2014 JUDGES PANEL

Leon Chen, Co-founder and CEO of Tiff’s Treats

Leon Chen is co-founder and CEO of Tiff’s Treats.  Along with his wife Tiffany, he started Tiff’s Treats in 1999 while sophomores at The University of Texas.  Since then, the company has grown to over 300 employees and 15 locations in Austin, Houston and Dallas.  In addition to running Tiff’s Treats, Leon is a Director at Thunderbird Energetica.  He is also involved in Incubation Station, an Austin based consumer packaged goods incubator.  His volunteer work includes being the Chair of the Small Business Council and on the Board of Directors at The Austin Chamber of Commerce, Vice Chair of The Fifty and being on the board at the Foster Angels of Central Texas.

 

Clayton Christopher, Founder of Sweet Leaf Tea, Co-founder/Partner for Deep Eddy Vodka

Clayton Christopher is the founder and former CEO of Sweet Leaf Tea Company that he started in 1998 with $10,000 in savings, an old delivery van and a recipe from his grandmother.  Sweet Leaf Tea is one of the fastest growing beverage companies in the US, with over $60M in sales and 100+ employees.   Clayton is currently co-founder and CEO of Deep Eddy Vodka, and co-founder and Chairman of Rhythm Superfoods.  He also sits on the boards of several other food and beverage companies and is a co-founder of Incubation Station, an accelerator for young brands.  Clayton won the 2006 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Central Texas, the 2010 AU40 Austinite of the Year Award, AU40 Business and Entrepreneurship Award, as well as the Austin Business Journal’s Best CEO Award for 2011.  He is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization and serves on the advisory board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas where he has been a “Big” to his “Little” Andrew San Miguel for 7 years.

Dan Graham, CEO of BuildASign.com

Dan Graham oversees the growth strategy of BuildASign.com and plays a key role in the company’s philanthropic efforts and talent acquisition. Dan co-founded BuildASign.com in March 2005 and has since bootstrapped the company to great success. Dan is a winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2013 Central Texas award. He is also a recipient of the Austin Business Journal’s 2012 Best CEO Award, and was named 2012 Austinite of the Year and the Business and Entrepreneurship category winner by Austin Under 40. As a native Austinite, Dan personally gives back to the Austin community through participation on the Board of Directors for numerous philanthropic organizations in Austin including United Way for Greater Austin, Caritas of Austin, Citizen Generation and the Austin Chamber of Commerce among several others. He also acts as a mentor to aspiring young entrepreneurs, working with Capital Factory, Incubation Station and The University of Texas at Austin’s 1 Semester Startup.

Kerry Hall, Regional President of Texas Capital Bank

Kerry Hall joined Texas Capital Bank in November, 1999 as Senior Vice President of Commercial Banking and was the second employee of the newly formed Austin Region.  In 2002, Kerry was promoted to President of the Austin Region.  As President, Kerry is responsible for recruiting and motivating a talented team of bankers who are responsible for increasing the bank’s profitability by booking credit worthy commercial loans and generating deposit accounts to fund those loans.  Kerry works closely with her staff on business development initiatives and insists on top notch customer service from everyone on the Austin team.Mrs. Hall graduated with High Honors from The University of Texas with a BBA in Finance.She has always been active in civic organizations and today she serves as the Chair of the Austin Chapter of American Heart Association, and as Membership Director on the Board of WPO.  Kerry currently serves as Vice Chair of Opportunity Austin., on the Advisory Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters and Caritas of Austin where she recently concluded a six year term on the Board.

Kim Hughes, Director of Communications Austin Ventures

Kim Hughes joined Austin Ventures in 2002 and serves as Director of Communications. Bringing almost 15 years of experience in the venture capital industry, she is responsible for all marketing initiatives and communications efforts, press relations, and events. She also plays an active role in providing marketing support, resources, extensive press, and community relations for the firm’s portfolio companies. Before joining Austin Ventures, Kim was with TL Ventures and also spent several years in various positions at EDS and Alliance Capital.

Tim League, Founder and CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

Tim League graduated from Rice University in 1992 with degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Art/Art History. After a two-year stint at Shell Oil in Bakersfield, California, Tim turned his back on the engineering profession and opened up his first movie theater. An unmitigated financial disaster, the Tejon theater closed in 1995, and he and his wife Karrie loaded a truck with 200 seats, a projector, screen and speakers and headed to Austin to start the Alamo Drafthouse, where he remains as CEO today. League also co-founded Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the United States and Drafthouse Films, which has released such critically acclaimed films as FOUR LIONS, BULLHEAD, and THE ACT OF KILLING.

Jennifer Vickers, President Community Investment Corporation

Jennifer has been working with community enterprises in Austin for the past 20 years. Under the umbrella of Community Investment Corp., a fund she started with her husband, Lee Walker, Jennifer has worked on projects that range from environmental initiatives, to microcredit and entrepreneurial support, to livable urban space design.  She serves on the boards of Greenlights/I+, Project for Public Spaces, Ampersand, and is on the Advisory Council for the Sustainable Food Center. She graduated with a BA from Brown University and has a MBA from UT Austin.

Zeynep Young, CEO Double Line Partners

Zeynep Young is the CEO of Double Line Partners (DLP), a technology consulting company focused on delivering actionable, user-friendly tools to drive continuous improvement within the public education sector. Most recently, DLP has been focused on developing student-level dashboards to provide timely, student-level data to educators.   Prior to founding Double Line Partners, Zeynep was a portfolio manager with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation where she oversaw the foundation’s largest portfolio $150M of investments and 100+ active grants.  Under her leadership, the portfolio grew from single-member team with $9M in budget to 6 team members with $150M in investments in 3 years.  Zeynep earned her MBA from J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management with concentrations in Marketing and Finance.  She received her BA from Rice University with majors in Economics and Sociology.