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Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Our Sandy Springs Studio





Mike Jenkins with Build Your EMR, Andrew McCaskill with William Mills Agency, Tim Duff with Next Generation Lighting and Constance Dierickx with CD Consulting Group and OnBoard

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Mike Jenkins/Build Your EMR Twitter

Mike Jenkins is an experienced professional that blends people, processes, and products to cook up delightful solutions for healthy P&Ls and project turnarounds. He uses his skills to expand www.BuildYourEMR.com, a healthcare solutions company that believes in using technology to make physician’s work easier and faster by simplifying complex tasks.

Mike’s greatest impact has been turning around broken projects, departments, and revenue with a methodical approach, repeatable strategies, and self-improving processes. He led the growth of a healthcare professional services practice from 4 to 50+ consultants that delivered the highest profits in the company’s history.

Andrew McCaskill, APR/William Mills Agency LinkedinTwitter

Andrew McCaskill has never met a communications challenge he did not like. He has spent more than 15 years moving from defining and establishing the reputations of dynamic start-ups to reinvigorating and advancing iconic industry brands. He has worked with colleagues to build PR and marketing campaigns that have taken clients from venture capital to IPO back to privatization—and successfully navigated all of the initiatives in between. From overseeing social media and influencer campaigns to leading hundreds of media training sessions for executives all over North America, Andrew is excited to execute great strategies that mutually benefit both clients and media.

As leader of William Mills Agency’s Crisis Communications Practice, Andrew is always ready to jump on a plane to help a client in need. He has worked with clients and their legal teams to help them solve communications problems during the most difficult times in their companies’ lifecycles. He is a popular crisis communications panelist and has been published in industry trades on the topic.

The proud Mississippi native holds a BA in English from Morehouse College and an MBA in Management Strategy from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. His communications experience spans broadcast and print journalism, public relations and brand marketing, including stints in the communications departments of global marketing and branding leaders, The Coca-Cola Company and Time Warner. He has also been a features writer and an on-air radio personality and newscaster. He is the immediate past president of the Black Public Relations Society of Atlanta and currently sits on the Public Relations Society of America’s MBA Initiative Committee.

Tim Duff/Next Generation Lighting Linkedin

Tim Duff has been in the lighting industry for over 25 years. 13 years were spent with Acuity Brands Lighting in sales management, product & market development and educational programming. He spent the last ten years in specification sales for the Acuity sales agency in Atlanta, Lighting Associates. Tim recently started a new lighting agency with Jay Andrews, Next Generation Lighting, representing Cree LED Lighting for the state of Georgia.

Constance Dierickx/CD Consulting Group and OnBoard

Constance Dierickx is a rarity among consultants–an expert in behavior with the pragmatism of an executive. Clients call her The Decision Doctor because they rely upon her advice to clarify strategy, avoid disasters, and dramatically increase profit. She has consulted with over 500 executives and more than 20 boards across industries in US, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Her results fly in the face of the 80% failure rate of acquisitions and mergers. Clients have seen share prices double post-merger, record top-line growth, and cultural integrations described as “surgically precise.”

While most companies say they need highly talented people, they oftentimes have invisible fences up that keep some people out. In her day job with CD Consulting Group, Constance, The Decision Doctor™, helps executives with “bet the company” decisions and as President of OnBoard she advocates to get more women in executive roles and on corporate boards. At the heart of both is the interaction of organizational culture and decisions and their impact on each other. OnBoard has helped more than a dozen women land board seats by helping the women themselves and companies change their decision-making processes.

 

 

 

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Jack Kolk with ACR2 Solutions, Christopher Kunney with Infinite Options, Tony Prince with The IPA Family, Ellen Dracos Lemming with Dracos~Lemming Consulting and Leroy Tanker with Legacy Wealth Advisors

Jack Kolk/ACR2 Solutions Linkedin

Jack Kolk is a founder and current President and CEO of Automated Compliance Reporting Solutions, Inc. (ACR2) of Lilburn GA. The creators of Risk Reporter™ family of cloud based solutions for companies regulated under the information security laws and currently focused on HIPAA. Jack is a CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and CSSLP (Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional) and is a member of the FBI task force INFRAGARD and member of the GBI Internet Crimes against Children Task Force.

He is a regular speaker at health care associates and will be speaking at the GA-HIMSS Conference at the World Congress Center this coming September 26th.

