National Advisory Council

Richard R. (Dick) Paul is an independent consultant with more than 40 years of R&D-related management experience. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2000 with the rank of Major General after serving 33 years, and from The Boeing Company in 2007 as a vice president after serving seven years.

During his Air Force career, Dick served in three Air Force laboratories, a product center, two major command headquarters, Headquarters USAF in the Pentagon, and a joint staff assignment. His latter three AF assignments were aligned with the Air Force science and technology enterprise, and in his final assignment, he served as the first commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory. At Boeing, he served as a vice president in Boeing’s centralized research and technology organization that develops advanced technologies for Boeing’s family of commercial aircraft and defense-related aerospace products and systems.

Dick is currently the chair of the FLC’s National Advisory Council. Formerly, he served on the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR/STTR) Advisory Committee, as chair of the Innovation Research Interchange (IRI) Board of Directors, and as a member of the Missions Committee of the Sandia National Laboratories Board of Directors, the National Research Council Air Force Studies Board, and the Air University Board of Visitors. On the civic front, Dick is a current director and vice chair of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Michelle Atchison is the Director of Federal Relations and Senior National Security Strategist leads for the University of Texas at San Antonio.  From 2019-2021, Dr. Atchison was IPA within the National Counterintelligence and Security Center under the Office of the Direction of National Intelligence serving as the Federal Partners Group Chief.   Prior to joining UTSA, Dr. Atchison was Associate Vice Chancellor for Federal Relations for National Security with the University of Texas System. 

In her corporate roles, Michelle led Strategic Partnership Development for Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories and Washington Operations focused on accelerating technology transition efforts.  Her technical roles included leading the Corporate Technical Investment Program (LMTIP); designing the Corporate Engineering and Technology Research Portal to support integration and coordination of Internal R&D efforts across major corporate business areas; and serving as the first Chief Scientist for the Lockheed Martin Center for Innovation, the Corporation’s premier Experimentation and Modeling-Simulation. 

In her military roles, Michelle served for 27 years to include key military command and senior staff positions including: Chief, Science and Technology (S&T) Division, USJFCOM Experimentation; Chief Scientist for Air Force Experimentation Office and Science Advisor for the Air Force Command and Control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center.  Michelle established and managed multi-Service teams to support strategic and industrial plans to identify technology work among Services, DOD, Government agencies and commercial efforts.   

Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from UCLA; a master’s degree from Catholic University in International Affairs with a focus in senior Wargaming; and a doctorate in Higher Education with a focus on strategic development and organizational design from George Washington University.  She is a graduate of the Army Intermediate College and Air Force War College.  She serves as a member of the National Advisor Committee for the Federal Laboratory Consortium and on the National Defense Industry Association Science, Technology and Engineering Committee. 

Joe Fox is president of FX Consulting, LLC, a consulting firm for the specialty chemicals and materials industries. Joe is a 40-year veteran of the chemicals industry, having worked at Standard Oil of Ohio, BP America, Ashland Chemical and INEOS Composites. At Ashland and INEOS, he served as the Director of Emerging and External Technologies and coordinated their collaborations with other companies, universities, and federal laboratories. Joe has been very active in IRI, the Innovation Research Interchange, throughout his career and served as Chairman of its Board in 2019-2020. Joe also serves as director of the Miracle League of Central Ohio, a baseball league for special needs children throughout the Columbus area. Joe and his wife Susan live in Dublin, Ohio. They have 4 grown children and 9 grandchildren.

Robert G. Heard Robert Heard is a Managing Director and Founder of Development Capital Networks (DCN) and Cimarron Capital Partners, two affiliated firms with over 30 years of experience in development lending and equity investing as a service to local economic development. DCN builds and manages development loan programs for municipalities and states. Cimarron has invested in venture capital and private equity funds and served public and private investors in the U.S. and Latin America. In 2023 Cimarron formed a division to advise tribal nations on direct investments in new and growing companies.

Robert has helped build organizations that support the growth of the entrepreneurial economy. He served as a founding director of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds, the Latin American Venture Capital Association, and the WBT Innovation Marketplace. He has served for two decades on the National Advisory Council of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer. He is an advisor to the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Cluster Initiative in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, and an advisor to the Droneport Network, a startup serving developers and managers of UAS logistics centers.

