angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

CEOs Who are Changing the World

January 19, 2016 by angishields

Sometimes we forget to look around and take notice of the miracles surrounding us. Listen in as CEO Exclusive Radio host Soyini Coke talks with some truly inspiring CEOs who also happen to be changing the world.

“Hosting CEO Exclusive has given me the opportunity to meet and be inspired by so many CEOs, and to look for ways to implement the lessons I’ve learned into my own life, and in the ways I work with midsized companies to develop business strategies. I hope it does the same for you, and that we all find our own paths to making positive changes in the world.” – Soyini Coke

Klaas Baks and Steve Freedman of Tiger 21

January 12, 2016 by angishields

Klaas Baks / Tiger 21

Klaas P. Baks PhD (www.klaasbaks.com is a recognized thought-leader in alternative investments and entrepreneurial finance. Dr. Baks is the co-founder and executive director of the Emory Center for Alternative Investments, whose international board consists of chief executive officers of pension and sovereign wealth funds with over $1 trillion in assets under management. Dr. Baks has been a Finance Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School since 2002.

Dr. Baks’s research and teaching focuses on issues in alternative investments, entrepreneurial finance and investment management, and he has published papers in numerous academic and business journals, including the Wall Street Journal. He teaches courses in private equity, venture capital and entrepreneurial finance at Emory and has been recognized by students and alumni with four teaching awards, including Emory University’s highest award for teaching excellence, the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Marc F. Adler Prize for Teaching Excellence awarded by alumni. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Luxembourg School of Finance, where he teaches a course in private equity in their Executive Program in Wealth Management.

Dr. Baks is the Atlanta Chair with TIGER 21, North America’s premier peer-to-peer learning network for high-net-worth investors. TIGER 21’s approximately 380 members collectively manage more than $27 billion and are entrepreneurs, inventors and top executives focused on improving investment acumen, as well as exploring common issues of wealth preservation, estate planning and family dynamics.

Dr. Baks serves as director or advisor for over 13 companies in a variety of industries, including Brightwood Capital Advisors (fixed income), Kruger Capital (private equity), Panton Equity Partners (private equity), Peachtree Hotel Group (real estate), Transcardiac Therapeutics (health care), Triton Value Partners (strategic consulting) and TWO Capital Partners (real estate). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Michael C. Carlos Museum.

Prior to joining Emory University, Dr. Baks held positions at Fuji Bank in Tokyo, Japan, Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong and the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.

Dr. Baks studied at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (PhD in Finance), Brown University (Master’s in Economics), Groningen University (Master’s in Econometrics) and Leiden University (Diploma in Japanese Language and Business Studies). He spent two years at Harvard University as part of his doctoral research at Wharton on the performance of actively managed mutual funds.

Born and raised in the Netherlands, Dr. Baks resides with his wife and son in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Steve Freedman / Tiger 21

Steve founded Getmembers.com in 1994 and sold a majority interest in 2007 to private equity firm, Lake Capital. Between 2007 and 2012 we grew the parent Company (Hyper Marketing, Inc) organically and via acquisitions into the largest independent marketing services firm in the US which we sold to Epsilon, a $1.3 Billion division of Alliance Data in November, 2012. Steve served on the board of Hyper Marketing, Inc since 2007 and was the President of the local marketing division which delivered turn-key direct marketing campaigns generally via direct mail and direct prospect e-mail to our clients in multiple verticals and we specialized in franchise organizations. After 19 incredible years of building and leading the company, he decided to move on to the next chapter in his professional career.

Beach Ball Capital, LLC focuses on short and long term alternative investments in the areas of commercial and residential real estate, select service hotels, distressed and senior secured debt, private equity, venture and select operating companies with a unique selling proposition. We are both active and passive investors depending on the investment opportunity.

Steve is a graduate of Emory University and a licensed CPA in Georgia. He lives with his wife, Lisa and 2 daughters in Sandy Springs.

