Today's Entrepreneur

SEER Interactive: The Bottom Line

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:35 -0400

Companies are mostly established to earn profits. In practically every activity a company does it should see to it that the activity will somehow improve the bottom line. This is particularly important in advertising where a company wants to see sales and ultimately profits to increase as a result of the money spent.

One of the more popular mediums of advertising today is through the Internet. Driving traffic to the website is one of the main concerns of web advertisers. That’s why companies like SEER Interactive have thrived. SEER has not only thrived it is actually one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. and has received a number of awards for its performance.

SEER is into search engine optimization, paid search marketing, and analytics. One of the things that separates SEER is it connects the activities it does for clients to the client’s bottom line. This company will not accept projects that it believes it cannot perform satisfactorily for its clients. SEER is not only concerned with rankings and clicks but puts a lot of emphasis on leads and actual sales that is generated.

The company was founded by Wil Reynolds who worked for a web marketing agency starting in 1999. There he used to lead the SEO strategies for firms like Disney, Debeers, and Mercedes Benz USA. Wil then ventured out in 2002 and put up SEER.

SEER is based in Philadelphia and also has offices in San Diego and Madrid, Spain.

Carlton Hobbs: Highlighting Unique Antiquities

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:41:40 -0400

A leading New York dealer of arts and antiquities since the early 1980s, Carlton Hobbs maintains an Upper East Side office with longtime partner Stefanie Rinza. Carlton Hobbs LLC, Antiques and Fine Art has a discerning catalogue of works of exceptional provenance and artistry from the 17th through 19th century. Intensive research is a focal point in every acquisition, with the firm maintaining a library of several thousand academic volumes and source materials. Research is frequently published, both in order to enrich the academic community, and to share with collectors the in-depth knowledge that informs each piece in the collection.

A unique item recently highlighted on the Carlton Hobbs weblog at www.facebook.com/CarltonHobbsAntiques is a pair of mid-18th century Pontypool lacquered tôle. Developed by Thomas Algood in the late 17th century, the tôle technique is named after the south Wales location in which manufacture originally took place. Through tôle craftsmanship, colorful decorative motifs such as flowers and plants are projected strikingly on a rich black background. The underlying technique in creating these pieces involves applying a linseed-based oil to the table surface. Added pigments are fired at high temperatures and for precise duration, creating brilliant colors and an overall lustrous appeal that does not diminish over time. The technique remained extremely popular throughout the early 18th century. Jappaned tôle-ware most likely gifted by Catherine the Great is now an integral part of the Hermitage Collection.

Carlton Hobbs and his business partner are situated in a former Vanderbilt mansion, where they display antiquities and cohabit with a number of rescued dogs. Ms. Rinza is particularly well known for her efforts in finding caring homes for abandoned cats and dogs trhoughout new York City.

Lawrence Closs: Selling Happiness

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:28 -0400

It’s amazing how one activity can be viewed from different perspectives. Lawrence Closs seems to have hit it right on the head when he sees his business as selling happiness. At the end of the day whatever the product or service is being sold people want to be happy for having bought it. After all a person wouldn’t seem to be in his right frame of mind if he bought something so he could be sad.

What’s admirable about Closs is his own struggle in the business has not deterred him to bring happiness around. After being a marketing and advertising executive he went into the business of selling bathtub liners. Closs started his business in 2002 in New Orleans.

Locating his first warehouse in the inner city and accessible to cheap public transportation he felt his was in an advantageous position. Then Hurricane Katrina struck. His warehouse was flooded with seven and a half feet of water and his entire stock was destroyed.

Undeterred he opened a new warehouse just 50 yards from his original location. Dealing with insurance companies, a low labor supply, and very little economic activity in New Orleans, he faced an enormous challenge. He revaluated the business model of his company, NewBath and decided to offer a broader range of products and services. It now offers a wide range bath remodeling service. To lessen geographic risk he is also doing business in Houston, Texas.