Christopher Kunney/Infinite Options Linkedin

Christopher is a senior level healthcare information technology executive and strategist. He is called upon by his clients to provide guidance and thought leadership specific to emerging healthcare technology offerings, compliance related issues and technology adoption. His recent roles include serving as Director of Emerging Healthcare Technology for AT&T, Vice President & COO for HealthInovation and Vice President and CIO for Piedmont Healthcare. Christopher currently serves as managing partner of Infinite Options, LLC. and also maintains strategic alliances with various HIT consulting firms such as ACR2, Smartecute, The BAE Company and The Desir Group.

He has a track record of successfully implementing and providing strategic enterprise-wide solutions that address the current issues faced by health systems including; meaningful use, PPACA, HITECH Act, HIPAA, EMR Adoption, CMS quality measures, and HIEs. In addition, Christopher is an experienced IT leader with demonstrated ability to build peak-performing teams and achieve cross-functional business objectives that effectively integrate within the clinical setting. As a valued member of senior management teams, he’s contributed a seasoned, broad-based perspective with the maturity to lead IT transformation efforts in all areas of the healthcare business. His business philosophy is to create pragmatic IT strategies and implementation plans designed for maximum return.

Tony Prince/The IPA Family Linkedin

Tony Prince started his career in the late 1970s with General Motors as a trainer. He developed through his 25-year career to various senior executive marketing positions and owned his own franchise. Tony decided to use his marketing and consulting skills to concentrate on the growing field of individual health and life insurance. He is currently an Advisor and Field Trainer for The IPA Family which provides a full compliment of health and life insurance products for small business owners, self-employed professionals and their families.

Tony was born in NYC, attended St. John’s University where he played basketball, and attended graduate school at St. John’s. He also completed the executive graduate program at Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business.

Ellen Dracos Lemming/Dracos~Lemming Consulting LinkedinTwitter

Ellen Dracos Lemming is a business woman who has spent the last 28 years driving company growth through marketing programs. As a marketing officer at organizations such as The Home Depot, Emory University and Kaplan Educational Centers she learned how to elevate marketing to a strategic business function, not a tactical exercise. She transitioned from a corporate officer to entrepreneur in 2007 and has built a successful, women’s certified marketing firm focused on growth, brand and marketing solutions.

Leroy Tanker/Legacy Wealth Advisors FacebookLinkedinTwitter

Leroy Tanker is Managing Member of Legacy Wealth Advisors, LLC and President of Freedom Financial Services, Inc. Leroy is a Certified Public Accountant, Personal Financial Specialist and a Certified Financial Planner.

Legacy Wealth Advisors specializes in the designing of and consulting with respect to retirement plans for small to mid size businesses.

Leroy uses his 34 years of industry experience to help Companies avoid/correct ERISA and other problems commonly found in 401K and other retirement plans.

Discussions in this show should not be construed as specific recommendations or advice for investment, legal, or tax matters. Always consult with your qualified investment, legal, or tax professional before making important financial decisions. Securities and advisory services offered through Harbor Financial Services, LLC member FINRA/SIPC. Financial Planning offered through Legacy Wealth Advisors, LLC a registered investment advisor. Harbor Financial Services, LLC, Freedom Financial Services, and Legacy Wealth Advisors are not affiliated .

 

 

Lee Twitter

Special Edition: Georgia Society of CPAs

abr cpasToday’s episode focuses on Not For Profit Taxation and features guests who are members of the Georgia Society of CPAs.

Bill Harshman/Harshman Phillips & Company

Bill Harshman is a 30+ year CPA and co-founder of HPC. Prior to HPC, Bill spent 17 years rising through the ranks of a ‘Big 4’ firm, including 7 years as the Partner-In-Charge of the Atlanta Tax Department of Arthur Young & Company (‘AY’, predecessor to Ernst & Young). During his ‘Big 4’ tenure, he spent 2 years working directly under the AY US National Director of Tax, served on the AY National Tax Policy Group, and was an instructor for the AY Tax Management Training Program.

While at HPC, Bill has specialized in working with entrepreneurial and closely-held companies in the manufacturing, software, distribution, and food services industries. HPC clients have benefited from his expertise in tax planning, IRS representation, small business financing, and complex mergers and acquisition transactions.

Carlye Dooley/Windham Brannon, PC Linkedin

A principal with Windham Brannon’s tax division, Carlye specializes in complex multi-state service businesses, large not for profit organizations, and high net worth individual income tax planning and preparation. She performs and enjoys extensive projects on various accounting topics that require significant interpretation of tax law.

Specialization includes: Large Not-for-Profit Organizations; Complex Multi-State Tax Services; High Net Worth Individuals with Multi-State Returns.

