WASHINGTON, DC – October 18, 2022 – The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) announced that Garry Lyon has joined the organization as a Program Associate. He began the assignment on October 12.
Lyon will support Global Entrepreneurship Week, a movement celebrating and empowering founders everywhere, and the Entrepreneurship World Cup, a competition supporting thousands of founders annually.
“Garry has a strong background working with startups and a sincere enthusiasm for helping founders reach their potential,” said Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network. “We look forward to the work we will do together on two of GEN’s core programs.”
Lyon joins GEN after serving as the Director of Programs at American Underground, where he led the strategic vision, curation, and execution of its programs & events — designed to provide resources, foster connections, and engage the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem in Durham, North Carolina.
In his role at American Underground, Lyon recently wrapped up a program called Black Founders Exchange, in partnership with Google for Startups. This week-long immersion program brings ten black-founded teams to Durham for programming curated to their business challenges, resources to support them where they are, and a community of alumni who have gone on to raise millions of dollars of funding.
Prior to this, Lyon worked for three years at a venture-backed startup in the real-estate technology space, where he helped build the customer onboarding funnel, set the customer success team up for scale, and operationalized many organization-wide processes. The startup went on to a successful exit just eight months after his departure.
"I love curating experiences and impactful moments for people,” said Lyon. “Whether it’s creating organization from the chaos of a startup, fostering team engagement to build cohesion, or providing direct support to founders, I also love bridging gaps. I’m excited to bring this lens and experience to the Global Entrepreneurship Network.”