Meet the Team
Central Texas Angel Network
Staff
Gary Forni
Managing Director
Since joining CTAN in 2011, Gary Forni has been passionate about connecting investors, supporting entrepreneurs, and strengthening the startup ecosystem across Central Texas. After serving as an investor, Board member, and Chairman, he now leads the organization as Managing Director. Gary's vision is simple: build on the strong foundation CTAN has created over the past twenty years while helping members discover better opportunities earlier. By expanding CTAN's relationships throughout the startup community, attracting a broader range of high-quality investment opportunities, and engaging with emerging technology sectors such as artificial intelligence, Gary is focused on ensuring CTAN remains one of the premier angel investing organizations in Texas and a catalyst for innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth throughout the region. You can reach him at gary@CTAN.com
Katelyn Bentley
Operations Manager
Central Texas Angel Network’s Katelyn Bentley joined the organization in August 2023 and serves as Operations Manager, overseeing the day-to-day operations behind one of Texas’ largest angel networks. Her work spans investment operations, marketing, events, member experience, communications, and the internal processes that keep CTAN running smoothly and growing strategically. With a background in media, communications, and operations, Katelyn's role is to support entrepreneurs and investors, and help strengthen the early-stage ecosystem across Texas. She holds a BA in Mass Communication with a focus in Public Relations from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Katelyn is excited to help drive the next level growth at CTAN. You can reach her at
katelyn@ctan.com.
Board of Directors
Jake Hampton
Chairman
Jake is an entrepreneur and angel investor who has spent most of his career at the intersection of insurance and technology. The early part of his career was spent on the large corporate side of the business, working initially for both a global insurance carrier as well as several of the largest insurance brokers in the industry. After leaving the corporate world, he moved to the land of startups, founding his first company during the dot com era, where he learned many life lessons. He gained his international experience when he was recruited to lead the US operations for an industry initiative to automate the insurance placement process at Lloyd’s of London. His most recent venture was a company he founded that developed a SaaS platform for performing insurance transactions between US and UK clients. He successfully sold the company to one of the largest private equity-backed insurance software firms in the US.
Jake now focuses on angel investing and mentoring entrepreneurs within those firms. He lives in Austin and holds a BA in Economics and a BBA in International Business from UT Austin, as well as an MBA from St. Edwards Austin.
Alison Dixon
Alison is currently an executive of operations at an Austin-based cybersecurity company. She has worked across various sectors, including nonprofits, universities, Fortune 100 companies, and start-ups. Alison holds a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and a master’s from the University of Pennsylvania. She also has credentials from Harvard University and the Brain Training Institute in executive coaching and more recently earned a certification in data strategy from UC Berkeley.
Alison is passionate about cybersecurity and is drawn to the challenges it continually poses in an ever-evolving threat landscape. She thrives on the work of tackling complex security issues and protecting organizations from emerging risks.
Her interest in angel investing stems from the opportunity to support the next generation of innovators and disruptors, which is key in positively shaping their journey.
Outside of work, you can find Alison running marathons or playing golf (poorly). She is also deeply committed to animal advocacy and serves on the board of a farmed animal sanctuary.
Lance Adams
Lance began his career as a process development engineer at IBM after earning degrees from MIT and the University of Texas. After a few years, he and a friend got bored with that and bought a small, struggling manufacturing and construction company. He eventually decided he liked engineering better, but Lance stayed on, managed to turn it around, grow it, and sell it to a small public company. With the dot.com boom underway, Lance went to business school focused on science and technology commercialization, hoping to catch the wave. But when he graduated, it was the dot.com bust… A classmate then started the Central Texas Angel Network, and Lance became one of the original members. He later served on its board for seven years, where it grew to one of the largest in the country, and over time, he has invested in over 30 startups there and mentored some companies as well. He has always also had an interest in real estate and used to do fix and flips on the side before they started making TV shows about them, and he personally did some hard money lending as well. While Lance currently holds a real estate broker’s license, most of his investments are now passive. His hobbies include hiking, backpacking, and amateur driving (and instructing) at a couple of Texas racetracks.
Dave Gino
A technology industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in senior executive roles. Dave came to Austin in 1996 as part of the IPO spin-out of Dupont Photomask (DPI) from Dupont. His experience ranges from large public companies to small startups with a very broad background in raising critical growth capital, including two initial public offerings, a number of venture-backed equity and debt financings, product and IP licensing, and creatively structured commercial partner funding arrangements. Most recently, Dave led the sale of Molecular Imprints’ semiconductor business, a UT Austin spin-out, to Canon in 2014 and the subsequent sale of Molecular Imprints’ non-semiconductor business to Magic Leap in 2015. Dave is now an active angel investor and board advisor who enjoys working with entrepreneurs who are looking for some advice or simply want to run an idea, financing, or complex business arrangements by him.
Steve Pollinger
Steve Pollinger is an intellectual property lawyer who has focused on patent litigation for over 30 years. He is a Principal at McKool Smith, for which he opened the Austin office in 2020. In addition to his law degree, Steve holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle, where he grew up. Steve’s practice is nationwide, at trial and on appeal, for plaintiffs and defendants. Steve’s jury verdicts for his clients have included five nine-figure verdicts. Steve enjoys evaluating businesses, particularly technology companies. Additionally, in his spare time, Steve enjoys tennis, sailing, and kiteboarding.
John Lindgren
John Lindgren is a Partner at Scale2Growth. Prior to joining Scale2Growth, John spent 6 years leading the finance functions at both Clear Labs (Next Gen Sequencing company) and Hound Labs (the first organization to develop a THC breathalyzer).
John takes a hands-on approach with his clients, leveraging his past operational experience and his experience as a chief financial officer. As start-up companies make the move from a small start-up to a growing enterprise, John helps them to develop a stronger accounting and financial foundation to support that growth, including ERPs, 409As, Audits, tax, acquisitions, operational efficiencies, etc.
He has extensive experience in driving financial modeling/cash management, managing both debt and equity financings, supporting new product introductions, and engaging with his company's boards.
Before joining Hewlett-Packard, John worked in the chemical industry and was a consultant with a Polish Advisory Company owned by the World Bank/International Finance Corporation. His career at HP enabled him to gain a broad array of experiences both in the US and internationally. He started as a financial analyst and ultimately held several executive management positions within the Channel/Sales Operations organizations at both HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
John holds a BA in Chemistry from Carleton College and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.
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