Business has since been doing very well so much so that NewBath has now been recognized as one of the fasted growing inner city companies in the U.S. What is also worth noting is the line of business that Closs is in is not something novel or part of the sunrise industries like information technology or biotechnology. The remodeling business has been around for a quite some time already.

What Closs through NewBath offers is a one point of service where customers can have their project done from start to finish dealing with only one entity instead of having to buy items, deal with a contractor and so on.

Closs continues to work in order to provide products and services that make customers happy.

Daniel Turner: Government Focused Market

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:35 -0400

Companies like Apple, Google, Samsung and more have become very successful catering to individuals and the general public market. There are companies although not as large as Google or Apple that have managed to prosper by focusing on having the U.S. government as its client.

It’s not that easy, there are certain rules and regulations to follow in dealing with the government. Things may not move as quickly as dealing with the private sector. You can be sure though that if there has been a budget allocation there is funding for such a government spending and you’ll get paid. This client will not likely go bankrupt as the U.S. government does print the money.

Daniel Turner has been very successful catering to the U.S. government. He founded TCG (Turner Consulting Group) in 1994. As company president he brought his experience in government computing services and state networking agencies in founding the company. Having previously worked with the government has been a key advantage in the success of the company.

TCG started working with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and still does business with it. From a one employee company helping NIH solve legislative requirements it now provides a complete range of IT and management consulting services. The company’s services and solutions includes IT solutions, grant management, collaboration environments, and budget formulation and execution.

Knowing the needs of the Federal government and agencies Daniel Turner has over the years guided the growth of the company which is now one of the fastest growing firms in the U.S.

The “Retired” Giuliana Maravelle

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:35 -0400

An entrepreneur who wanted to take things a bit easy winds up having a hit product.

Giuliana Maravelle was an entrepreneurial veteran who had owned and managed several businesses. After 30 years she sold her last business which was a hairdressing academy. More of a hobby Giuliana decided to open a true little Italian café where the panini, gelato and espresso would be just as she wanted.

Café Bottega opened in New Haven, Connecticut in 2004. She then ran into a problem with the gelato part as she couldn’t find any that was as good as the ones she tasted while growing up in Italy. She then took gelato-making lessons from an Italian gelato company. Having learned how to do it Giuliana then proceeded to make her own gelato and sorbet at the café.

Soon enough the home-made gelato became a hit at the café. With her business partner Deborah Cairo they eventually decided to expand and transferred their gelato-making venture from Giuliana’s kitchen to a 1,200 square-foot warehouse in Wallingford in 2007.

With the ever growing popularity of Gelato Giuliana they soon outgrew the small warehouse in Wallingford. In 2010 they transferred their operations to New Haven’s Long Wharf section. They also relocated the café which was now a nightclub called Keys to the City in the same location so both businesses could be managed under one roof. At the end of 2012 the production facility was expanded.

Gelato Giuliana now produces 50 flavors along with seasonal favorites and fruit sorbets; previously they only produced a dozen. The same equipments and methods are used as those in Italy; the only difference is in the packaging which is done in various sizes. Everything is still made by hand.

The “retired” Giuliana does not want to expand too fast. Originally they only wanted 10 to 20 accounts. Now Gelato Giuliana is offered in five states and serves more than 400 businesses.

One never knows what lies ahead which may turn out to be a wonderful entrepreneurial success story.

Cathy Edwards: A Promising Technology

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:00:51 -0400

Cathy Edwards co-founded Chomp, Inc. in 2009. It was the only company to enable app search based on what an app actually does. The current scenario is there are one billion apps being downloaded every month. As the number of apps greatly increases it has become difficult for users to find the perfect app for what they want to do.

The company’s patent-pending algorithm is able to understand what an app does and what a users wants and then make the best match. Chomp allows developers to effectively integrate app search in their content. The company was based in San Francisco, California.

It was able to get a couple of millions in funding and got the attention of Apple which acquired the company in February 2012. While the price of acquisition was not divulged industry insiders say it went for $50 million.

