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Biz Radio U Featuring Ben and Sammy Amor

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Ben and Sammy Amor
KSUEntrepreneurship
Biz Radio U
Hosted by Adam Wozniak and Darren Parkinson

 

Ben and Sammy Amor / Cloud 9 Smoke and Vape Co.

Ben Amor is graduating in May from Kennesaw State University with a degree in Management, while Sammy Amor is graduating in December of this year with a Management major. They are from immigrant parents that instilled an extreme work ethic and a passion to follow their dreams. Ben and Sammy own and operate Cloud 9 Smoke & Vape Co., SBK International, and Skyline Hookah Lounge. They started their hookah lounge, Skyline, in 2010. At the time, there were no hookah lounges in Cobb County.

In 2011 Ben and Sammy founded Cloud 9. Cloud 9 is a chain of smoke and electronic cigarette retail stores with 6 locations in the metro Atlanta area.  They vertically integrated to a wholesale company when they realized they needed a warehouse to store their products, and it only made sense to use their buying power to sell to their competition.

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David Sheehan with Robert Half Technology, Margaret Lisi with ST!R Marketing and Author Chris Butsch

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David Sheehan, Margaret Lisi, Chris Butsch

 

David Sheehan / Robert Half Technology
Branch Manager

David Sheehan is branch manager of sales and recruiting for 2 divisions within Robert Half, including The Creative Group and Robert Half Technology. His practice areas include contract, direct hire, consulting, freelance. David’s specialties include UX/UI, design, development, e-commerce, advertising, creative, social media, digital,  and ERP. He finds jobs for technology professionals that consist of software developers, project managers, database specialists, networking and infrastructure specialists, and help desk support professionals.

Robert Half Technology is a leading provider of skilled IT professionals, specializing in consulting services on a project or full-time basis. A combination of online recruiting activities for job seekers and personalized service enables us to identify and provide the talent our clients need – when they need it most. For more information about Robert Half Technology, please visit our website at rht.com.

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Margaret Lisi / ST!R Marketing
Owner

Margaret Lisi owns ST!R Marketing, a communications firm devoted to helping clients define and tell their stories to create a bond between people and business. A combination of disruptor, guide, corporate anthropologist and culture builder, Margaret uses these skills to help companies understand where they are and where they want to go, driving engagement, awareness and loyalty along the way.

Her expertise is around building dimensional programs of work for clients—whether it’s around a new or revitalized brand, changes to people, processes or technology, or simply building a strong culture. A constant learner, she’s touched virtually every aspect of communications and marketing, so she can see how to maximize the impact of a program on employees, customers and partners.

Margaret’s clients have ranged from major corporations to nonprofits and universities. She also has been committed to community service, serving on at least one nonprofit board at almost every point in her career.

Her efforts have resulted in successful marketing and advertising campaigns, millions of dollars in unearned media, and public speaking engagements on what she does and how she does it successfully.

LinkedIn   Twitter

 

Chris Butsch / The Millennial’s Guide to Making Happiness
Millennial Correspondent

Chris Butsch is BRX’s official Millennial Correspondent. A Millennial workplace and psychology expert, Chris published The Millennial’s Guide to Making Happiness in January 2017 and now works to reconnect Baby Boomers and Millennials.

 

KSU Entrepreneurship Center The Shrimp Tank Featuring Ben and Sammy Amor

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KSUEntrepreneurship

Where can a young entrepreneur figure out how to turn their dreams into reality? Just take a step into the Shrimp Tank. The Shrimp Tank brings you interviews with some of the most successful business owners in the United States to learn the do’s and don’ts of starting and running a successful business. Then, the fun really starts when we bring in high school and college students to pitch their business ideas to the Shrimp Tank. We don’t fund any business, but we do teach kids how to turn their business ideas into a successful business.

Hosts of The Shrimp Tank Chris Hanks, Ted Jenkin and Lee Heisman

 

Ben and Sammy Amor / Cloud 9 Smoke and Vape Co.

Ben Amor is graduating in May from Kennesaw State University with a degree in Management, while Sammy Amor is graduating in December of this year with a Management major. They are from immigrant parents that instilled an extreme work ethic and a passion to follow their dreams. Ben and Sammy own and operate Cloud 9 Smoke & Vape Co., SBK International, and Skyline Hookah Lounge. They started their hookah lounge, Skyline, in 2010. At the time, there were no hookah lounges in Cobb County.

In 2011 Ben and Sammy founded Cloud 9. Cloud 9 is a chain of smoke and electronic cigarette retail stores with 6 locations in the metro Atlanta area.  They vertically integrated to a wholesale company when they realized they needed a warehouse to store their products, and it only made sense to use their buying power to sell to their competition.

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Women in Technology (WIT) Special Edition

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The work of Women in Technology has an incredible impact.
Since 1992, Women in Technology has had a mission dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in Georgia’s technology community. Through the WIT COMMUNITY, WIT Also educates and encourages girls and young women to pursue careers in STEM.

WITSpecialEdition

 

Sandy Welfare /  WIT 

Sandy D. Welfare is the Executive Director of Women In Technology (WIT). Prior to that, she was the Executive Director of Cool Girls Inc, an award-winning early intervention after-school program dedicated to the empowerment of girls (2009-2015).

