Building An Entrepreneurial EcoSystem with Katie Gailes

Katie Gailes is a rare find, ya’ll. She is a native North Carolinian. She was born in Granville County, grew up in Forsyth County, earned her undergraduate degree in Guilford County, her MBA in Durham County, and she now lives and works in Wake County.

Katie attended the Bennett College for Women in Greensboro and the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. After a long career with IBM, she launched a consulting practice, which she ran full-time for six years. She was a counselor in the Growing American Through Entrepreneurship (GATE) program at the NC Rural Economic Development Center where she helped displaced workers in rural North Carolina start businesses. Through this program and her consulting practice, Katie trained or worked with over 1,000 small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Katie is now the Director of Entrepreneurship Initiatives at Wake Tech, where she runs several projects like the LaunchWakeCounty, [email protected], and the Veterans Entrepreneurship Advantage. LaunchWakeCounty has grown to include 7 of Wake County’s 12 municipalities and almost 200 small business owners.

Katie has been recognized for her commitment to veterans entrepreneurship by the North Carolina Veterans Business Association. Over 60 veterans, active duty military, and spouses have received eight weeks of free business startup and management training through this program. And that included dinner.

She received a Collaboration Award from the NC Department of Administration Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Office for the now statewide HUB Certification Day program that was developed and piloted at Wake Tech. Katie was named a Paul Harris Fellow by The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International and received a Vocational Service Award from the North Raleigh Rotary Club. And, she also received a 2018 Women in Business Award from the Triangle Business Journal and was named the 2018 Woman of the Year by Black Professional Women of NC.

Katie believes that within entrepreneurship lies the life and leadership skills of the future. It will be the salvation for our economy and our communities.