Starfish Board Member Danny Windham joined HudsonAlpha as Chief Operating Officer in 2019. He brings more than 20 years of leadership experience to the Institute, serving as President and COO at Adtran (2005 – 2007) as well as CEO at Digium (2007 – 2018). Windham received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Mississippi State University where he was named a Distinguished Engineering Fellow in 2001. He also holds an MBA from Florida Tech. Windham is actively involved in the entrepreneurial community and has supported the development of multiple startups. He also has a strong commitment to giving back to his community and serves on multiple boards including the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, Biztech, and Leadership Alabama. He was also chairman of the Madison YMCA fundraising committee and a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight.
Starfish Holdings, Inc. Board Member Kris Maynard founded Essential Ingredients with Chris Gerlach in 1996. Kris serves as the Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board at Essential Ingredients. His favorite thing about Essential Ingredients is to help to shape a work environment that provides a pathway for employees to utilize their giftedness. Kris was born and raised in rural Ohio and graduated from Miami University with a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology in December 1989. His chemical career started with Stepan Chemical Company in Chicago, Illinois in the spring of 1991 after spending several months in Russia doing missions work and working numerous odd jobs during 1990. Kris relocated from Chicago to Atlanta, Georgia where he was assigned a territory in the Southeastern United States as a distributor specialist.

About Starfish

Starfish Holdings, Inc.’s focus is to grow the retirement portfolios of the employee-owners of their subsidiaries. Starfish holds 100% ownership of both Torch Technologies and Freedom Real Estate. Starfish Holdings (Starfish) is an S-corp owned by an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and Trust.

Torch Technologies (Torch) virtually celebrated the ribbon cutting of its newest building, the Technology Integration and Prototyping Center. The ribbon cutting was scheduled to be held on March 13, 2020 at Torch’s new lab and solutions facility but was canceled due to COVID-19.

TIPC, the newest facility of Torch’s growing campus, consists of a 45,000 square foot, two-story research and development building with an attached 5,000 square foot high bay facility. The TIPC facility incorporates offices, labs, engineering design tools, collaborative work areas, meeting spaces, and a high bay and complete machining and fabrication capability.

“It was nearly two years ago that we celebrated the groundbreaking of Torch’s Technology Integration and Prototyping Center (affectionally referred to as the TIPC). At that time, we were 750 employee-owners and $348M in revenue,” said Torch President and CEO John Watson. “Since then, we have grown to approximately 1100 employee-owners and half a billion dollars in annual sales. A key contributor to this growth has been the investment we made into the TIPC.” 

The new facility has greatly expanded Torch’s capacity to deliver cost-effective design and prototyping solutions for their customers. With the addition of the newest facility, Torch’s Huntsville campus now comprises four buildings, and will break ground on a fifth building in April.

Torch, established on October 2, 2002 in Huntsville, Alabama, was founded by Bill Roark and Don Holder. In its first year, Torch had seven employees and one location. Now, with more than 1100 employee-owners in 17 locations in twelve states, one territory, and one foreign country, Torch is lighting the pathway of freedom.

For more information about the Technology Integration and Prototyping Center.