VELD MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Certified Public Accountant

Mr. Robert Rodriguez is a Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.), as well as a licensed California Real Estate Broker with 14 years of experience selling, acquiring, merging and consulting businesses. Mr. Rodriguez received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from the University of San Diego (U.S.D.), where he was a key contributor to his fraternal organization's community outreach program. Mr. Rodriguez's career began as a mortgage loan officer at Wells Fargo Bank, where he implemented and managed their Spanish Loan Hotline, one of the first of its kind. Mr. Rodriguez left Wells Fargo to join Howard Publications, where he began his accounting career. At Howard Publications, Mr. Rodriguez was regularly promoted until he became the firm's Assistant Controller. In this role Robert managed the financial reporting for 18 newspapers, 4 domestic natural gas trading divisions, and the Eastern European natural gas exploration division. During this time he also coordinated the acquisition of a $25 million publishing subsidiary in Washington, led the forensic investigation of a $1.2 billion natural gas trading operation (and, prior to the Enron scandal, discovered similarly fraudulent accounting practices), and consulted on various natural gas trading, transportation and exploration engagements in the U.S., Canada, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. Upon Howard Publications sale (for $400 ml.), Mr. Rodriguez joined National Retail Partners where he managed a $400 million commercial property portfolio for California Public Employment Retirement System - the largest public pension fund in the U.S. (CalPERS). In 1997 Robert launched Integrity Valuations and Business Consulting ("Integrity") in San Diego, California. Integrity Valuations and Consulting specialized in providing small and mid-size businesses with accounting, tax, valuation and consulting studies related to growth strategies, tax planning, and the implementation of cost management and efficiency programs. Within months of implementation, Integrity managed the investment and financial divisions for some of San Diego's most successful restaurants and nightclubs including the Side Bar, Stingaree and Confidential Restaurant and Loft. Mr. Rodriguez was also responsible for the creation and management of a variety of syndicated investment groups, all of which raised capital for the acquisition of commercial and private investments. The accounting systems that Mr. Rodriguez created and implemented are still used by the Gaslamp's top restaurants and nightclubs. In 2002, Robert Rodriguez merged Integrity Valuation with The Veld Group's Valuation and Consulting division, which provided business appraisals for divorce, income tax, estate and buy and sell agreements, and helped business owners prepare for the sale of their companies.

Job Titles:

• Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor
• Entrepreneur

Ryan Clark is an entrepreneur, former world-class athlete, and likely California's most prolific business broker and Mergers & Acquisitions Intermediary. Mr. Clark attended The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Finance as well as being elected president of his Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternal organization. Always extremely driven and focused, Ryan honed his sales skills while still in high school, and went on to perfect them while in college when he launched of his own firm - R.C. Enterprises, a national direct sales company. After achieving substantial success and building a vast personal and business network, Ryan merged his finance and sales background and joined Citigroup as a Senior Financial Planner for high-net worth individuals. At Citigroup, where he was Series 6 and 63 FINRA licensed, Ryan worked in corporate retirement planning, investment management, insurance and estate planning. In the late 1990's Ryan relocated from Las Vegas to Southern California to establish the U.S. sales force for a multi-national sales organization. In this role Ryan implemented a business plan he authored and he hired, trained and rolled out his sales strategy to the company's five locations. In 2003 he joined his childhood friends to launch The Veld Group. Within 3 years of heading The Veld Group's Business Valuation and Business Brokerage divisions, Ryan established himself as one of the nation's leading business brokers, and later Mergers and Acquisitions Intermediaries, by regularly selling 40 - 50 companies per annum. Combining his unmatched deal-making talent with a tireless work ethic, Ryan has managed to surpass the ‘done-deal' transaction benchmarks set by entire brokerage offices. Since its founding and largely due to Ryan's contributions The Veld Group and Veld Mergers & Acquisitions has completing over 350 formal and 5,000+ informal business valuations and orchestrated over 1,000 sell-side transactions with an 80%+ success rate versus the 30% industry standard. Ryan is a Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA) with the Alliance of Mergers & Acquisitions Advisors and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) with the Exit Planning Institute. Ryan is highly active in ProVisors, a community for professional trusted-advisors, where he is on the Executive Committee.