While it was a proof of validation for Cathy and company it came with a twist. For reasons not fully explained, Apple completely shut down Chomp including its website less than a year after acquisition. If one goes to Chomp.com one gets redirected to Apple’s site. As a very large company Apple has its own priorities.

Given the fact that Cathy and company were able to sell it to Apple for a considerable amount, it can already be considered a rare achievement.

Shama Kabani: Digital Living

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:33 -0400

Not too long ago the Internet was non-existent. Then slowly overtime it became a relevant technology. Today there is an explosion of commerce happening in the Internet and quite a number of people have become billionaires because of it.

There are many people making a good living because of the Internet. One such person who has had a great amount of success is Shama Kabani. She is known as a technology entrepreneur, a public speaker, a best-selling author, as well as a web and TV personality.

Shama was born in Goa, India in 1985 as Shama Ryder. She and her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was 9 years of age. Her family settled in Carrollton, Texas. Shama graduated from high school in Carrollton in 2003 and proceeded to the University of Texas at Austin. She earned a master’s degree in organizational communications in 2008.

In 2009 she founded The Marketing Zen Group with $1,500. It is a web marketing firm with an emphasis on social media marketing based in Dallas, Texas. It has since experienced annual growth at an average of 400%. Shama leads her team of 25 full-time employees who all work virtually. The company provides social media and digital public relations services for a diverse set of clients such publicly traded Fortune 1000 companies to private small businesses as well as non-profit organizations. Marketing Zen has a global client base serving companies in the U.S., Europe, Central and South America, and Asia.

Shama is also an accomplished author. Her best-selling book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, was released last January 2013. While not directly engaged with Marketing Zen Shama does shooting for her show or is travelling around the world speaking on business, technology, and entrepreneurship.

She has over the years received numerous awards. Her company was honored at the White House in 2012 for being named to the Empact100 list of the top 100 U.S. companies to be run by a young entrepreneur.

Shama has made a successful living off the digital world.

Ezekiel Adkins: Making Travel Enjoyable

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:53 -0400

If there’s one thing about travel it will most likely include having luggage. You have to check them in, wait for them in the airport carousel, and then carry them over a certain distance. Having luggage, especially heavy ones can be a pain. Even more painful and stressful is if you lose your luggage. It could mean having to buy new clothes, or having to rent a set of skis.

Ezekiel Adkins and a partner wanted to change all of that and founded a company in 2004 called Luggage Forward. This firm is based in Boston, Massachusetts. It provides door-to-door delivery of your luggage and sports equipment such as golf bags and skis. The company offers a set of online tools that lets clients to generate pricing, securely book online and track luggage real-time.

It initially delivered luggage domestically in the U.S. for two years then expanded to provide international service. The company works with various carriers such as DHL Express to enable the luggage to reach its destination on time. Luggage Forward can now send luggage directly to more than 220 countries and territories. This includes a traveler’s hotel, golf courses, vacation homes as well as a cruise ship’s port of call.

With its success Adkins and company have gone on an expansion mode which included acquiring 7 similar companies in the U.S.

Sandra Walls: Using Her Experience For Business

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:49 -0400

Sandra Walls was born and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. She earned her high school diploma at Manassas High School and then graduated from LeMoyne-Owen College. During that time she couldn’t get a job because she was black, a woman and had no experience.

To get ahead in life she decided to join the military and get a master’s degree and make herself marketable in 4 years time. She joined the U.S. Air Force and enjoyed it and she would up spending 22 years in service. Walls retired as a Lt. Colonel.

She was a logistic officer and her expertise included depot management, warehouse solutions, logistics, advisory services and program management. She retired in 1995. Walls then joined a company called AVPOL (Aviation, Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants) as a partner in 2001. AVPOL was originally incorporated in Texas by retired military logistician. The company worked primarily in the petroleum business within the Department of Defense and offered services in ground fuels.

When Walls joined the company it employed 30 people and had $1.2 million in revenues. Her experience during her military career involved more than just petroleum. It was a broader logistical affair including providing services or moving products or commodities from point A to point B. With her work experience background she started to move the company in a different direction.