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Michael Bull of Bull Realty

January 5, 2016 by angishields

Michael Bull / Bull Realty

Michael Bull is a writer, speaker, trainer, consultant, business coach, radio show host, and active commercial real estate broker. He has been involved in $4 billion in sales and lease transactions over a successful 30 year career. He has earned the prestigious CCIM designation as well as the CRB and ePro designations.

Mr. Bull is the founder and managing broker at Bull Realty, Inc, a U.S. commercial real estate sales, leasing and advisory firm headquartered in Atlanta, GA. The firm is licensed in nine states and works all over the country with partner firms. Along with other respected professional services, Bull Realty is known to have the best commercial real estate marketing in the country.

Michael is the host of America’s Commercial Real Estate Show, a weekly talk radio show about business and commercial real estate related issues. New shows are broadcast every week, available on-demand at iTunes and the show web site. Shows are also broadcast on 12 radio stations arounf the country including flagship station Biz 1190 WAFS at 10 am ET every Saturday in Atlanta.

Along with giving back to the industry through the radio show, Mr. Bull also writes blogs and articles and has contributed articles to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Atlanta Business Chronicle Real Blog, Georgia Trend, Shopping Center Business, Multi-Housing News and Nations Restaurant News.

Michael enjoys the study of marketing and has become a well known social media advocate. Your invited to connect with Michael on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Mr. Bull is involved with networking and professional organizations including the National Association of Realtors, the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute, the International Council of Shopping Centers, the Real Estate Brokerage Managers Council, the ePro Network, the Atlanta Leaders Group, Real Estate Group Atlanta, the Real Estate Group at the Atlanta Bar and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

Michael enjoys spending time with his family residing in the Chastain Park area of Atlanta. Michael’s hobbies include performance boating, basketball and music.

Mr. Bull was born in Nashville, Tenn, and has lived in Atlanta since the age of 6. He attended local Atlanta schools Grady High School, Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Real Estate. Michael started his real estate career in 1977. While attending night school, he leased and managed 350 apartment units working closely with managing partner Lorne Twiner at Midtown Rental Company. Michael Bull reports. “Lorne Twiner taught me client services and property management from an owner / client prospective. It’s a much more intense management style than the typical third party way of conducting management and leasing services.”

Within two years, commercial real estate sales and management firm Buddy Patrick Realtors recruited Michael to lead their property management company with property manager Bill Lane. Michael thanks Mr. Patrick, “Buddy Patrick taught me the importance of integrity and to enjoy life and the people around me every day.” Michael transformed the marketing, collections, accounting and maintenance procedures, tripling the size of the company in three years. Michael’s hands on experience of improving operations and managing, renovating and increasing the value of investment properties was great experience for what was to come.

In 1979 Michael sold his first apartment building and began to excel in investment brokerage. In 1984, he earned his brokers license and joined RE/MAX of Georgia as director of the commercial division. His performance there was awarded with the firm’s top commercial production awards at nationwide levels. While associated with RE/MAX, Michael operated a separate commercial office and support staff, building a successful brokerage career selling apartment buildings and all types of commercial properties in Atlanta.

As his business grew, his clients required more sophisticated marketing, tools and research. There was a need for a reputable commercial company name to properly promote larger properties. While the national commercial firms were aggressively recruiting him, Michael felt the way the national firms market exclusive listings is not adequate or even fair to seller clients. He began to create a marketing platform that has proven to provide excellent results.

After purchasing and renovating an office building in 1997, Michael opened Bull Realty, Incorporated in January 1998. The firm started with two main missions the firm still lives by today. 1) To create a high-intergrity company of stellar reputation and 2) to provide the best commercial real estate marketing in the country.

The firm has done well for their clients and agents. Bull Realty now has 34 brokers and 15 support staff providing sales, leasing, auction and advisory services for major clients throughout the United States. Michael Bull is the managing broker in the Atlanta office and works daily with the firm’s clients and brokers to add value to their real estate endeavors.

