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Atlanta Business Radio

Month: March 2017

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.

LinkedIn   Twitter   Facebook

 

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.

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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.

Twitter     Twitter(Sandy)      LinkedIn

 

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.

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