Leadership

Brandon Casteel is the Vice President of Sales for CareerBuilder. Brandon oversees a $50+ million overall team of sales managers and sales executives for CareerBuilder and has overall responsibility for all large enterprise clients and prospects in the Southeast U.S. He is based in the Atlanta, GA sales office for CareerBuilder. Prior to this, Brandon held the Sales Director (2009-2014) and Area Sales Manager (2008-2009) leadership positions in Atlanta with CareerBuilder as well.   Brandon started with CareerBuilder in August 2006 as a Major Account Executive based out of the Dallas, TX Enterprise Sales Office. Prior to joining CareerBuilder, Brandon spent nine years at Verizon Business/ MCI WorldCom, a global telecommunications company. During his tenure at Verizon Business, he served in various roles within the Global Accounts Sales Team. Brandon graduated from Texas A&M University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in International Marketing, and he recently earned his Executive M.B.A. at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in May 2015. Brandon and his wife Claire are the proud parents of five children and have lived in Roswell, GA since July 2008.

Mr. Lewis is a Principal with Fulcrum Equity Partners, an Atlanta based growth equity fund with over $100 million under management. Prior to joining Fulcrum in 2007, Mr. Lewis was employed as an Investment Banking Analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis. Mr. Lewis received a B.S. in Business Administration with concentrations in Finance and Accounting and a minor in Spanish from Washington University in St. Louis. While in college he worked for the Michelson Organization, a Real Estate Private Equity Fund that manages over $1 billion in assets.

Mr. Lewis currently serves on the Board of Directors of RivalHealth, MFG.com and ALS_Resolvion. Additionally, Mr. Lewis Chairs the steering committee of the NextWave Society at the Georgia Aquarium, is on the Board of Venture Atlanta, serves on the Technology Association of Georgia’s Corporate Development Society Board and is a member of the Leadership Council for non-profit Year Up Atlanta.

Alecia Maclin joined AT&T/Bellsouth in 1999 and has held various roles in Network Operations, Engineering and Technology Development. Her most recent role is a Director for Service Realization which helps ensure end to end processes are designed and tested to deliver an effortless customer experience and are operationally ready for launch.

Alecia completed her MBA at Mercer University and also holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University. Alecia is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, but currently lives in Tucker, Georgia with her two sons, ages 17 and 13. In her spare time, Alecia enjoys playing tennis, visiting amusement parks and traveling with her family.

Suzanne has spent 20+ years in management consulting sales and delivery. She has experience across multiple industries – sports & entertainment, travel & transportation, hospitality, retail & telecommunications – and has worked across all areas of the enterprise including information technology, finance and accounting, human resources, and customer relationship management. From a civic standpoint, Suzanne has served as treasurer and president of the board of directors for the Community Center of South Decatur and education chair for Congregation Bet Haverim synagogue. Suzanne has been on the Year Up Atlanta Leadership Council since June 2013 and has served as mentor to five Year Up students. An Atlanta native, she enjoys spending time with family, sports, running, snow skiing, & travel.   Suzanne and her partner, Marti, have a 12-year old daughter, Sydney.

Thomas Smith is a 20-year veteran of the public relations/communications industry. For the past decade, he has served as a senior account manager with A. Brown-Olmstead Associates, a full-service public relations agency based in Atlanta. Currently he is an independent public relations practitioner.

His areas of expertise include media relations; various aspects of writing, event planning and execution; network marketing; social media; communications strategy; crisis communications, and fundraising. He has worked in multiple industry sectors, including architecture, construction, financial services, healthcare, non-profit, retail, and technology.

He moved to Atlanta in the fall of 1999 and since that time has also worked at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Cohn & Wolfe Public Relations.

He has been an active volunteer in Atlanta, having supported organizations such as Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Kate’s Club, the Ron Clark Academy, Project GRAD Atlanta, and TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation.

He frequently attends meetings of the Atlanta Press Club, American Marketing Association’s Atlanta chapter, and Public Relations Society of America, Atlanta Chapter.

Smith is a Chicago native and graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Communications. He later received his master’s degree at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

Tyre Sperling joined The Coca-Cola Company in May 2015 as Manager, Global Diversity Communications. In this role, Tyre is responsible for building and implementing a global diversity communications strategy that includes a legacy-and-future balance narrative to drive associate advocacy, connection with the Company’s brands, performance and engagement through the lens of diversity and inclusion. Prior to joining the Company, Tyre worked for United Parcel Service in Atlanta and led domestic PR efforts for the company’s industry segments, including high-tech/electronics, industrial manufacturing, retail, aerospace and automotive. Tyre has almost 10 years of communications experience and has worked for Duffey Communications, Edelman and the Florida Department of Health. Tyre has a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University. Originally from Los Angeles, Tyre resides in Atlanta, GA.

Relocation Manager at ADT (Year Up Atlanta Alumna 2010)

Archie Jones is CFO of NOW Corporation. NOW’s flagship solution, NOWaccount®, is a revenue accelerator and revolutionary new funding model designed to empower small businesses across the U.S.

Prior to joining NOW, Archie served as an officer of Kenexa Corporation (NASDAQ: KNXA) and its Vice President of Business Development since 2005. His efforts facilitated Kenexa’s industry-leading growth through over twenty M&A and partnership transactions in seven countries. In December of 2012, Kenexa was sold to IBM.

Prior to joining Kenexa, Archie spent his career in private equity. His private equity experience began with Merrill Lynch Capital/ Stonington Partners as a financial analyst and then as a founding member and Principal of Parthenon Capital in Boston. Archie served on the Board of Franco Apparel Corp. and served as its interim CFO. Archie also served on the Board of Kenexa Corporation of Wayne, PA helping chart its path to IPO.

