Meet the contributors of Alaska Startups

From left to right: Penny Gage of Alaska Growth Capital, Ky Holland of UAS/UAF Technology Commercialization and UAF Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization, Gretchen Fauske of UA’s Center for Economic Development, Peter Webley of UAF’s… — From left to right: Penny Gage of Alaska Growth Capital, Ky Holland of UAS/UAF Technology Commercialization and UAF Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization, Gretchen Fauske of UA’s Center for Economic Development, Peter Webley of UAF’s Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization and Tasha Webster of Unboxed Brands Marketing & Innovation.

Alaska Startups is a community of like-minded people throughout the state that are interested in supporting and developing startups, entrepreneurs and emerging industries. Meet some of our contributors that make Alaska Startups possible.

Penny Gage, Director of Special Projects at Alaska Growth Capital

Penny became involved with Alaska Startups while working for the State of Alaska Division of Economic Development and supporting Alaska Startup Week, among other events and initiatives. Now, she works for Alaska Growth Capital, a subsidiary of ASRC and small business lender that also does community and economic development work on Alaska's North Slope.

Peter Webley, Faculty Ambassador to UAF's Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization (OIPC)

As the co-lead for Fairbanks during the 2018 Alaska Startup Week, Peter Webley joined the Alaska Startup contributors team and the Statewide committee. As a UAF Faculty Ambassador, Peter connects with innovators and entrepreneurs across the University as well as work with community members and organizations on innovation and commercialization as well as building the State's entrepreneurial community.

Ross Johnston, Founder of Accelerate: LLC

Ross organized a Startup Weekend five years ago and has been involved in a number of other events since.

Gretchen Fauske, Associate Director of the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development (CED)

Gretchen first started engaging in the startup community when she was working for the State of Alaska Division of Economic Development by attending 1 Million Cups at the Boardroom and when she joined the board of Launch Alaska, the state’s first startup accelerator. As someone who has always been a dreamer and full of ideas, the opportunity to focus on entrepreneurship at CED was one she couldn’t pass up, and she joined the team in 2017. From there, the CED team revamped the Alaska Startups brand and digital platforms to include more opportunities for the entrepreneurial ecosystem to connect, to access resources and to learn from other startups.

Tasha Webster, Founder & Owner of Unboxed Brands Marketing & Innovation

Tasha became involved with Alaska Startups by participating in Startup Weekend Anchorage and subsequent volunteer efforts for various startup programs and events.

Nigel Sharp, Startups and Innovation Manager at the Alaska Center for Innovation, Commercialization, and Entrepreneurship

Nigel got involved in Alaska Startups through his role as the Global Entrepreneur in Residence at UAA, specifically with the original compilation of the Alaska Startups directory. Nigel also spearheaded the now-defunct Ideator project. He still works with Alaskan startups daily and is always happy to see new members in the growing ecosystem.

Ky Holland, UAF/UAS Technology Commercialization Officer, UAF/Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization

Ky has been part of the startup ecosystem since a technology startup exit that landed him in the emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem in 2013. Ky continues to focus on the Alaska Startup Digest — a calendar providing entrepreneurial events and information — to provide a consolidated event and news feed each week curated by other startup community leaders around the state.