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Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Our Sandy Springs Studio





Special Edition: Cobb County

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David Monroe/Smyrna Vision

David Monroe has over 30 years of sales, marketing, and leadership experience in the hospitality and real estate industry with Marriott International, Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences, LBA Hospitality, and Berryfield Hotels. David’s current role is Broker for JWC Real Estate and Achasta Realty in Dahlonega, GA.

He has held property level sales and marketing positions, multiple property roles, and corporate level positions. Many of the assignments have been full service, select service, and extended stay branded hotels. Throughout his career, David has assisted owners and management companies to increase top line sales through direct sales, marketing, training, new business development, and e-commerce strategies as well as implementing sales and marketing plan.

David partnered with the Marriott Training and Development Department to train over 2500 Marriott general managers and sales managers with sales and management skills as well as various other courses for more than 20 years. He is currently a Licensed Georgia Real Estate Instructor.

As a SCORE member for over 4 years, David has counseled small businesses in Cobb County and Metro Atlanta with Sales, Marketing, E-Commerce, Social Media, and hospitality.

David holds a MBA in International Studies from Georgia State University as well as a BBA in Marketing from Georgia Southern University. David is a licensed real estate broker in Georgia, and South Carolina.

 

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Jonathan Adams (Owner/Publisher) & Gloria Rodriguez (Director of Sales & Marketing) / Town Planner

As the Publisher of your local Town Planner Community Calendar, I am thankful for the support and enthusiasm of our Community Sponsors and Leaders. It’s with great joy that I present the 2015 Edition of the Town Planner Community Calendar on their behalf.

This community resource is a free gift from local businesses whose message and coupons are displayed each month in the calendar. We hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures taken by our very own Griffin Gibson and the many others who submitted pictures of our city. Also highlighted in this edition are schools schedules, civic, cultural, and tourism events, along with easy access to area resources and important phone numbers listed on the back cover.

Please support all of the business that have made this calendar possible by using the money saving coupons and letting the sponsors know you found them in the Town Planner Community Calender. Visit our website, www.townplanner.com, for event updates all year long! Sign up for a free membership and start receiving our newsletter. Our new App, Town Planner Events Calendar, keeps you informed on the go.

Spotlight on BMA Atlanta

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Mark Semmelmayer / BMA Atlanta Linkedin Facebook

Mark Semmelmayer is the Immediate Past President of the Business Marketing Association’s (BMA) Atlanta Chapter and a past National Board member and International Chairman of BMA. He’s the Chief Idea Officer of Pen & Inc. Marketing Communications, an Atlanta-based marketing consultancy he founded in 2013. Mark has over 40 years of broadcast, ad agency and corporate communications experience and retired from corporate life in 2013, after 32 years with Kimberly-Clark.

Karstin Bodell / IBM North America Twitter

Karstin is a Go to Market executive in the technology marketplace, with expertise in balancing profitable growth across distribution channels. She has global experience in business development, reselling and influencing channels, sales and marketing across both SMB and enterprise clients.

Karstin led several strategic transformations within IBM, ranging from establishing new markets such as e-business, architecting effective new sales roles & client coverage models and management systems in support of cross channel pipeline development. She is responsible for marketing to the Women Owned Business segment, in partnership with Procurement and Human Resources. As a serial early adopter of new technologies and techniques she is a strong partner to sales leadership in deploying progressive practices such as customer analytics for effective targeting and digital as a sales tool.

Karstin is a frequent executive speaker providing sales training on approaches to reach Line of Business buyers, as well as a popular presenter at industry events on the convergence of marketing and technology to both the CMO and CIO communities. She is a member of the GSU Atlanta Marketing Roundtable and she serves on the Executive Advisory Board for AMA Atlanta. She is a 10 year mentor with Pathbuilders, which focuses on high potential women leaders and is a recipient of their Inspiria Award.

Karstin holds a B.A in Management Science and Public Policy from Duke University. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband.

 

 

Partner Strategies Special

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Troy Gautier / Alliances Progress, LLC Linkedin Twitter

Troy J Gautier is the Managing Director and Chief Alliance Officer of Alliances Progress, LLC.

Alliances Progress is a highly specialized boutique consulting firm which provides collaborative framework solutions for businesses worldwide: strategic alliances, commercial partnerships, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, etc.

Alliances Progress also manages a member firm organization connecting large and small businesses across multiple sectors to grow revenues and capabilities through an innovative network platform of local and international companies.

Troy has been designing and implementing business ecosystems for more than 30 years, first as a partner with a global big four consulting firm and more recently as an entrepreneur and business partner for small to mid-tier companies with strong growth ambitions.