Robert is an angel investor in technology companies and a member of Cowboy Technology Angels and the Houston Angel Network. His investments include commitments in space launch components, drone flight safety, water testing, insulin delivery, fintech and subsurface reservoir imaging. Robert earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma and his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. 2021 04 30

Building on Jackie's entrepreneurial spirit and passion for economic development, she founded and leads JKM Consulting LLC, a small woman-owned business dedicated to helping organizations create jobs for greater economic impact. Prior to starting her own consultancy, Jackie spent 35 years working for Sandia National Laboratories, a U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory. While at Sandia, she led the Labs’ Economic Development Department for more than twenty years, overseeing five programs which leveraged the Lab to create jobs. Programs included: the Sandia Science & Technology Park, a 2,000-person technology community which Jackie led since its inception; New Mexico Small Business Assistance, serving 300 small businesses annually and funded by a State of New Mexico tax credit; Entrepreneurial Separation to Transfer Technology, allowing scientists and engineers to leave Sandia with a guaranteed job back at the Lab if they choose to return; Center for Collaboration and Commercialization, which Jackie opened for Sandia in downtown Albuquerque; and the Technology Maturation Initiative, a new State of New Mexico tax credit and fund which she successfully lobbied for in her final year at the Sandia. During her career at Sandia, Jackie served as Vice Chair on the Executive Board for the FLC. She also served as Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator for the FLC’s Mid-Continent Region, including hosting a 100-person regional meeting in Albuquerque, NM. Jackie remains active in technology transfer and economic development and currently serves on the National Advisory Council for the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Board of Directors for Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University, and Board of Directors for Uplands Science & Technology Foundation.

Since the 1990’s, Dr. Robertson has been a senior advisor to corporations and the government.   At Coopers&Lybrand she advised Fortune 500 companies for international business and tax strategies. At McDonnell Douglas she was a corporate director for international strategies and M&A, and a strategic advisor to the CEO and COO.  As a principal at Booz Allen & Hamilton and a National Director of Strategy at KPMG, she continued in the role of an independent strategic advisor to senior management in both the private and the public sector. She is recognized for effectively using strategic wargames to address critical issues. 

Her career in government in Washington DC began as an SES (Senior Executive Service) on a Presidential Commission. She then joined the Navy’s Think Tank, Center for Naval Analysis and was assigned to DARPA as the strategic advisor for the Dual Use Technology Program. She has served on a number of Presidential Commission, including Critical Infrastructure and the Restructuring of the Air Force.  From 2000-2006 she was the senior strategic advisor to the leadership of the Navy.  Major initiatives included establishment of NETWARCOM, the Navy’s Cyber Command.

Because of her noted expertise in business strategy and security/defense requirements, she currently advises industry and government officials on strategies and alternatives that address corporate, political and national security priorities. 

Ms. Carroll Thomas is a recognized expert in partnership development and organizational change management with more than 35 years public and private sector experience. A former small business owner, she is the former National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Director of the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and acting Associate Director of Innovation and Industry Services, as well as the former Associate Director for the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) program at the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Ms. Thomas is currently serving in a senior advisor capacity for the NIST MEP program and is the president of Charles in Charge LLC business consultancy.  She serves on the National Advisory Council of the Federal Laboratory Consortium- representing over 300 federal laboratories engaging in technology transfer. Ms. Thomas also serves on the boards of the Information Technology Innovation Foundation- the top innovation think tank world-wide; MxD- the only digital Manufacturing USA institute focused on manufacturing digitization; Scale for Climate Tech- advisory board to support climate technology entrepreneurs in second stage investment product development; and the State Department Federal Credit Union a $2.8 billion global credit union with over 90,000 members. Ms. Thomas participates in the International Economic Development Council’s Committee on Racism and Economic Development, and is a graduate and member of Leadership Greater Washington.  Ms. Thomas earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Drexel University in Design and a Master of Business Administration from John Hopkins Carey School of Business in International Business. She lives in Hyattsville, Maryland with her husband Charles Yancey, her mom and their mercurial cat, Midnight.

Gayatri Varma is Senior Director, Transactions, Business Development & Licensing, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca where she works on in and out-licensing, clinical trial collaborations.  She previously served in a similar capacity within AstraZeneca’s BioPharmaceuticals R&D  group.  She joined the BioPharmaceuticals group after three years as Director of Partnering & Strategy at MedImmune, the early stage biologics R&D arm of AstraZeneca where she lead business development activities for MedImmune’s Respiratory therapy area.  She also engaged in large-scale collaborations with academia and government.

Prior to joining MedImmune, Gayatri was the Executive Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at the University of Maryland. There she oversaw the technology transfer operations including licensing and patenting activities and was involved in developing and amending policies, as well as initiating new programs. She started her career in technology transfer at the University of Maryland as a licensing associate in the life sciences.

Gayatri has a Ph.D. in Molecular & Cell Biology and Masters and Undergraduate degrees in Microbiology.  She is also has the RTTP designation and is a registered patent agent.