Prior to joining Windham Brannon in 2002, Carlye gained valuable experience, including work with expatriates and international taxes while employed in the tax departments of the national firms of Arthur Andersen and Deloitte & Touche. She served as Vice Chair of the GSCPA Financial Literacy Committee in 2007 and 2008, and she assisted in the creationof Phi Sigma Pi Foundation, where she served as president, from 2005 to 2011.

Carlye earned a BBA in Accounting from Eastern Michigan University and a Masters in Taxation from Georgia State University.

Marc Azar/Smith & Howard, PC Linkedin

Marc is a Partner with Smith & Howard, an Atlanta accounting and advisory firm. He joined Smith & Howard 1995 after beginning his career with a Big 6 firm. He heads the tax side of the firm’s nonprofit practice, and spends a significant portion of his time in the nonprofit arena related to technical filing requirements of 990s and various tax matters facing nonprofits. In addition to his nonprofit focus, Marc has diverse experience providing income tax and business advisory services to a wide variety of businesses, individuals and estates.

Marc has been invited to make many presentations on the IRS Form 990 and other related nonprofit tax topics to groups. Marc is a Board and Audit and Compensation Committee member of Goodwill of North Georgia and Goodwill Industries of North Georgia. He serves on the Nonprofit Conference Committee of the Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants, and was 2012 Chair of the Nonprofit Conference of the Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants.

 

 

Lee Twitter

Tom Brown with LexisNexis, Michael Mills with GolinHarris, Bob Trouteaud with Trouteaud Consulting Group, Derick Halliman with Mist H2O and Taube Ponce with Georgia Department of Economic Development

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Tom Brown/LexisNexis® Linkedin

Tom Brown is Senior Vice President, Financial Services, for the risk solutions business of LexisNexis®. He leads the development of product and market strategy for the financial services vertical, which includes solutions for anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC), fraud prevention, financial investigations, and first-party collections that are used by leading global banks and financial institutions. He joined LexisNexis in 2004

Brown has more than 20 years of experience in financial services, credit, and scoring. Before joining the organization, Brown was a principal at a New York City-area consulting firm, where he specialized in the development of profit-based analytics and strategies for the nation’s largest credit card issuers. Brown also has served as a Senior Vice President with First Data, where he managed scoring and credit risk products for First Data’s issuing clients. He began his career with First of America Bank Corporation, leading loan administration, loan review, and credit policy functions at both bank and holding company levels.

Brown graduated from Western Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in finance and an MBA with a concentration in financial management. He has also pursued postgraduate study in economics.

Michael Mills/GolinHarris Twitter

Bob Trouteaud/Trouteaud Consulting Group LinkedinTwitter

For the past 25 years, Bob Trouteaud and his team of associates have delivered consulting services and customized training programs for major corporations, small businesses, and nonprofit agencies.

Today they’re helping companies meet the challenges of the changing face of today’s workforce and new economic realities. Their practical experience, sense of humor, and relaxed style provide the ideal consulting and learning environment for individuals and organizations who are serious about their performance success.

Derick Halliman/Lucid Enterprises/Mist H2O FacebookLinkedinTwitter

Taube Ponce/Georgia Department of Economic Development

With more than 10 years experience as an exporter, 10 years experience as an international business transactions paralegal, and six years experience with GDEcD, Taube Ponce has a wide variety of experience in the international trade arena to help her understand and work with Georgia companies on the exporting market.

Ms. Ponce’s international trade experience included positions as export manager at Zep Manufacturing, a specialty chemical manufacturer, and as Director of International Operations for Shop’n Chek, a company in the mystery shopping branch of market research.

As part of GDEcD’s International Trade team, Ms. Ponce helps Georgia companies expand and grow by marketing products or services overseas. She works with companies in the metro Atlanta region, as well as with chemical companies throughout the state.

Ms. Ponce was an integral part of the state’s efforts that netted Georgia federal State Trade and Export Promotion (STEP) Grants for 2012 and 2013 to help small businesses in the state expand their products and services internationally, and is the STEP Program Director in Georgia. Offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, the STEP grant is a part of the National Export Initiative, which calls for doubling U.S. exports in five years.

Ms. Ponce holds a Bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Master’s degree from Columbia University.

 

 

 

Lee Twitter

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta Featuring TYE (TiE Young Entrepreneurs)

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Preet Shah

Rajan Bedi

Divya Chawla

Kishore Masand/Thundrlizard Kishore LinkedinKishore Twitter

Kishore Masand is an Entrepreneur and Technology expert. Currently, Kishore is a co-founder at Thundrlizard. Thundrlizard is part of the GA Tech Flashpoint accelerator program, building a next-generation tool for sales coaching and predictive analytics.