As things turned out her partner and mentor, a company known as Trajen, moved out of the business. It owned 49 percent of AVPOL. They sold the company to Walls for $350,000 which was structured as a loan. What was once a small petroleum company is now a million-dollar logistics business based in Memphis, Tennessee. It generated revenues of $12 million in 2011. Walls has also put in place a 5 year $ 100 million strategic growth plan.

The company services federal and commercial contracts. Walls is also letting her son Timothy Walls who graduated from Tennessee State University join the business. He will have to work his way up the ladder before reaching the top position.

Banking on her previous work experience Walls took AVPOL International to a new direction and has come out a winner.

Jon Dean: Laser-Focus On Financial Media

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:30 -0400

Jon Dean is the founder and CEO of Dean Media Group (DMG) which is based in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to starting the company, Jon was vice president for Marketing and Sales at Interactive Data. He was also an account executive at Communication Associates, Inc. Jon took up his college education at the University of Notre Dame.

The core strength that DMG brings to the table is its leadership and staff have actually hands on experience in the difference facets of the financial media. Their approach is not theoretical but based on actually know-how. What the company likes to stress is they are a media and technology company that is exclusively focused on the financial media industry.

With all the efforts focused in the sector one may conclude that the company is limiting itself to one market only when their skills and knowledge can also be used in other industries. The financial market in general is a very large. Bloomberg started and still is into finance and is now a multibillion dollar company. Hence the issue of market size is basically a non-issue.

DMG’s focus though gives them an edge since they are experts in this arena. They have built strong relationships with advertisers and publishers over the years giving the company unique opportunities not found in other firms.

Jon’s and his teams focused strategy is paying off as DMG has been often rated as one of the fastest growing companies in the country.

Jose Villa: Part Of The Market

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:49 -0400

Jose Villa is an individual who has leveraged his own ethnicity as an advantage in his entrepreneurial endeavor. As has often been said to be successful you must understand your market. For Jose Villa he has the advantage of being part of the market and he knows this.

Villa is into cross-cultural marketing where one takes into account the cultural background of the target market. Being a Hispanic Villa knows the market because he’s part of it. To stress the point Villa, who is Cuban-American would most likely have a better idea about this market than say someone from Germany.

Villa literally stumbled across multicultural marketing when he was developing websites mainly for small businesses in the Los Angeles area. A good amount of his business came from the Cuban-American community and he came to the conclusion that there is a real niche for multicultural marketing.

So back in 1998 he established Focus Multimedia which is now called Sensis Agency. It is a full-service advertising agency specializing in digital and online market for multicultural audiences. What was a major challenge for Villa was he founded the company when the do.com bust period occurred.

Villa was able to weather this and then had another problem. His company was still young and large contracts were starting to come in. Trying to meet the demand was very difficult. Through perseverance and hard work he was able to overcome the challenge and grow the company.

Villa’s workforce is also multicultural and the staff speaks a total of nine languages and does business in each one of the languages. This is an indication of the multicultural market that exists in the world of advertising. Many of the company employees also do not have advertising background. This adds to the environment of not always thinking within the box and being able to have a wide range of perspectives within the company.

Before going full time as an entrepreneur Villa started his professional career as a management consultant with the Mitchell Madison Group. He earned an Economics degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School.

The company had been having a very high growth rate over the past five years. No doubt being part of the market has helped Villa achieve success.

Hard Work Bringing Success

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:00:47 -0400

While we see many college kids living from one party to another there are also college students who are working so they can pay the tuition fee. These are the kind of individuals who end up being successful. This is the path that Anthony Gonzalez-Angel took. He worked, while in school so that he would have the money to finisher his higher education.

Angel obtained a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts & Sciences from the University of Illinois Chicago. Later on he finished his Masters in Public Administration from the University of Illinois Springfield. Angel has worked in the construction industry and has had over 20 years of professional experience.

