iStart Jax Business Accelerator Leadership team includes Executive Board, Advisory Panel and Honorary Directors.
Honorary Directors
Kevin Riley, Honorary Director
Kevin Riley is an entrepreneur, health care executive, business model innovator, Renaissance man, and polymath. He has spent his career in the pursuit of creating consumer experiences that drive behaviors, and ultimately actions. He has applied his skills and experiences to start-ups and legacy companies alike, across the health care industry. Kevin started Health Model Innovation Consulting in 2006 to help companies with the convergence of health care and the consumer. He founded and was CEO of a national health care retail company, played leadership roles for several national retail health start-ups, and served as the first Chief Innovation Officer of a major insurance plan. Kevin holds a Masters of Business in entrepreneurship and marketing from Rice University.
Executive Board
MJ Charmani, Chairman and Founder
Specializing in customer relationship management (CRM) and Information Technology (IT) Service Delivery,Manjunath "MJ" Charmani is a Technical Leader at Florida Blue (formerly BlueCross and Blue Shield of Florida). Prior to his position at Florida Blue, he held leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies like Compaq and Hewlett-Packard. MJ served as Chairman of an Employee Resource Group for Florida Blue for which he won the National Recognition and Mark of Distinction Award. In 2011, recognizing his accomplishments, MJ was invited to the White House by the President. In 2012, Jacksonville Business Journal chose him for their "Jacksonville’s 40 Under 40 - Class of 2012" list, which honors Northeast Florida’s brightest and most-promising professionals. MJ also serves on the State-wide Steering committee of Startup Florida, a regional affiliate of Startup America and as the President of Indo-US Chamber of Commerce North East Florida.
Daniel Fanger, Director
Daniel Fanger is a Jacksonville native that started out as an institutional investment broker with Merrill Lynch where he obtained his series 7 & 66 licenses. He later joined a high net-worth firm in Ponte Vedra as a registered investment advisor where he managed over 200m Dollars in assets, specializing in alternative investments such as limited partnerships and trusts. During this time he completed his MBA in finance at UNF and obtained his series 24 license. Most recently Daniel has joined JEA as their financial markets specialist and oversees their 6 Billion Dollars fixed and variable debt portfolio, manages swaps and cash investment, and strategizes financing structures to meet the 2 Billion Dollars Utility's needs. Currently Daniel is active with the Association of Corporate Growth, Meninak, iStart, Indo-Chamber of Commerce, and the Freemasons. He aspires to help his community through empowering entrepreneurs to achieve their goals while minimizing the headaches of financing and operations with a foundation of trust.
Ujwala Rangole, Director
Ujwala Rangole is the Executive director of iStart Jax. Ujwala has over 20 years of broad IT experience in People and Project Management, Strategy, Architecture and Global delivery models. Ujwala is known for her high energy, passion, strong leadership and organizational skills. Ujwala supports various non-profit organizations like Muscular Dystrophy Association, United Way, Ekal Vidyalay and many more.
Sheena Koshy, Director
Sheena Koshy is a social media enthusiast. She specializes in leveraging marketing campaigns for companies in this brave new world of social media opportunities. In her 10+ years in marketing communications, she has worn many hats like staff writer for a Dubai based newspaper, PBS producer in Missouri, social media specialist. These experience have helped her gain a unique perspective on what makes a brand work. When she is not tweeting or checking out new social media spaces, she works at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida as a Communications Specialist.
Dr. Carlton Robinson, Director
Dr. Carlton Robinson is a social entrepreneur in Northeast Florida. Carlton has developed a number of models toward innovation in the area of small business and entrepreneurship. As a member of multiple chambers of commerce he has contributed to the development of mobile applications for small business and a virtual chamber of commerce for small business support (http://www.thevirtualchamberofcommerce.com)
Yash Nath, Director
Yash Nath is an accomplished business executive with 17 years of broad IT experience in Product Management, Project Management,and Global delivery models working in Fortune 500 Companies and currently worksas Senior Project Manager at Acosta Sales and Marketing. Yash is known for his high energy, passion, strong leadership and organizational skills. Yash hasintroduced several new technologies as solutions for his projects and programs.Yash supports various non-profit organizations in NE Florida including theMarch of Dimes, United Way, Habitat Jax and many more. Yash holds an undergraduate degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, India. Yash has an MBA degree from Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida, where he graduated as William. H.Tomlinson Graduate Student.
Brian Smith, Director
Brian Smith is the Director on the board of iStart Jax. He is a young and devoted Entrepreneur with a proven track record of success in many business ventures, most notably his company Fighter International, LLC. with it's popular effervescent energy drink "Fighter Energy" (see FighterEnergyStore.com). He served 6 years in the US Navy as a Sonar Technician and Search and Rescue Swimmer, conducting undersea warfare and counter-narcotic missions around the world. He is now a full time student at the University of North Florida pursuing his Marketing and International Business degrees while continuing to build his companies and inspire the Entrepreneurial youth nationwide. He is proud to serve on the board of iStart Jax to help his peers achieve great success in business.