Michael Bull is available to add value to your commercial real estate endeavors, contact Michael at 800-408-2855.

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2016: What’s Changing and What’s Staying the Same

December 29, 2015 by angishields

CEO Exclusive Radio host Soyini Coke takes a look back at 2015 and ahead at what’s changing and what’s staying the same in the business world in 2016 according to some of our previous CEO Exclusive guests.

Emma Morris of Jem, Inc., Shannon Grube of Blackfin Square, Inc. and Tyler Workman of Okoa Refuge

December 22, 2015 by angishields

Emma Morris / Jem, Inc.

Emma Morris has spent most of her career in technology companies from IBM to startups. She is an experienced CEO of three technology companies. She is the co-founder of four technology companies and her consulting firm. Most recently, Emma was the facilitator of a Christian CEO Roundtable. For the last seven years, she helped these Christian CEOs use their businesses as a platform for sharing Christ without tangling with the law.

She is active on the boards of several technology and non-profit boards. Her hobbies are traveling and cycling with her husband of 40 years. Her passion is Business as Mission. Emma earned her BA cum laude at Emory University and her MBA at the University of South Carolina.

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Shannon Grube / BlackFin Square, Inc.

Shannon Grube is the Chief Executive Officer of BlackFin Square. Shannon founded BlackFin Square in 1996. She brings an amazing entrepreneurial talent to the growing team.

Shannon has grown BlackFin Square for 17 years. Her executive focus and passion is in working with colocation & cloud, global networks, hosted voice and resolving complicated provider/client conflicts. She believes in strong, balanced teams, building skills and strengths, and finding leadership. Shannon has grown BlackFin Square’s support base over the past 15 years and partnered with more than 30 global best of breed vendors and platforms.

Shannon’s career focus has been in telecommunications and sales. She has held competitive sales roles early in her career at Allnet, before launching BlackFin Square.

Her open-minded approach to problem solving and listening to Client’s needs truly separates the company’s vision from the competition. Shannon is always searching for innovative opportunities for both BlackFin Square and more importantly, each Client’s success. Shannon’s motto is that the Client comes first and their goals and successes are at the forefront of her drive.

Shannon is a proud sports mom of two boys and enjoys tennis, swimming, and biking. Over the last few years, she’s developed a new passion in focused philanthropy and enjoys making a difference, and encouraging and supporting her team in doing the same.

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Tyler Workman / Okoa Refuge

Tyler and his wife Liv had very different lives growing up. Tyler lived in the same town his entire life and Liv had moved fourteen times by the age of twenty. By the grace of God, their paths crossed in October 2005 at a YWAM training school and they were married three years later.

Tyler’s first trip to Africa was when he was seventeen years old and went to Botswana with Global Expeditions. He spent a life-changing month in the bush and really felt inspired to return to Africa some day. All of his feelings were confirmed when, shortly after returning home, he learned about the Lord’s Resistance Army and their twenty year reign of terror in Northern Uganda. From that moment, he knew he would be returning to Africa.

He qualified for his General Contractor’s license, but shortly after that it became apparent that there was a different purpose for his life while they were still Stateside. From the ground up, he started the Thrift Store that has become irreplaceable in terms of financial support for Okoa Refuge.

Liv lived with her family in Gabon, West Africa, as a child. Her dad was in the oil industry and so they moved around quite frequently. Africa imprited on Liv’s heart and each and every major decision she made after returning home at age six has been with the knowledge that one day, again, she would be making Africa her home. In 2009 she graduated with her Bachelors Degree in nursing and worked for two and a half years as a registered nurse in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at The Mayo Clinic – Jacksonville. The skills she has learned will be highly useful in the bush clinics they will host in remote villages.