He decided to work for himself in 1999 by founding Gonzalez Companies, LLC and is a Senior Managing Partner. He is a hands-on leader who guides and coaches his employees until he is comfortable with their skills. He currently acts as the company’s CEO, CFO, and COO.

His company is a professional services firm specializing in offering design, construction management, and inspection services for municipalities, governmental agencies and private clients. It is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The firm had revenue of $4.5 million in 2011 and has grown 52 percent each year since 2005.

Castulo de la Rocha: Three Decades of Leadership in the Community Health Care Sphere

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:18:03 -0400

With more than three decades of community leadership experience, Castulo de la Rocha serves as CEO and President of AltaMed Health Services Corporation. Since 1977, he has helped define AltaMed’s mission of offering quality outpatient care to an urban Latino population. The nonprofit health care organization encompasses more than 1,600 professionals at 44 clinics and senior care service centers throughout Los Angeles and Orange County. AltaMed is recognized as California’s largest fully-accredited Federally Qualified Health Center and maintains a $200 million operating budget.

Immigrating to California from Mexico when he was 11, Mr. de la Rocha came of age at a time when many East Los Angeles Latinos were engaged in a battle to access quality education health care, and housing. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and completed a Certificate in Management from Stanford University. Undertaking legal studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Castulo de la Rocha joined the San Francisco-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., in 1974. In this position, Mr. de la Rocha assisted on cases related to race, employment, and national origin discrimination, particularly as they related to political access, prison rights, and education.

Castulo de la Rocha’s sustained efforts over the decades have helped ensure that Southern California Latino communities have access to affordable, accessible care. He has achieved a number of national level distinctions, including the American Diabetes Association’s Community Service Award and the U.S. Surgeon General’s Gold Medallion for Public Health.

Jon Morris: From Paper To Reality

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:41 -0400

Jon Morris is the founder and CEO of Rise Interactive. The birth of this company started out from a purely academic activity. The firm was developed in 2004 when Jon was getting his MBA degree at the University of Chicago. As originally conceived by Jon the firm would teach traditional marketers how to manage Internet marketing campaigns. The paper was entered into the New Venture Challenge. This was the annual business plan competition of the University of Chicago.

It won second place and before long Jon turned the paper into reality. Jon was continuously asked by attendees if he would be available to manage their campaigns while he was teaching classes. With this market demand Jon turned Rise from a teaching organization to a search engine marketing agency which concentrated on the requirements of small businesses.

Jon already had digital marketing experience for over 10 years when he created the business. Before the establishment of Rise, he managed the Internet Marketing department for Ketchum Directory Advertising (an Omnicon Company) from January 2002 to June 2003. His group’s clients included Allstate Insurance, Best Western and Delta Airlines. During his stint there Jon was given three industry excellence awards by the Yellow Pages Integrated Media Association.

Prior to working at Ketchum Jon founded Net Traffic, which was cited by ChannelSeven.com as one of the top interactive agencies in the U.S. in 2000. ChannelSeven.com is an industry watch group that tracks Internet marketing trends.

Jon is currently a Web Analytics Adjunct Instructor at the University of Chicago. He is a frequent speaker at industry gatherings and symposiums. Since it was established Rise has experienced triple digit growth annually.

There are many individuals who can develop business plans. Jon belongs to the group that not only knows how to create a business plan but also execute and successfully run a real company. The coming years will determine if he will be able to sustain its admirable growth and expansion.

Starting With $6,000

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:00:47 -0400

Arnette Heintze and Terry Hillard started a business in 2004 each putting up $3,000. By 2010 revenues reached nearly $7 million. The company they put up is Hillard Heintze LLC, which is based in Chicago Illinois. It is a security and investigative firm.

Heintze and Hillard have the perfect work background. Both had retired from government service. Heintze spent 27 years with the U.S. Secret Service and Hillard was a veteran Chicago police officer.

Hillard is now a consultant to the firm. Their first client was Harpo Productions Inc., which hire Hillard Heintze to protect winners when Oprah Winfrey gave away cars and other big-ticket items on her popular TV show. The firm was also hired to provide security work during the NATO summit in May 2012.

