CIA program management and regional tech business acceleration wouldn’t seem like a neat fit, at first thought.
John Hagy’s experiences show otherwise.
Hagy is the new director of the Roanoke-based Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program, best known as RAMP. The Roanoke native’s first job out of college was with the CIA, and by the end of his five years there, the Arabic speaker was doing some international travel and running a global intelligence team.
He can’t go into details about the old gig. He can provide comparisons that relate to spy movies and spoof characters — and he can draw the line from his first job to his new one.
“I was not like James Bond or anything like that,” Hagy, 32, said. “I usually say Austin Powers, but then that implies, sometimes, other things. I was in a program management role. And the programs and the context and the people I met with just happened to be, in my opinion, pretty interesting folks. …
“So that’s where I kind of learned program management, but also intelligence operations and, obviously, got to leverage some of my language skills in a national security context. But that’s where I originally got interested and exposed to kind of cutting-edge technologies, and really wanted to figure out where they came from, and learn about the startup ecosystem.”
In between international intrigues and developing tech and life sciences businesses in the Roanoke-Blacksburg region, the Patrick Henry High School and University of Richmond graduate did two years of strategy and analytics with Deloitte, which does accounting, consulting and other services with companies worldwide. Then he headed to the University of North Carolina to get his MBA.
The latter experience led to him working for one of his professors at the university’s Carolina Angel Network, which does early-stage investing. During Hagy’s time as managing director, Carolina Angel’s investments included a robotics company, a biotech company and a couple of software startups, he said.
Hagy had kept contact with friends and business connections in Roanoke and wound up mentoring for RAMP, which over the past six years has hosted groups of startup entrepreneurs annually and continues work to boost those businesses after they exit the 12-week program.
“That was always a great experience,” he said. “I got to meet good people and got to work with great companies and founders.”
While all that was going on, Hagy completed his master’s during the COVID era, got married and experienced his mother’s death. He was intrigued when he heard that the RAMP job was open.
“I was basically sitting in the living room in North Carolina with my wife,” he said. “And I think both of us … were kind of open to a reset, just because a lot of life had happened. And this role opened up, and I had never been angling for it or targeting it necessarily. But I was like, there’s one organization or one role in Roanoke that was always on this list of things that really intrigued me.”
Erin Burcham, who is president of Verge, the organization that oversees RAMP, said she is eager to see what Hagy can accomplish with his new job. He started Jan. 8 at RAMP’s headquarters in the former Gill Memorial Hospital building downtown. Jess Edwards, director of Verge’s Innovation Studio, was interim director from July 2023. Lisa Garcia had been RAMP’s director for about a year before that.
“I think that the biggest thing that he brings to the region is his background in investments and startups, and he’ll bring his network of investors,” Burcham said. “This region talks a lot about how we want to see more capital coming into this region. And I think he’s the right person at the right time to help us to bring more capital into the region for our entrepreneurs within tech and biotech.”
Burcham became a “big fan” as she got to know Hagy through his previous work with RAMP, which included a program for the fall 2023 cohort that focused on capital for entrepreneurs, she said.
“He’s just a very collaborative, very smart guy who I think will help us take RAMP to the next level …. just a rich background,” she said. “He is hungry. He is excited to work directly with entrepreneurs in our region, and has a major passion for the Roanoke-Blacksburg region.”
It’s apparently a mutual admiration society.
“I would say the thing that impressed me the most was the team and Erin’s leadership,” Hagy said. “Obviously, it takes a village and a whole lot of partners to be successful. But when I’ve talked with Erin, there’s just so much conviction, so mission-driven, and that kind of culture trickles down, I think, and has attracted an incredible team.”
He arrived at the new job in time for the most recent cohort application process, and he said he plans to observe the cycle through to the spring 2024 program, looking for possible tweaks. He looks to engage with alumni and learn what resources they could use to grow their networks. Meanwhile, he has been getting to know his new colleagues beyond his past experiences as a mentor to RAMP cohort members.
“It’s been working well, prior to me getting here,” he said.
Hagy has always wanted to give back to the Roanoke region, but he’s getting something great out of it, too, he said.
“I really like working with startups, and this is an incredible role for being able to work hands-on with them,” he said. “I need dynamic work. I can’t have something that’s rote, or the same. So being able to work with a therapeutics company one day, a robotics company the next day, a software company the third day, all on different problems … that’s awesome. That’s like such a gift for me. So selfishly, this type of work is going to be totally enthralling.”