About The Carrington Firm

Nashad Carrington, JD, MBA is a business educator, technology commercialization practitioner, attorney, and principal investigator with more than fifteen years of experience working at the intersection of law, venture-backed technology, federally funded applied research, economic development, and executive education. Through The Carrington Firm, he advises corporations, startups, public entities, and mission-driven organizations on business formation, governance, commercial agreements, capital access, regulatory strategy, and stakeholder accountability. His work combines legal judgment, operational strategy, and applied research to help organizations build durable systems and move complex ideas from concept to implementation.

Nashad's background includes serving as in-house counsel for Dyn, Inc., a venture-backed internet infrastructure company acquired by Oracle Corporation, where he negotiated multi-million-dollar enterprise technology agreements, supported merger and acquisition due diligence, and advised on governance and change-of-control issues. He also represented the company in ICANN policy processes involving international stakeholders, adding cross-border technology policy experience to his commercial and legal background. This combination of transactional practice, governance counseling, and technology commercialization informs his broader advisory work with growth-stage companies and public-interest initiatives.

As a principal investigator, Nashad has led nationally recognized platform-development projects funded by USDA and related partners. He is the principal investigator for LandConnect, a govtech platform and Service Area Mapping tool that connects landowners to carbon markets, technical service providers, and economic development opportunities. He is also the principal investigator for GRŌ, an agtech platform and training system for specialty and lifestyle farmers. Both platforms were developed through deep customer discovery, participatory design, iterative prototyping, and public deployment, reflecting his ability to translate research into practical tools with measurable user adoption and economic impact.

His commercialization work has produced significant reach and recognition. LandConnect has been adopted by USDA NRCS state offices in more than twelve states and by municipalities in twenty-five cities, and the platform has been featured in national media outlets including USA Today. GRŌ has reached hundreds of farmers, extension agents, and agricultural service providers through workshops and training activities. Together, these efforts reflect Nashad's ability to bridge the gap between research, policy, and real-world implementation in ways that expand access to opportunity.

Nashad is also deeply engaged in teaching and workforce development. He has served as a teaching assistant in WashU Olin's MBA program, where he supported curriculum design, led classroom instruction, and facilitated discussions on leadership, ethics, organizational governance, and inclusive decision-making. In addition, he has designed and delivered federal-agency training programs, extension-style workshops, and practitioner education sessions on environmental justice, conservation finance, land management, business development, and public program access. His academic and professional interests include technology commercialization, Lean LaunchPad and I-Corps methods, growth strategy, government procurement, SBIR and STTR pathways, entrepreneurship in regulated markets, and business ethics.

His legal and policy experience spans administrative, regulatory, and government practice at the federal, state, and local levels. As a Climate Fellow at USDA, he advised Cabinet-level officials on investment strategy, regulatory frameworks, and program administration, while managing a large federal portfolio with compliance oversight. He also served as a gubernatorial appointee to Illinois' Equity Task Force and as a municipal judge in Kinloch, Missouri, where he supported institutional reform and procedural accountability under federal oversight. These experiences strengthened his expertise in public policy, program design, and legally sound decision-making in complex public environments.

Nashad's current civic leadership includes appointments to the Metropolitan Sewer District Board of Trustees and the Missouri State Technical Committee for USDA NRCS, along with prior and ongoing service to regional boards, advisory groups, and community initiatives. He also serves as an external grant reviewer for the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, where he evaluates proposals for innovation, feasibility, and public value. Based in St. Louis, he brings a strong regional commitment to advancing economic mobility, public purpose, and institutional excellence through thoughtful leadership and practical execution.