Troy is on several advisory Boards and is the President of the southeast chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, covering eight US States and all of Latin America. He is an accomplished writer and speaker and publishes a monthly article on the evolution of business partnerships and how collaborative networks are changing the way we work and live.

Troy is a dual national, USA and European Union, lives in Alpharetta, Georgia and works internationally.

Jack Shaw / Adaequare Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Jack has worked at, spoken for and consulted to such well-known Atlanta area technology providers as MSA, Dun & Bradstreet Software, Harbinger, CA Technologies, Fiserv, IBM, and Infor and for such other well-known Atlanta companies at Coca-Cola, General Electric, Georgia Power and Georgia Pacific helping both them better understand and plan for the strategic business impacts of emerging technologies.

At the start of this year, Jack was voted by over 12,000 meeting planners, executives and conference attendees as one of the world’s Top 5 Technology Futurists for 2014. Jack has spoken in all 50 states and 20 foreign countries around the world.

In 2014, Jack joined Adaequare, a provider of emerging technology solutions for both users and providers of business technologies, as VP of Sales. Jack graduated from Yale with a degree in Business Administration and has an MBA from Kellogg in Finance and Marketing.

Mike Wittenstein / Storyminers Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Mike Wittenstein is the founder and managing principal at Storyminers, an experience, service, and business design consultancy known for its game-changing work with leading service brands. Mike is also a world-class expert on experience, service, and business design, who has helped over 400 organizations in 25+ countries make their experiences better—to the tune of $1.5B in value created. As eVisionary, he started IBM’s first experience and service design practice and helped establish the international Customer Experience Professionals Association.

By his own admission, he is a designer who can’t draw. Mike is ranked as a top customer experience influencer by SAP, MindTouch and others. His clients include: Air Canada, Apple, Best Buy, BlackRock, Clorox, Delta Air Lines, Holiday Inn, IBM, LeasePlan, McDonald’s, Party City, Publix, Safeway, Zaxby’s, and many other customer-friendly brands.

Mike enjoys helping companies discover, design, and deploy their future-state experiences and introducing new ideas like Human Prototyping”(ask him about it) and the Customer Experience Design + Study Tours (coming up later this year in Australia and the UK).

Mike earned his MBA from Thunderbird, BA from the University of Florida, and studied in Brazil and Russia. He lives in the Atlanta area and tries to squeeze in woodworking projects on the weekends.

 

 

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Ashish Thakur and Amyn Sadruddin / TiE Atlanta

TiE is a non-profit, global community welcoming entrepreneurs from all over the world. We believe in the power of ideas to change the face of entrepreneurship and growing business through our five pillars; mentoring, networking, education, incubating and funding. TiE was founded in 1992 by a group of successful entrepreneurs and is currently the world’s largest entrepreneurial organization out there. With programs like TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE) and Mentor Match, we are reaching out and fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Jeetan Singh / HighPoints Learning, Inc. Linkedin

Founder & President/CEO, Datamatics Inc : www.Datamatucs.us: Sept 1993, started a Software Consultancy company (Datamatics Consultants Inc) from a 1-Bedroom Apt. The main focus of Datamatics Consultants is to provide high quality software consultants & professional services to Fortune 500 companies in USA.

In 1999, Datamatics Consultants Inc was recognized as #81ranked fastest privately held company by Inc 500. Datamatics Consultants has completed 21 years successful years since Sept 1993.

In early 2000’s, saw the emerging trends in the internet market. Companies like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon were fast emerging leveraging on the power of internet. Driven by own entrepreneurship started software based services projects in the K12 eLearning space under HighPoints Learning with a focus to provide software based products & services to K12 schools (elementary to high schools ) in USA.

In last 8+ years, HighPoints eLearning program has been approved by Dept of Education in 26 states as Supplemental Educational Program.

Currently working on launching a new global brand ‘YouScore’, a social-media based platform with focus of educators, learners in K12 Space.

Dick Ingwersen and Matthew Frooman / Warren Averett

Dick Ingwersen is a Member of the Warren Averett Tax Division and serves on the Firm’s Executive Committee. Dick brings to clients extensive experience in individual tax and financial planning, estate and fiduciary planning, retirement plans, employee compensation, partnership taxation, private investment partnerships and closely-held corporations.

