Team

Jim Ballard serves on the Advisory Board of Fortitude Advisors. He has had a distinguished 35-year career as a senior executive, entrepreneur and investor. Mr. Ballard currently serves as the Chairman of Firstox Labs, a biotech company that offers a proprietary, minimally invasive method of blood testing for a variety of applications. He is also an active investor in a variety of technology and tech-enabled businesses.

Prior to Firstox, Mr. Ballard was a significant investor in, and Vice Chairman of Smart Start, a leading provider of ignition interlock systems which he helped grow from a few million in sales to the global leader in the industry, with over $100 million in revenue. He joined Smart Start as Chief Operating Officer in 1994, was promoted to President and COO in 2000, CEO in 2013 and Vice Chairman in 2015. At Smart Start, Mr. Ballard was instrumental in the design, development and launch of the company’s technology and products. He also led the company through multiple strategic and financing transactions, including a successful sale to leading private equity firm, Abry Partners.

Mr. Ballard joined Smart Start after eight years with Pearle Vision Corp., working in manufacturing operations, retail and manufacturing financial analysis, and purchasing. He moved quickly up the ranks and through multiple departments at Pearle Vision, gaining a breadth of operational experience that proved to be a valuable foundation for his later career.

Mr. Ballard has served on multiple corporate and non-profit boards over the course of his career. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the University of Texas, and his MBA in International Business from the University of Dallas.

Paul Beverly serves on the Advisory Board of Fortitude Advisors. Mr. Beverly has a 30+ year track record of leading and growing dynamic technology businesses. Most recently he served as President of Gemalto where he led the Identity & Biometrics organization. The company is a global leader in digital security solutions to enterprises, major telecoms, financial institutions and government agencies. Mr. Beverly exited the company in late 2019 following the sale and successful transition of Gemalto to its new buyer, Thales, concluding in a $5.5 billion transaction.

Mr. Beverly began his career in Schlumberger as a member of the executive management team to build the Security & Software Division inside Schlumberger and completed the IPO of Axalto at a $700 million valuation. After two years, the company executed a merger with its largest competitor to form Gemalto creating the undisputed market leader.
During his career Mr. Beverly progressively held Executive and C-level positions in Product Management, Sales, Marketing, Investor Relations, M&A, Strategy and P&L Operations. Under his leadership businesses consistently improved customer satisfaction, increased sales and grew bottom line while creating a highly motivated team environment and winning culture.

Mr. Beverly has worked in numerous countries across the globe and lived in Paris, FR before permanently residing now in Austin, TX. He has actively served on numerous civic, industry and technology start-up Boards during his career.

Mr. Beverly earned his Business and Economics Degree from Auburn University and Professional Management at Harvard Business School. Paul’s main interests outside “work” are being with family, all outdoor activities, ball sports, old stuff, music, reading and philanthropic activities.

G. Steven Dapper serves on the Advisory Board of Fortitude Advisors. Steve has had a long and rewarding career in advertising, marketing and digital marketing where he is a recognized expert and innovator.He is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully founded, led, bought and sold leading companies in the industry.

Over the course of his career, Steve has worked with a wide variety of leading global brands, including Agilent Technologies, American Express, BASF, Capital One, HP, L.L. Bean, Microsoft, NCAA, Ritz Carlton, Sony, The North Face, Travelocity and Western Union. He is a thought leader in the industry and has spoken in over 15 countries on the evolution and future of the digital marketing.

Most recently, Steve was the Founder and Chairman of Hawkeye, a leading data and digitally-focused marketing agency operating in the U.S. and Europe. He and his team built Hawkeye organically and through 14 acquisitions over the span of 20 years. Ultimately, he sold the firm to Publicis, a publicly-traded French holding company, where he continued to serve for another five years as the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Hawkeye.

Prior to founding Hawkeye, Steve served as Chairman and CEO of Rapp Collins, a division of DAS, an Omnicom subsidiary. Before joining Rapp Collins, he served as President and CEO of Wunderman Worldwide, an integrated data marketing firm with over 2,000 employees across the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Earlier in his career, Steve founded and sold Henderson Dapper to Ketchum, a national advertising firm. Steve served on the board of directors of the Direct Marketing Association for 15 years, two of which he served as Chairman. He also served on the board of Big Apple Circus for four years, putting smiles on the faces of underprivileged children in New York City.

