Award-Winning Entrepreneurs, Innovators and Community Leaders Join Leadership Team
Nonprofit venture development organization JumpStart Inc. welcomes six new members to its Board of Directors. The appointees, of which four are entrepreneurs, bring experience across a variety of industries within the fields of marketing, management, sales and consulting. These new members also distinguish themselves by their shared belief that entrepreneurship can promote and facilitate regional economic growth.
The new members, who each serve a three-year term, are as follows:
Philip Alexander
President, BrandMuscle, Inc.
Mr. Alexander, who has spent two decades guiding and developing marketing strategies for national and international retailers, is the founder of BrandMuscle, which was recently acquired by leading private equity investment firm The Riverside Company. He was a 2002 Smart Business News "Visionary in Innovation" winner for developing BrandMuscle’s breakthrough solution for the marketing and advertising industry.
Robert Hurwitz
Partner, The Coral Company
In his 46-year career, Mr. Hurwitz has founded or co-founded several companies which rose to national prominence, including Professional Housewares Distributors, Inc., Office Max, Inc. and Homeplace, Inc. He is currently a partner in the Coral Company, a full service real estate development, construction and management firm. Since 2001, Hurwitz served as a mentor, helping entrepreneurs develop their businesses.
Lauren Rich Fine, CFA
Executive Search Consultant, Howard & O’Brien Associates
Ms. Fine, who holds an MBA from the Stern School of Management, is a former Managing Director in Equity Research at Merrill Lynch, where she covered the publishing, information, for-profit education, advertising and online industries. In addition, she was a ranked member of the Institutional Investor All-American Research Team for 14 years, including 11 years at the number one position.
Gary S. Shamis, CPA, M.Acc.
Managing Director, SS&G
Mr. Shamis is responsible for the day-to-day management of the accounting and business consulting firm SS&G and its entities. The entrepreneur is also the chairman emeritus of the Leading Edge Alliance, the third-largest international association of accounting firms, and a founder/partner of the Advisory Board, a think-tank geared toward leaders of CPA firms. In 2008, Mr. Shamis, along with his SS&G partner, Mark Goldfarb, received the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Dr. Rachel Talton, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer, Synergy Marketing Strategy & Research, Inc.
Dr. Talton, a professor of marketing at Case Western Reserve University, is the CEO of Synergy, an award-winning consultancy that helps Fortune 1000 companies drive customer loyalty. She is also an accomplished entrepreneur who designed the Synergy Trust Index™, which analyzes and quantifies trust in U.S. corporations and provides TrustTrends™, a ranking of the most-trusted brands in the U.S. In 2011, Dr. Talton designed the Synergy Brand Experience Quotient™, a model which evaluates up to 125 elements of the brand experience.
Todd R. Teter
Vice President & General Manager - Wholesale, Moen Inc.
A graduate of the Williams PLC Senior Management Programme at Templeton College in Oxford, England, Mr. Teter has held multiple positions at Moen Inc., the leading North American maker of fashion plumbing and accessories. He began his career at Procter & Gamble, and has also been the Senior Vice President of North American Sales & Marketing for Charlotte, NC’s Paperpak Products Inc. and the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at the Lakeland company, Florida Tile Industries.
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JUMPSTART INC
JumpStart Inc. accelerates the successes of diverse entrepreneurs, their companies, and the ecosystems supporting them. JumpStart has given intensive business assistance to more than 400 entrepreneurial clients and invested in 63 early stage Northeast Ohio tech-based companies. For more information, visit www.jumpstartinc.org and follow @JumpStartInc on Twitter.