Padma Raghavan is the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation and Chief Research Officer, Senior Advisor to the Chancellor, and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Vanderbilt University.

Gary has 25 years experience as a General Partner of institutional VCs.  Peat’s primary focus throughout has been a seed lead investor in B2B Saas in the South/Southeast. Starting with Council Capital’s debut fund in 2000 in Nashville, Gary was a General Partner for 3 funds at Council Capital focused on seed and early stage B2B Saas serving health care. Prior to Council Capital, Gary was Principal at Stonehenge Partners. There he made his first seed stage investment, SecureTax.com, which was acquired by Intuit in 1999 and became Intuit’s Web Turbotax.

Joe brings 15+ years of experience scaling technology companies to Front Porch and is our primary contact for all tech-focused fund partners and direct investments. 

Blake Patton is the founder and Managing General Partner of Tech Square Ventures where he leads investments in enterprise software, marketplace, and platform technology companies. Under his leadership, the firm has invested in more than 100 early-stage companies and launched Engage, an innovative corporate innovation and enterprise startup accelerator program.

Dr. Raver offers a unique perspective on education as a developmental psychologist, professor, researcher, clinician, educator and administrator. Raver oversees all faculty, staff, programs and initiatives for Vanderbilt’s 10 schools and colleges. She also leads the university’s research, admissions, student affairs and residential life. 

Raver is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Peabody College.