Pitch Day 2024 Panelist Bios
Lyons Brown
W. L. Lyons Brown III is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of two ventures: Altamar Brands, a creator and importer of artisanal spirits brands, and High n’ Wicked, a company developing premium whiskey brands. He also founded the Elysium Honey Company a social impact venture focused on improving the plight of the Honeybee through the creation of healthy ecosystems.
Prior to starting Altamar, Lyons spent fifteen years in his family business at Brown-Forman Corporation serving as Marketing Director for Northern Europe and Director of Sales for the United States. He is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The College of Business at the University of Wyoming and a Trustee of Silicon Couloir, an incubator/accelerator serving Jackson, Wyoming. He is a Trustee Emeritus of the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Virginia and the former Chairman of the Board. Previous Board service includes The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, The Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, CA; Lenox China in Lawrenceville, NJ; National City Bank and the J. B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY, St. Margaret’s Episcopal School and The Laguna Beach Community Foundation in Orange County, CA. He was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business from 2003-2005 and the Senior Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Darden School from 2013-2020 where he was also a Visiting Executive Lecturer.
Mr. Brown holds a BA (1982) and an MBA (1987) from the University of Virginia. He is married with three children and lives in Jackson, WY.
Lexy Folkes
Lexy has been native to the Tetons for over 11 years. Before co-founding Pirate Ship, she ran a number of her own small businesses. Namely, a lucrative trade ring that landed her in the principal's office in 5th grade. She's always had a passion for entrepreneurialism and helping her friend's small businesses grow. She's passionate about creating upward mobility for people who want to get their dreams off the ground and helping others become their own boss.
Lexy manages a large team of pirates around the world as the Chief Operating Officer at Pirate Ship; a role that keeps her very busy. She finds her bliss in creating sustainable scaling solutions for business at any size, while creating a human centric work environment that prioritizes good culture. When she's not creating maximum efficiencies for complex issues, she enjoys biking and skiing.
Karelle Golda
Karelle is the co-founder and CMO of Halfdays. Featured in Vogue, Travel & Leisure, Wall Street Journal, and Ski Magazine, Halfdays is a sustainable ski wear brand for the modern woman. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Karelle worked in the fashion and luxury space for brands like Serena Williams, Cuyana, Aveda and Artizia. Karelle leads storytelling & community at Halfdays with a focus moving the industry away from the “hardcore-outdoor” towards a new inclusivity that inspires and encourages women of all levels to feel good about getting on the mountain.
Evan Huck
Evan Huck - Evan is the co-founder and CEO of Jackson-based Enterprise Software Startup UserEvidence. UserEvidence is a VC-backed (raised a $9M Series A last May) marketing SaaS startup with 35 employees globally, 8 of which are in Jackson. After graduating from Stanford in 2010, Evan started his career as an SDR (Sales Development Rep) and worked his way from SDR to VP of Sales and then founder/CEO. Prior to founding UserEvidence, Evan led enterprise sales for SurveyMonkey, and scaled silicon-valley startup TechValidate's (acquired by SurveyMonkey) revenue efforts from $0-$20M. Evan advises multiple startups on B2B enterprise sales and go-to-market strategy, and is an active angel investor and LP in GTMFund. Evan lives in East Jackson with wife Kahlynn, 3-yr old daughter, 8-mo old son, and golden retriever, Bali. In his free time, Evan can be found struggling to get proficient at rock climbing, playing volleyball and basketball at the rec center, or DJing house/electronic music.
Salim Mitha
Salim Mitha is a three-time tech & media entrepreneur both in the US and in Europe and has successfully scaled all three companies to exits totaling $4.9 billion. All three companies continue to thrive, with the most notable being Playtika (NASDAQ: PLTK), one of the largest and most profitable mobile gaming companies in the world, where Salim was Executive Vice President.
Over his 26 year professional career, Salim has worked extensively with high-growth, data driven media and technology companies including as Managing Director at Yahoo! Search for all of Europe (based out of London), and has further experience as an investment banker specializing in telecoms, media and technology (“TMT”) M&A and corporate finance transactions at Merrill Lynch Europe, as well as strategy and operations consulting at A.T. Kearney and McKinsey & Co.
Salim was a Board Director at Epic! Kids (subscription children’s book and audio platform), a Board Observer at The Athletic (subscription sports content platform), and spearheaded the investment into Masterclass (premium video edutainment courses).
Salim has a Bachelor Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and speaks fluent Spanish, business French as well as a few languages from South Asia.