As a volunteer counselor with the US Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) since 2004, Dr. Karamchetty counseled several hundred entrepreneurs as they start and grow their businesses. His clients came from a variety of businesses and he counseled them in developing their business plans, financial plans and management strategies. In his counseling, he applies his prior background in government, contracting, engineering, technology, inventions, and idea to product transition, and manufacturing. At the US Army Research Laboratory in Maryland for sixteen years, he managed research projects, and formulated multi-million dollar research programs in emerging technologies and next generation and future systems. At Martin Marietta Data Systems, he was the Principal Technology Investigator for AI and managed Advanced Technology projects. As program manager at Mechanical Technology Inc., in Latham, NY, Som developed a number of advanced concepts and managed thermal systems projects. His other research and development accomplishments were in energy systems, computational methods, wire ropes, and biometrics. He has four patents in engineering and computing. Since his retirement from ARL, Som has been running his own consulting business in technology and management with a focus on concept generation. His current interests span engineering, technology, economic and social development. Som Karamchetty obtained M. Tech. and PhD degrees in engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, in 1962 and 1965 respectively. He was on the faculty of IIT in India for ten years, and the University of Newcastle, Australia for nine years. He was a visiting faculty member at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA; the ARL Distinguished Professor at Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA; and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland University College, MD. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia and Maryland, a life Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the Federal Executive Institute Alumni Association. Having been selected as a delegate-at-large in 2005, Som served on the White House Conference on Aging and contributed to the development of implementation strategies.

Senior Management – Manufacturing - Sales- Marketing- Project Management Corporate Process Improvement - Contract Negotiations

Jothi Nedungadi is a small business entrepreneur, coach, mentor, leader, systems thinker, motivator and collaborator. She has been a thought leader for the past 16 years. She has worked for Fortune 500 companies in the past, and now, works with small businesses to launch, build and grow them.

A Mechanical Engineer with 32 years of combined manufacturing and management experience,  Positions held were: Machinist, Laboratory Supervisor, Chief Engineer, Vice President of Engineering, National Sales Manager, Executive Vice President and President of a $40MM company. Functional experience included, machining, time & motion studies, plant layout, job costing, product research, plastic mold designing, procurement, project scheduling, project planning, project management, quality control, cash flow analysis, marketing analysis, creating business plans, soliciting capital funding, managing multi-state sales.

19 years as a consultant (Charles E. Schafer Associates, LLC) providing technical, production, sales, IT implementation, training and administrative services to owners and principal officers of manufacturing companies.

For 19 years I developed product designs and wrote product design standards for a major international manufacturer of centrifugal compressors and gas turbines.  Since joining SCORE in 2006, I have enjoyed mentoring hundreds of individuals, from more than 30 states, on a wide assortment of business related topics.