DAVID MIDDLETON

David Middleton is a seasoned entrepreneur with vast experience leading companies, creating new business development opportunities, and developing strategic marketing programs in a variety of industries.  He serves as a managing director of CEO Focus in central and eastern North Carolina.

David started his business career with Highwoods Properties, now one of the largest office REITs in the U.S.  He went on to become the youngest regional marketing director with LCOR, a prominent national real estate development company and served on the national marketing steering committee.. 

His role as leasing director with Capital Associates, a leading regional commercial real estate firm, led to the formation of EPCOR Business Centers, where he served as CEO for over eleven years.  During that time, the company grew into the largest provider of business center services and resources in North Carolina and central Virginia and served hundreds of clients in numerous business categories.

After the company's acquisition by a national business centers company, David became chief marketing officer at French/West/Vaughan (FWV), the award-winning, largest independent public relations agency in the southeastern US, where he spearheaded new business development and company PR activities.  After launching Mid-Eye PR & Marketing, one of his clients was the Alliance Business Centers Network, and he dissolved Mid-Eye to become executive vice president of the Alliance Network, the largest global group of independently-owned executive office suites.

David has served as chairman of numerous regional, national and international boards and is an acclaimed public speaker both domestically and internationally.  His ideas, strategies, and analytical abilities on marketing and business issues continue to help entrepreneurs achieve their goals. 

 

BRUCE O'PRAY

Bruce O'Pray is a well-rounded senior executive with over 35 years experience in the small to medium sized business arena. He was the founder of a telecommunications equipment-manufacturing company in which, as Chairman and CEO, he grew revenues to $20 million and negotiated its sale to a public company. As the President of a health care Internet company, he was instrumental in reducing cash burn, instituting "right sized product management processes, and repositioning the company after the 2001 collapse of the IPO market. He was also the co-founder and CEO of a directory assistance / mobile web search engine company that was acquired by a private equity organization.

Bruce started his career as an electrical engineer, designing commercial electronic devices. He progressed through positions with Fortune 500 companies in large computer sales and computer equipment marketing prior to starting his first company.

Much of Bruce's entrepreneurial success is based on his ability to attract and motivate quality people – this includes hiring, coaching, leading, and delegating. He has raised millions of dollars in working capital through bank borrowings, customer pre-payments, individual investors, and venture capitalists. He has extensive hands on experience in sales, marketing, technology based product development, financial management, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, general management, and new business development.

 

BILL BOYER

Bill Boyer is a highly accomplished professional with extensive experience in many arenas. This background includes reorganizations (turnarounds), cost containment, and cash management in companies with significant deficits. He served as the lead in many varied and challenging negotiations, including banking, refinancing, acquisitions, unions, and marketing agreements/contracts. Additional experience includes developing, formalizing, and implementing strategic plans for both a Fortune 500 and a major international company. Aside from owning a business for several years, he has served as a senior interim manager in various privately owned companies with operational and/or financial difficulties.

His titles have included CEO, COO, CFO and Vice President of Finance and Operations. He started out of college with a Fortune 500 company and quickly rose to the vice president level. Later he started in a consulting capacity for a major British corporation, who subsequently hired him and promoted him to Vice President. He managed the Canadian subsidiary of a US Corporation and was a major player in negotiating the sale of this corporation to an international firm.

Among his many accomplishments are negotiating the sale of a company working with a mergers and acquisition team. Prepared the prospectus and handled the “road shows”. Bill also testified as expert witness in business evaluation in the longest arbitration case in New York State.

Personally, Bill Boyer is very involved with his church and is an officer in his homeowner’s association. He also is a certified lay counselor, on the YMCA board, and a trained Community Emergency Response Team member.
 

DUANE REED

Duane Reed Duane Reed has a wealth of experience extending over 25 years. As the manager of a financial services company for six years, Duane hired, trained and managed over 60 employees. He has facilitated customized, proprietary trainings for NASA, US Army Recruiters and hundreds of companies ranging from Fortune 20 to small businesses. Duane conservatively estimates he has consulted or trained over 4,000 organizations and some 150,000 individual employees, managers, executives and business owners in over 120 different industries. Duane is a contributing author to the book A Guide to Getting It: Remarkable Management Skills.

Duane’s areas of consulting, coaching and training expertise include: Small Business Sustainability and Profitability, Culture Management -- Strategic and Tactical Planning, Improve Time-management, Motivation and Productivity, Employee Training and Development – Succession Management, Executive Leadership, Communication and Interaction Skills Development, Team Trust Building and Improving Teamwork, Sales, Marketing, Branding and Customer Service Improvement, Public Speaking and Facilitation, and Improving Life and Work Balance.
 

