Cameron Mullinax
Founder
Cameron Mullinax has always been deeply passionate about the natural world, particularly the ocean. This love for natural ecosystems was nurtured during his time spent on the east end of Long Island, and it eventually led to the creation of Virginica. Cameron believes that natural resources should be harnessed to improve the planet and promote a cleaner environment.
Having earned a B.S. in Entrepreneurship from The University of Tampa in the Spring of 2023, Cameron possesses the knowledge and skills to navigate the intersection of business and environmental stewardship. Since moving to Tampa in 2018, he has come to appreciate the many amenities this city has to offer. Having grown up in Brooklyn, New York, Cameron has had the privilege of being immersed in numerous cultures, which has allowed him to see the world from a diverse range of perspectives.
Apart from his entrepreneurial pursuits, Cameron has a keen interest in saltwater fishing, conducting various forms of research, as well as fitness and biohacking. In 2021, he became a licensed real estate agent in New York, a testament to his drive to continuously learn and grow.
With his unwavering passion for the natural world and his drive to make a positive impact, Cameron is poised to lead Virginica towards a brighter and more sustainable future.
Adrian Suarez
Lead Advisor
Adrian Suarez has a multidisciplinary background spanning finance, data analytics, and operations. His career began in non-profit accounting at ACTS in Tampa Bay, where he honed his financial expertise and developed a deep passion for making a positive impact in his community.
In 2016, he co-founded Gazelle Capital, where he leveraged his diverse skill set to deliver top-notch financial and strategic advisory services to clients across industries.
In 2018, Adrian took his career to the next level by moving to Europe, where he served as the CFO/COO of Jobbatical, a startup that connects companies with top-tier talent from around the world. He then joined Starship Technologies, the leading autonomous robotic delivery company in the US and EU, as CFO. During his tenure at Starship, Adrian led the company through more than $150M in capital raises, enabling it to expand its operations and cement its position as a market leader.
With a keen eye for detail, exceptional financial acumen, and a passion for innovation, Adrian is committed to driving growth and creating value for his clients and partners. His unique blend of expertise and experience has made him a sought-after leader in the finance and technology sectors, and he continues to make a significant impact on the companies and communities he serves.
His strong mathematical background has enabled him to create cutting-edge financial models for some of the world’s top companies, including LEGO, Verizon, Best Buy, and many others. Adrian has also implemented multiple ERP systems and business intelligence tools. He has a talent for connecting financial and non-financial systems, providing users with the necessary information to make informed decisions.
Adrian resides in Tallinn, Estonia, is happily married to Vira Suarez and has two children, Philip and David.
Ashby Green
Lead Advisor
Ashby Green is a dynamic leader and one of the most respected individuals in the Tampa Bay business community today. He began his career in auditing at Ernst & Young LLP in Atlanta, GA before bringing more than twenty years of experience to Gazelle Capital in 2016 where he is determined to drive incremental financial, operational and strategic results for his clients and business partners.
For the four years prior to Gazelle Capital, Ashby was CFO at Kobie Marketing where he took part in the tripling of team members and quadrupling of revenue during his tenure. He navigated Kobie Marketing through a sales process from the data room build to the offer (9 digit offer, 28x EBITDA). He also received the Florida Governor’s Business Ambassador Award in March of 2016 for his efforts in creating jobs and opportunities for Florida families.
After being nominated for the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s CFO of the Year in both 2015 and 2016, Ashby was awarded the CFO of the Year overall winner in 2017 by an independent panel of judges.
Ashby holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in business administration from Mississippi State University and has participated in additional continuing education courses including conflict management, negotiations, leadership and business development. He previously sat on the Mississippi State University MBA Advisory Board. He served as a Board of Fellows as well and is still an adjunct professor at the University of Tampa teaching Entrepreneurial Finance and actively mentoring many of his previous students.
In addition to his formal schooling, Ashby is a graduate of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership St. Pete class of 2016. It was such an incredible experience that he now serves on the Leadership St. Pete Planning Committee. He also travels to multiple Chamber (Tampa & St Pete) benchmarking trips including Raleigh/Durham, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Charlotte and continues to stay heavily involved in community efforts.
Ashby is happily married to MacKenzie Green and has two children, his daughter Jordan and his son Ashby III.
Advisory Board Members
Jeff Manning
Advisory Board
Jeff Manning is a seasoned technology executive renowned for his strategic leadership and growth-oriented approach. With over two decades of experience, Jeff has played integral roles in shaping the success of both established corporations and early-stage startups.
As the Chief Revenue Officer of a leading cybersecurity threat intelligence firm, Jeff led transformative initiatives focused on branding, marketing, and international expansion in the European market. His strategic vision and operational expertise were instrumental in reimagining the brand, optimizing the company's digital presence, and spearheading successful growth strategies.
During his tenure at Cybera, a private equity-owned business, Jeff served as the Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales & Business Development, driving significant revenue growth and market expansion. After the sale of Cybera, Jeff joined LOCH Technologies where, serving as COO, he played a pivotal role in securing venture capital, and led strategic operations and market development efforts.
Jeff also held key leadership positions at Motorola Solutions after the acquisition of his cyber security startup, AirDefense, where he led business transformation initiatives in wireless, managed network services, and cybersecurity. His innovative strategies and leadership yielded significant business growth and further cemented Motorola as a leader in the space. Driven by his passion for innovation and entrepreneurship, Jeff founded Reson8 Ventures, a consultancy dedicated to supporting early-stage technology companies. Through Reson8 Ventures, Jeff offers strategic guidance on funding acquisition, branding, and go-to-market strategies, helping startups navigate the complexities of the technology landscape and achieve sustainable growth.