When it comes to dealing with potentially dangerous situations Heintz is no stranger. He spent almost three decades protecting six U.S. Presidents. Later on he ran the Secret Service’s public affairs office at the time when then President Bill Clinton was being investigated by an independent council.

Heintz has a master’s degree in national security strategy earned at the National War College. He then headed the Chicago bureau of the Secret Service for two years. Heintz also serves as a Member of Senior Executive Advisory Board of TASER International, Inc.

Tom Hand: Having An Ace During Trade Shows

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:30 -0400

Tom Hand is a graduate of Chapman University and a member of the Phi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. He has been a project manager and general manager of Ace Exhibits, Inc. and now holds the title of president and CEO.

Tom heads a firm that provides an attractive proposition for companies and individuals who participate in trade shows. Trade shows are venues that provide an opportunity for those who want their businesses to grow. Would-be customers and clients go to a trade show to look at products instead of the businesses having to knock on doors of promising clients.

It is therefore imperative that entrepreneurs make the most out of trade shows. Advertising is very important. Perhaps there is a great product there but if the display booth is not attractive people may not bother visiting it missing out on potential sales.

This is what Tom wants to correct. For a company or entrepreneur to have a good chance of attracting customers and clients his company Ace Exhibits can be the ace up their sleeves. They provide what you need to have an attractive trade show display.

Ace Exhibits sells trade show displays and has in-house printing capabilities. Tom started the business as a two man show over six years ago. In 2011 the company was hitting over $5 million in revenues. Within a five year period the growth rate was at 75 percent.

Tom is proud of the fact that during a sluggish economy their company was able to provide jobs. The company now has 30 employees and has plans for expansion. In the early part of 2012 his firm was recognized by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Fortune Magazine as one of the fastest growing inner city companies in the U.S.

The work that Tom and his team has done at Ace Exhibit, Inc. has not only given businesses with an option to have attractive displays but the company’s growth has also helped to provide jobs and revitalize the inner part of Los Angeles, California.

Not Just For Profit

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:34 -0400

Bo Menkiti is not your average guy. He graduated from Harvard University no less with a degree in sociology. Bo’ s work experience includes working for Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant analyst as well as being chief operating officer of College Summit, a nonprofit. With Muhammad Yunus (the founder of Grameen Bank) as his business idol you can be sure Bo is not only after profits.

He founded his own company The Menkiti Group in 2004, in Washington, D.C. The organization is a real estate services company dedicated to enhancing the fabric of life in America’s urban neighborhoods through strategic development, management and sale of residential and commercial property. The Menkiti Group is comprised of: Menkiti Group Sales- a specialized real estate sales and marketing team; Menkiti Group Development- a residential and commercial development team; and Keller Williams Capital Properties-a residential real estate brokerage.

Trying to do social good while earning a profit is quite a balancing act, Bo has so far done very well as his enterprise is one of the fastest growing inner-city companies in the U.S. His goal is to make Keller Williams Capital Properties to become the No. 1 residential real estate brokerage in D.C. in the next five years. The Group as a whole has been able to assist over 500 families buy their first home.

Shelter is one of man’s most basic needs; Bo and his team are working hard to help people attain this need while remaining a profitable organization.

Ben Mendez: Business and Civic Leader

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:35 -0400

Ben Mendez is the President & CIP Manager of PMG Project Management Group, LLC. He is also one of two owners of the firm. Before he started PMG Ben was the Program Manager for the Houston Police Department’s Design and Construction Division. In this capacity he managed some of Houston’s highest profile projects. Ben has more than 17 years experience in the energy, architectural, engineering and construction industries. His areas of expertise are in managing, budgeting, and program/policy development.

In 1989 Ben earned his Associates Degree from Houston Community College. He went on to obtain his Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Houston.

