Drayton Wade

Mount Pleasant, SC

Drayton Wade is a multi-time entrepreneur both in the for and non-profit space, currently serving as Head of Operations in charge of all non-engineering teams for ReflectionAI, an $8B AI startup building open-weight, American made large language models. Since joining, Reflection has grown from a small research team, to a well established frontier lab and raised over $2B to further its mission of bringing top-performing open-weight models to the US and allied nations.

Drayton is actively involved with Clemson University (his undergraduate alma mater), serves on the Clemson Alumni Association Board of Directors and received the 2023 “Roaring 10 Award” given to top young alumni. Drayton is a frequent speaker on AI topics at universities including Clemson, Dartmouth, American University and the College of Charleston.

Drayton is active in the GOP, as a prior YR chair, member of the SC Policy Council 501c4 board, and frequent fundraiser host (Congressional, Senate and Presidential) including a fundraiser for US Senator Ted Budd (2022 primary). Senator Budd graciously is a mentor for Drayton.

Drayton earned his BA from Clemson, his MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and his MBA from Dartmouth. Drayton and his wife Jessica live in Charleston.