Kishore is a Charter member at TiE Atlanta and co-chair for TYE program. He is actively involved in community events promoting entrepreneurship.

 

 

 

Lee Twitter

Ken Robbins with Response Mine Interactive, Steve Kapaun with TrainingPros, Perry Bell with Solar Energy USA and Brian Simon with Unishippers

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Ken Robbins/Response Mine Interactive (RMI) Ken Linkedin

Ken Robbins is the founder and president of Response Mine Interactive (RMI), an award-winning digital agency that helps clients acquire more customers using direct response digital marketing. RMI was founded in 2001 with the goal of taking hard-core direct response techniques and media optimization to Internet marketing.

For the past decade, Ken and his team have generated billions of dollars in revenue for leading brands in the B2B, healthcare, travel and home services channels. RMI is also a leader in acquiring boomers and seniors for clients. Some of the companies his agency has worked with include The Home Depot, Rooms To Go, Carter’s/Osh Kosh B’gosh, Liberty Medical, The Scooter Store, Education First Educational Tours, Maid Brigade, Terminix and formerly Staples, Travelzoo and Hallmark.

With more than 26 years of combined sales and marketing experience, Ken is a well-respected marketing guru and business strategist who has spoken at a variety of tradeshows, conferences and events.

Ken is also a sought-after marketing resource for a variety of leading industry publications. He is a contributor to the book, The Digital Media Innovation Playbook, that hit shelves in August 2011 and was featured on the cover of USA Today’s Money Section in the first article written using only Twitter. He was also quoted in the 2009 book, Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business and is a guest marketing and business lecturer at Emory University and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Steve Kapaun/TrainingPros Steve LinkedinTrainingPros Twitter

Steve Kapaun is the Founder and President of TrainingPros. They specialize in providing learning and development consulting talent to companies when they do not have the internal expertise or capacity to design, develop and deliver training solutions that improve the performance of their employees, the organization and the business. TrainingPros unique serves local markets through local relationship managers who are, themselves, learning and development practitioners having spent 15 – 20 years in the L&D industry managing the design, development and delivery of L&D programs.

Perry Bell/Solar Energy USA Solar FacebookSolar Twitter

Perry Bell is President and CEO of Atlanta-based Solar Energy USA. His previous career saw him as Co-President of one of the nation’s largest replacement window companies. Recognizing an opportunity in home energy efficiency and savings via the popular ENERGY STAR window offering, Perry made a transition and started an energy focused company. Now, as the head of two energy related companies, Perry is taking the experiences learned in the home improvement world and radically changing the way home and business owners look at paying for power. Solar Energy USA, his first renewable energy venture, is a national provider of Affordable Solar Solutions and the largest residential solar company in Georgia. Net Zero USA, the most recent undertaking, exists to help others understand how energy reduction and energy production can have dramatic effects on a power bill. The term “net zero” refers to a home or building that has zero net energy consumption, or produces 100% of its own energy needs, and Net Zero USA is showing the world how great it is to be energy independent.

Brian Simon/Unishippers

 

 

Lee Twitter

Special Edition: Atlanta Tech Village

Karen Houghton/Atlanta Tech Village 

The Atlanta Tech Village, established in 2012, is a community of innovation powered by a 103,000 square foot building located in Buckhead. The ATV is designed to service technology and technology-related companies that have a unique set of needs in their quest to change the world. Physical space should provide much more than just a desk and a place to hang your hat — it should bring the community together, promote serendipitous interactions, and be a powerful tool for recruiting the best talent.

Their mission is to support and inspire entrepreneurs to achieve success through a community that promotes faster connections between talent, ideas and capital. Together, they will fuel Atlanta’s rise to a top five tech startup center in the U.S.

Craig Hyde/Rigor 

Craig Hyde is responsible for product management, marketing, sales, and operations with Rigor. Craig was previously a Solution Consultant for Compuware/Gomez where he designed and implemented application performance solutions for the Fortune 100. Before that, he provided the Fortune 1000 and government agencies with systems to test and manage their networks as Regional Sales Manager for Network Orange. Craig is active in the Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech and can be found on the pitch with Atlanta Old White Rugby Football Club.

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Craig earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Kevin Sandlin/deductmor, LLC 

Kevin Sandlin with deductmor, LLC has been in the Atlanta high-tech market for 20 years through 7 startups, 2 acquisitions, one IPO and 3 failures. He lives in Roswell with his wife and 2 kids, and loves to play golf.

