Spark Innovation Center taps Bill Malkes to lead entrepreneurship programs, including new Mobility Lab
Applications for the Mobility Lab are open through January 31. The week of programming will take place April 20-24.
Dozens of founders have navigated the Spark Innovation Center. They have received coaching through the Cleantech Accelerator and lab space through the Incubator program at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm. Additionally, they gained mentorship from entrepreneurial leaders in the community.
One of those mentors, Bill Malkes, an Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) for the program, will soon assume a significantly larger role for the organization.
On Tuesday, November 19, the Spark Innovation Center announced that Malkes will be its new Director of Entrepreneurship. We sat down with him to discuss the transition, his passion for the mission, and what’s next for the organization.
The road to Spark leadership
For the past three cohorts of the Spark Cleantech Accelerator, Malkes has guided emerging entrepreneurs toward their next right move.
“It’s been one of the more rewarding things I’ve done, watching these founders grow,” he said. “I have the battle scars. I’ve spent a lot of time doing this and have been blessed to use my experience to help these early-stage companies.”
Entrepreneurship has been part of Malkes’ life since the 1990s. A self-described “recovering CPA,” he began his career at a Big Four accounting firm but quickly realized that 9-to-5 office life wasn’t for him.
From there, he launched and grew several businesses, from healthcare roll-ups and technology ventures to ASIC design companies. Most notably, he co-founded GRIDSMART, a traffic management system using advanced vision processing.
“GRIDSMART grew to be the biggest company in our niche before we sold it in 2019,” he said. Cubic Corporation acquired the company for approximately $87 million.
Today, Malkes continues his entrepreneurial journey as Board Chair for NellOne Therapeutics, a local regenerative medicine company, and serves on several advisory boards for entrepreneurial support organizations.
All of this experience has led to his new role at Spark.
“I’ll be taking over program management, setting the direction, and developing curriculum for how to better build our companies within the local ecosystem,” he said, adding that the Spark Cleantech Accelerator will continue operations in 2026.
Launching the Mobility Lab
The newest program for 2026 is the Spark Mobility Lab, a partnership between the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC) and Launch Tennessee.
The program will give mobility innovators one intensive, three-session week to develop their techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA).
“When you do your TEA and LCA, you identify things like supply chain risk, economic risk, and manufacturing risk, and then you can address those needs up front,” Malkes said. “It’s a great opportunity for these young companies to start one step ahead.”
The Spark Mobility Lab will seek innovators in the transportation space, but Malkes said the definition of mobility will be broad.
“We’re looking at transportation as the things that move people, assets, and supplies more efficiently. So it can be infrastructure, materials, batteries, any kind of power,” he said.
Given his transportation expertise from GRIDSMART, Malkes is excited for the inaugural class.
“There is something really special about being the first cohort. The people we select for the first round will be the benchmark for future classes,” he said.
Applications for the Mobility Lab are open through January 31. The week of programming will take place April 20-24.
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