The Workman’s first daughter, Shamilah Michelle, was adopted from Uganda and came home on September 17, 2010. She was three years old. Their second child (though third in the birth order), Judah Sunshine, is a biological daughter and was born December 1, 2011. In December 2013 – after moving permanently to Uganda – they began fostering a little boy with no name. They named him Gideon Benaiah and his adoption was finalized January 9, 2014. Gideon’s birthday is May 17, 2009. Later that year, on June 6, 2014, Bear Abishai was born in Kampala, Uganda.

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Mark Fonseca and Mike McCarthy of Pragmetrix

December 15, 2015 by angishields

Mark Fonseca / Pragmetrix

Mark has over 20 years of experience in consultative sales, sales management and client relations. As a top producer at Lanier Business Products, he sold document management solutions to a range of businesses and was prolific at establishing long term relationships.

Mark consults one on one with the most successful CEO’s and Executives in Atlanta and has interviewed thousands of Executives and Business Professionals. He has experience in Sales, Sales Management and Sales Training Best Practice. Currently Mark is the owner of his own private men’s custom clothing and executive image consulting business. He has developed strong business relationships with heads of State, CEO’s, top-level executives and successful entrepreneurs, through one on one consulting and exceptional customer service.

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Mike McCarthy / Pragmetrix

Mike McCarthy has been passionate about delivering exceptional customer service since he started his career in the 1980’s with GE Technical Services Company. Eleven years on the front lines of mission critical, capital intensive projects at client sites instilled in him a core belief that every business decision must first and last be looked at through the customer’s eyes. Mike has since held senior leadership roles in GE and Siemens Corporation and is a veteran of business and operational excellence methodologies such as Voice of the Customer, Six Sigma and the Net Promoter System®.

As an entrepreneur and small business owner, in 2004 Mike launched Pirtek Fluid Transfer Solutions in Atlanta. Today it’s the market leader in its industry in Georgia. In 2011 Mike co-founded Pragmetrix to help small and medium size “B to B” businesses become the Loyalty Leaders in their industries, thus fueling their compound annual growth rate to more than twice that of the competitors. Mike holds an honors degree in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Ireland and an MBA in Strategic Marketing from Trinity College Dublin.

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Henry Rischitelli of Next Marketing and Hugh Massie of DNA Behavior International

December 1, 2015 by angishields

Henry Rischitelli / Next Marketing

Henry Rischitelli is the President and CEO of Next Marketing, which he founded in 1993 with a vision to provide specialized marketing services to the rapidly increasing motorsports industry. His agency quickly grew to become a full-service experiential and live event marketing agency, and today Next Marketing works with category leaders such as US Air Force, Anheuser Busch, CDW, General Motors, Continental Tire, Polaris, Jabra, Hewlett-Packard, Principal Financial, , Community Coffee, among other Fortune 1000 companies. Rischitelli and his team of 30+ employees have provided award-winning live and experiential marketing experiences to millions of consumers.

Next Marketing is committed to excellence in B2B, B2E and B2C marketing across a variety of live and digital media platforms. The company provides measurable, goal-achieving results through innovative, exciting and interactive customer experiences, including multi-sensory exhibits that drive clients’ business growth, build customer relationships and promote consumer brand awareness. Next’s reputation for working collaboratively, efficiently and creatively has made the company an industry leader for over two decades. Next Marketing is consistently ranked as one of the top 100 sports, promotional and event marketing agencies in the US. As President and CEO, Rischitelli is involved with all facets of the agency’s business operations while focusing on building long-term partnerships with agency clients

Prior to founding Next Marketing, Mr. Rischitelli began his marketing career with the International Management Group (IMG), the world’s largest sports, events and lifestyle marketing firm. Rischitelli created a broad range of motorsports and entertainment initiatives, and developed new business models that redefined traditional sponsorships and marketing platforms.

Rischitelli’s energy and passion for business is evident in his community support, including the Atlanta chapter of the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), a global, non-profit association of business owners, where he serves on the chapter Board and is the incoming chapter president. Rischitelli also served as a Board member of “EO NERVE”, bringing over 400 entrepreneurs to Atlanta for a two-day thought leadership symposium and exchange. Mr. Rischitelli is also six-time honoree of the prestigious Inc. 5000 and has served as a panelist for Inc. Magazine and Event Marketer. He has also been recognized by Catalyst Magazine as one of Atlanta’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs.