PMG was founded in 2004 in Houston, Texas. Ben and his partner aimed to create a company that could offer Houston and its surrounding communities superior program/project management solutions at a competitive price. Since its founding the company has been involved in many well-known projects like the renovation of the Houston Police Crime Lab, Houston Police Evidence Room, expansion of Hobby Airport, expansion of METRO Light Rail, and the recovery efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Ike. PMG was given METRO’S “Business of the Year” Award in 2009.

Among the company’s client include the U.S. Federal Government, State of Texas, City of Houston, Houston Airport System, Houston Police Department, Houston Parks Department, Harris County, Harris Housing Authority, New Orleans Housing Authority, Fort Bend Independent School District, and Stafford Independent School District.

Ben is also very active on the civic front. He serves on various boards, including the American Red Cross. Ben founded the National Hispanic Professional Organization (NHPO), a national networking organization. He also founded the Leadership Institute, a program designed to assist individuals in their quest to become effective board members of non-profit organizations. Ben is a television host for Latino Talk TV; a weekly community based live television show. He has twice been elected as Chairman for the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce (TAMACC).

Now Ben has gone further to be able to serve his community by throwing his hat in the political arena. He is running for City Council in District 1 in Houston, Texas. This is one individual with a huge amount of energy who wants to achieve great things.

Husband And Wife Team

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:00:34 -0400

While many businesses were built by individuals some have successfully been established and run by a husband and wife team. One of these businesses is DMC Consultants, Inc. The driving force behind this company is the couple Darshita and Mike Chaudhary. Ms. Darshita Chaudhary is the CEO with husband Mike also playing a prominent role in the firm.

DMC Consultants, Inc. was incorporated on November 10, 2005. The business initially started out of their home. Through the hard work the couple and their employees company achieved a sustained high growth rate and were able to acquire its own building in 2007 and put up its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan.

DMC is proud of the fact that even during the economic crisis it was able to maintain a 100 percent annual growth rate in sales, employment and net worth. The company has four operational divisions. In its Consulting Division it offers services in information technology, management and engineering. Its Construction Division focuses on new construction, rehabilitation, and remodeling services for commercial, industrial, and residential projects.

The Environmental Division offers removal and disposal of hazardous material such as lead, asbestos, mold, mercury and others. While its Demolition Division provides selective and complete demolitions, deconstruction, excavation and earthwork.

Most of the company’s clients are municipalities and local government agencies but also has clients in the private sector. Darshita and Mike Chaudhary have proven that they can be successful partners in business and in life.

Creating Her Own Revolution

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:57:06 -0400

Kristin Groos Richmond took the more “traditional” path early in her career. She graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor of Science degree. Kristin then went to work for a company that is very representative of corporate America-Citigroup. She worked there as an investment banker.

After four years of corporate life Kristin went off in a completely different direction. She threw herself into social work. Kristin went off to Nairobi, Kenya and co-founded the Kenya Community Center for Learning. This is one of the first special education schools in East Africa.

Back in the U.S. Kristin became a vice president at RISE. This is a nonprofit organization focused on recruiting and retaining quality teachers in public schools. While completing her MBA at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley she and her eventual business partner Kirsten Tobey wrote the business plan for Revolution Food. The aim is to provide healthy, fresh, high quality food and nutrition education to public school students. They ran a pilot program in Oakland, California, were able to secure funding and established a partnership with Whole Foods.

Kristin co-founded and is the CEO of Revolution Foods, Inc. which was formed in 2005. It combines her business as well as social work orientations. Through this company she and her partner aim to transform the way we feed our students and children in the country.

After over seven years Revolution Foods serves around 200,000 healthy meals daily to children in 9 states and has 1,000 employees. The company recently reached a milestone when it was able to serve its 50 millionth healthy school meal.

Outside of the company Kristin sits on the White House Council for Community Solutions and is an Aspen Institute Entrepreneurial Leaders in Public Education Fellow. She is also a board member of Lighthouse Community Charter School and the UC Berkeley Global Social Venture Competition. Among her prestigious recognitions include being named one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader for 2012.