Pat Cline

Pat is responsible for building the key elements of the IIANC Accelerator, including program design, mentorship, and investor relations. He comes from a career of supporting entrepreneurs and innovative businesses around the world. Most recently, he was the Investment Specialist for Five One Labs, an international startup incubator, where he helped high growth startups in Iraq become investment ready. Prior to that, he helped establish Iraq's first accelerator, Takween, as part of his work as a Senior Lecturer and Founding Director of the entrepreneurship initiative at American University of Iraq, Sulaimani.

Pat has spent most of the last fifteen years in education and entrepreneurial consulting and is very interested in growing and supporting start-up ecosystems. From 2015-2017, he was Director of Programs at a New York-based social enterprise called Inspiring Capital. He has also been a business development consultant in Ethiopia and a Small Enterprise Development volunteer in the Peace Corps in Cameroon.

Pat has an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and a BS in Financial Management from Clemson University. He is married to a founder, Alice, and is the proud father of one, his daughter Ren.

Fun facts about Pat: 

Pat's father (also named Pat), and grandfather, were independent insurance agents outside of Pittsburgh for most of their respective careers! Pat’s mother also worked in the business for almost twenty years.

Pat once completed a 50-mile race and finished in the top third of the (admittedly small) field.

Pat (from Pittsburgh) and his wife (from Philadelphia) had a destination wedding in Durham before ever moving to The Triangle.