Our Staff
Meet the people who make it all happen
Bill Kirkland, Entrepreneur-in-Residence
Bill Kirkland joined the USC / Columbia Technology Incubator as the Entrepreneur in Residence to provide early stage companies with strategic and operational planning, business development and investor management. Bill is also a Managing Partner of LK Global Consulting LLC.
Prior to founding LK Global Consulting, LLC, Bill served as the President & Chief Executive Officer of Collexis Holdings, Inc. He was the company’s co-founder, helping to bring European technology into the American market in 2006. He managed the successful sale of the company and its subsidiaries to Reed Elsevier in June of 2010
While at Collexis, he raised over $20M in private funds from global investors.
Prior to joining Collexis, Bill spent two decades serving in executive management positions with both IBM and Pfizer. Bill earned a degree from the University of South Carolina.
Contact information:
bkirkland@usc-columbiaincubator.org
phone: 803-545-4119
cell: 803-556-6501
Laura Corder, Director of Operations & Communications Manager
A graduate from the University of South Carolina’s well respected Journalism and Mass Communication School with a major in Visual Communications and minor in Media Arts, Laura stumbled into entrepreneurship at a young age. As an undergraduate, she joined a co-ed professional business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, where she met her business partner. They were just two 19 year olds with an idea and goal to better their fraternity. Before they knew it, they were a business of the student Incubator program. This was a significant learning experience for Laura and lead to her involvement with other small business development resources in Columbia. Her years as a student were comprised of many leadership positions including: Director of The Carolina Agency, Marketing Intern for the South Carolina Business Initiative, and V.P. of Marketing & Public Relations for Alpha Kappa Psi Beta Upsilon chapter all while managing her own freelance brand development/graphic design business.
Following graduation, Laura accepted the position as Marketing Communications Specialist for Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union where her responsibilities were to oversee the development and printing of all print media marketing campaigns. With still the itch for entrepreneurship, Laura joined the Incubator team as their new Director of Operations and Communications Manager. She stays heavily involved with the Columbia business community though organizations like Columbia’s Opportunity Resource (COR) and other professional events.
Contact information:
laura@usc-columbiaincubator.org
office: 803-545-4423
mobile: 803-207-0439
fax: 803-545-4881