{"397451":{"#nid":"397451","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Advanced Technology Development Center hires financial technology expert","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) has named Michelangelo Ho its financial technology catalyst, and he will lead the agency\u2019s effort to focus on Georgia-based startups in that sector.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHo is expected to start on April 20, and the announcement of his hiring is the first significant step in ATDC\u2019s financial technology accelerator initiative.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn March 2015, Worldpay, a global payments technology and services company, gave $1 million to the Georgia Institute of Technology to create a financial technology accelerator at ATDC. The gift, which will fully fund the accelerator for the next three years, called for the hiring of a FinTech expert to mentor startups.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EATDC, a program of Tech\u2019s Enterprise Innovation Institute, is a statewide technology startup incubator and is charged with helping entrepreneurs build and launch successful companies. It is one of the oldest university-based incubators in the country.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe FinTech startups in Georgia are really underserved, so this is a great opportunity for us at ATDC and it\u2019s a unique challenge for me,\u201d Ho said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe focus on financial technology is strategically important to Georgia because the state is a leader in the space. Indeed, the American Transaction Processors Coalition says more than 70 percent of all U.S. payments are processed in Georgia and more than 60 percent of the industry\u2019s companies call metro Atlanta home.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s led to the creation of a sizable number of FinTech startups in Georgia and increased interest from entrepreneurs who want to launch their own companies in the sector, Ho said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFrom my perspective, it\u2019s a great opportunity and that opportunity is huge because of the volume of startups out there that ATDC has a chance to help and accelerate.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHo, who has deep experience in FinTech, has been involved with a number of innovative companies and projects in the sector, including Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX)\/CurrentC, Google Wallet, and Isis\/SoftCard.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn entrepreneur himself who founded two companies, GoSpring and Veritas Product Group, Ho led innovation and strategy efforts at First Data Corp. and as a consultant for AT\u0026amp;T, among others. As a mentor at ATDC for the past three years, he has advised a number of entrepreneurs and startups.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA Tech graduate, he holds a Master of Management Executive MBA from the Institute, and bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in electrical engineering from Mercer University.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy P\u00e9ralte C. Paul\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"New hire is part of ATDC\u0027s outreach to Georgia startups in FinTech initiative."}],"uid":"28137","created_gmt":"2015-04-17 18:30:34","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:03","author":"P\u00e9ralte Paul","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-04-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-04-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"397461":{"id":"397461","type":"image","title":"Michelangelo Ho","body":null,"created":"1449246361","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:26:01","changed":"1475895115","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:55","alt":"Michelangelo Ho","file":{"fid":"75699","name":"thumb_img_1439_1024.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/thumb_img_1439_1024.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/thumb_img_1439_1024.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":220466,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/thumb_img_1439_1024.jpg?itok=6a6kUHcn"}}},"media_ids":["397461"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/atdc.org\/","title":"Advanced Technology Development Center"},{"url":"http:\/\/innovate.gatech.edu\/","title":"Enterprise Innovation Institute"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"139","name":"Business"}],"keywords":[{"id":"13454","name":"advanced technology development center"},{"id":"4238","name":"atdc"},{"id":"103841","name":"financial technology"},{"id":"124211","name":"michelangelo ho"},{"id":"124221","name":"Worldpay"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"106361","name":"Business and Economic Development"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELaura Diamond\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:Laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ELaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E@LauraRDiamond\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.diamond@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}