Drayton C. Wade ’13

Drayton C. Wade ’13 Receives the 2022 Roaring10 Award

Drayton C. Wade of Charleston graduated from Clemson in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He then earned a master’s degree in the history of international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom. He currently is completing a Master of Business Administration degree at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

In June of 2022, Drayton became head of product strategy and operations for tech startup Kognitos, the first Generative AI Automation platform which recently raised $10 million in venture capital funding. Kognitos clients can use plain English instructions, instead of complicated technical terminology, to automate business processes. Before joining Kognitos, Drayton worked for several other emerging tech startups from early stage through initial public offering (IPO).

Before moving into the startup world, Drayton worked in the area of international affairs. As an Asia Pacific Foundation Research Fellow, he has published numerous articles on counter-terrorism topics and wrote a portion of NATO’s Counter-Terrorism Reference Curriculum.

For Clemson, Drayton is the founder and president of the Clemson University Balkans Foundation, which includes more than 300 active alumni. The foundation keeps study-abroad alumni informed about current activities, sponsors a speaker series and has funded a Clemson endowment to support Global Politics programs.

Drayton has multiple Clemson family connections. His wife, Jessica, Class of 2015, was a Clemson National Scholar. She earned her M.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina and is in residency at Wake Forest University. His mother, Carolyn Helena Wade, Class of 1978, was the featured twirler with Tiger Band. His sister, Aynsley Wade Stotler, is a member of the Class of 2006.