Groundbreakers

John Yates, who had moved to Atlanta to practice law, realized that elements of the Silicon Valley ecosystem would benefit Atlanta’s nascent tech community and the Southeast as a whole. Yates has blazed a trail for Atlanta’s tech ecosystem for more than 30 years.

Paul Judge has spent nearly 20 years developing, leading, and launching new tech companies in Atlanta. A graduate of Morehouse College and Georgia Tech, Judge holds a doctorate in network security, helping found and cofound companies like Luma, TechSquare Labs, and Pindrop Security.

Jeff Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has been at the apex of fintech, where technology and finance intersect, for nearly 20 years. Time after time, his company has consolidated, organized, and demystified the trading of financial assets.

Founded in 2009 by Rob Frohwein, Marc Gorlin, and Kathryn Petralia, Kabbage provides small businesses with a convenient funding source. Once approved, small businesses can draw on their credit lines, immediately accessing a six- or 12-month installment loan issued by Celtic Bank.

The annual Venture Atlanta conference is basically our city’s version of ABC’s Shark Tank, where fledgling entrepreneurs pitch their concepts to investors from across the nation. In fact, “Shark” Mark Cuban delivered last year’s closing keynote address.

You could argue that no leaders are as critical as the ones working to save our planet. For this year's Groundbreakers, celebrate a few of these innovators who have found novel ways to champion our environment.

Jeff Arnold founded WebMD because he thought health should have a homepage. Early on, he met Dawn Whaley, who was a pioneer in dotcom-era public relations. The two have worked together ever since, collaborating on the Convex Group, a media and internet investment organization that ultimately acquired HowStuffWorks in 2002.

Mike Cote is the president and CEO of Secureworks, an information security services company and Dell Technologies subsidiary, and has been leading the defense of highly sensitive data for nearly 20 years.

For most of the 36-year-old Weather Channel’s existence, technology limited weather presentation to narration, archival footage, and basic graphics. The Weather Channel landed on augmented reality (AR) technology, the seamless blending of computer-generated imagery (CGI) with live content to better connect with its viewers.

Engage Ventures is a hybrid venture-capital fund and business accelerator founded last year to bring together growth-stage startups with the money, experience, resources, and leadership of 11 Fortune 500 businesses.