Executive Director, Business Acceleration System (BAS), CLEDA

In 2006, Perkins joined CLEDA as a business coach and in 2008, he was named the Executive Director of the Business Acceleration System (BAS). Over the last 4 years, Perkins has organized several StartUp Weekend events, served as a judge at the two, annual Louisiana Tech University’s Top Bulldog Pitch Competition, and been selected to facilitate training at Louisiana StartUp Prize 2014. In 2011, Perkins attended training at Stanford to become a certified Lean Launchpad instructor.

Since 2005, BAS has trained 200 clients and that group has increased their revenues by $177.5 million and created 952 jobs, with out-of-region sales of$126 million. Last year alone, BAS offered 66 classes and seminars attended by 1,284 participants, 592 of which were unique. BAS has grown from a single funder to three with an annual budget in excess of $600,000.