Braxton Jarratt, the Atlanta investor and co-founder of Clearleap, which was later acquired by IBM, will serve as the keynote speaker of the 2018 ATDC Startup Showcase, on May 10 at the Historic Academy of Medicine at Georgia Tech.

Now in its 32^nd year, the ATDC Startup Showcase is Georgia’s largest spring startup confab. It connects entrepreneurs, investors, and tech leaders with some of Georgia’s the most promising and emerging startups. This year’s Showcase, which will be held at the Renaissance Midtown Atlanta Hotel, will feature more than 80 startups from across the state, including Atlanta, Savannah, Athens, Macon, and Augusta.

The Showcase is the capstone event of Tech Square Innovation Week, (May 7-10) which highlights and celebrates the different components that combined, make Technology Square in Atlanta’s Midtown neighborhood, a national economic development model that entrepreneurship, disruption, research, corporate partnerships, and investment.

Jarratt, a 1993 graduate of Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, is a visionary leader whose background serving as director of product strategy at Cox Communications, vice president of marketing and business development of N2 Broadband and senior vice president of marketing and business development at Tandberg Television.

In 2007, he and his business partner, John Vecchio, co-founded Clearleap, a 2011 ATDC Signature graduate.

The Duluth, Georgia-based company provides cloud-based video services and its platform also includes subscription and monetization services, and data centers from which to host digital video assets.

IBM acquired the company in 2015 and Jarratt served as vice president and general manager of its global cloud-based video business that was formed from the acquisitions of Clearleap and Ustream.

Following the integration of both acquisitions into IBM’s cloud unit, Jarratt led and expanded the business through 2017 as part of the Watson and Cloud business.

“Braxton is a visionary entrepreneurial leader,” said Jen Bonnett, ATDC’s general manager. “He has contributed immensely to Atlanta and Georgia’s success as center of innovation in technology. I know our community of entrepreneurs will be inspired by his story and his shared wisdom as someone who has lived their journey.”