About the Founders
Eric McFadden
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
In 1970 as a high school student, Eric McFadden was recruited to attend St. George’s School in Rhode Island as part of the boarding school’s racial integration initiative. As a student, Eric lead the black student boycott at St. George’s School in 1972 – the first boycott at a prestigious New England prep school. Eric went on to attend Harvard College (76’) where he studied American Political History and Economics.
At the age of 19, Eric was recruited by Mayor Kevin White to be Special Assistant to the Mayor for Community Development in 1974, as Boston began School Desegregation. He was responsible for dismantling the Model Cities program and helped create Boston’s first Community Development Block Grant Program. In 1976, Eric was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the National Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (NACJJDP) (Presidential Commission). In 1977, while serving on the NACJJDP, Mayor White asked Eric to return to Boston to establish the first Fair Housing program in the nation (Mayor’s Office of Fair Housing). Eric was instrumental in the integration of the Boston Housing Authority and in the creation of the first Community Disorders Unit within the Boston Police Department. Eric served the Mayor until 1979 participating in Federal Relations/Federal Compliance, Housing Desegregation and addressing Racial Violence and Police strategies for Community Disorders.
In 1979, Eric retired from public service and was hired by Xerox as one of the members of the first Ethernet (Xerox/DEC/Intel) products sales teams. Placed in New York City, Eric handled large accounts such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Cornell Medical, Rockefeller University, Merrill Lynch, and others. Eric continued his highly successful career with ITT, Wang Laboratories, General Data Comm – progressing to National Sales Management and eventually Regional Vice President for Metro NYC managing a $75M business unit. In the 1990s, Eric transitioned from OEM network infrastructure to the initial Voice over IP (VOIP) markets becoming an expert in voice and collaboration technologies. As his career progressed, he was responsible for clients such as Fidelity Investments, CIGNA, KeyCorp, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Revlon, Raytheon and General Dynamics.
Eric is the Founder of Lycaon Technologies – an IT services and consulting practice based in Harlem. Eric has provided strategic consulting services to Minority and Woman-owned businesses such as SMP (WBE), Noviant (MBE – Asian), Empire USA (WBE), Cognis IT (MBE – Black) and Flint Communications (MBE – Native American). Eric is considered a Subject Matter Expert in NYS/NYC procurement policies and practices, as well as a passionate advocate for Minority and Women Business inclusion in the IT industry and active supporter of Black Economic Empowerment and Entrepreneurship in technology.
Beneath his corporate identity, Eric is a classic renaissance man: a trained musician (piano and trombone), an accomplished public speaker, social activist, and writer. Eric is active in his community, his church (Riverside Church), and is a grandfather to nine beautiful children.
Outside of business and politics, Eric’s passion lies in the arts, music and creative culinary expression. Eric created WFM to enable minority creative expression using digital media to speak to social and political challenges of our country and for People of Color (POC). Eric envisions We Funk Media as a platform to enable creative political and social expression for POC – who are under-represented and often excluded from participating in Corporate media platforms. He has a lifetime of experience as an intelligent Black man in America – with all the discrimination, hostilities (corporate, social, and law enforcement), micro-aggressions, and biases that America offers to Black and minority existence. Eric is passionate in his belief that it is time for other perspectives and voices to be enabled and not exploited.
Geoffrey Kent
Chief Operating Officer
Geoffrey brings nearly 40 years of senior operations management expertise to We Funk Media. Prior to obtaining a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, his technology industry experience included tenures at Xerox (Senior Sales Representative), and AT&T (Account Manager).
At the Erving Group (an entertainment management holding company owned by retired NBA Hall of Fame member and entrepreneur Julius “Dr. J” Erving), where he served as the CEO of a Chicago-based portfolio company. He was a Senior Manager with Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group, specializing in strategic planning, business process reengineering, and reorganization services (working with several technology-based multinational clients).
Geoffrey served in the capacity of Managing Principal of the Kent Consulting. During this tenure, his IT experiences included: being appointed as the Director of Consulting Services of Nelson where he had responsibility for managing all of the firm’s Information Technology, Strategic Planning, Occupancy Tracking, and Interior Design activities; and serving as the Chief Operating Officer of DraW Computing (an ASP start-up providing 3D graphics developer tools). Prior to founding Cognis IT Advisors in 2007, Geoffrey served as COO and CFO of Opportunity Finance Network (a $4 billion national network of 167 community development financial institutions, where he oversaw all internal operations, including the IT function).
Geoffrey serves on the Board of Directors of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation (Chairman, Corporate Council Committee, and member of the Audit Committee), and Fox Chase Cancer Center Foundation. Geoffrey is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Society, and Beacon (formerly the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executives Group). Geoffrey has held the role of Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Lincoln University. In 2011, Geoffrey was the recipient of a Minority Business Leader Award by the Philadelphia Business Journal and a semi-finalist in Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” award competition.