Archie currently serves on the Board of AIT Worldwide Logistics, Inc., Year Up Atlanta, and the Taly Foundation.

He holds a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University and is a magna cum laude graduate of Morehouse College with a major in Accounting.

Archie resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and three sons.

Brandon Casteel is the Vice President of Sales for CareerBuilder. Brandon oversees a $50+ million overall team of sales managers and sales executives for CareerBuilder and has overall responsibility for all large enterprise clients and prospects in the Southeast U.S. He is based in the Atlanta, GA sales office for CareerBuilder. Prior to this, Brandon held the Sales Director (2009-2014) and Area Sales Manager (2008-2009) leadership positions in Atlanta with CareerBuilder as well.   Brandon started with CareerBuilder in August 2006 as a Major Account Executive based out of the Dallas, TX Enterprise Sales Office. Prior to joining CareerBuilder, Brandon spent nine years at Verizon Business/ MCI WorldCom, a global telecommunications company. During his tenure at Verizon Business, he served in various roles within the Global Accounts Sales Team. Brandon graduated from Texas A&M University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in International Marketing, and he recently earned his Executive M.B.A. at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in May 2015. Brandon and his wife Claire are the proud parents of five children and have lived in Roswell, GA since July 2008.

Jackie Breiter drives the strategic direction and management for all aspects of technology relating to teaching, faculty research, students, and administration for the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.  She is a recognized leader that combines technological knowledge with strong strategy and communication skills. Her particular expertise is in aligning organizational objectives with real-world solutions and a “get it done” approach.

Prior to Goizueta, she served as vice president of global customer success for CA Technologies, vice president of technical services at PharMerica Inc, and started her career at AT&T.  Jackie earned a master’s degree in Business Administration from Emory University and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Florida State University.

She is involved in many charity and community organizations.  She helped start a non-profit, Macy’s Miracle Foundation, to raise money to fund research for a rare children’s disease. She is a member of several organizations including Year Up Atlanta Board Member and Women in Technology (WIT) Board Secretary.  In2012, Jackie was awarded WIT’s Women of the Year for small business; in 2013 she was a finalist for GCLA CIO of the Year for non-profit/public sector; and in 2014 received the Public Sector Impact Award from ATP.

Robert “Bruce” Clayton was born and raised in Sylva, North Carolina. He majored in Accounting at Western Carolina University in 1971. Served two years in the U.S.  Army including 15 months in Vietnam. He worked at Sears for 25 years holding important positions which included Internal Auditor, Audit Manager, Asst. Territory Payroll Manager, Territory Payroll Manger, National Payroll Manager, National Manager HR Administration/Payroll, National Manager of HR Administration and Benefits. Later he joined Genuine Parts Company (1996-2014) as Director of HR Administration, VP Administration and Risk Management, Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Genuine Parts Company is a fortune 225 Company with operations in U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and China and has around 37,000 employees.

Robert “Bruce” Clyton has served on the boards of:  Center for Family Resources, Cobb Community Foundation, Junior Achievement, Year Up, YWCA(Domestic Violence). He has also served on many nonprofit Capital Campaign Fund Raising committees and has mentored young professionals and young people.

Mr. Clayton retired in September 2014.

Jelissa Lee is originally from Milwaukee, WI.  She graduated from Year Up Atlanta class 4, July 2011. Upon graduation she gained full time employment as Operations Service Center Team Lead with her internship QTS, where she spent 4 years.

Jelissa is currently employed in the IT field as a Service Desk Engineer Team Lead at iVision Inc. Jelissa is actively pursuing a career in IT management and engineering. She continues to pursue her passion of motivating and speaking with several non-profits to bring awareness, opportunity, and motivation to young women in the technology industry.

She attended and graduated from Georgia Military College with an Associates of Science degree in Information Technology.  She is currently enrolled at Georgia State University as a JR, completing her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems in Business. In her spare time she enjoys playing basketball, motivational speaking, video games, and spending time with family.

As Chief Technology Officer, Edwin Marcial led the technology success of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) as it grew from a 6 person start-up to a $22 billion dollar market capitalization within 15 years. It was his technical vision and design of an Internet based commodity trading system that would evolve to become the ICE trading platform.  In 2005, ICE had one of the largest IPOs in Georgia history, and in 2013, ICE purchased the New York Stock Exchange to become the second largest operator of financial markets in the world. Mr. Marcial’s greatest achievement however is the creation of arguably one of the most talented and effective technology teams in the country. This team of over 350 developers and technologists designed and built every mission critical systemused to operate ICE markets, exchanges and clearing houses. The technology team has consistently innovatedand executed to facilitate the rapid growth of ICE. Today the ICE trading and clearing platforms are consideredamong the best in the financial markets industry.  Mr. Marcial earned a BS degree in Computer Science from the College of Engineering at the University of Florida.

Chris Walters, Chief Executive Officer of Encompass Digital Media, has extensive strategic and operating experience in the media industry.  Chris is responsible for day-to-day operations of Encompass on a worldwide basis.

Most recently, Chris served as the Chief Operating Officer of The Weather Company where he collaborated with the leadership team to successfully position the company for rapid growth including developing technology that enabled The Weather Company’s expansion across all platforms. Prior to The Weather Company, Chris served in leadership roles at Bloomberg, leaving as Chief Operating Officer of the Bloomberg Industry Verticals Group where he drove significant expansion of professional subscription services in multiple industry verticals via organic growth and acquisitions. Before Bloomberg, Chris was a partner at McKinsey & Company where he served clients in the media, information services and technology sectors.

Chris holds an MBA from The University of Chicago – Booth School of Management with a focus on Finance and Strategic Management and a BS in Business Administration from the University of Vermont.