BRAND LAUNCHER - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Certified Life Coach from the Esteemed Adler Institute
Andi is a Certified Life Coach from the esteemed Adler Institute, a member of the ICF (The International Coach Federation) and a Global Lumina Practitioner. With an Honors Degree in Organizational Psychology from Bar Ilan University and MA studies in Organizational Communication, Research and Practice from the University of South Africa - Andi brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her coaching clients.
Barry Neagle is a Brand Launcher mentor who specializes in helping small to mid-size business owners who want to take their business in a new direction to meet the changing needs of their markets or personal lifestyle. He focuses on helping them drive growth in revenue and profits, increase their focus on customers and employees, and improve time management and work-life balance.
Barry had an extensive career working with IBM, starting off in sales and marketing, later being appointed a General Manager. He ran several start-ups operations within IBM, growing an e-Commerce business from nothing to $100M in 3 years. He also established a new IT consulting practice for Ernst & Young in Rhode Island, and grew it to a profitable new business area within a year.
As a sales person for IBM he spent several years working closely with business owners on mapping out technology strategies. This provided an excellent background for understanding the challenges faced by companies during periods of substantial growth. His consulting work has been with a variety of businesses and industries including the technology, marketing, design, communications, and education industries.
When the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce began to offer an annual Entrepreneur's Weekend for aspiring new businesses, Barry was part of the first three events, offering business plan coaching throughout each 3-day event. The most recent team he worked with won first prize during the weekend for their plan to offer new environmentally friendly wood stove fuels.
He is active in his community and has served on the board of directors of the Cape and Islands United Way, The Cotuit Civic Association, and the Historical Society of Santuit and Cotuit. Barry is currently serving on the Board of Children's Cove on Cape Cod. He received a BA from Brown University in Economics and an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School. He lives with his wife, Mary Lou, in a 125 year old captain's house in Cotuit, where he installed photovoltaic solar panels. Barry is an enthusiastic golfer and grandfather.
Benita Levin is an accredited Life Coach that has more than 22 years of experience in the television and radio world, both as a life coach and also in broadcasting & editing. As an accredited Martha Beck life coach, she has applied her well-honed people and life skills across the globe. Benita has managed dynamic teams in deadline-driven industries and specializes in enabling clients to find the balance between their work and personal lives.
Benita contributed regularly on live televised ‘relationship panels' and she has given inspiring motivational talks and workshops. She has vast experience in dealing with conflict management in the workplace. Working at times with large numbers of employees, as well as conducting one-on-one sessions with members of a corporate team, Benita is an expert in handling delicate situations in the ever-changing corporate world.
Benita and her husband have two children - a son and a daughter, and she enjoys spending her time with family and friends, writing, reading, voice-over work, facilitating at events, traveling, eating out and drinking copious amounts of coffee.
Job Titles:
- Business Consultant
- Master Mentor
Daniela Levi is a highly accomplished business consultant, mentor and executive coach. She has successfully led many business transformations in the United States, South Africa, and India. Her keen business acumen, deep insight, and down-to-earth style have resulted in outstanding results for businesses large and small.
Prior to joining Brand Launcher, Daniela spent nine years as a highly successful change management executive at Deloitte Consulting. She has successfully led transformation efforts for 13 companies, on 3 continents, across 6 different industries.
As a Brand Launcher Mentor, Daniela helps business owners with leadership, communications, and personal and work/life issues. Her expertise is focused on the people dimensions of change, and she provides stability and support in the precarious, high-pressure business environment in which entrepreneurs operate.
Daniela received her Bachelors in Business Administratin (BBA) from the University of Texas at Austin, her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Cornell University, and is a certified coach through Results Coaching International (ICF accredited). Daniela grew up in the United States and, after a number of years living in South Africa, now resides in California.
Dave Strack knows what it takes to help business owners achieve their business and financial dreams. He spent over 27 years as a senior executive with a Fortune 100 company, working on strategic planning, sales, human resources, acquisitions, training, and operations management. He has extensive experience in working with business executives to successfully identify and analyze business problems, define solutions, and implement those solutions.
As a Brand Launcher Master Mentor, Dave works across a broad spectrum of industries and business sizes to help each company re-energize their vision, move their business to the next level, or create a retirement/transition exit plan. Throughout his career, Dave has demonstrated the ability to quickly achieve positive results in both top-line revenues and bottom-line profits. He helped build three private businesses in manufacturing, retail, and professional services; created and grew two new companies from $0 to over $100,000,000 in less than five years; and helped a small family firm cut unprofitable business lines and expand their client base.
Dave is a graduate of Michigan State University with additional studies in business, law, and computer programming from University of Michigan and MIT. Dave lives in Madison County, New York with his family.
Ed Dolan is a veteran Master Mentor with a long track record of steering businesses to success. After many years as a successful CEO and business leader himself, Ed refocused his efforts in 2001 to mentoring entrepreneurs and helping them to achieve profitable business growth and personal enrichment.
