Meet the Gazelle Index Team

Thomas “Danny” Boston is GazelleIndex.com founder and CEO of EuQuant, the company that powers Gazelle Index. As an economist and expert on minority and small businesses, Danny focuses on content management. He also builds partnerships and strategic business relationship. His job is to keep the team inspired and focused on the vision.

When the monthly jobs report is released by the Department of Labor, you will most likely see Danny on CNN sitting at the anchor desk with Suzanne Malveaux.  If he’s not at CNN or EuQuant, he will be roaming Georgia Tech’s campus, where he is a professor of Economics.

Don’t be fooled by his gentle smile and warm personality. Believe it or not he is a former infantry officer, paratrooper, Army Ranger and a recipient of the Purple Heart!  He also has a more normal side. In fact, he even received the Undergraduate Professor of the Year Award from Georgia Tech.

Danny works with many federal, state and local government agencies on issues related to small and minority-owned businesses and often testifies before congressional committees on the topic. Incidentally, he has published six books and has advised members of the Nigerian National Assembly and the South African Free State Legislature. Danny received the PhD from Cornell.

Typically he enjoys a daily four mile run, while tuning in the John Coltrane quartet on his iPhone. If not running, you may find him on the driving range trying to improve his golf game. There is lots of work to be done in that area!

 

 Dr. Catherine L. Ross is the co-founder of GazelleIndex.com. She is also a chaired professor in Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture. Plus, she is a Cornell Grad-go Big Red! Her focus is regional planning and transportation planning. Despite numerous scholarly and professional accolades, when Atlanta Magazine ran a story on “divas in the academy”, Cathy was featured, decked out in leopard boots and a punk hairstyle—Hot! Because she is a book author and pioneer of the new planning paradigm called Megaregions, on any given day you will find her lecturing in some distant corner of the globe.

By the way, Cathy is also Director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development and was the first executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

When Cathy is not globetrotting or writing books, you can find her exercising at her home gym or tuning up her golf game.  If she is not at either of those locations, try the nearest vitamin store. To the Gazelle Index effort, Cathy brings strategic insights and organizational expertise.

 

Linje Boston leads the Gazelle Index research team because of his statistical expertise. When the word “geek” was invented, they had Linje in mind. This guy is an undergraduate of Carnegie Mellon, where he took just about every statistics course the university offered.  Maybe that’s why his three person team won First Place in CMU’s Annual Statistics and Mathematics Competition. At any rate, after CMU he went to the University of Michigan and earned a Master’s degree in statistics–geeks of the world beware!

When Linje is not reading about statistics (his favorite book is how the number zero was invented) you’ll find him looking at anime or playing video games with competitors in distant locations. By the way, he also does normal things like, daily workouts.   However, during the day he serves at EuQuant’s Chief Operating Officer.

The Gazelle Index’s chief marketing officer is Shani Boston . The gentle smile is totally deceiving, because underneath she is a fierce competitor.  Shani graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in PPE (in case you don’t know, that stands for politics, philosophy and economics). Just recently, she finished the MBA from Emory University – but wait, there’s more.

During her time at the University  of Pennsylvania she competed for the women’s track team. This character didn’t do the normal track event stuff, she did the heptathlon. In case you don’t know what that is, it consists of the 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meter dash, long jump and 800 meter run. That’s just six events, oh yes there is also the javalin.  Believe it or not, she even won the Penn Relays and several Ivy League championships in that crazy event and competed as a professional for two years.  What fires her up now is the Consumer Insights and Strategy she learned as a Summer Associate for Kraft Foods.

Mihir Pathak is probably the most normal member of the Gazelle Index Team (LOL). He is currently pursuing a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, with a minor in economics and finance. Wait– we forgot to mention that Mihir is a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow and serves as a visiting scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center.  Normal?

When Mihir is not researching production processes in deep space, he is part of the content management and marketing group of the Gazelle index. Mihir co-founded Mechistry Technologies, a company focused on technology products and business services.

Incidentally, Mihir recently received one of the nation’s most prestigious fellowships in science to pursue his graduate studies. That award was given to only 25 students. Okay, so next look for Gazelle Index to be launched in deep space.

Julie Kent  is almost normal—except, she is so passionate about Atlanta Braves baseball she makes an annual pilgrimage to the City to catch games. The trek would not be so bad if she didn’t live in Iowa!  Other than that, she is pretty normal.  For example, she attended Georgia Tech and graduated with a dual degree from Mount Mercy University in Finance and Computer Science. She is currently pursuing an MBA while also studying for the CFA Level II exam (you heard it correctly).

Julie’s day job is an associate at Principal Financial. She works in their Leadership Development Program, which is a 2-3 year program that encompasses multiple rotations in various business units.  During the evenings, she helps out the Gazelle Index team with strategy, content and financial analysis.

Tashieka Tucker is the Gazelle Index team go to person, which means when other members are in distant parts of the world, on CNN or trying to reach deep space, she makes sure the train stays on the tracks. Thank you T! Tashieka is  responsible for identifying and optimizing marketing efforts and  maintaining the Gazelle’s presence in social media networks.

Other than the fact that she received a bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University in economics and a Master’s degree in city and regional planning from Georgia Institute of Technology, she is pretty normal.  When she is not keeping the Gazelle group crazies in line, Tashieka sits on the board of directors for the Younger Women Task Force.

 

 

Jenny Chen is the newest member of the Gazelle Index team. Unfortunately, she fits perfectly with the rest of the weird group – especially since she is so proficient in Mandarin! Jenny received the Master’s Degree in economics from Georgia Tech and the bachelor’s in accounting from Purdue University (give me a break).

If you are in trouble with the IRS, she is the go to person. She has a CPA and specializes in taxes. She has also worked for Deloitte Tax, LLP, and is currently working for Travelport.  Jenny is the perfect person to help Gazelle Index map out its revenue model.