2024 GEA Alumni Pitch Competition

Melissa L. Bradley is the founder and managing partner of 1863 Ventures, a business development program that accelerates new-majority entrepreneurs from high potential to high growth. Driven by purpose and with decades of hands-on experience, Bradley understands the importance of marrying the needs of the new-majority entrepreneur with access to capital, operational training, and relevant data.

As this core community of entrepreneurs has multiplied, their need for business development information at scale has also risen. To meet this market need and expand her reach, Bradley launched the media and entertainment brand New Majority Ventures, in partnership with Kinetic Energy Entertainment.

Bradley serves as a general partner of the 1863 Venture Fund, a venture partner at NextGen Ventures, and an advisor to Reign Ventures, New Voices Foundation, and the Halcyon Fund. She is a board member of Ureeka, a small business platform company she co-founded and sold, as well as Eat the Change, Motley Fool Foundation, and AEO. She is also a member of the Milken Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Asset Management Initiative, Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women Advisory Council, Launch with GS Advisory Council, Fast Company Executive Board, Square & Forbes Small Business Advisory Team, and the Target Accelerators Entrepreneurs Advisory Council. Bradley is the former co-chair of the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was named to the 2022, Forbes 50 Over 50 list for social entrepreneurship.

Bradley is a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where she teaches impact investing, social entrepreneurship, P2P economies, and innovation. Over the last two years, she was commended with the Peter W. Gonzalez, Jr. Award for Excellence in Adjunct Faculty Teaching and The Ideas Worth Teaching Award, which celebrates exceptional courses that are preparing future business leaders to tackle society’s largest challenges and create a more inclusive, just, and sustainable version of capitalism.

Bradley received her Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and her Master of Business Administration degree in Marketing from American University in 1993.

Heather delivers strategic guidance to clients in climate, energy, industrials, infrastructure, fintech and other cutting-edge entities around the world. Leveraging international experience, she partners with innovators to define vision, strategy, and growth opportunity beyond local markets.

Her aim is to identify and accelerate transformative technologies with potential to create tangible beneficial impact in our human and natural environments.

Heather has partnered with and invested in nano-tech-enabled heat transfer fluids, hydrogen fuel cell technology, infrastructure investments for energy transition and environment, small and large (utility scale) renewable projects and platforms, and fintech and payments companies internationally – across the US, UK, Europe (particularly Italy), Central and South America, and Africa.

Heather is Director of Stella Growth Solutions, growth strategy advisory based in London and of Sollevo, based in Rome. She was part of the founding team at Sunray Renewable, utility-scale solar developer acquired by SunPower (US). She began her career in Washington, DC with a law firm advancing conventional power project finance in Central and South America.

Heather has a BSFS in International Politics from Georgetown University and a Masters in Art Business from Sotheby’s.

Devon George advises, finances, builds & operates tech enabled companies. Having sold his last business in 2019 he now focuses on public and venture investing through his family fund DMV Capital.

Fascination with technology’s impact on business and people started early for Devon, as one the final members of generation-X and coming from a family of entrepreneurs turned financiers, he grew up in a world quickly adopting more powerful informational tools. As far back as he can remember, he has been passionate about the opportunity and impact of fringe ideas, the edge of complexity, and biological metaphors in information technology.

Devon earned a BS degree in Marketing and Management from Georgetown University (Class of 2001) then went on to be an operational and strategic executive at small businesses helping them grow and develop paths to exit.

He is from Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY and lives in Bronxville, Westchester, NY with his Hoya wife and two young sons.

Eric Woods is the Chief Operating Officer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is responsible for optimizing operational strategy to foster comprehensive performance growth across the institution, ensuring that the Museum optimizes its assets and meets revenue targets​. Eric’s portfolio includes all operational aspects of the MFA including visitor and security functions, retail and food services, human resources, business development and facilities management.

Prior to joining the MFA, Eric served as the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance at Northeastern University, Khoury College of Computer Science, overseeing all financial, operational, and grant administration aspects for a college. Previously, Eric founded Paladin Ventures, LLC, a consulting firm dedicated to identifying and assisting entrepreneurs and emerging businesses in need of strategic planning, business development, operational expertise, marketing & brand management and investment capital across a variety of disciplines. Select highlights:

• He helped steward NuAmerica Agency, a multi-cultural marketing and advertising firm, to five-fold growth in the business.

• As COO of UPTOWN Magazine, the first upscale lifestyle magazine directed towards African Americans, Eric was instrumental in the development of the business into a nationally distributed publication and securing investment capital.

• Always looking for ‘what’s next’, Eric co-founded Harlem Vintage and Nectar Wine Bar, Harlem’s first upscale retail wine shop and wind bar; and was co-founder of Bitty Foods, America’s first protein enriched baked goods company powered by insect protein.

Eric began his career in financial services, first at JP Morgan and then at Goldman Sachs.

Eric is a graduate of Georgetown University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He serves on Georgetown University’s Board of Regents, is a co-founder of the Georgetown University Black Alumni Council, is a founding board member of Georgetown Angel Investment Network and sits on the board of Winchester A Better Chance.