In the course of his career, Ed has achieved many notable successes, including turning around an e-commerce start-up in less than 18 months (revenues up by 52%, SG&A down by 24%); leading the sales effort to grow a network implementation business from $50,000,000 to $100,000,000 in less than 5 years; and creating a new business strategy for a $16,000,000 service business that increased revenues by 35% in 2 years.
In his role as a Brand Launcher Master Mentor, Ed coaches, guides, and leads small business owners toward better metrics, more effective leadership, and a healthy work/life balance. His other involvements include frequent presentations for entrepreneurial audiences, becoming a fellow and Director of Development for the Institute for Independent Business (IIB), and authoring the "Meet Murray" series of business books.
Ed holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in math from Rutgers University, and completed additional studies at Rutgers in math and operations research. Ed lives in New Jersey, were he enjoys deep sea fishing and skiing with his wife of 35 years and their son and daughter.
As a Brand Launcher Marketing Mentor, Ivana Taylor guides small to medium sized businesses to the next level. With over 20 years of marketing experience, Ivana has a proven track record of helping companies attract and retain loyal, profitable customers to become the "obvious choice."
Earlier in her career, Ivana served as a Medical Marketing Manager of Vernay Laboratories, where she developed a marketing segmentation strategy which saved the company $1.7 million. Ivana quickly became a recognized expert and ranked #21 out of over 30,000 internet professionals in Fast Company.
She is the publisher of DIYMarketers.com an online publication that provides CEOs with low-cost marketing strategies, ideas, and resources. Ivana is a weekly writer in the AMEX Open Forum where her articles consistently rank amongst the top 10. She is also the co-author of the popular book, "Excel for Marketing Managers" along with Mr. Excel, Bill Jelen.
Ivana received her BS in Marketing from Penn State and her MA in Managment from Antioch University. She holds a certificate in the German language from the University of Munich and is fluent in Serbian. Ivana resides in Cleveland with her husband.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- CEO / Brand Launcher's CEO, Jon Goldman Is a Marketing Pioneer, a Master Facilitator, and the Business Guru 's Guru
He was co-owner of a promotional company that ranked #26 out of 24,000 nationally. Since he sold out, he has devoted his time to creating a company focused on supporting entrepreneurs in their businesses and their lives. This vision for Brand Launcher comes to fruition in business and marketing coaching, intense on-site Launches, and creative marketing campaigns. For business owners with deep subject matter expertise, Jon also facilitates ‘Guruships' -- high-powered personal brandings that transform clients into nationally recognized experts in their niches.
A successful entrepreneur, rainmaker, personal development coach, and speaker, Jon's powerful presentations have attendees jumping in the aisles - sometimes literally! -- and he has earned top ratings for his keynotes and workshops. Jon's fresh approach, combining marketing savvy with deep personal insight, resonates with audiences at conferences, conventions, and expos.
Raised in the advertising business, Jon is the creator of Lumpy Mail® and is personally responsible for millions of pieces of mail with successes for clients large and small. His strategies and tactics have generated dramatic results -- such as a 27% response rate for Häagen-Dazs, nearly 50% for the Atlanta Hawks, and the biggest recruitment response in their history for the Direct Marketing Association in Washington (DMAW). He has done work for IBM, Purina, and Nickelodeon, as well as countless small- and mid-size businesses, and his work has been featured on NBC and CBS and in The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek.
Jon is the author of The 90 Day Launch System, The Secret of the Watermelon, Guruships, and The Million Dollar Lumpy Mail System, which has been translated into Japanese. His popular weekly e-letter brings a wealth of business growth and marketing tips to thousands of subscribers.
Jon uses his gift of insight to draw out and inspire his clients to reach their greatest potential. His deep understanding of the human psyche comes from a rich and eclectic life experience that includes traveling around the world studying Eastern and Western Religions, teaching marketing workshops in Spain (in Spanish) and trading marketing services around the globe.
Ken Goldman, the senior of the Goldman brothers, serves internally as the general manager of Brand Launcher. In his 30+ years in business, Ken's career includes 20 years as a leader of Goldman Promotions, a national promotional products distributor with annual revenues of $36MM. Though Ken's official title of general manager is based on his wide ranging industry experience, he puts a number of his skill sets to work at Brand Launcher.
After the sale of the company in 2008, Ken worked as the general manager of an Energy Consulting company and in 2011, arranged for the merger of that company into a larger engineering firm. Ken has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, having bought more than 10 companies and selling 3.
A veteran of strategic planning, Ken has taken an active role in our own planning process. Ken's approach ties forecasting and budgeting into the planning process to improve value and guide mid-course corrections.
Ken holds a BA in Mathematics from Southern Illinois University and an MS in Computer Science from Washington University. He and his wife have four grown sons and live in St. Louis, Missouri. Ken travels frequently to Baltimore to work out of the Brand Launcher corporate office. He has a long history as a tireless worker and loves helping entrepreneurs manage and grow their businesses. When he's not working, Ken enjoys yoga, biking, and squash.