Sandra Anderson and Melissa Davis/elev8 Hire Solutions 

Sandra Anderson was recruited to work for one of the top IT staffing and consulting firms in Atlanta. At MDI Group, she found her true passion-connecting top talent to the workplace. At MDI, she placed over 200 IT candidates in contract, permanent placement and project solutions initiatives.

Sandra believes the common thread for profitable, successful companies is hiring great employees and putting people first. Sandra created alliances and teamed up with some of the most respected, high producing recruiters to form elev8 Hire Solutions.

Melissa Davis began her thriving career at one of the industry’s premier Information Technology staffing and services providers, landing a promotion within her first year on staff at Matrix. Additionally, she earned the Employee of the Year in Operations award during her first year on the job. She was recruited to join Visionaire Partners where she achieved Top Performer distinction for the next four consecutive years. Melissa has placed approximately 240 candidates throughout her five-year career.

In summer of 2012, Melissa joined forces with Sandra Anderson, to build out elev8 Hire Solutions. Melissa brings her leadership and strength as a Top Recruiter to source developers, quality assurance, information systems, Data Warehouse, Business Intelligence, and Engineers.

 

 

 

Chris Morris with CMA Financial, Gail Reid, Venus Desai and Bryon Daily with Flairtab and Mercedes Guzman

Chris Morris/CMA Financial

Gail Reid

In 1987 Gail founded her own CPA firm and spent the next 21 years working directly with business owners. She built a solid CPA practice which she sold for top dollar in 2008. Gail has advised hundreds of companies, from startup through liquidation. She has worked with micro businesses, sole proprietorships, and multi-million dollar companies. Gail has learned first hand that the more deeply a business owner understands the financial reality of his business, the more confident and decisive he is, and the more enjoyable and lucrative his experience.

Since selling her practice Gail has written a book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Low-Cost Startups. She does keynotes and workshops on what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur and how to use the power of Financial Visibility at varying stages of the business lifecycle. Gail teaches entrepreneurship and finance courses at Emory University’s Continuing Education department. She uses her financial expertise to advise independent business owners, and teach them her Financial Visibility System to improve cash flow, identifying areas of potential growth, create a written vision for their Company’s future, how to strategize to reach their goals and provide them tools to monitor and measure their progress.

Venus Desai and Bryon Daily/Flairtab

Mercedes Guzman

Mercedes Guzman has advised over the phone and Skype people from coast to coast in the United States and around the world. She was the founder of Unity North in Spanish in Atlanta. She have give inspirational messages in various radios including UNIVISION KAMA 750AM El Paso, Texas, and had its own space in Radio Fiesta 96.9 in West Palm. She present seminars with tiles likes “Healing Your Inner Child” “The Encounter with Yourself”, “From Fear to Love” “How to find peace, abundance and wisdom in the midst of the crisis”, etc., which have already been presented with much success in different parts of the United States. She has been interviewed by UNIVISION Atlanta and other TV channels. Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters Channel AIB, filmed a program in English where Mercedes was one of the main character, titled “Stepping Out in Faith ‘ She writes monthly inspirational messages in a local newspaper of Atlanta and inspires hundreds daily through Facebook, and her private practice is expanding every day.

 

 

 

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk with bbr Marketing, and Donna Grindle and Karla Kreitner with Kardon Technology

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk/bbr Marketing 

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk is the President and Founder of bbr marketing, a firm that provides marketing strategy and services to professional services firms. By having such a narrow market, she has been able to create a name for herself and her company, and was recently named “One to Watch” by AccountingToday on their Top 100 Most Influential People of 2011. She attributes the awareness and growth of her firm to a number of things, one of the most effective has been making connections with others and actively networking among her peers. She is never hesitant to make introductions to colleagues with the hopes that they will eventually work together, refer business to each other or simply enjoy getting to know each other. She’s even been known to reach out to her competitors, and has made some lasting friendships and alliances because of this strategy. At the end of the day, she feels the good that can be done by connecting people far outweighs any negative impact. And who doesn’t enjoy meeting someone new?

Donna Grindle and Karla Kreitner/Kardon Technology 

Kardon Technology provides technology support and compliance services to small businesses. They specialize in businesses that are part of the medical industry.

Donna Grindle has been in the medical technology field at many levels for over 25 years. Donna is also a Certified HIPAA Privacy and Security Expert. Karla Kreitner has been in the customer service and training area of medical technology for over 30 years. Their combined expertise is what Kardon Technology is based upon.