As the former Director of Programs at American Underground , Garry led the strategic vision, curation, and execution of AU’s programs & events — designed to provide a resource, foster connections, and engage the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Alongside that, Garry led up AU’s premier program in partnership with Google for Startups called BlackFounders Exchange. This week-long immersion program brings ten black founded teams to Durham for programming curated to their business challenges, resources to support them where they are, and a community of alumni who have gone through the program and have gone on to raise millions of funding! This is Garry’s proudest work because he jumped into this role at the start of the pandemic and quickly pivoted it to a virtual model for two years, all while creating impact, doubling down on our alumni support, and pushing AU’s mission forward! Prior to this, Garry joined a venture backed startup in the real-estate technology space as an early employee for about three years and helped build out the customer onboarding funnel, set the customer success team up for scale, and operationalized many organizational-wide processes! This startup went on to a successful exit just eight months after Garry transitioned out! Garry loves curating experiences and impactful moments for people. Whether it’s creating organization from the chaos of a startup, or fostering team engagement to build cohesion, he loves bridging the gaps and is excited to bring that lens to the Global Entrepreneurship Network team!  Garry currently leads up a Program Associate role at GEN, focused on supporting GEW, EWC, and the broader work of GEN in ensuring anyone, anywhere can start and scale a business!