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Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Our Sandy Springs Studio





Tim Quinn with HoneyBaked Ham, Mikhail Avady with SmartUp, and Deborah Westphal and Sherle Brown with IREM GA

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Tim Quinn/HoneyBaked Ham Corporation LinkedinFacebookpinterest

Tim Quinn has been Vice President of Retail and Business Development since January 2011. He joined HoneyBaked in February 2004 and was responsible for the sales, execution and operations of retail stores for most of the company’s territory. He has served a number of roles, including Senior Director of Franchise and Business Development, Director of Business Development, and Director of Sales. Tim created and implemented new sales and customer data tools, and staffing models, which reduced overhead and increased efficiencies.

Prior to joining HoneyBaked, Tim served as a Regional Retail Manager in the Central Division of Circuit City Stores Inc. He has extensive industry experience in operations, retail leadership and executive development. The Management Development Program at Circuit City recruited Tim after graduating from the College of Business Administration, University of Tennessee.

Mikhail Avady/SmartUp LinkedinTwitterFacebook

Mikhail directs the sales and marketing strategy of SmartUp®. Prior to SmartUp, Mikhail was leading Sales and Marketing Analytics at First Data, the largest payments provider in the world. He is currently working on his MBA at Emory University and Received his BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. You can either find him at your local tech events or browsing Kickstarter campaigns for a new gadget.

Deborah Westphal and Sherle Brown/IREM GA LinkedinTwitterFacebook

Deborah Westphal, CPM®, ARM® the Executive Director for the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) for the GA Chapter. Westphal brings to IREM expansive knowledge and background of the real estate industry from personal experience of more than twenty years.

Deborah is presently serving on the IREM Executive Council as the VP of Education and was the 2013 VP of Communications, was at the national level as the 2012 Chairperson for the Income and Expense Committee. She has served as the Chapter’s VP of membership in 2012, VP of Communications in 2011, VP of Finance for 2008, and the VP of Membership for 2007 . She has received numerous honors: from IREM, including the Presidential Award, Certified Property Manager® (CPM®) of the year, Accredited Resident Manager (ARM®) of the Year, membership team awards with the Atlanta Apartment Association, and a previous company of fourteen years, Lane Company. As a Pillars of the Industry finalist for Regional Manager of the Year, she was also a Real Estate Owned Portfolio Regional awarded the Annual Highest Effective Rent Growth when the company had over 30K units, three time Business Manager award, and received over 12 perfect shoppers reports!

Westphal has a refreshing personality that combines the serious nature of her profession with the joy of helping others and favorably impacting the bottom line. Deborah is a professional trainer, motivational speaker, and an operational efficiency analyst.

Sherle Brown, Chief Learning Officer for Winthrop Management, has held leadership positions in all areas of the multi-family industry. Her roles have included include Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President, Treasurer, Asset Manager, Director, Consultant, Mentor and Coach.

Sherle is on the staff of NAAEI as an Advanced Instructor Trainer and chairs committees for NAA and IREM. She is an adjunct instructor and subject matter expert for Georgia Piedmont Technical College and Kennesaw State University and is a subject matter expert and author for The Training Factor.

Sherle is a summa cum laude graduate of Tennessee Wesleyan College with a BS in Accounting and is completing her MA at Lewis University in Organizational Leadership. As a national speaker and trainer, Sherle combines her commitment for training with her strong analytical abilities and extensive practical experience to share information with others. Her passion is helping organizations and individuals reach their full potential.

 

 

Keith McDermott with Hydration Station USA, Tracie-Ruth Kriete with S4b Social, Andrew Lechter with Studley Inc. and Jim Reese with Atlanta Mission

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Keith McDermott/Hydration Station USA TwitterFacebookinstagram

Tracie-Ruth Kriete/S4b Social

I started my career back in the late 90’s as an graphic designer/promotions. After graduating with my Masters in Management I was able to expand my skills and expertise. Over the years I evolved my career from online advertising to brand management.

In addition to being a published author I have also been interviewed for Podcasts, Radio, Tv, Newspaper on the topics ranging from Online brand management for Small Businesses to Social media for SMB’s. I have been able to help my clients with all aspects of their marketing strategies ranging from; concept development, website creation, website optimization, traditional (TV, Print) advertising, direct mail, search, SEO/SEM, social media, and display campaigns. I truly enjoy working one on one with my clients to create individualized campaigns that will help them reach their goals and objectives.

Andrew Lechter/Studley Inc. Twitter

As Executive Vice President in Studley’s Atlanta office, Andy brings more than 25 years of experience dedicated exclusively to representing tenants. To date, Andy has negotiated more than 10 million square feet of transactions valued at over $5 billion, including traditional leases, lease restructures and build-to-suits. His specialties include complex real estate agreements, strategic planning and solution implementation.

Andy’s record of success executing corporate real estate transactions makes him one of the most sought after and respected tenant representatives in the Southeast. His career has been devoted solely to representing tenants and helping them turn real estate into a strategic advantage. By using a hands-on approach designed to identify numerous areas of leverage for clients, Andy has developed a strong reputation for securing millions of dollars in occupancy cost savings and lease enhancements in a wide variety of lease and ownership structures.

