Meet Our Team

The Charleston Digital Corridor is highly collaborative organization with advisors hailing from the Charleston tech community and beyond. This allows us to stay lean, relevant and highly responsive to the dynamic needs of our tech community. We believe in community-sourced intelligence as the preferred way to operate.

  • Ernest Andrade

    Ernest Andrade

    Executive Director
    843.607.1264 EMAIL LINKEDIN

    Ernest is the visionary, founder and Director of the Charleston Digital Corridor. Under his leadership, the Digital Corridor has grown from 18 companies to 700+ companies today and is recognized as a model for high-wage, tech focused economic development. He has been serving the Charleston community for over 30 years!

    Ernest has an entrepreneurial spirit and thrives on the success and growth of our tech community. In the rare event he's not working you can find him biking, golf carting or hanging with his dog Gus!

  • Elaine Whitfield

    Operations Manager
    843.532.1439 EMAIL LINKEDIN
  • Joe Bryan

    Joe Bryan

    Technical Director
    843.814.1969 EMAIL

    Joe, the unofficial co-founder, has worked with Ernest since the beginning. He now serves a consultative role as Technical Director, assisting in management of all aspects of their IT services and supporting two SaaS apps that the CDC licenses to other communities.

    Looking for a trivia partner? Look no further, Joe is your guy, he participates in league trivia with his friends!

  • Kristen Pennell

    Communications Manager
    571.246.1899 EMAIL LINKEDIN

    Kristen oversees all internal and external communications for the Digital Corridor and ensures the message is consistent and engaging.

    In her free time, Kristen enjoys the beautiful weather and scenery that San Diego has to offer with her husband and 2-year-old Cane Corso, Mila.