Mr. Dapper is a native of Iowa (the Hawkeye state), where he graduated from Iowa State. In addition to being an active investor and board member, Steve enjoys contributing his time and resources to many charitable organizations.

Honorable John H. (Jay) Gibson, II serves on the Advisory Board of Fortitude Advisors. Most recently, he was the first Chief Management Officer of the United States Department of Defense, being responsible for managing the business operations of the Department and serving as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense on establishing policies for, and direction of, enterprise business operations, including business transformation.

Mr. Gibson also served as the Deputy Chief Management Officer prior to this position. Both positions were nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate.

Mr. Gibson was formerly the President and CEO of XCOR Aerospace, Inc. a spacecraft and rocket engine development company. At XCOR, he led the organization in developing and producing highly reusable and affordable engines and vehicles with low service requirements. XCOR provided engines and platforms to dramatically increase the viability of space missions and opportunities across diverse markets.

Prior to joining XCOR, Mr. Gibson held several leadership roles at Beechcraft Corporation including Senior Vice President, Global Mission Support (Group CEO), Vice President, Special Mission Aircraft (Group CEO), and as Vice President (CFO) of the Government Business.

Prior to joining Beechcraft, Mr. Gibson served as the Assistant Secretary of the United States Air Force (Financial Management/Comptroller and CFO) in Washington, D.C., where he was the principal advisor to the Secretary on all financial management matters. This position was nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Mr. Gibson entered public service as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Management Reform) where he identified, evaluated, prioritized and pursued defense wide opportunities for management and process improvement. He also served as Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Financial Management).

Throughout the balance of his career, Mr. Gibson has held numerous private sector leadership positions with various companies, including roles as Chief Financial Officer, Managing Director, and Chief Operating Officer with diverse exposure and extensive experience across a number of industries in both publicly traded and privately held companies including private equity owned.

Mr. Gibson earned an MBA in Business/Finance from the University of Dallas, and also earned a BBA in Finance and a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Gibson has served on private sector boards as well as in numerous civic and philanthropic endeavors.

Lyle Green serves on the Advisory Board of Fortitude Advisors. Born in 1971 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, by his mom after losing his father at the age of four, he had a panache for sports from a young age, having played baseball and football throughout his high school years. At the age of 16, Green had his first brush with the squared circle, and immediately caught the ‘boxing’ bug. In 1996, campaigning at 165lbs, he went on to win the most coveted prize in amateur boxing, the Golden Gloves in Ohio.

Green started his career at Cincinnati Bell Long Distance, where he developed and managed a new division for CBLD comprised of alternative services to basic long distance. He then led sales and marketing for two international telecommunications providers, World Exchange and Vista Telecom. In 1998, Green was instrumental in the sale of Vista Telecom to Interoute Telecommunications of London, England. He then worked at major Hollywood talent agency, Endeavour, before returning to the world of communications with a position as VP of Sales and Marketing at Patriot Communications in 1999, a division of Initiative Media. Under Green’s direction, Patriot Communications doubled revenue during his tenure.

In 2002, Green became co-founder and Vice President of Sales & Marketing at MarkeTouch Media. In 2003, he was instrumental in the acquisition of I-Mark, an automated messaging business. Over the next 20 years Green played a vital role in growing MarkeTouch into the pre-eminent provider of pharmacy patient engagement software and services. In 2021, he was closely involved with his partners in the sale of MarkeTouch to OmniCell, a publicly traded healthcare solutions provider. Green remains an active investor and advisor in healthcare technology, and he is known throughout the industry for his work ethic, direct style of communication, and outstanding relationships. In addition to his career in healthcare technology, he is the co-founder of Sheer Sports Management (2014), a boxing management company.

Green studied at the University of Cincinnati and earned his degree in Communications, graduating with honors. Outside of work, he spends his time with his wife of 17 years, his 3 daughters and son.

Han Park serves on the Advisory Board of Fortitude Advisors. He is a pioneer of the esports industry, with over 20 years of experience founding, building and leading gaming organizations.

