Preston Dishner is the co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Winter Innovations, a medical device startup that develops novel orthopedic surgical tools. Preston is originally from Johnson City, Tennessee, and he earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2016. After completing his undergraduate studies, he continued his education at the University of Tennessee and pursued dual Master in Business Administration and Master of Science in Business Analytics degrees. During his time at the University of Tennessee, Preston teamed up with his co-founder Lia Winter to pursue commercialization of their medical device invention called EasyWhipTM, a novel surgical suturing needle designed to facilitate ease of use during graft stitching in ligament and tendon reconstruction procedures. Preston and Lia have garnered numerous accolades for their product, and they have won more than $100,000 in non-dilutive funding from pitch competitions to fund commercialization. This includes being selected as one of five finalists for the 2019 Collegiate Inventors Competition hosted by the National Inventors Hall of Fame at the U.S.P.T.O. This past summer, the team was a participant in the esteemed ZeroTo510 medical device accelerator program in Memphis, Tennessee, which helped them achieve key milestones and significantly de-risk their EasyWhipTM product.