Mr. Thomas Francis Darden, II, J.D., also known as Tom, serves as a Managing Principal at Sovereign's Capital. Mr. Darden serves as Executive Officer at Cherokee Challenge 2012, LLC. He serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Cherokee Investment Partners, LLC. He is the Founder of Cherokee Property Foundation and Cherokee Sanford Group. He is the Founder Cherokee Sanford Group and was its Chairman for 16 years since 1984. He serves as a Founding Partner of Cherokee Equity Holdings. Mr. Darden serves as the Manager, President, and Director at Industrial Heat, LLC. He is overseeing more than $2 billion in assets under management. He is seasoned private equity investment professional with more than 20 years of experience running successful funds in groundbreaking industries He utilizes both private equity and internal venture capital to generate social, environmental and economic returns. From 1981 to 1983, he was a Consultant at Bain & Company Inc. He served as a Partner of Oberlin Capital. He was an Environmental Planner of Korea Institute of Science & Technology. He also worked in Seoul, Korea under a Luce Scholarship. He has been a Director of Winston Hotels, Inc. since May 25, 1994. He serves as a Member of Advisory Board of Rex Health Ventures and Rex Strategic Innovations. He is a Member of Advisory Board of Lookout Capital, LLC. Mr. Darden also serves on the Board of Governors of Research Triangle Institute in Research Triangle Park. He is on the Boards of Woodberry Forest School, Shaw University, National Brownfield Association and the University of North Carolina's environmental department. He serves on the Boards of Crown Financial Ministries, Shaw University and the Environmental Defense Fund. He served as a Director of BTI Telecom Corp., Waste Industries USA Inc. and First Commonwealth Corporation. He served as a Director of UTG Inc. from 2001 to August 9, 2013. He was the Chairman of the Research Triangle Transit Authority and served two terms on the N.C. Board of Transportation through appointments by the Governor and the Speaker of the House. He served as a Director at Consert, Inc., Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Cherokee Challenge 2012, LLC and Mi-Co, LLC. Mr. Darden earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Master of Regional Planning in Environmental Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar.