Ovanova

Born in Texas and raised in North Carolina and Virginia, Channing is a southern girl with a heart of exploration and discovery. While attending the University of Virginia, Channing chose to join the Southwestern Company, a summer sales and leadership program. She excelled in running her own business selling educational books and software to families across the country and taught others to do the same. After college, she backpacked through Europe and Southeast Asia, sold art on cruise ships, ran her own textbook buyback business, lived in the jungles of Cambodia, and was a producer for a boutique creative agency in New York City. She believes all of these unique experiences challenged her and led her to her current path. For the past three years, Channing’s pursuits have focused on renewable energy and teaching sales expertise to non-profits and social enterprises in the developing world. In 2014, she chose to move to California and become an Energy Advisor with Vision Solar. Throughout her time in the solar industry, she has also maintained a position as a Sales Consultant with Whitten and Roy Partnership since April 2013. This work has taken her to Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Honduras where she has built sales strategies and tools, led sales trainings, and coached sales managers for organizations that take business marketing approaches to solving poverty issues by selling life saving products in sanitation, hygiene, clean energy, and clean water. This experience also opened her heart to service and her eyes to how a for-profit business could make a more sustainable impact in areas traditionally reserved for non-profits. She loves to sing to Hamilton as loud as she can in her car and believes in sustainably buying clothes from thrift stores. According to the Gallup StrengthsFinder test, these are Channing's top five strengths: 1. Input 2. Connectedness 3. Empathy 4. Restorative 5. Adaptability

John Carey was born in Amsterdam Memorial Hospital on October 23, 1986. He has been an entrepreneur since childhood. In elementary school, he drew comics and sold them to classmates. In middle school he cut lawns. And In high school he did mechanic work, tree work, and installed car audio systems in classmates' cars after school. In 2005 John went to North Carolina State University to study electrical engineering. Before the school year ended he was recruited to work with The Southwestern Advantage Summer Sales and Leadership program. He worked with this organization for the next 8 years recruiting, training, and leading young people. He was a top salesperson and leader and became a District Sales Manager after 4 years. He transitioned to a Family Heritage Life Insurance Company of America, a Southwestern Sister Company from March 2013 until retiring in March 2016 to develop Ovanova. While at Family Heritage, John retained the same title and responsibilities he had while working with Southwestern. He was a salesperson and a leader of sales people. He built a business for 3 years part time while learning the solar industry and building Ovanova. His past 2 years have been invested creating the possibility of Ovanova. John is also a yoga Instructor and vegan chef for fun. According to the Gallup StrengthsFinder test, these are John's top five strengths: 1. Futuristic 2. Activator 3. Intellection 4. Responsibility 5. Command

Lester is originally a farm kid from Tennessee. Beginning his freshman year, he paid for college at UNC-Chapel Hill by selling books door-to-door during his summer breaks. He worked with the Southwestern Company for eighteen years and ended his career there as a Director of Sales. From the summer of 1996 until the end of the summer of 2014, he recruited, trained, mentored and led thousands of young people from campuses across the country in Southwestern's sales and leadership development program. After finishing up his career there, he joined Vision Solar as a Regional division leader where he learned first hand about the lead-gen challenges facing the solar industry and the industry's internal beliefs and practices which exacerbate this problem. After working with Vision from August-December of 2014, he was one of the founding members of Renew, from March 2015 until just before the time Renew's major solar partner, SunEdison, went bankrupt. After this experience, he and his partners started Ovanova in the fall of 2015. To see what people have thought about their experience working with him throughout the years, check out his linkedin referrals. According to the Gallup StrengthsFinder test, these are his top five strengths: 1. Strategic 2. Achiever 3. Connectedness 4. Ideation 5. Learner He also feels weird writing bios about himself in third person.

Troy Parkins grew up loving science. As a kid, playing with petri dishes, microscopes, Bunsen burners, & test tubes helped prepare him with the necessary skills to graduate from the University of California, Davis with a degree in Molecular Genetics. While at UC Davis, he took a life-changing job as the Science Reporter, at the California Aggie campus newspaper. He soon realized that translating science, & medical jargon into plain English that people could understand was his love, more so than extracting fruit fly DNA in the lab. Excited to hone his skills, he went to Stanford University & got a graduate degree in Journalism/Mass Communication. He was the Science Editor for the Stanford Daily, & wrote for the Peninsula Times Tribune. After Stanford, he traveled across the country to work as a Medical Writer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There he met "rock star researchers," & wrote about cutting edge cancer & neurological research. Troy then took another life-changing job. He joined a small company named America Online, to start up their Health Channel. This was his start into the digital world, & he has been addicted ever since. He had various positions in his 12+ years at AOL; running Content, Technology, & Operations Departments. Troy got to do things from overseeing Fantasy Baseball sports content to chasing hackers. Post AOL, Troy again changed directions, & took another life-changing job. He wanted to open a 'brick-&-mortar' business, so he opened 3 small donut/coffee shops in the Northern Virginia area. His shops made custom-made-to-order donuts. After getting tired of working 21 hours a day, Troy decided to go into the emerging field of Social Media, then returned to NIH to lead up how they could go from the 19th Century (mailing brochures) to the 21st Century (posting them online, & promoting via Social Media). He helped with digital & Social Media strategies. Then another life-changing opportunity knocked on Troy's door. He joined a TV media company, Barrington Broadcasting, to work with TV stations on their digital presence, both on the sales & content sides. Troy worked directly with newsroom staff to produce compelling content/Social Media presence, & sales executives pitching digital solutions to merchants. Troy worked with digital sales teams to increase digital revenue, & newsroom to increase page views & engagement. In 2013, he got the opportunity to deliver a presentation at Social Media Week in Chicago on a concept called Content 2.0, which was used to increase station digital & social media presence. In 2014, Troy joined Supplemental Oxygen Digital, as a co-founder, to provide digital solutions for media companies & SMBs. He is excited to bring all his previous experience to the table, & help small business owners. When not cracking the digital code, he can be found on the poker table, cracking tells & bluffs. As an avid traveler he has seen the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, & the tallest Paul Bunyan statue. He has run with the bulls in Pamplona, & walked with the ducks in Memphis. He hopes one day to play golf on the Moon while drinking Tang.