Mark’s experience in the youth activities industry began soon after his stint as a college gymnast ended and he became the owner of a gym. Mark lived the struggles that he knew could be addressed with technology and began to formulate how he could create software that would help gym owners stop spending all of their time on gym operations instead of teaching their gymnasts.

Early on, Mark went to work selling software for banking industry legend Broadway & Seymour, System & Program Consultants, Datalink and Qualitech Solutions. In the meantime, he met his future Jackrabbit co-founder, Mike Carper, who had the software development skills to write the software platform that became the first version of Jackrabbit. As Mike produced code, Mark visited friends in the gymnastics gym industry to introduce the concept of operational software for their gyms.

Fast forward more than a decade. Under Mark’s leadership as CEO, Jackrabbit Technologies has grown into a multi-million dollar company serving 7 youth activity center sectors. Mark sets such a standard for service to community and industry that his company has replicated and created one of the business community’s first true virtual workplaces. This has allowed the company to attract employees from not just the hometown but from any town. Jackrabbit is an operational software provider to the youth activity centers that has an award-winning culture that nurtures employees, partners and clients.

Mark has been an enthusiastic member of EO (Entrepreneur’s Organization) for more than a decade and is active in angel investing and mentoring in the Charlotte NC area and with University of Georgia’s alumni mentoring program.

The excellence with which Mark leads does not go unnoticed. He has been recognized as the NC Tech Exec of the Year, the Michael J. Bryan Award for entrepreneurial spirit, a Charlotte area Top 50 Entrepreneur and Most Admired CEO, runner-up for IT Entrepreneur of the Year and the Queen City FINtech Change Champion. It’s no surprise that Mark is passionate about growing good ideas into great businesses.

Mark graduated with an MIS degrees from the University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business, was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon and the GymDogs Men’s Gymnastics Team. Today he serves on the university’s Alumni Board of Directors. Mark enjoys triathlons, water-skiing, and backpacking. When he isn’t spending his time mentoring other entrepreneurs and the team at Jackrabbit, Mark loves spending time with his children and friends on the lake.