Jangela Shumskas
founder & principal
Jangela creates programs that advocate and move revolutionary technologies to market. She possesses a keen ability to judge ideas for their distinctiveness, relevance and effectiveness while refining and improving the ideas of others. Jangela has over 20 years of experience, primarily within DoD, providing strategic direction on innovative initiatives, where she has demonstrated a deep – almost intuitive - understanding of the intersection between creativity, brand, business, customers and technology. She is a subject matter expert in technology transition and commercialization and has designed several innovation initiatives on behalf of the federal government, inclusive of the DoD Velociter Accelerator Program. Jangela earned her MA in Strategic Security Studies from the National Defense University, College of International Security Affairs with a concentration in International Security and Conflict Management & Security Operations.
Phillip Reeves
finance/business consultant
Philip is a proven leader with success in Commercial and Public Sector ventures with deep strategic competence, analytic skill and the ability to quickly produce results. He has provided advisory services for numerous growth oriented firms, from nascent startups to Fortune 500 businesses. Philip served as the Manager of Small Business Technology and Innovation for the Government of the District of Columbia, where he established the District’s first program providing full life-cycle technical assistance and mentoring to startups pursuing federal R&D funding. He was also appointed to the District’s Innovation and Technology Inclusion Council. Philip has also worked in corporate development where he was responsible for M&A, strategic partnerships and business development. Philip began his career in private equity at Lehman Brothers. His work and writings have been featured in MarketWatch, Government CIO Magazine and local tech blogs. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers DC Hub and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s DC Region E-Council. Philip is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College.
GEORGE WANG, esq
ip consultant
George has over 17 years of experience in intellectual property law. George is a registered patent attorney with diverse legal experience in litigation, prosecution, counseling, licensing, commercial and government contracts, and compliance, all of which were refined from many years of in-house corporate, private, and government practice. With his extensive skillset, George has represented start-ups, government contractors, and Fortune 10 companies, specializing in portfolio management, post grant proceedings, inter partes reviews, foreign oppositions, invalidity, clearance, licensing, branding & marketing, data privacy, negotiations, due diligence, risk mitigation, and all aspects of litigation and pre-litigation work. George was formerly the Chief IP Counsel at ByteCubed LLC, Senior IP Counsel at General Electric Co. (GE), and IP Counsel at JDS Uniphase Corp. (now Viavi Solutions). Before that, George was Counsel at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr LLP (“WilmerHale”), and Senior Associate at Hunton & Williams LLP (now Hunton Andrews Kurth). George was also a law clerk at the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) and a Patent Examiner at the USPTO.
aj yarmie
business consultant
AJ is a seasoned business development consultant providing customer representation, business development, risk management, strategic planning, and process engineering services to Kali Group/Disrupt It clients. Among his skills is the ability to coach and mentor companies to break them out of their “comfort zones” and direct them towards new opportunities and markets. AJ has over 30 years’ experience and is focused on assisting high technology businesses sell their products/services to the federal government and high-tech markets. Under his consulting group, Janan International, AJ assisted his portfolio of clientele win over $700M in new business. AJ has direct experience growing start ups and product lines in the defense, aerospace, micro satellite, nano satellite, photoptics (photons + optics), information technology, and transportation industries. He is a proud West Point graduate and former Army helicopter pilot.