Sandy’s career began in 1989 in Greenwich, Connecticut where she joined Rand Insurance as the Controller. Six years later, she accepted a position with Lucent Technologies, an international telecommunications leader, holding a number of positions including serving as Accounting and Treasury Manager in Singapore (1999-2000) and then as Senior Manager in Australia and New Zealand (2000-2002). Sandy returned to Atlanta in 2002 as Senior Manager of Global Financial Services.

In 2003, Sandy accepted a position as Director of Operations for Xchanging, a business processing outsourcing company. In 2006, her career took her to London, England as Managing Director for professional services, where she managed global business processing services for bank financial transactions, insurance and retail.

Sandy received her undergraduate degree from St. John’s University in New York, and a Master of Business Administration from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. She serves on the board of several non-profits, including Kiwanis Club of Atlanta. Sandy resides in Marietta, Georgia with her husband, Cliff and son, Soloman.

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Richard Makerson / BlueFletch
Managing Partner

As the Co-Founder of BlueFletch, Richard is a Technical Manager with skills in Mobile, Microsoft .NET, and J2EE Application Development. Richard has also trained, deployed, and supported multiple application tiers across complex production environments. He has extensive technical experience in native, cross-platform and web-based mobile application development. Richard holds a BS in Computer Science from Morehouse College.

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Nicole Gatlin / BlueFletch
UX/UI Designer

An ambition to build beautiful and intuitive designs gets Nicole out of bed each morning. At BlueFletch, she works as a User Experience and User Interface Designer. She has a background in visual design and holds degrees in Art History and Global Developmental Studies from Seattle Pacific University.

When she isn’t creating, you can find her rock climbing throughout the Southeast with her husband and pit bull.

LinkedIn   Twitter   Facebook

 

Kira Greco / BlueFletch
Business Experience Lead

Kira has experience in business analysis, user experience, marketing, operations and project management. She has worked in many industries and uses her strong analytical skills to drive process performance and organizational efficiency. She holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Construction Management and Engineering from Stanford University.

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Larry Kihlstadius with Kinetix HR

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Larry Kihlstadius

 

Larry Kihlstadius / Kinetix HR 
Solutions Czar

Larry is responsible for the solution generation of new clients for Kinetix. Kinetix is the leader in recruiting driven by cutting edge recruitment marketing. Kinetix is at the forefront of developing talent once hired. Larry has led sales, consulted, and run P&Ls at several Global 1000 companies. He is a pioneer in the Human Resources Outsourcing market and developed the first Recruitment Process Outsourcing model to become commercially viable.

LinkedIn   Twitter

 

KSU Entrepreneurship Center The Shrimp Tank Featuring Mark Fonseca and Mike McCarthy

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Mark Fonseca and Mike McCarthy

KSUEntrepreneurship

Where can a young entrepreneur figure out how to turn their dreams into reality? Just take a step into the Shrimp Tank. The Shrimp Tank brings you interviews with some of the most successful business owners in the United States to learn the do’s and don’ts of starting and running a successful business. Then, the fun really starts when we bring in high school and college students to pitch their business ideas to the Shrimp Tank. We don’t fund any business, but we do teach kids how to turn their business ideas into a successful business.

Hosts of The Shrimp Tank Chris Hanks, Ted Jenkin and Lee Heisman

 

Mark Fonseca / Pragmetrix
Co-Founder and Partner

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.

As a Partner in Pragmetrix, Mark is responsible for Client Relations, Business Development and conducting Client Interviews.

LinkedIn

 

Mike McCarthy / Pragmetrix
Co-Founder and Partner

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.

LinkedIn

 

Joost Rutten with Liaison Technologies, Dwayne Hill with Ashton Woods, Millennial Author Chris Butsch and Matt Thomas with Brawl for a Cause

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Joost Rutten / Liaison Technologies

Mr. Joost Rutten has been Chief Financial Officer at Liaison Technologies, Inc. since January 19, 2017. Prior to joining Liaison, Mr. Rutten held strategic leadership positions at several organizations including SAP SuccessFactors, a leader in the fast growing Human Capital Management (HCM) cloud space which generates more than $1 billion in subscription revenue on an annual basis. As Division Chief Financial Officer, he was responsible for leading and managing the SAP SuccessFactors finance team and managing the Global SAP SuccessFactors P&L.

Mr. Rutten is the Co-Founder of Standard Tael BV. Joost worked in Corporate Banking, Investment Banking and Private Equity. Joost started his career at ABN AMRO bank as a management trainee, after which he joined ABN AMRO’s European Leveraged Finance team as an associate. In 2008, he joined the Secondary Investments Team of AlpInvest Partners in Amsterdam as an associate. AlpInvest is the world’s leading independent private equity fund of fund with over USD 50bn under management. At AlpInvest, he was responsible for executing secondary private equity transactions in Europe and the US, such as the acquisition of limited partnership interests and direct private equity portfolios. He served as Chief Financial Officer of a private equity backed start-up company in the US.

Joost holds a Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology. He is also a CFA charter holder.