STEVE KLEIN

Steve Klein is a seasoned and successful businessman with a broad array of experience. He has held senior management positions through COO and President in companies that extend from startups to Fortune 500. He co-founded a directory assistance / mobile web search engine company acquired by a private equity organization His experience spans a broad array of industries including; financial information, communications, manufacturing and information technology.

His large company experience began as one of the earliest employees at Quotron Systems, Inc, the foremost provider of equipment and services to the brokerage industry that was sold to Citibank. There he innovated and delivered systems and services supporting the leading brokerages and exchanges. He was recruited to be the Senior Vice President of Global Operations at Dow Jones / Telerate where he had worldwide responsibility for a complex computer network that supported 250,000 terminals, a staff of 1000 people, and a $100 million operating budget.

Steve's small company experience included roles as President or General Manager of organizations as small as eight people and as large as 450 people. This includes management of transition through three acquisitions. Steve has created numerous high performance organizations through strong leadership, focused coaching, delegation of authority, and strong organizational skills. He has extensive experience in general management, strategic planning, product development process and innovation, high pressure problem solving, tactical selling, customer service, and contract negotiation.
 

 

MITCH MORGAN

With a broad background including Commercial Banker, Business Owner, Operational Manager, and Corporate Executive, Mitch Morgan brings an abundance of successful business experience to any venture.

Mitch began his career as a Commercial Banker for 10 years, culminating with his role as a founder of a startup bank, First Business Bank of Kansas City, from 1987 to 1990. The bank was one of the most successful start-up banks in Missouri history.

Following his career in banking, Mitch and two partners co-owned USConnect Kansas City, a computer network integration and training firm. This business grew from 7 to 70 employees in six years and was frequently recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the Kansas City area during this period.

In 1996, USConnect was successfully sold to IKON Office Solutions, a Fortune 500 company. Mitch was asked to remain with IKON to lead a division representing nearly 30 companies similar to USConnect that had been acquired by IKON. Mitch rose to become a Vice President at IKON, forming a North America wide Professional Services Division for the company. In addition, he served as Vice President/General Manager for the Heartland Marketplace for IKON, managing 11 locations across five states with full P&L responsibility.
 

SAM PAGET

Sam Paget has been in executive management for over 25 years. During his business career, he has been a public accountant, Director of Accounting for a publicly traded company, and an Executive Officer of many companies. He has owned and operated 3 companies over the past 20 years. Mr. Paget has orchestrated 2 turnarounds, reengineered companies, bought and sold companies, done transition management, mergers and acquisitions, and worked as a CEO, COO, and/or CFO for many companies on a full or part-time basis. His expertise in operational and financial situations comes from many years of business ownership, and working with different companies in many diverse industries. One of the companies he worked with for 2 years was named to the Inc. 500 group of fastest growing companies.

 

SUSAN ROBERTS
Susan Roberts is President and CEO of The Roberts Group, LLC a prestigious national consulting firm located in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. She specializes in services to small and medium businesses; assisting owners with the decision-making needed to proceed with a successful strategic planning process, solve challenges and seize new opportunities.

As a Senior Executive with 25+ years of expertise in managing P&L, general management, sales and customer service, streamlining operations, maximizing efficiency and effectiveness, continuous improvement, and process engineering, Ms. Roberts has a solid record of accomplishment in leadership of diverse organizations. She thrives on challenge and relentlessly drives positive change.

Ms. Roberts has a strong, diverse background in operations, using a consultative approach to achieve marketing, business development, growth and efficiency goals. She has held executive-level positions for various fortune 100 companies as well as for a national professional services firm. She has most recently guided an organization for Blue Cross/Blue Shield as their CEO. She has successfully led these organizations to meeting their growth and operational efficiency targets year over year. In addition, she applies a unique combination of insight and achievement. Ms. Roberts’s background is founded upon the understanding of human behavior as a guide to meeting goals and results. She is a master’s level psychology graduate and has worked in a clinical environment prior to moving into business administration. She is adept at relationship selling and has an extensive network of contacts at executive management decision levels. These skills are useful and are proven in a variety of industries.

 

J.R. SAMPLES

J.R. Samples is Chief Encouragement Officer of Accountability Partners, LLC. JR’s focus is assisting firms grow revenue profitably and developing their management staff into their next generation leaders. Revenue growth is as necessary to non-profit organizations as it is to for-profit companies. He emphasizes a focus on growth because in today’s market you are both adapting and growing or you are falling further behind. He works with CEO’s and senior management to provide assessments of their current state and abilities. His corporate assessments consider an organizations strategy, structure and culture identifying key initiatives for implementation within the organization. Each senior manager participates in an annual 360 review and development plan which Accountability Partners co-develops and monitors during the year.

