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Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Our Sandy Springs Studio





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.

 

Sandeep Dadlani with Infosys, Mara Davis, Co-Host of Atlanta Eats and Jane Turner with The Children’s Museum of Atlanta

Sandeep Dadlani/Infosys 

Sandeep Dadlani is Vice-President and Head of the Retail, CPG and Logistics Unit, Americas at Infosys. Sandeep runs a portfolio P&L of approximately $1 Billion today across USA, Canada and Latin America.

Sandeep has over 15 years of  operations,  consulting and product management experience between Citigroup and Infosys. He has helped Infosys’ Retail & CPG clients become more competitive by embracing new emerging trends across digital consumers and emerging markets. He sits on the advisory and steering committee boards on several transformation programs at global multinational retailers and CPG companies.

He has authored several white papers in the areas of Innovation, Business Transformation and Shared Services. He has been often quoted in publications like Forbes, Business Week, CGT, Stores, etc. He regularly speaks at industry forums like Consumer Goods Technology , NRF, Emerging Markets forums and at Infosys Investor/Analyst meetings.

Sandeep holds an MBA (Finance) and an Electronics Engineering degree. He is a resident of Kennesaw, GA and also is on  Advisory Boards at Georgia Tech Ciber and Kennesaw State University Asian Studies Advisory Board. Sandeep  featured for consecutive years on the UN Global Compact Supply Chain Sustainability Advisory Board and co-authored their report on supply chain sustainability. He currently is on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Ethics and Values.

Mara Davis/Atlanta Eats 

Mara Davis is a Media Personality and co-host of Atlanta Eats. She is a frequent panelist on CNN & HLN, and an 18 year radio host at Z93 and Dave FM in Atlanta.

Jane Turner/The Children’s Museum of Atlanta 

Jane Turner has held the position of Executive Director for The Children’s Museum of Atlanta since September 2004. During that time she has led the work of the museum to become a key organization reaching approximately 200,000 visitors each year, and thousands of additional children and families through extensive outreach into the community. Under her leadership, the Museum has enhanced its physical exhibits and expanded programs addressing cognitive, social, and emotional development of children ages 0-8.

Prior to joining The Children’s Museum of Atlanta, Jane served as President of the Board of Directors of Georgia Shakespeare Festival, one of the largest non-profit theaters in Atlanta. Her previous experience includes fifteen years at National Data Corporation, Washington, D.C., where she worked in the healthcare technology division as Director of Institutional Pharmacy Systems.

Jane graduated from Kenyon College and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Jane currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Junior League of Atlanta and Advisory Board of Georgia Shakespeare.


 

 

 

Dave Ford with Sharethrough, Matt Friedman with Wing Zone, Larry Myricks with Atlanta Corporate Challenge and Brad VanBuskirk with Stars and Strikes

Dave Ford/Sharethrough 

After starting his career in traditional media, Dave has spent the last 6 years working in the emerging media space in sales, marketing, and business development functions. He opened up the New York City office for Sharethrough and works in a sales function serving the New York, Atlanta, and Washington D.C. markets (while dabbling in biz dev from time to time). At Sharethrough he also gets to represent the company at industry networking events (like SXSW and Cannes), speaks on occasion, and hosts a monthly breakfast networking group.

Dave graduated with a marketing degree from the University of Maryland, but received his real education traveling throughout South America and Africa for 18 months in 2007 and 2008.

Matt Friedman/Wing Zone

Matt Friedman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wing Zone, an authentic Buffalo Wings delivery service. Based in Atlanta, Wing Zone is a franchise company with over 100 locations opened or set to open.

Larry Myricks/Atlanta Corporate Challenge 

Larry Myricks, 4-Time Olympian, 1988 Olympic Bronze Medalist, is the Director of the Atlanta Corporate Challenge and the Corporate Challenge Network.

The Atlanta Corporate Challenge – is 5 weeks and 23 tournaments (sports & games) that make up the largest and most effective teambuilding, company pride and morale boosting event for businesses in the metro Atlanta area. It is “Where Work Comes to Play”.

Brad VanBuskirk/Stars and Strikes 

Brad VanBuskirk is the Manager of the Stone Mountain location of Stars and Strikes, a locally owned business that started in 2005 and has quickly grown to 4 locations with a 5th project underway.

With over 50,000 square feet they feature bowling, a mega arcade, lazer tag, bumper cars, lazer maze, balladium, a sports bar, and even event/meeting rooms. They are the perfect destination to hold any event whether it be for 10 people or 1,000 people. They offer birthday parties, school events, lock ins, daycare parties, sports parties, church events, corporate outings, teambuilding events, holiday parties, and so much more.