Mr. Park currently serves as the CEO of Payment Labs, a stealth start-up, which he founded in 2018, to provide an automated, end-to-end solution for organizing prize payments. As CEO, Mr. Park leads the team on ideation,product development, business planning and business
development initiatives.

Prior to Payment Labs, Mr. Park was the Co-Founder and President of ESS Agency, a unique event production and technology company, which specializes in video game entertainment. At ESS Agency, his responsibilities included the planning and managing of daily operations, forming strategic partnerships, and generating new business opportunities. Under Mr. Park’s leadership, ESS Agency solutions have been used by major consumer brands, advertising agencies, game publishers, television networks and video game leagues.

In 2014, Mr. Park sold ESS Agency to Turtle Entertainment and the Electronic Sports League (ESL), where he managed the day-to-day operations of the Americas division as President until 2018. At Turtle Entertainment America, Mr. Park’s responsibilities included operations of the newly-built 25,000 sq. ft. broadcast studios in Burbank, CA, where the ESL’s North American activities, events and broadcasts were conducted.

Mr. Park was active with ESL Gaming through the company’s majority acquisition by Modern Times Group (MTG) in 2015. Mr. Park ultimately exited his stake in ESL Gaming in 2022, when the company was acquired by Savvy Gaming Group, via its financial sponsor Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, for over $1 billion and combined with FACEIT to form the largest esports organization in the world.

Mr. Park holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Pre-Med from Swarthmore College.

Jeff Pepper serves on the Advisory Board of Fortitude Advisors. He has a 20+ year career in developing, selling, and implementing mission-critical enterprise resource planning (ERP) and student information system (SIS) software solutions for the K12 vertical industry.

Mr. Pepper began his software career as a product manager at Prologic Technology Systems, a leading provider of K-12 ERP solutions. collaborating with clients and developing system requirements before ascending to the position of President. At Prologic, where he was also a significant shareholder, he focused on executive responsibilities and transitioning the company from a traditional on-premise software solutions company to a software as a service model.

In 2018, Mr. Pepper played a key role in Prologic’s successful sale to Frontline Education, Thoma Bravo’s leading EdTech platform. Mr. Pepper currently serves as the Vice President of ERP Solutions at Frontline.

Prior to Prologic, Mr. Pepper spent seven years marketing and managing commodity derivatives portfolios at various firms. Before that, he was a risk manager at a large energy company and was responsible for commodities trading and other internal accounting processes. Mr. Pepper started his career as an auditor at Arthur Anderson in Houston.

Mr. Pepper holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Texas A&M University.

Clayton Reid previously served as CEO of MMGY Global, a $100 million integrated marketing firm he sold to Peninsula Capital Partners in 2015, before becoming the company’s Chairman in 2023.

Considered one of the travel industry’s top minds in marketing and strategic planning, he has worked with global travel, destination, and hospitality companies for three decades, including Bermuda Tourism, Disney, Lufthansa, Marriott, Princess Cruises and Uber. Heavily involved with industry advocacy, Clayton is a sought-after speaker and has been featured by news organizations such as Bloomberg, CNN, Fox Business, NBC News, NPR, The New York Times, and Vice News. He has served on boards including The Kansas City Zoo, Hospitality Sales and Marketing International, The New York City Hospitality Council, The United States Travel Association, Visit Kansas City and The World Alpine Ski Championships. He is a strategic council member of Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) in their global travel advisory practice and has worked with global consultancies such as Bain Capital and McKinsey.

Clayton has been awarded the American Express Steven Harvey Achievement Award for Marketing and has been selected for the exclusive Arthur Page Society. In 2022, he received the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in the global travel industry.

Clayton is an advocate for sustainability and social cause in travel, being featured by Skift and Forbes for MMGY’s global push to make travel a platform for equality and understanding.

He currently sits on the board of the Midwest Innocence Project, an organization committed to exonerating the wrongly accused, and has held board seats with other civic causes including Operation Breakthrough, a support system for children in poverty, and Watts of Love, a global NGO that brings simple lighting solutions to communities without electricity.

Clayton has lived on three continents and has worked extensively in a variety of cultures & business environments. He considers travel the most important bridge for building understanding, cultural empathy & economic opportunity. He graduated from The University of Kansas with a B.A. in Journalism & Business Marketing and studied Hospitality and Tourism at New York University’s School of Professional Studies.