LinkedIn

 

Dwayne Hill / Ashton Woods

Dwayne Hill serves as Division President of Ashton Woods Atlanta. He is originally from North Carolina and moved to Georgia in 1978 where he graduated with a business degree from Georgia State University. Before finding Ashton Woods, Hill held division and corporate level positions at public and private builders. He began his career at Ashton Woods in 2010 as the Vice President of Sales, later to be named the National Vice President of Sales before becoming Division President of Ashton Woods Atlanta. Hill chose Ashton Woods because of the company’s land strategy and high level of personalization offered to homebuyers.

Outside of work, Dwayne enjoys spending time with his family, including three kids and two dogs. He also enjoys off-shore fishing and classic cars.

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Chris Butsch / The Millenial’s Guide to Making Happiness

Chris Butsch is Atlanta Business Radio’s “Millennial Correspondent.” Author of The Millennial’s Guide to Making Happiness, Chris educates other generations on how to decrypt and connect with his unique generation.

LinkedIn   Twitter   Facebook

 

Matt Thomas / Brawl For a Cause

Matt is a @GAfollowers event manager and writer, covering special events, technology, business, food and travel. An avid startup aficionado, Matt founded Brawl for a Cause, works on @Roadie’s pit crew, and can be found sweating at the Atlanta Tech Village ping pong table.

Twitter   Facebook

 

Biz Radio U Featuring Jeff Jahn with DynamiX

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Jeff-Jahn

KSUEntrepreneurship

Biz Radio U

Hosted by Adam Wozniak and Darren Parkinson

 

Jeff Jahn / DynamiX
Founder

Jeff Jahn founded DynamiX in 2005 as a college sophomore. Today it’s one of the most respected website development and software companies in the world, having been recognized with more than 585 awards in just the past three years. More importantly, DynamiX has created significant bottom line improvement for hundreds of amazing local, national and international businesses. DynamiX was named a 2016 Top 25 Small Business, and Jeff was recently recognized as one of three finalists in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Small Business Person of the Year awards, in the experienced entrepreneur category.

In addition to DynamiX, Jeff has founded, or co-founded, five companies, including the world’s first neighborhood-based social media platform. He has contributed to Forbes, Inc. and Huffington Post, among others, and is a regular speaker on entrepreneurship and digital technologies.

Twitter   Facebook

 

Jimmy Collins Author of Creative Followership

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Jimmy Collins

 

Jimmy Collins / Creative Followership
Founder and Author

Born in an unpainted share-cropper house in the middle of cotton fields, Jimmy Collins dreamed of becoming an executive. His story of the pathway he discovered for the realization of that dream is told in his book, In the Shadow of Greatness. He named that pathway Creative Followership. Jimmy is certain that anyone can use his Creative Followership Principles for their own journey to success and satisfaction.

From his first job of delivering groceries on a bicycle at 12 years old, to establishing his own business as a commercial kitchen design consultant, to his 32 year career with Chick-fil-A, Inc., he learned and applied the principles that you also can learn.

Jimmy retired from Chick-fil-A, Inc. as president, Chief Operating Officer. He describes his role there as the chief follower of the founder, S. Truett Cathy. In year 2000, Jimmy received the prestigious Silver Plate Award as Chain Fast Service Operator of the Year.

He is the founder of Creative Followership L.L.C, and an author.

 

Mack Story / Top Story Leadership

Mack began his career in manufacturing on the front lines of a machine shop. He grew himself into upper management and found his niche in lean manufacturing and along with it, developed his passion for leadership.

With more than 20 years working with and on the front lines, he brings a powerful blend of practical experience and leadership knowledge to his clients. Mack is a published author of several leadership books including: Defining Influence, 10 Values of High Impact Leaders, and Blue-Collar Leadership: Leading from the Front Lines.

He understands that everything rises and falls on leadership.

For more detailed information on Mack and to learn about the leadership development services he provides, please click here to visit Mack’s website.

 

Ria Story / Top Story Leadership

Ria is a motivational leadership speaker, author, and a world class coach who has a unique ability to help people develop and achieve their life and career goals, and guide them in building the habits and discipline to achieve their personal view of greatness.  Ria brings a wealth of personal experience in working with clients to achieve their personal goals and aspirations in a way that few coaches have achieved.

Ria’s background includes more than ten years in administrative healthcare, including several years in management and later, Director of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs for a large healthcare organization.  Ria’s responsibilities included oversight of thousands of organizational policies, organizational compliance with all State and Federal regulations, and responsibility for several million dollars in Medicare appeals.

Like many, Ria faced adversity in life. Raised on an isolated farm in Alabama, she was sexually abused by her father from age 12 – 19. Desperate to escape, she left home at 19 without a job, a car, or even a high school diploma. Ria learned to be resilient, and not just survive, but thrive. She worked her way through school, an MBA, and eventually resigned from her career in the corporate world to pursue a passion for helping others achieve success.

Now a motivational speaker, coach, and author of 7 books, she co-founded Top Story Leadership, which offers leadership development, speaking, training, coaching, and consulting. Ria also coaches authors and speakers on writing, speaking, and more.