Lainie Neiman has 30+ years of experience growing people and organizations. She is a trained psychotherapist with a special expertise in team building, leadership development, and conflict resolution for family businesses.
In her role as a Brand Launcher Mentor, Lainie helps our clients become more effective and more harmonious. In many small-to-midsized businesses, productivity and profitability are damaged by strained relationships, tension between managers, and employee discord. In this environment, Lainie's facilitation and coaching skills can make an enormous difference.
Her previous experience includes executive coaching and organizational restructuring for a large health care provider; supervisor training for the premier employee assistance program in the country; serving as a career consultant for an outplacement firm; developing and presenting seminars; and conducting adult, couple, family, and group psychotherapy. She is particularly adept at people strategies, team building, and executive coaching.
Lainie's educational background includes an M.A. in counseling, a B.A. in psychology from Washington University, and a Missouri Life Teaching certificate. She also has a three year post-graduate certificate in Gestalt Therapy.
Lainie Neiman lives in St. Louis, Missouri. She has three grown children and one amazing granddaughter.
As a Brand Launcher Mentor, Nancy provides consultation in directing the marketing, branding, communications/writing and public relations challenges for companies seeking to build, manage and/or recapture their industry leadership positions. She has held executive positions for Fortune 500 companies and was most recently chief marketing officer for a premier, international franchise organization of promotional products, business documents and printing solutions. Under Nancy's guidance, they were recognized as the number one distributor in the industry.
Richard Goldberg has a long history of business consulting, making him a highly experience and successful Brand Launcher Business Mentor. Richard spent over 30 years as the President of The Goldberg Group, Ltd, helping small and mid-sized companies and non-profits with strategic planning, sales development, management coaching, and improving their overall business health.
Richard has had experience in a wide variety of industries including banking, government, healthcare, and non-profit management. He has held positions of Executive Director/CEO for a nationally affiliated health organization, Corporate Vice President-Human Resources for a $1.5 billion bank holding company, and Director of Marketing in two medical specialty companies. However, since 1982, Richard has pursued his passion of helping companies achieve their vision of success.
He recently retired from his position as the Executive Director of the Mankind Project USA, a non-profit dedicated to building men into powerful leaders and role models. As the Co-Owner of Education Options Ltd., Richards has created comprehensive school improvement plans in 18 troubled Missouri School Districts.
Richard is a graduate from The University of Wisconsin, Lindenwood University, and Washington University, and holds Masters Degrees in the Social Sciences and Business Administration. He currently teaches graduate classes in leadership and organizational behavior and resides in St. Louis, Missouri.
In 1972, Ron Lapid co-founded Burger Ranch, a quick-service restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel. He personally ran the first branch for six years and then, through franchising, partnerships and company-owned stores, developed the restaurant into an 80-unit chain, becoming Israel's leading restaurant company. He served as CEO and Chairman until the sale of the company in 1997 to Paz, Israel's largest fuel conglomerate.
Since then, Ron has been using his vast experience with business management and conflict resolution to assist other business owners in navigating to greater business performance. In addition to becoming a CMT Coach and training over 100 mentors in 15 countries, Ron has consulted with businesses in Israel, Turkey, and England. As a Brand Launcher Mentor, he brings his special experience to the needs and challenges of entrepreneurs and small-to-midsized business owners.
Ron holds a B. A. in Psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Originally from South Africa, he moved to Israel in 1966, where he earned his stripes as a shepherd, youth leader, and caterer. He lives in Ra'anana, Israel, where he and his wife have four married children and eleven grandchildren.
Job Titles:
- Growth and Change Agent
- Marketing Master Mentor
Tom Barrett is an accomplished growth and change agent with 30+ years of experience, especially in the landscape industry. He has held executive positions with Rain Bird, Kenney, Ewing, Netafim, and MacAllister Machinery, and he has been invited to collaborate on such noteworthy projects as Walt Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Aquascape in St. Charles, IL, and the Gates Residence in Seattle.
A nationally recognized authority on sustainable solutions, Tom gives over 30 presentations each year across the country and has authored numerous articles for national publications. He is also affiliated with the USGBC, the EPA's WaterSense program, and the Alliance for Water Efficiency.
As a Brand Launcher Master Mentor, Tom helps small business owners enhance their marketing and their businesses. His practical, down-to-earth approach and "roll up your sleeves and get it done" methodology make him consistently successful in helping clients to define, design, and execute.
Tom started his career as a golf course superintendent in California, achieved notable successes in sales, and proceeded to sales management and marketing management. He has held executive-level positions in B2B, distribution, and manufacturing. His most unusual accomplishment was starting a women's ice hockey team in Tucson, AZ at the age of 23.
Tom graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy and Plant Genetics. He has had professional training in public speaking, negotiations, sales, and Total Quality Management, and is a Certified Irrigation Contractor, Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor and a Certified Landscape Water Manager. Originally from New Jersey, Tom has lived in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Boston. For the last 25 years he has resided in Indianapolis, Indiana.