Our Team

Proven Leadership. Deep Technical Roots.

Franklin™ was created by a team of seasoned innovators with decades of experience in AI, enterprise systems, telecommunications, and intellectual property. Together, they’ve built technologies that power the internet, drive wireless communication, and now, revolutionize how we understand language.

Tom Shirley

President & Chief Executive Officer

Tom Shirley is the president and CEO of Entigenlogic®, with a solid track record of consistently delivering innovative customer solutions and business results.  He has senior-level experience at established companies such as IBM, Motorola, and others across IT, telecommunications, and software technologies.

Direct experience, including a six-year European expatriate assignment, encompasses multinational product development, global product deployment, and customer support.  Most recently, Tom was the SVP who led product development for the start-up company Cleversafe, which was purchased by IBM for $1.3 billion. A strong innovator, he holds 70+ patents.

He completed PhD coursework at SMU in Dallas, Texas and holds a Master of Science degree as well as a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Tom MacTavish

Chief Design Officer

Tom MacTavish has 30 years’ experience in Artificial Intelligence acquired through leading Motorola Labs’ Center for Human Interaction Research and NCR Corporation’s Human Interface Technology Center. In addition to his work at Entigenlogic®, Tom is an adjunct professor at IIT Institute of Design. 

Tom has participated in the full range of product conceptualization and development phases resulting in products using many methods and technologies. He served as the Director
of Engineering for the team formally recognized by IEEE with a Milestone Award in October 2019 for their contribution to creating Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11). Tom currently holds 3 patents. He holds master’s degrees in Library and Information Science from University of Michigan and in English from University of Iowa, with a bachelor’s degree in English from Central Michigan University.

Tom has maintained strong ties to university research and has served as corporate liaison and advisor to The Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford.

Andy Chu

Head of Product Development

Andy has 30 years of experience managing, architecting, and building software systems. Andy leads software engineering teams in the development of new and cutting-edge technologies.  

Previously, Andy was the Head of Nokia’s North American Packet Core R&D and Director of Engineering of Motorola’s 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) Mobility Management Entity (MME) product line and Motorola’s Integrated Digital Enhanced Network Base Site Controller (BSC) product line. Andy currently holds 2 patents.

Andy has a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign.

Gordon Gruszka

Chief Financial Officer

Gordon is an accomplished financial and operational strategist, thought leader and tactician with senior-level experience at established companies such as Motorola, Motorola Mobility pre and post Google, Deutsche Post DHL Group and Advisory Board experience for cloud-based SaaS solution provider. He has direct experience in leading Organizational Turnarounds, Go-To-Market Growth Strategies, Sale and Recapitalizations, Business Operations, Audit, Corporate Accounting & Planning, Treasury, M&A, Divestitures, Carve-Outs, Start-Ups, and New Ventures Investments.

 As a former CFO, President & CEO of a consumer products manufacturing company owned by DHL he led the business turnaround, sale to PE and recapitalization. Prior to that, he conceptualized and led the Motorola Global Supply Chain integration, implemented Financial Centers of Excellence in Asia, established manufacturing operations in India and Brazil, played a pivotal role in the spin-off of Motorola Mobility into two publicly traded companies, led due diligence for the $12.5 billion Google acquisition of Mobility, successfully defended antitrust arguments with the U.S. Department of Justice and led post-merger integration of Motorola Mobility to Google.

 Gordon holds a Master’s in Accountancy from Heller College of Business Roosevelt University and a B.S. in Finance and Economics from Northern Illinois University.

Gary Grube

Gary Grube is a seasoned patent strategist with decades of experience turning breakthrough ideas into protected, high-value intellectual property. From 1980 to 2008, he led patent development at Motorola, playing a key role in shaping the company’s renowned IP portfolio. Following that, Gary oversaw the patent strategy for Cleversafe, where his leadership directly contributed to the company’s $1.3 billion acquisition by IBM. Today, he continues to guide innovation as a Patent Agent at the Careus Institute.

Dennis Roberson

Board Chairman

Dennis Roberson is the Founder and CEO of Roberson and Associates, a technology and management consulting firm serving government, commercial and academic customers. He is Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s Technology Advisory Council and a member of the Department of Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. He is a Research Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

Dennis was the founding board member of Cleversafe, a data storage company which IBM purchased for $1.3 billion. He was EVP and CTO of Motorola, Inc. and held Executive positions at IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, AT&T and NCR.

Dennis has Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Physics from Washington State University and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Samme Thompson

Samme Thompson is the President of Telit Associates, Inc., a strategy advisory practice focused on telecommunications, IT, and data science ventures. He currently serves on the boards of American Tower Corporation, the University of Chicago’s Marine Biological Labs, and the University of Pittsburgh’s graduate and undergraduate business schools.

He previously worked at Motorola Corporation as senior vice president, responsible for corporate strategy, global business development and One Motorola Ventures; as senior advisor to a global data analytics consulting firm; and as an investment banker serving telecom, computer services and information technology clients. He also held senior positions at AT&T and McKinsey & Company.

Samme earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Prairie View A&M University in Texas and his MBA from the University of Pittsburg.

Amreesh Modi

Amreesh was EVP/Chief Technology Officer at Navteq Corporation, where he drove development of new world-wide mapping database and navigation services. These innovations enabled Navteq to expand beyond its traditional automotive business into new markets for mobile devices and location services, significantly increasing its revenues and profitability. Navteq, now called Here Technologies, was acquired by Nokia for $8.1 billion.

 

Before joining NAVTEQ, he served in a variety of leadership positions at Motorola. He played a pivotal role in the development of the CDMA and GSM cellular infrastructures and led the creation of the industry’s first Short Message Service (SMS) application. As a VP/GM of Motorola’s Global Software Division, he pioneered the company’s global software strategy and development of software centers worldwide. Prior to Motorola, Amreesh was at AT&T Bell Labs in many engineering and management roles and designed the software recovery system for the 5ESS Switch, the first digital switching system in the world.

 

Amreesh holds a MS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the University of Chicago.