Mr. Samples business experience includes over 30 years as a business owner and Fortune 500 executive. Prior to establishing Accountability Partners, his responsibilities included:
  - Sole owner of a mid-range application software company with 500 clients through North America.
  - Joint Partner in Professional Services firm
  - Area President for Fortune 500 Firm

Among his many accomplishments are:
  - Merger and acquisition experience with each of his organizations
  - Directed the acquisition process to Fortune 500 Company
  - Led additional acquisitions and operational integration
  - Division results were always in Top 10 of nation in performance ranking (Revenue and OI Growth).
  - Oversaw product launches to 100 plus sales professionals
  - Established consulting methodologies, standards and deliverables
  - Provided turnaround management in assisting several organizations facing cash-flow, product development and competitive challenges
  - Retrained and rebuilt sales staff from product/transaction based selling to solution selling best practices
  - Led the resurgence of profitable service revenue growth by creating For-Fee Assessments, Project Management, and Managed Services Support Services
 

CHRIS JOHNSON PsyD

Chris Johnson, Psy.D. is the President of Q4 Consulting. A business psychologist, author and speaker Chris has worked extensively with leaders, employees and teams--from health care, manufacturing, finance, local municipalities, hospitality, and education—to effectively grapple with system-wide change for over 20 years by clarifying goals, developing competencies and taking focused action towards results.

Chris coaches executives and managers to develop their leadership presence, and to surface and creatively engage with conflict. Chris has taught and trained work teams, and has coached managers in addressing issues related to work stress, personnel conflicts, and problem employees. Chris works with senior leadership in strategic planning and performance enhancement. Q4’s solutions create feedback-rich environments in which to develop excellence in leadership that results in transformational change.

Chris holds a doctorate in psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in Chicago where she teaches in the Executive and Professional Development Program and a Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She has advanced training in Systems Thinking from Northwestern University’s Family Institute Program, in Organizational Development from DePaul University and in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) from the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society.

 

HENRI SCHAUFFLER

Henri Schauffler is a seasoned small business specialist. He has 30 years experience building, leading, and managing small businesses and non-profits, as well as coaching CEOs and managers in all aspects of business and organizational development. His particular expertise lies in marketing, sales, human resources, business development and strategic planning.

Most recently, Henri was President of Times Digital Marketing, a digital marketing and printing company owned by The Washington Times Corporation. Prior to that tenure, he worked with small business owners in human resource outsourcing, which placed him as a trusted advisor to all aspects of the business. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Henri was a management development coach and trainer with such prestigious organizations as The Management Institute and New York University Seminars.

With all his business success, however, Henri is most proud of his marriage of 33 years to Loretta and of their five fine children, who are a teacher, an organizational counselor, an upper market realtor, an Internet marketer and a budding golf pro, respectively. He is likewise proud of his dedicated service to his community and church through numerous volunteer and philanthropic activities. Henri lives in Greenbelt, Maryland with his family.
 

MIKE STRUZIK

Mike Struzik has been working with organizations since 1977. His business background includes financial services, education, retail and technology. His expertise is in sales management, business development and sales process implementation consulting.

In 1989 Mike served as Vice President of Sales and Management Development for Great Western Financial Corporation in Los Angeles. At that time, GWFS was the parent company of Great Western Bank, the second largest Savings Bank in the United States. During his tenure, Mike was responsible for the custom design, delivery and cultural implementation of a division-wide sales methodology, Solution Selling®.

As the sales process became ingrained as the sales culture for the bank, the organization realized significant gains in overall sales productivity. At the point when internal personnel became certified to administer the program, Mike resigned his position to begin his own business as a Solution Selling® Certified Affiliate in 1994.

Focusing on the financial services and technology industries, Mike worked with financial services companies such as Wells Fargo Bank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Bank of Oklahoma and Sanwa Bank. In the technology sector he was involved with firms such as Oracle, PeopleSoft, IBM and Microsoft.

Having an instructional design background, Mike has designed and delivered over fifty different programs in sales, sales management, and executive management development to over 35,000 professionals. His course design, consulting and training activities have included enterprise sales, wholesale financial products and services, information and technology systems, investment and mortgage banking, private banking, commercial lending and corporate restructuring. Mike is the co-author of Creating True Sales Cultures in Financial Services.

Having joined CEO Focus as an Executive Director, Mike is qualified to conduct a complete range of seminars and consulting services through his work with his own firm, CEO Focus of Southern California

 

FREDERIC SUSSMAN MBA

Fred Sussman is a proven business builder, developer and manager who, after a successful career in the corporate world, became an entrepreneur and successfully built, profitably operated and exited three businesses.
Fred spent the first eight years of his career in the aerospace industry, working for industry leaders McDonnell Douglas, General Dynamics and Comshare. In 1988, Mr. Sussman’s founded Technology Source, LLC, an information technology consulting firm with operations in St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City. Technology Source, a preferred provider of professional services to several Fortune 500 companies, was acquired in 1996 by StaffMark, Inc., a NASDAQ listed company. Post acquisition, Mr. Sussman served as Vice President of the Information Technology division of StaffMark, and was actively involved in development of company infrastructure and mergers and acquisitions. In 1998, Mr. Sussman founded iLine, LLC, a telecommunications company providing wholesale long distance services to international destinations via the internet. iLine’s customers included ATT, Worldcom, Sprint and Qwest. In June, 2002 iLine was acquired by NovaTel Networks. After iLine, Mr. Sussman has worked as a business consultant, franchise consultant and was a founding partner in Aeterna Medical Spa and served as its’ President.

