VentureLink-Based League Network Acquired for Tech Expertise
Reentry Centers, a company in Alabama that helps former prisoners build productive lifestyles, is looking to New Jersey Institute of Technology students for its employee expansion this year.
The company made their Highlander connection by hiring a fundraising expert in serial entrepreneur Jay Whitehead, who until 2020 chaired the Board of Visitors for NJIT's College of Science and Liberal Arts, and then by acquiring Whitehead's company League Network which is based in the NJIT VentureLink offices.
Now, with Whitehead promoted to Reentry Centers chairman and chief technology officer, he's looking to expand their services nationwide by bringing in several dozen full-time employees for entry-level marketing and sales positions working out of VentureLink.
"I was a history major, so I have a soft spot for that program, plus CSLA was innovating in technology," Whitehead explained. The hiring will begin this summer and fall, he said.
Similar to the halfway house concept, Reentry Centers helps newly released prisoners obtain necessities such as bank accounts, jobs and phones. Most participants were involved with burglary or drugs. People who committed murder or sex crimes are not allowed in the program. Reentry Centers is legally registered as a public-benefit company, which means corporate officers are required to consider the public good, not just profits.
The company is not licensed to operate centers in New Jersey, which already has an established non-profit program, but Whitehead said there are plans to offer banking services here through mobile applications. He is presenting such services to a large group of parole officers and probation officers this summer. There is plenty of room for uptake — "Parole officers are the most under-technologized people on Earth. Most of their work is done out of a file folder that's in a banker's box in the trunk of their car," he said.
If VentureLink wasn't here, I wouldn't be here, this company wouldn't be here
But Whitehead said the physical location of League Networks, functioning now as the Reentry Centers technology office, is as important to their success as the business model itself.
"If VentureLink wasn't here, I wouldn't be here, this company wouldn't be here," he said, adding that they're staying put through the imminent expansion. "I would have put this in New York City. VentureLink is what keeps a lot of entrepreneurial brains from draining into New York City. This is a pretty cool facility."
VentureLink's Will Lutz, general manager of entrepreneurship and commercialization, praised Whitehead and said the serial entrepreneur has a lot to teach anyone in the NJIT community.
"I'm super excited to hear about Jay's success. Since I've been at NJIT, Jay has been a leader among the entrepreneurial community. I can always trust him to provide some wise words to our student entrepreneurs," Lutz observed. "Now he has another example to say, 'Hey, I did this, you can too,' and that's invaluable."
VentureLink also aims to help minorities and people in need of investment funds.