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Hugh Massie / DNA Behavior International

Hugh Massie is the President and Founder of DNA Behavior International, and the current President of EO Atlanta. He is a Behavioral Finance Strategist, successful entrepreneur and leader with 30 years of unique and diverse international experiences. Hugh adopts the philosophy that “smart behavior leads to the right choices”.

Since 2001, Hugh has been providing financial services businesses worldwide with a single “Fintech” platform which delivers practical and scalable behavioral intelligence solutions to “Know, Engage and Grow” every employee and client online for the building of a client-centered business. In particular, Hugh focuses his attention in the areas of

client engagement
behavioral finance
team productivity

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Marc Lewyn and Brian Frey of GV Financial Advisors

November 24, 2015 by angishields

Marc Lewyn / GV Financial Advisors

With over 20 years of experience, Marc is a partner, senior financial advisor, and CEO of Strategic Liquidity Services (“SLS”) at GV. SLS provides a methodology designed to help business owners navigate the complex options available for generating liquidity from their businesses.

“Most business owners think there’s one way to generate liquidity from their business — to sell it,” Marc explains. “However, that’s one of many options, and in our experience, it’s often not the best one. We help people navigate complex variables so they can choose a path that best fits with their personal and professional goals.”

Lewyn graduated cum laude from the University of Virginia and received his law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. Prior to joining GV Financial, Marc served as a corporate attorney for a variety of business clients. Marc also had the privilege of working on the staff of a U.S. Senator, a job he credits for giving him the willingness to tackle a variety of complex problems in service to others.

A leader in the community, Marc enjoys sharing his time and expertise with a number of Atlanta-based charities and organizations. Marc is the immediate past Chair of the Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and has served on the Executive Committee and the Board of that organization for many years. He served on the Endowment Board of the Westminster Schools, the Boards of the Greenfield Hebrew Academy, and the Endowment Committee of the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, the Atlanta Scholars Kollel and Temima High School.

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Brian Frey / GV Financial Advisors

Atlanta native Brian Frey is a Financial Advisor who discovered his calling during his first financial planning class in college. “I started off wanting to understand my finances,” he explains, “and then ended up finding a passion for entire process.” He went on to earn a BBA in Personal Financial Planning from Georgia Southern University and an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University.

Brian enjoys building models and spreadsheets, problem-solving, and researching financial strategies. His expertise in financial planning was instrumental in transitioning GV Financial Advisors to the eMoney financial planning platform.

If the weather is nice, Brian, his wife Blaire, and their 2-year-old daughter Harper are rarely at home on the weekend … you’ll find them somewhere enjoying the outdoors. It may be a day hike, kayaking down the Chattahoochee River, or backpacking and camping in the North Georgia Mountains.

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Keith Finger of Ignite Revenue

November 17, 2015 by angishields

Keith Finger / Ignite Revenue

Keith Finger increases revenue for companies whose marketing and sales aren’t meeting expectations. He unsticks what’s stuck and gets them back on the road to revenue growth.

You Need Keith When:

• Revenue is down or flat and you’re not sure what to do.

• You’re an established business whose offerings have become commoditized over time.

• You want to sell your business in a few years but need to grow revenue to get your exit price.

• You need better coordination between sales and marketing efforts.

• You’ve tried to get more leads but nothing seems to work.

• You’ve done some things to grow revenue but don’t really have a plan.

Finger increases revenue by delivering strategies and programs that increase sales, expand market exposure and channels and enhance profitability.

He practices and teaches the Agile Marketing process and consults with companies on implementing Agile. Keith is also a Certified Scrum Master (CSM).

Keith’s Specialties are:

-B2B revenue growth

-Growth strategy & execution