JOHN C. KIRBY, JR.

With over 20 years of experience in both the corporate and entrepreneurial arena, Mr. Kirby brings a diverse background to Baltimore Venture Mentors. In 1996, he co-founded, along with Nick Gustavsson, reachNET, Inc., a wireless communications service provider to deaf and hard-of-hearing people. The partners grew reachNET to over 1000 subscribers before selling the Company to Telecommunication Systems, Inc. in early 2001. Prior to reachNET, Mr. Kirby was President & Owner of Atlantic Courier Company, a Baltimore-based company specializing in the scheduled delivery needs of banks and financial institutions. During his tenure, he grew the Company from under $200K to over $1 million in revenues, in part due to the acquisition of two courier companies. In 1998, Mr. Kirby co-founded Rapid Response Delivery, Inc, a company specializing in same day delivery of sensitive documents in the Baltimore/Washington area. The partners have grown Rapid Response from scratch to over $2 million in revenues today. Mr. Kirby began his business career in the mid 1980's as a Lending Officer at Maryland National Bank, serving in the International and Large Corporate Divisions. In the early 80's, Mr. Kirby served with distinction as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Mr. Kirby holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy and received his MBA from the Fellows Program at Loyola College.