Stars and Strikes newest addition next to its Dacula location is the Event Gallery where they have hosted weddings, family reunions, rehearsal dinners, company events, etc. Their big summer push is the Kids Bowl Free Program. Children 15 and under are eligible for the program and can be enrolled through a link on the website. The program offers 2 free games of bowling each day Monday through Saturday all summer long.

 

 

 

Special Edition: “Speaking Insights” with the National Speakers Association Georgia

The Georgia chapter of the National Speakers Association mission is simply this: We are a supportive community that inspires, educates and provides networking opportunities to those who want to develop their speaking careers or use speaking to enhance their businesses. Our members include professional speakers, aspiring speakers, authors, consultants, salespeople, trainers and vendors for the speaking industry. We meet in the Atlanta area the third Saturday morning each month. You can learn more at www.nsageorgia.org.

“Speaking Insights” is a quarterly program of the Georgia chapter of the National Speakers Association. Each show will feature professional speakers who share their insights on how to succeed in the speaking business.

Our Co-Hosts:

NSA Georgia president (2012-13) Diane Bogino is president of Performance Strategies, Inc. and hosts the GBDN.tv show. A behavior scientist and an executive and business coach, Diane speaks on workplace behaviors and business strategies. She can be reached at 404-320-7834 or diane@performstrat.com.

NSA Georgia president (2013-14) Desmond “Dez” Thornton is an idea enthusiast with a natural ability to transform complex ideas into simple, sequential steps. His passion for words and commitment to service led him to discover his labor of love, professional speaking. He spreads this love by dedicating himself to the advancement of professional and beginner speakers who strive to articulate their vision with the clarity and enthusiasm necessary to inspire action. Dez can be reached at dez@desmondthornton.com.

Our Guests:

In an attention-deficient, entertain-me-now, wait-while-I-post-that-on-my-Facebook kind of world, the typical business presentation doesn’t measure up. NSA Georgia president (2014-15) Kelly Vandever works with organizations and individuals whose presentations need to get results. An award-winning speaker herself, Kelly helps clients improve their presentations using old school and hi-tech techniques, all while annihilating bullet points and making this world a better place for business audiences everywhere. You can reach Kelly at SpeakingPractically.com, at 770-597- 1108, tweet @KellyVandever, or www.facebook.com/speakingpractically.

NSA Georgia vice president of programs (2013-14) Corey Perlman is an entrepreneur, author and nationally-recognized social media expert. His book, eBoot Camp, became an Amazon.com bestseller in every major business category and received global attention with distribution in both China and India. Corey’s company, eBoot Camp, Inc., provides digital marketing services to small and mid-size businesses. He’s the proud father of a 3-year-old daughter who has already tweeted, has a YouTube channel and asked for a Mark Zuckerberg doll for her birthday. The apple truly doesn’t fall far from the tree! Visit www.ebootcamp.com or contact: Jessica Duke at 855-eboot- now.

 

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

Madhu Madhusudan/VectorSpan, Inc.

Raj Rajan/TiE Atlanta 

Palaniswamy “Raj” Rajan is currently the co-founder, Chairman & CEO of Virima Technologies, Inc., an IT Operations and Datacenter software developer serving the fortune 5000 companies. He brings more than 15 years experience in the technology industry and combines a deep understanding of current technologies with the ability to articulate the application of these technologies in various business contexts and models. A highly versatile and proven entrepreneur, he has co-founded several ventures including, Vigilar, Inc, a leading network security technology firm; eLaunchpad, LLC, an early stage venture capital firm/incubator focusing on Internet infrastructure and network security technologies; and Resourcis, an executive recruiting firm. During his tenure at Vigilar, he conceived the company’s business plan and methodology, raised venture capital funding, recruited a talented management team and grew annual revenues from $0 in 2000 to $32M in 2005 in probably the most difficult technology industry climate. Another previous success, VerticalOne, a financial aggregator; was sold to S1 in 1999 in a deal valued at $166 million. Mr. Rajan serves on the Board of Directors of the above companies and as well on the advisory boards of several early stage technology firms around the country. A leader in the business community, he is also involved in several professional and community related organizations. Mr. Rajan was instrumental in establishing the Atlanta CEO Council, a non-profit networking group of more than 1000 CEOs, CxOs, and investors in the Southeast. Mr. Rajan served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CEO council from 1999 through 2011 and is currently one of its Board members. Mr. Rajan also co-founded and serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), a national mentoring organization for entrepreneurs.

TiE supports entrepreneurs at all stages of the entrepreneurial life cycle with the goal to create over $100 million in new wealth by 2017. This is in line with Forward Atlanta, the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s plan to help ignite the region’s economy.

Katie Elizabeth/TiE X