early stages of product development and is very successful in building complex and scalable data-based platforms while working alongside product designers and founders to realize their vision from the initial sketches to the full release.

Bill Hughes

Bill Hughes is the CEO of Education Design Lab of Open4 Learning, an innovation company that launches and grows ed tech start-ups. In partnership with the National Education Foundation, he founded and leads JobReady, a program seeking to reach the next million job seekers with world-class career skills training. As a software executive, Bill has focused on new ventures, strategy, innovation and product management. He has decades of experience advising senior executives at industry-leading multinationals on corporate strategy and partnership.

Previously, Hughes was chief strategy officer at Learning Objects (acquired by Cengage) and led. Business Development at Pearson, where he co-founded Intellus Learning (acquired by Macmillan) and created the MyLabs platform. Over the past 25 years, Hughes has held leadership positions at Sapient, Mercer (now Oliver Wyman), and CIC. Bill currently serves as a board member of Berkshire Bank (NYSE: BHLB) and FineTune Learning.

Hughes holds an AB from Harvard and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School, where he was a Seley Scholar.

Caleb Goding, CFP®

Mr. Goding is an established financial services executive with a proven track record in leadership, relationship management, problem-solving, and conflict resolution, while exemplifying a service first attitude. He has extensive experience in accounting, operations, asset management, complex financial planning, and business consulting. Over the past fifteen years, he has served as an executive and/or advisor to several privately held companies, institutions, ultra-high-net-worth families, and partnerships.

Mr. Goding is a graduate of the University of South Carolina - Moore School of Business with a Bachelor of Science degree and double major in Accounting and Management with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship. He holds Series 65 license and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional.

In 2013, Mr. Goding was named one of the Forty Under 40 by the Charleston Regional Business Journal. He continues to be actively involved in the Charleston, SC community and enjoys giving back through service.

Dr. Jessica Carter

Dr. Jessica Carter is formally trained in organizational and team dynamics and growth, executive consultant in healthcare, veteran's services, AI, VR and tech environments. She has 20-plus years of experience leading teams and delivering results in the areas of customer advocacy, corporate operations and strategy, process improvement, and strategy implementation. As an integral part of the Accelarise group, she is your direct point of contact for fast response and client success.