Gregory Scott Head
Advisory Board
Mr. Head is the CEO and Founder of The Monarch Group Family Office Private Equity Firm where he serves as the strategic advisor to business owners and leadership teams for a portfolio of investments and operations to scale and push forward the businesses. Mr. Head is a Fortune 100 trained leader and has held several leadership positions at both publicly and privately held businesses. Serves as Interim CEO and Board Director for businesses and investors.
Mr. Head serves as an Independent Board Member of DE3, 8T8 Partners, and Kaikili, Inc. Coached high-performance teams, championed several growth and digital transformation projects, and produced significant financial results.
Mr. Head has an MBA in Finance, a BS in Business, seven-year US Army, and a Government Service Veteran.
Matt Flanagan
Advisory Board
As Partner & Co-Founder of Pyxis Advisory Group, Matt delivers the highest quality client service to the global industrial sector, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, commodities trading, and digital transformation. He brings 30 years of extensive industry and subject matter expertise as a global business executive selling and delivering large-scale business and technology transformation programs for multi-national corporations, private-equity backed companies, and innovative founder-led start-ups.
Matt also co-founded Zygos Technologies, an innovative technology platform delivering immersive, interactive 3D digital replicas of industrial assets; and Aleutian Sustainable Energy, which is providing EV charging infrastructure in partnership with commercial development groups.
He currently serves on the Advisory Board for InnoVent Renewables, a U.S.-based technology and operations company with a proprietary continuous pyrolysis technology that converts waste tires, plastics, and biomass into valuable fuels and chemicals. He also serves as an Advisor to Wade-O-Lution, an innovative industrial hardware, software, and technology company dedicated to revolutionizing operational efficiency and enhancing user safety within the
energy and manufacturing industries.
Previously Matt spent more than 10 years as a Partner with a boutique consulting firm serving the energy industry. He led the firm’s technology practice across the US and Europe, and was responsible for business development, client service delivery, practice management and people development resulting in a 10x increase in practice revenues and 8x growth with his team of professionals.
Matt brings proven success launching and scaling new business enterprises across energy, renewables, manufacturing, engineering, and field services centric organizations; as well as a pedigree of recruiting and developing high performing teams.
Matt holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Management of Information Systems from the University of Houston.
Lawrence Dempsey
Advisory Board
Lawrence Dempsey has over 20 years of experience advising business leaders on strategy, growth and legal issues. Currently he is Associate General Counsel at Sunnova, where he supports solar products and services for commercial, non-profit, and governmental customers.
Lawrence advises business leaders ranging from early-stage entrepreneurs to the CEOs and boards of New York Stock Exchange-listed companies. He was the General Counsel for one of the world’s first social networking companies. He also was the attorney for a corporate venture capital fund that invested in renewable energy technologies. He provided legal guidance for the world’s first project to use blockchain to microhedge energy transactions.
He serves on the advisory boards for several startups, and is a mentor for the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator. He is active in the American Bar Association Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee and is Co-Editor of its publication Preferred Returns.
Lawrence is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law and the University of Texas at Austin.
Lawrence is an avid scuba diver, and proponent of ocean conservation.
Peter Petros
Advisory Board
Peter Petros, BSci/MEng/PhD(ongoing), brings a diverse background spanning civil, water resources, and environmental engineering along with recent academic and industry experience. His most recent career trajectory involved tenure at a leading innovative Finnish biotech firm, where he served as a key R&D lead, focusing on nature and fungi-based solutions and R&D strategy.
Currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Helsinki, Finland, Peter's research is dedicated to the exploration of sustainable, renewable, and natural resources. His work primarily centers on pioneering regenerative paludiculture value streams, biomass valorization, and fungal myceliation techniques. His expertise encompasses nature-based engineering solutions, carbon sequestration, carbon markets, fungal biochemistry, natural medicinals, regulatory affairs, and IPR for processes and products, as well as sustainability policy and strategy, and sustainable engineering solutions.Peter's contributions extend beyond his research activities. He co-authored the book 'Aquaculture: Ocean Blue Carbon Meets UN-SDGS' (2022), a key publication that seeks to reshape conventional perspectives on calcifying organisms and their potential contributions to current and future global challenges facing humanity.
Motivated by a profound commitment to enhancing humanity's relationship with nature, Peter remains an advocate for initiatives that promote a deeper understanding of the invaluable role natural systems and organisms play in fostering a sustainable global environment with a healthily-connected human race.
David Moore
Advisory Board
David Moore, BSc, PhD, DSc, FLS, retired from the Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Manchester in 2009 after 43 years’ service to the University. Born in Liverpool, UK (1st March 1942) he lived in south Manchester, UK from 1966. Today, he lives in Stockport, UK with his wife, Elizabeth; with daughters Becky (with husband Barney and children Sam and Emily) in Poynton; Sophie (with husband Richard and twins Freya and Chloe) in Timperley. Youngest daughter Amy lives with husband Ross, son Finn and daughter Etta, in Warwick.
David’s first degree was a 1st Class Joint Honors in Botany and Zoology at the University of Hull, UK in 1963. PhD topic dealt with mutant isolation and linkage mapping in the ink-cap mushroom then called Coprinus cinereus (since renamed Coprinopsis cinerea) and part of his research was carried out in the John Innes Institute (then at Bayfordbury in Hertfordshire, UK). David moved to an Assistant Lectureship in Genetics at the University of Manchester in 1966. His research since then has emphasized the experimental study of the developmental biology of mushrooms including genetical, biochemical, physiological and microscopical (including ultra-structural), as well as molecular analyses of how tissues are constructed and assembled in fungi. For a detailed list of publications, check out David's ORCID ID at https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3968-0587.
Since retirement he has returned to his first love of marine biology and was a co-author of the book Aquaculture: Ocean Blue Carbon Meets UN-SDGS [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-94846-7].