Executive Officers

Dennis Lockhart, 74
Chief Executive Officer and Director

He is a highly experienced and accomplished executive with more than 50 years of experience across the banking and financial services industries. Mr. Lockhart currently serves as a Distinguished Professor-of-the-practice at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta for 10 years until his retirement in 2017. Previously, he was president of Heller International Group, a financial firm with activities in commercial finance in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Mr. Lockhart started his career with Citicorp/Citibank (now Citigroup), where he held various positions such as senior corporate officer of the Southeast office in Atlanta and was head of the firm’s Latin American debt-to-equity swap investment program, designed to restructure sovereign debt. Mr. Lockhart serves, or has served, as a member of the boards of directors of several companies, including American Virtual Cloud Technologies (Nasdaq: AVCT), CapitalSource Inc., Tri-Valley Corp., and Greenfield Holdings Credit Ltd. He was also chairman of the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds. He served on the Advisory Committee of the US Export-Import Bank and chaired the committee in 2000. Mr. Lockhart holds a Master of Arts from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University.

Matthew Phelan, 29
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Phelan will facilitate our target sourcing, target evaluation and transaction execution in this process. Since August 2020, Mr. Phelan has been serving as a Vice President at Navigation Capital, SPAC Operations Group, and has led multiple SPAC deals across the Navigation portfolio, including Navigation’s investment in Shelter Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: SHQA), CEA Space Partners I Corp. (NYSE: CEAS), and Tristar Acquisition I Corp. (NYSE: TRIS), as well as PIPE investments in Holicity, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOL), which announced a merger with Astra Space, Inc. and Genesis Park Acquisition Corp., which announced a merger with Redwire Space. Previously, from December 2018 to July 2020, Mr. Phelan served as an Associate at Antares Capital in their Leveraged Finance Group, where he led numerous financings in conjunction with leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, and add-on acquisitions. Prior to that, from October 2017 to December 2018, Mr. Phelan was an analyst at Houlihan Lokey (NYSE: HL), completing dozens of private equity / hedge fund portfolio company valuations on a quarterly basis. Mr. Phelan began his career as a Senior Associate at Grant Thornton in July 2016 working in their Financial Due Diligence group until October 2017. Mr. Phelan currently serves as a board observer for American Virtual Cloud Technologies (NYSE: AVCT) and serves as a board member and founder to the Noonday Foundation. Mr. Phelan is a Certified Public Accountant. He received his Master of Science in Accountancy from Wake Forest University and a B.S. in Finance from the College of Charleston.

Board of Directors

Lawrence Mock, 75
Chairman of the Board

Mr. Mock is a leader within private equity and growth equity n the Southeast, with over 35 years of deal and transactional experience. Mr. Mock has overseen more than $2.4Bn in private investments spanning more than 140 companies. His vast investing track record and prior experience managing portfolio companies within the financial sector will provide unique insight in evaluating and assessing potential targets within the industry. Mr. Mock is currently a co-founder and managing partner of Navigation Capital and leads the SPAC Operations group. In 1996, Mr. Mock was recruited by Bank of New York Mellon to build and run Mellon Ventures, the private equity arm of the institution. As President and CEO of Mellon Ventures, Mr. Mock has significant experience with investing in operating companies and private equity partnerships. In January 2007, Mr. Mock, in partnership with David Panton and Goldman Sachs, bought the portfolio from Mellon Ventures and started Navigation Capital. Prior to his roles at Navigation Capital and Mellon Ventures, Mr. Mock founded River Capital, one of the first private equity firms focused on investments in the Southeast. Mr. Mock serves on the board of more than 10 public and private companies including Exeter Finance since 2008 and Brightwell Payments since 2010, and has been the Chairman of Definition6 since 2010. He also served as the Chairman of American Virtual Cloud Technologies (Nasdaq: AVCT) from September 2017 to March 2021 and the Atlanta Mission from June 2017 to June 2019. Mr. Mock received his B.A. from Harvard University, and completed post graduate studies in Economic Theory and Systems Planning from The London School of Economics and Florida State University.

Dr. Klaas Baks, 48
Director Nominee

Dr. Baks is a recognized thought-leader in the alternative investments industry. Dr. Baks is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Emory Center for Alternative Investments and a Professor in the Practice of Finance at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Dr. Baks has also served as the Atlanta Chair of TIGER 21, a peer-to-peer network of high-net-worth wealth creators, since 2014. Dr. Baks served as director or advisor for over 13 companies and investment funds with over $1.5 billion in assets under management, including American Virtual Cloud Technologies (Nasdaq: AVCT), Peachtree Hotel Group (real estate), TWO Capital Partners (real estate), and Vistas Media Acquisition Company (Nasdaq: VMAC). Dr. Baks has a Doctoral degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Arts degree from Brown University.

Susan McLaughlin, 68
Director Nominee

Ms. McLaughlin is a highly experienced and accomplished executive with more than 30 years of experience across the executive recruitment, financial services, financial technologies, business services, healthcare, and life sciences sectors. Ms. McLaughlin currently serves as managing partner at Meraki Search Group, and has extensive experience recruiting for top executive operating positions. Previously, Ms. McLaughlin served as Chief Operating Officer of AGL Resources and President of Bellsouth’s Consumer Services business. Prior to Bellsouth, Ms. McLaughlin held several key executive positions in both operations and financial management at Eastman Kodak. She served as Vice President and COO of the company’s $2.5 billion Professional Division, and as President of Kodak Imaging Services. Ms. McLaughlin has served on numerous company boards including Target Corporation, Delphi Automotive, nTelos Wireless, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Rochester and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Her board experience also includes roles at Spelman College and Mary Baldwin University. In 2015, during her tenure serving on the board of Atlanta-based Prime Revenue, she was awarded the Atlanta Business Chronicle/NACD Director of the Year for her role as Lead Director during a capital raise and ownership transition. Ms. McLaughlin is very active in promoting and fostering the advancement of women in business leadership. She has been active in C200, the International Women’s Forum and Women Corporate Directors, for many years. Ms. McLaughlin received a B.A. in Education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Xavier Williams, 53
Director Nominee

Currently, he serves as CEO and director of American Virtual Cloud Technologies (Nasdaq: AVCT). Prior to this position, for over 30 years, he served in several leadership capacities at AT&T across multiple disciplines including finance, strategy, sales, product management, global operations, human resources, and, most recently, as President of Public Sector and FirstNet from July 2020 to September 2020. At AT&T, prior to serving as President of Public Sector and FirstNet, Mr. Williams served as President of Government Solutions and National Business from October 2019 to June 2020, President of Global Public Sector and Wholesale Markets from October 2017 to September 2019, President of Business Operations from March 2017 to September 2017, President of National Business from November 2016 to March 2017, and Executive Vice President of AT&T’s Global Customer Service business from January 2015 to October 2016. Mr. Williams received a B.S. in Business Administration from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business.