Charlie Brock, founder of the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative, was the keynote speaker at the Gary W. Rollins College of Business 2024 Entrepreneurship Breakfast. Photo by Angela Foster.
The unlikely story of how his hometown transformed itself from a maligned Southern city into a tech darling is one Charlie Brock might know as well as his personal career story.
Those winding paths and how they have now converged was the focus of Brock’s keynote address at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Gary W. Rollins College of Business 2024 Entrepreneurship Breakfast on Thursday, Oct. 31.
Brock is a serial entrepreneur whose latest venture is the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative, which he founded and leads. It’s preceded by a career that began as marketing director within the Brock Candy Company founded by Brock’s family in the early 20th century.
In 1998, Brock helped start Foxmark Media, a national mall advertising company operating in more than 35 markets. In 2006, he sold Foxmark to Australia-based EYE Corp., a global leader in out-of-home advertising.
In addition to multiple stints in banking, Brock is the former CEO of Launch Tennessee, a public-private partnership to support high-growth start-up businesses; co-founded the Chattanooga Renaissance Fund to support start-ups; served as CEO of the CO.LAB start-up accelerator; and continues to work—through Brock Partnerships—with small and medium-sized companies on expansion.
And then there is the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative Brock founded in 2023.
“I realize you may be thinking, ‘This guy can’t hold a job. Why is he speaking to us?’” Brock joked with the crowd of more than 100 mostly UTC students. “I’ve moved around a lot, but I think that’s the journey of an entrepreneur.
“As you embark upon your own careers outside of college, be open to multiple possibilities. That’s part of quantum, as well, and when I talk about Chattanooga and why I believe so fervently in our opportunity in quantum, I’m going to tell you a great entrepreneurial story—which is Chattanooga’s story.”
Brock began that story by recalling how CBS News’ Walter Cronkite declared Chattanooga “America’s dirtiest city” on a national broadcast in 1969. Fifteen years later, “an unlikely alliance of collaborators” began the work that would redefine Chattanooga as a pro-business tourist mecca that celebrated its downtown and Tennessee River waterfront.
The collaborators included city and county government, planning groups, community philanthropic foundations, Blue Cross Blue Shield, EPB and UTC.
“It was shared values we were building, working on the city that we love, and it was an incredibly exciting time,” Brock said. “The Tennessee Aquarium, the Hunter Museum, the Creative Discovery Museum—all of these gleaming structures we take for granted now are the result of that amazing time.
“And the pride Chattanooga had through that process really took hold in the business community—which was like, ‘We’ve got a lot of tourists coming here. We love walking downtown. We’ve got a great place to live, work and play. What does this mean for our business community?’
“Then, Volkswagen, in July 2008, made their announcement from the Hunter Museum that they were going to build their first North American plant here in Chattanooga.”
That was followed in 2011 by EPB’s launch of the nation’s fastest internet, which paved the way for preeminence in smart city technology and applications, as led by the UTC Center for Urban Informatics and Progress and its founding director, Dr. Mina Sartipi.
“EPB really is one of the most progressive utilities in the country and has now given us this quantum network, so how do we take advantage of that?” Brock asked. “As quantum technology becomes more applicable, accessible and affordable for business throughout the country and the world, our focus is on how to drive it forward so that our community is a leader.
“You’re going to need quantum computers to come into the mainstream, into our everyday world, our business community, our educational community and our health care community. You’re going to need quantum networks to connect these computers and that’s where we have a tremendous opportunity. Right now, there are 14 quantum networks across the country, and most of them are at (U.S. DOE) national labs or at universities.
“EPB put us among that first 14 and brought us the first commercially available quantum network—and we want to make sure we are a key driver to accelerate the pace of quantum and that our students and businesses are able to optimize the benefits of quantum.”
Brock praised UTC’s role in that effort through the launch of the University’s Quantum Information Science and Engineering initiative.
“There are going to be lots of opportunities as we build the supply chain for quantum and we welcome your participation and your ideas,” Brock said. “Chattanooga is something that Walter Cronkite said it could never be, and we are united around building this for the city.”
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Entrepreneurship Breakfast photos by Angela Foster
Charlie Brock, CEO of the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative, speaks Thursday, Oct. 31, in the UTC Tennessee Room.
