Alston Gardener

Alston Gardner is an entrepreneur and early-stage technology investor.  He was the co-founder Fulcrum Equity Partners, an Atlanta-based growth equity fund in 2006 and still serves on the Advisory Board.  Alston also serves as an Advisor to Hatteras Venture Partners, a health care and bio-tech fund based in Durham, NC.  Alston is active in the investor groups affiliated with the University of North Carolina, NC State University, and Duke University.

Alston was the founder and CEO of OnTarget, a consulting and sales training firm focused on the information technology industry.  Under his leadership, OnTarget grew from startup in 1988 to the industry leader in sales force development with $75 million in annual revenue and 100+ professionals in fifteen countries prior to its acquisition by Siebel Systems in 2000.

Alston taught the only sales course at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC from 2003-2008 and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School and UVA’s Darden School of Business.  He was the chair of UNC’s Global Education Advisory Board from 1999 to 2005 and was instrumental in raising the funds for the Global Education Center at UNC.  Alston then served on the UNC Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2015 and was Vice-Chair from 2014 to 2015.

Alston holds a BA from UNC and earned a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Psychology from Columbia University in 2011.  He and his wife Barb split their time between Chapel Hill, NC and New York City where they have two grandchildren.

He is an avid, but aging cyclist and serves as the Chairman of the Board of Hot Tubes Development Cycling, the top junior cycling team in North America.