Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute

Mtech Ventures Team

Mtech's venture programs team possesses a unique combination of experience in private equity, venture capital, operations, start-ups and entrepreneurship education, enabling them to provide clients with valuable services, resources, perspectives and connections:

• Craig Dye
  Director, Mtech Ventures

• Edmund Pendleton
  Director, Citrin Fellows Program and Assistant Director, VentureAccelerator
  

• Akbar Dawood
  Analyst, Mtech Ventures

• Kimberlee Wallace
  Assistant Director Mtech Ventures and Assistant Director Technology Advancement Program

• Shirley Mapp
  Operations Coordinator, Technology Advancement Program

Craig Dye
Director, Mtech Ventures
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Craig Dye is the director of the VentureAccelerator program at the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) in the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. VentureAccelerator assists researchers and faculty in commercializing their research and systematically mentors them in the business processes necessary to bring their product to market.  Craig joins Mtech from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, where he was the director of venture investments at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, the University of Maryland’s initiative for enterprise creation and funding.

Dye is an accomplished business executive and investor with more than 20 years of investing, IT and operational management experience. As an advisor to the Affinity Lab--an incubator for corporate and social entrepreneurs--Craig has helped launch and sustain numerous successful companies and non-profits in the mid-Atlantic region.

Prior to joining Affinity Lab, Craig was the chief operating officer of Articulated Impact, a software development and web strategy company that provides solutions to the challenges of top-tier companies, hedge funds, and nonprofits. Before that, Dye was the founder and CEO of Wheelhouse Networks, delivering enterprise-class computing and telecommunication platforms as a managed service to corporations and professional services firms.

He began his career with Informatics General (since acquired by CA Inc.), one of the first technology services companies in the nation, and subsequently served as the global chief information officer for Hogan Lovells, supporting its growth into a $2 billion legal services leader and more than doubling in size during his tenure.

Dye serves on the board of directors of a number of companies and advises startups and nonprofits in the metropolitan area. He received his bachelor of arts in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo. 

Edmund Pendleton
Director, Citrin Fellows Program and Assistant Director, VentureAccelerator
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Edmund is the Director of the Citrin Fellows Program, and Assistant Director of the VentureAccelerator, at the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), where he helps to create new ventures based on technology developed at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, technology entrepreneur, and angel investor. His primary business experience includes product development and management, sales and marketing, and entrepreneurship. He serves as an advisor and Board Member for several technology start-ups, and frequently serves as a mentor and coach for several domestic and international business accelerator programs.

S.M. in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT
S.M. in Civil Engineering from MIT
B.S. in Physics & Mathematics from the College of William and Mary, Phi Beta Kappa Rotary Foundation Scholar in New Zealand

Akbar Dawood
Analyst, Mtech Ventures
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As Mtech Venture Analyst, Akbar Dawood provides advisory, analytical and evaluative support for the TAP venture incubator, the University of Maryland Technology Start-Up Boot Camp, the University of Maryland Business Plan Competition, the Impact Pre-Seed Fund and faculty and students launching technology-based ventures. Akbar is directly involved in the day-to-day management, decision making and fundraising activities of VentureAccelerator portfolio companies, as well as the sourcing and vetting of portfolio companies. In addition, Akbar is Director of the Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund and is active with regional nonprofits.

Before joining Mtech, Akbar held investment banking and trading roles. Most recently, at Credit Suisse, Akbar was part of the Credit Derivatives Portfolio Management desk, where he helped hedge the firm’s $55 billion leveraged loan portfolio in North America. Akbar conducted fundamental credit research and evaluated industry trends and market conditions to create credit opinions and produce relative value recommendations for portfolio positions in the bank loan secondary markets and CDS markets.

Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Akbar was a Senior Investment Banking Analyst at Banc of America Securities in the Leveraged Finance group, where he executed leveraged acquisitions, debt recapitalizations, stockholder dividends, and strategic re-pricings, as well as an IPO.

Akbar graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Economics and Markets & Management, where he was also International Association and International Council Treasurer and a member of the Duke Investment Club, a student-run shareholder club.

Kimberlee Wallace
Assistant Director Mtech Ventures and Assistant Director Technology Advancement Program
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Shirley Mapp
Operations Coordinator, Technology Advancement Program
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