Since joining Studley in 1997, Andy has consistently been recognized as one of the firm’s top-producing brokers nationwide. He is among the select group of partners who purchased Studley from its founder in 2002.

Jim Reese/Atlanta Mission TwitterFacebook

As the president and CEO of Atlanta Mission, Jim Reese feels that professionally he has found the perfect fit. “I felt that God had called me and prepared me for this assignment as I look back on my life,” says Reese. “I feel the opportunity to be part of an organization that God uses to change lives every day is a great responsibility and privilege.” He considers it a privilege to see lives altered everyday, and witness people coming off the streets, asking for help, and finding their way out of homelessness and into a new life.

Prior to Atlanta Mission, he served as CEO of Randstad North America, Chief Operating Officer of both the Honeybaked Ham Company and CCCi, and Division Vice President of Frito Lay. He also managed General Food’s Maxwell House Coffee Plant, and co-‐founded First Coast Manufacturing Association, which today consists of over 300 Florida manufacturers. Reese was also a member of the Board of the American Staffing Association and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. He is currently a board member of both the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education and Carter Center Board of Counselors. In addition, he is the Chairman of the Elders at Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, GA. He graduated from Western Michigan University in 1980 with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing and Business.

 

Special Edition Featuring SparkMarket

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Jeff Bekiares and Marcus Cannady/SparkMarket Twitter

Jeffrey A. Bekiares (Co-Founder and COO) — Jeff is the Co-Founder and COO of SparkMarket, a Georgia based crowdfunding platform. He is a Georgia attorney with over six years of experience in securities and corporate law. He was one of the first attorneys to identify the crowdfunding potential of the Invest Georgia Exemption (“IGE”) and has worked closely with regulators and experts in the state and national crowdfunding community to design IGE campaigns that are compliant and safe for issuers and investors. His specific expertise is in “intrastate” crowdfunding campaign design and execution, and his company SparkMarket hosted the nation’s first successful securities based crowdfunding campaign in the nation’s history, which closed above its funding goal in November 2013.

Marcus Cannady (VP, Marketing and Development) — Among his SparkMarket peers, Marcus is the resident non-attorney; however, before having warm feelings, he spent nearly 10 years working in the banking industry. In fact, it is his experience in mortgage finance, retail banking and bank management consulting that eventually led to “Big Bank” fatigue. His refuge was found working within Atlanta’s thriving advertising/marketing industry with Cox Media Group. SparkMarket has allowed for the marriage of all these skill sets and experiences–he couldn’t be happier.

Adam Lee/Bohemian Guitars Twitter

Adam Lee, is a South African born entrepreneur and the Cofounder & CEO of Bohemian Guitars. Adam leads Bohemian Guitars, a company with a vision of changing the way people think about musical instruments by offering a more affordable, stylish, & sustainable way to make music. Adam, with Bohemian Guitars recently completed the nations first open equity crowdfunding campaign since 1933 via the Georgia based platform, SparkMarket. This past March, Bohemian Guitars competed at the Global Innovators Competition at the GTS Summit in Palo Alto, a competition judged by VC’s including Dave McClure and Bill Tai (Bohemian Guitars placed 3rd out of 10 international start-ups). Prior to Bohemian Guitars, Adam worked as an IT Project Manager for BCD Travel in which he managed a cross-functional project team of 30+ members that focused on implementing PCI Compliant web, development, and application environments to host and protect sensitive data.

 

Spotlight on ProWIN Atlanta

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Linda Collett, Esq./The Collett Law Firm, LLC

Linda A. Collett is the owner of The Collett Law Firm, LLC in Marietta, Georgia, a boutique law firm that helps business owners successfully start and operate their business and avoid litigation. She uses a collaborative approach to provide her clients the information they need to make informed business decisions and specializes in drafting contracts and legal agreements in plain English that minimize disputes and litigation. Her clients range from sole proprietorships to multi-million dollar companies. Linda also works with individuals and married couples with their estate planning by providing Last Will and Testaments, Advance Directives for Health Care and Financial Powers of Attorney.

After spending 17 years in the business world, Linda graduated cum laude from Georgia State University College of Law in 2005. In addition to her law practice, Linda launched an e-commerce business in 2012 and for the last 6 years has served on the board of ProWIN, a membership organization of influential Atlanta businesswomen.

Linda enjoys teaching and public speaking and has been a guest speaker for various business groups in the Atlanta area. She has also taught various courses and seminars on legal issues for the Kennesaw State University Small Business Development Center.

Linda can be reached at (770) 485-7505 or lcollett@collettlaw.com.

Sandy Jones/Stunning Affordable Jewelry Twitter

Katharine Pike/Lighter Body Solution Linkedin

Known as the Queen of Permanent Weight Loss, Katharine has worked with hundreds of women over the past 14 years to help them go from deprivation and diets to losing weight while eating what they love. Katharine gained and lost thousands of pounds in her 22 year journey until she finally figured out what it took to lose weight permanently and has been at her ideal weight for 12 years. Her own journey led her to the Institute of Integrative Nutrition so she could help others who struggle with this issue.

In her cutting-edge programs Katharine combines the science of metabolism with the spirit of alignment. The result is lightness, joy and a radiance that shows up in greater confidence, energy, and business success.