B-G Innovative Safety Systems
The executive team at B-G Innovative Safety systems includes co-founders Andre Gist and Marcus Boykin, highly experienced in the Tiers 1 and 2 automotive and manufacturing industries, along with Greg Emery, a business development veteran of many emerging technology product introductions.
The company is headquartered in West Tennessee, with access to world-class manufacturing and distribution partners, as well as nearby scientific, engineering and university resources in Memphis and Nashville.
Andre Gist, CEO
BG co-founder Andre Gist is widely known as CEO of Manufacturers Industrial Group (MIG), an 1,800 employee Tier 2 manufacturer of auto mechanisms and assemblies. Fifty percent of all vehicles manufactured in North America contain a component produced by MIG.
Throughout his twenty-year career, Gist has also formed or acquired MIG Visteon, MIG Wire and MIG Steel Fabrication.
Andre is a board member of the Tennessee Automotive Manufacturer’s Association and Pathway Lending, member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, and a lifetime member of the NAACP. He is the leading minority-owned business CEO in Tennessee. Prior to his executive positions, Andre was employed as a project and manufacturing engineer at GM and Ford, and as a senior quality engineer at Johnson Controls.
Andre Gist is a native of Flint, Michigan, and earned a BS in Manufacturing Engineering from Bowling Green State University. He is married to Alice James, and is the proud father of three college students, attending the Universities of Michigan, Cincinnati and California, Berkeley.
Marcus Boykin, President/CTO
Marcus Boykin is President and Chief Technology Officer of BG Innovative Safety Systems. Marcus has over twenty-years experience in automotive and industrial electronics, employed by Johnson Controls as a technologist focused on automation productivity. He is the inventor of the Lighting Bug and manages ongoing technical development and intellectual property for BG.
Boykin graduated from the Tennessee Technology Center in 1996 and, in addition to his corporate employment, is credited with numerous inventions and entrepreneurial awards, including a 2016 SBA Start-Up Business Award and 2016 “Rising Star” Award, and recently featured on 60 Minutes.
Marcus resides in West Tennessee with his wife and two daughters.
Greg Emery, Vice President of Business Development
Greg Emery joined BG after seeing the company co-founders present the Lighting Bug product at an entrepreneurial competition. Impressed with the safety benefits of the product and professionalism of the inventors, Emery signed-on to assist with business development, marketing and sales.
“Greg’s thirty-plus years of success with IBM, Sony and numerous start-up ventures is a valuable asset for BG, as well as his worldwide marketing experience,” said Andre Gist, CEO.
Emery has conducted business in forty countries and has lived in Palo Alto, Ann Arbor and Paris, France. He holds an MBA from Arizona State University and an MA from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is married to Rev. Anne Emery, Sr. Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Brownsville, Tennessee.