 

JOHN BLATTNER PhD

Dr. John Blattner is President of PAS International, Inc., a consulting firm established in 1995. He specializes in executive coaching, organizational assessment, executive performance and strategic planning for national and international organizations.

John is an author, speaker and has appeared on television. During the past 23 years he has worked with many organizations through a change process and development of their individual and organizational strengths. John has worked specifically with senior executives in helping them develop their talents and interests professionally. He has trained hundreds in competencies and communication. Further, he has lead organizations through strategic planning and development. He has worked closely with several areas of business such as Finance, Sales & Marketing, Operations. He has developed professional development programs for small and large organizations. John has been a frequent quest speaker and lecturer for executives regarding career and personal growth.

John is certified in several programs including Emotional Intelligence, Organizational Assessment, Leadership Assessment, Strategic planning to name a few. He has provided workshops and seminars at all levels of organizations. Additionally, he has worked with organizations to assist in climate and culture transformation.

 

CLAUDE BAILEY MBA

Claude Bailey has more than 20 years of leadership experience in consulting, coaching, lending and advocacy for businesses. He was CFO of a multi-million-dollar metal fabricator as well as has owned five successful businesses. As an accomplished corporate strategist and turnaround specialist both nationally and internationally in 2004, he was ranked as a Top 20 Consultant (#13) by a large international consulting firm.

Claude received his BBA in Economics from the ULA-Monroe and his MBA from Boston University. He is a former adjunct professor, seminar provider, Toastmaster, former Army Ranger and Captain. Prior to starting his present company, he consulted with over 200 companies with sales revenues ranging from $10 - $50 million annually and has personally coached CEOs of $60 and $100 million companies.

 

LUIGI PECORARO

Luigi is currently Principal of CEO Focus in NEO and a Vice President with Upsearch where he focuses on Leadership and Management Development programs and consulting. Prior, Luigi served as V.P. of Clients Services for Edward Luttner Associates, where he coached executives, management, and other professionals in business and career planning and development. He was formerly a Director of Business Development for a National Training and Development Company.

Luigi is recognized as an expert in the design, development and delivery of executive development programs with professional, managerial, and executive level clients. He has consulted with a variety of local, national and international firms based primarily in Northeast Ohio, and has been acknowledged for outstanding client relations and engagement management.
Luigi brings more than 20 years of multiple industry experience to CEO Focus in NEO. Before entering the executive development industry, Luigi served as the manager a $10 million annual sales and customer service group for a manufacturing/distributor.

Early in his career, he also served as a Corporate Training and Development Manager for a Healthcare provider located in Northwestern U.S. Luigi has an undergraduate degree from John Carroll University in Humanities, as well as a Master’s degree from Seattle University, with an emphasis in Adult Education and Human Resource Development
Luigi is a member of the Club at Key Center in Cleveland. He is active in various civic activities. He has been a speaker on career and executive development themes. He resides in Cleveland Heights, Ohio with his wife Julie and six children.

 

TAMARA MURPHY

Tamara Murphy is President of Reach For Miracles Inc.., Dublin, Ohio; a firm that organizes group meetings of owners, CEO’s and Presidents of privately owned companies on peer advisory boards. She is certified as a CEO Focus Facilitator as well as a certified trainer of an alternative business coaching program that focuses on the eight vital areas businesses need to become successful and effective.

Tamara is a seasoned entrepreneur and understands the world of owners and privately held businesses. She is former CEO of a payroll and timekeeping company in Columbus, Ohio. She has extensive experience in Systems Development, ACH and Cash Management, Staff Training, HR, Accounting, Bookkeeping, Benefits Administration, Troubleshooting software/hardware, and Budgeting.

Tamara served over 15 years in the Air National Guard as a Computer Electronics Installer. She served in a Combat Communications unit for 6 of those years; traveling to the Middle East, Germany, and stateside. In addition to receiving extensive leadership training, she has experience with installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting computer and communications equipment.

Tamara is a results-oriented businessperson, excellent listener and communicator with the ability to swiftly cut to the chase. She is good at peeling away the layers to find the core issue and then working for solutions, not just identification. She believes that a truly successful person realizes that failure is a part of success. Those who avoid failure also avoid success!