Matthew Frooman is a Member in the Tax Division of Warren Averett where his practice includes a wide variety of business and individual client matters. In addition, he is a Technical Compliance Firm Best Practices Leader. He has extensive experience with income tax compliance and planning for corporations, partnerships, trusts and individuals, including having worked with a number of multi-state and inbound and outbound foreign business clients, many with heavy capital and/or personnel investments. Some of Matthew’s special projects have included detailed analysis and mediation relating to litigation support (including divorce) matters, purchases and sales of businesses and Internal Revenue Service examinations. Additionally, he has led the roll-out of various specialized tax services for the Firm in conjunction with alliance partners, such as cost segregation studies, Georgia retraining tax credits and Section 412i defined benefit plans. He’s particularly adept at locating and executing opportunities to amend new clients’ prior tax returns for tax refunds, and at identifying improved tax filing positions on a current and ongoing basis for continued tax savings. Clients have called him “tenacious” in his approach to finding the best results for them. They value the creativity and acumen he brings to the table, along with his integrity and commitment to the Firm’s 5-STAR client service. Matthew resides in Atlanta with his wife of 30 years, and they have four children and one grandson.

 

 

 

Keren Granados with Emprendedores Latinos USA

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Keren Granados / Emprendedores Latinos USA Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Keren Granados, born in Salamanca, Guanajuato,Mexico is a bilingual entrepreneur whose passion is to inspire entrepreneurship, facilitate business training and cultural integration in the US. After having completed her degree in business administration at the Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico, Keren immigrated to America in search of her master’s degree from which she holds a Master business administration (MBA) from National University, La Jolla, California in 2011.

Keren focuses on educating, inspiring and connecting business owners in Atlanta and surrounding areas. She shares her vision, passion and experiences through mentoring others.

Keren is also President and CEO of One Voice Language Solutions, a company of interpretation and translation that develops and implements strategies for companies in the field of health, legal and corporate, connecting them with new markets. Keren is also vice president of Latino Entrepreneurs USA, a nonprofit organization that aims to inspire, educate and connect the Latino in order to stimulate the creation of new businesses in Latino communities in the United States. Within their roles in the organization is the anchor for “Emprendedores” in internet TV channel. Also, she is the President of Casa Guanajuato – Georgia a nonprofit organization where impacts the largest immigrant community from Mexico of the state of Guanajato in the state of Georgia where it creates programs to support communities in need in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico.

Keren has over 10 years of practice in accounting and currently she is focusing on domestic and international franchises. Expert in industries such as food and beverage, interpretation and translation, import and export business creation and development, Keren also has over seven years of experience as a certified tax preparer.

 

 

Spotlight on PRSA

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Stephen Michael Brown / Cohn & Wolfe Linkedin Twitter Facebook

In his role as Executive Vice President and Managing Director in the Atlanta office of Cohn & Wolfe (www.cohnwolfe.com), Stephen M. Brown, APR, is in charge of managing dynamic account teams for both corporate and consumer accounts and providing creative new approaches to reaching and impacting influencers.

He currently works on clients in the retail, restaurant, risk management, entertainment and technology industries. Drawing from an early career as a features reporter for Gannett Newspapers in the Southeast and a contributor to entertainment media, he focuses on breakthrough media relations and building influencer relationships in both traditional and digital spheres.

He co-leads the firm’s executive media training programs and has trained more than 1,000 executives in ten years, ranging from CEOs for national print and broadcast to a soft drink company’s chief scientist for a Today Show interview to a home improvement retailer’s specially-selected associates for TV appearances nationwide.

Stephen’s 20-year agency career includes work within advertising, public relations, marketing and interactive agencies on primarily consumer accounts. His clients have included Dean Foods, Coca-Cola, UPS, AT&T, IBM, Cisco, Union Pacific, Purina, InterfaceFLOR and McDonald’s.

Stephen consults on topics ranging from media relations strategy to creative brainstorming to leveraging social media to build engagements for consumer and technology product brands. He has spoken nationally about networking and maintaining long-term relationships with reporters, most recently to PRSA about “changing the beat” and harvesting new story opportunities.

Stephen has been featured in PR Week, Wall Street Journal and Marketing News, was named one of “15 to watch” by PR News and “Top 40 Under 40” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and has led teams to more than 12 national awards.

Stephen is president of PRSA Georgia and Actor’s Express boards, secretary for the Curing Kids Cancer board and the board liaison for marketing for The Center for Puppetry Arts. He has twice served as president of the Jerusalem House nonprofit for homeless men, women and children. He runs a blog – www.silverscreencapture.com – which houses his movie reviews. He is a 1995 graduate of the College of Journalism at the University of South Carolina and the South Carolina Honors College and a 2007 graduate of Leadership Atlanta.

Nicole Henderson / Selsi Enterprises Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Passionate about the art and science of public relations, Nicole I. Henderson has a creative approach to strategic communications for small and mid-size business owners, not-for-profit agencies, and corporations. With over 15 years’ experience, Nicole decided to take what she has learned over the years and offer that in her own company. As owner of Selsi Enterprises, she has found her niche in providing big business marketing and communication techniques to organizations that could not otherwise afford a seasoned public relations consultant.