Jim Franklin is a principal and founder at Prodigy Capital Consulting, and along with an extremely talented team, is the Executive Director of The Incubation Network. Prodigy was formed from the business units of Franklin and Associates, Mr. Franklin’s private investment banking consulting firm, and Monticello Capital, a specialty investment bank in Northern Virginia, with which Jim remains an active associate. The Incubation Network is a non-profit organization providing a variety of consulting services to the entrepreneurial and early stage business community in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Jim specializes in strategic planning and financial services to clients within several industries including private insurance, aerospace and defense, international technology, entertainment, security, healthcare, pharmaceutical, transportation, logistics management, information technology, senior care, manufacturing, renewable energy, real estate development, and non-profit foundations.
Mr. Franklin is a retired senior US Air Force officer, and as a test pilot and combat fighter pilot commanded both flying and support units in a variety of locations including six countries on four continents and experience in flying over 20 aircraft. Jim served as foreign military sales director, technology development manager, logistics design and planning specialist, and research manager for a variety of cutting edge technologies. His last assignment in the USAF was with the Secretary of the Air Force handling over $7 billion of foreign military sales contracts and developing international cooperative technologies across the globe.
After retiring from the Air Force, Mr. Franklin started a successful consulting firm, Franklin and Associates, growing it to a respected practice in international business development and specializing in merger and acquisition structures supporting commercialization of advanced technology. Jim’s clients included: BAE SYSTEMS, MBDA Missile Systems, Textron, Boeing, Raytheon and Cessna Aircraft. After consolidating the business practice in defense, he joined two partners in forming a robotic aircraft company that eventually went public and is serving the intelligence community today.
Franklin and Associates joined with Monticello Capital to offer a full service investment banking and business strategy family of services to a varied client base. This partnership expanded Jim’s experience to include several new technology arenas including, pharmaceutical, security, logistics management, intermodal transportation services, renewable energy, resort development, and manufacturing, all while continuing with existing clients. In the process, Mr. Franklin has acted as Chief Financial Officer for nine early stage companies during capital financing and strategic business development.
Jim and his network partners provide small business advisory services in addition to strategic corporate consulting to Fortune 500 clients and mid-cap companies globally.