Meet the Founder

E. Davon Kelly, Founder

Davon Kelly is a socially-conscious entrepreneur with an impressive track record of service, mentorship, coaching, and civic responsibility.  Davon’s heart to develop and enrich young men came from coaching varsity basketball at Episcopal High School since 2003.  In this role, Davon has taught and coached his players the value of teamwork and sportsmanship.  The values and lessons they learn on the basketball court provide valuable and transferable lessons in life. He shares his wisdom in his book, From Courtside to the Boardroom: A Legacy in the Making.
 

Determined to leave a lasting legacy and inspired by the book, in 2015, Davon Kelly founded The 13th Man. The 13th Man is a nonprofit organization that elevates the lives of young men through empowerment, development and leadership engagements.  The 13th Man has empowered over 200 young men through its weekly academic tutoring program and annual Summer Classics Leadership Conference.  Most recently, the 13th Man organization expanded its footprint and opened a chapter in Charlotte, North Carolina.  It is Davon’s vision that every young man across the nation will develop themselves to engage, act and lead as a confident community game changer.  The 13th Man is Davon’s heart-work. He is most proud that his organization provides young men access, exposure, training and leadership skills to enable them to rise beyond their own ambition to a level of success they could not imagine.
 

Davon provides this same level of passion and business support to other community organizations. He served as former Board Chair of Boys Town of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit organization founded in 1917 by Father Edward Flanagan to serve the needs of at-risk children and families. Kelly also serves on the Board of Directors for the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) since 2012. NFTE provides programs that inspire young people from low-income communities to stay in school and to plan for successful futures.
 

Since 2003, Davon Kelly has grown his premier business, NOVAD Management Consulting (NOVAD) from a one-man shop to a multi-million dollar company employing over 125 employees in the Washington, DC metro area, Atlanta, GA, Oklahoma City, OK, and Santa Ana, CA.  NOVAD provides project management, strategic planning, business process re-engineering, financial advisory services, asset and property management, IT support, and training and coaching services.
 

Before establishing NOVAD, Davon garnered over 15 years of experience in commercial banking, general accounting services, organizational assessments and project management with both the Federal Government and large private industry organizations.
 

Davon Kelly continues to leverage his business acumen; opening My Barber’s Lounge (MBL), a chain of upscale barbershops in Greenbelt and Forestville, MD.  In 2013, MBL was recognized by the Gazette Newspaper as the Best Barbershop in Prince George's County, a significant achievement for its first year of operation.  MBL won the award for 2014 Best Barbershop at the 12th Annual Neighborhood Awards, a national competition hosted by talk show host Steve Harvey and hosted by the Ford Motor Company.  Davon continues his entrepreneurial pursuits by launching his own line of premium spirit beverage, Shadow Vodka, Salon DK – opened March 2017.

Davon Kelly has a B.S. degree in finance from Florida Tech University and a Master’s Degree in business administration from Bowie State University.