Leland Strange

J. Leland Strange (born March 15, 1941) is a long-time Atlanta technology entrepreneur and executive. He earned a B.S. in Industrial Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Georgia State University. Early in his career he founded several ventures across multiple industries and taught marketing, specializing in entrepreneurial enterprises, at Mercer University.

In 1980 Strange founded Quadram Corporation, a maker of enhancement/expansion products for personal computers that became one of the fastest-growing electronics companies of the early 1980s. Intelligent Systems Corporation acquired Quadram in 1983 (reported at roughly $35 million in stock). Strange stayed on, was appointed President of Intelligent Systems in 1982 and became CEO in the late 1980s (sources cite 1986–1988), a role he has held ever since as Chairman, President and CEO.

Intelligent Systems built and spun out numerous technology businesses over the decades. Its fintech software subsidiary, CoreCard Software (founded 2001), grew into the company's core business — a provider of credit-card issuing and account-management processing software and services. In 2021 the parent company renamed itself CoreCard Corporation (Nasdaq: CCRD), and Strange continued as Chairman, President and CEO.

Strange is a widely recognized figure in Georgia's technology community: he was inducted into the Georgia Technology Hall of Fame (1995) and the Hall of Fame of the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business/College of Management (2005). He is a past Chairman of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation, has served on the advisory board of Georgia Tech's business school, and is a trustee (emeritus) of the Georgia Tech Foundation. Over his career he has served on the boards of publicly traded companies including Great Plains Software, Matria Healthcare, Healthdyne Technologies, and IQ Software.

• Invests as an operating-executive angel rather than through a formal fund — leveraging decades of building and running technology and fintech companies.
• Backs early-stage technology ventures, often in and around the Atlanta / Georgia Tech ecosystem, frequently co-investing with corporate strategics and regional venture funds.
• Comfortable at seed and early rounds, and has followed on into later rounds (e.g., Series B) when investing alongside institutional co-investors.
• Value-add skews toward company-building, go-to-market, and scaling — reflecting his own history taking Quadram and Intelligent Systems/CoreCard from startup to public company.