Leadership

Ian has spent the last 25 years transforming businesses in the US and in Europe. He has built and sold over 20 companies by applying Positioning with Relentless Execution to create sustainable and remarkable businesses. Smith’s mantra: Your business is either remarkable or invisible. Your choice. He founded The Portfolio Partnership to help owners assess that choice and do something about it.

Originally trained as an accountant in Glasgow, he has logged many miles as a finance director; a venture capitalist, an M&A advisor and successful CEO of two US based software groups.

The 2 key elements that link all of these experiences are Positioning and Relentless Execution. It quite simply starts with a story, a unique story followed by an operational blueprint to make it happen. From his first assignment in Thomson as an FD (now Thomson Reuters) in the 80s – repositioning a magazine division and selling it at a premium exit price to Reed International – to the more recent turnaround and repositioning of the award winning Teamstudio software group, Smith has been advising companies or running them to achieve premium exit proceeds throughout his career. He has completed over 40 acquisition, disposal or finance transactions, many cross border, many in the technology sector. A conservative estimate of shareholder value realized – $400m.

A popular public speaker both in Boston and London, Ian has published four books covering entrepreneurship, MBO’s and private company acquisitions. His latest; Fulfilling the Potential of Your Business. His blog, The Smith Report offering practical Execution tips is widely read by CEOs and venture capitalists. He remains competitive outside of business by competing at masters track events, and is continually ranked in the top 15 in the world for his age at 400m and 800m.

Howard Mann is the President of Brickyard Partners Inc., a Portland, OR based strategic consultancy that helps businesses and their owners ready themselves for sale.

Prior to founding Brickyard Partners in 2001, Mann was president of a premier international logistics company with over 140 million in revenue, six U.S. offices and a network of over 35 agents worldwide. As that business came under severe pressure from the previous economic downturn and industry consolidation, Howard led the company out from extremely difficult times by returning to the basics that can make every business great. In the process, he managed the acquisition of 5 niche companies and, ultimately, the successful sale of the revitalized firm.

Finding that “secret sauce” did not come easily. Now he is determined to help other business leaders to never have to go through what he endured. Through real-world experience in the “trenches” he has learned that it is not following the latest fad, copying competitors, or adding complexity that makes a business truly great. Instead, it is about the basics of business and understanding what the driving purpose of each business is. These lessons and knowing what it feels like to sit in the CEO/Owner chair is what makes his work so different and effective.

In addition to his business innovation and execution work, Mann coaches a select group of entrepreneurs, CEO’s and business owners. His highly focused workshops and keynotes help executive teams take aggressive action to unlock the true potential of their organizations and build businesses that endure. In good times and bad. Online and off.

He is also the author of the acclaimed book, Your Business Brickyard: Getting back to basics to make your business more fun to run. Renowned business guru Tom Peters called the book “a bible.”
Howard.Mann@portfoliopartnership.com

Michael is an international business executive with an extensive background in the development of venture backed start up, early stage and the divisions of Fortune 100 companies in the software, IT services and commercial industrial sectors. He has negotiated the acquisition and subsequent integration of companies in the US, Latin America and Europe, leading these businesses to significant growth in these varied economies. In the Americas Michael has also developed and executed strategies to realize gains for corporations selling divisions or companies both in the private and public sectors

Originally trained as an accountant in England, Michael spent the early part of his career with Shell in London. Subsequently he joined United Technologies in Europe, being subsequently transferred to the US where he rose through positions of increasing importance and was one of the architects of UTC’s Asset Management program which set in place business improvement processes and metrics that were effective in driving down working capital by over $1.3bn over a 3 year period.
In the early 1990′s Michael moved into the IT sector where in roles from CFO to COO to President at the domestic US and International level he has driven success in growth and turnaround in companies in the storage management, fiber optics, IT services, interactive media, retail banking, process control and educational software sectors.

Michael believes that leadership through good consensus management and defining the right metrics creates the basis for teams to be operationally effective resulting in superb customer relationship management and financial excellence for the stockholders.

Outside of work, he is passionate about music and theater, chairs a charitable foundation, is an avid skier, a gentlemanly golfer and became a slower runner. In his youth Michael coxed Britain in the World Youth Rowing Championships and ran cross country at the County level.

m.kerr@portfoliopartnership.com

Paul Cronin brings over 20 years of professional experience in sales, management, consulting and entrepreneurship to his clients. Since 2002, Paul has helped business owners open new markets and transform their companies, as part of PFC Resources, a management consulting practice. In recent years, Paul helped a leading plush manufacturer get a foothold in the electronic learning aid market at Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon, Costco, among others. Past projects have created new revenue streams for manufacturers and educational software vendors; lead generation for publishers, sales training, and sales analysis tools.

In addition, Paul is working with the CEO of the Successful Transition Planning Institute to transform it from a small consultancy into a major force in Transition Planning for Boomers.

Prior to forming his consulting practice, Paul grew Eden Toys, a small NY-based toy manufacturer, to a $90 million dollar company. Over a 17 year career, Paul grew from trainee into the leader of a diverse team of telemarketers, rep groups and senior sales representatives serving thousands of retailers in the US including major retailers such as Carlton Cards, Borders Books and Music, Macy’s, Talbot’s, Nordstrom and TJX Corp.
Over the last 10 years Paul has also invested in two diverse businesses:
In 2001, he built his first start-up, InfoStore Inc., which aggregated POS data and developed market information, but the business was unable to survive in the post-9/11 fund-raising drought.

From 2004 to 2008, Paul acted as an investor, advisor and regional franchisor at Parmasters Golf Training Centers selling his stake in 2008.
A popular speaker, Paul has presented at the MIT Enterprise Forum as well as Northeastern University on issues of entrepreneurship, running a successful business and business networking.

paul.cronin@portfoliopartnership.com