Past Speakers for January-February 2009

JAN 07	Open Mic
	Testimonies by luncheon attendees.

JAN 14	Dan Moss,
	Senior Vice President-Investments, UBS Financial Services, Inc.
	Dan was one of the first Certified Financial Planner practitioners in the United States. His professional focus is advising individuals and retirement plan trustees on investment and financial planning. He also serves as an instructor at Emory University on investments, money manager evaluations, and retirement plan distributions, where he has taught courses for over three decades and has received both the Award of Distinction and the Teacher of Excellence Award. Dan is a graduate of the University of North Carolina where he majored in economics and political science.

JAN 21	Brian Klaubert,
	Owner/Operator, Christian Brothers Automotive.
	Brian owns and operates two automotive repair shops in Gwinnett County, Christian Brothers Automotive Hamilton Mill in Dacula since 2002, and recently purchased Christian Brothers Automotive Suwanee. They have been awarded "Best Mechanic" by the readers of Gwinnett Magazine in 2004, 2007, and 2008. Christian Brothers is a relationship-oriented full service automotive repair business with a strong emphasis on solving problems, not just replacing parts. Prior to his automotive business, Brian worked for Kimberly-Clark as a process design engineer for 19 years. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and holds four U.S. patents.

JAN 28	Jack W. Williams,
	CEO of the IDEALS Foundation Inc.
	IDEALS Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1993 that works with selected high school student athletes in the metro Atlanta area in developing their leadership and personal skill sets. Jack is a graduate of Georgia Tech and spent seven years as a college football coach after graduation. After leaving the coaching profession, he was in sales for six years before beginning a 23-year career in management. During that time, he spent five years as VP and COO of a regional service company which was then sold to National Linen Service. In 1998 he formed his own company, Competitive Resources Group (CRG) which later merged with The SURVIS Group, a professional services and consulting firm. In 2008, Jack left the SURVIS Group to devote his full time efforts with IDEALS Foundation for the purpose of expanding the IDEALS Leadership School nationally.

FEB 04	Open Mic
	Testimonies by luncheon attendees.

FEB 11	Ralph W. Bowlin,
	Owner, Pelican Financial LLC.
	Pelican Financial provides mezzanine financing to professional real estate investors in the distressed housing market. In addition, Ralph provides consulting services to various small high technology companies in the area of corporate strategy and capital raising. In the 1980's, Ralph and his partners developed the Buypass Corporation which became the largest provider of electronic credit card transaction services in the U.S. In the 1990's, they sold Buypass Corporation to a major financial institution, and after the sale, Ralph was a lead investor in the development of approximately ten new high tech companies in the area of software development and transaction processing. Prior to Buypass Corporation, Ralph was a licensed CPA and worked for one of the national CPA firms as an auditor and later served in various financial management positions with Fortune 500 companies.

FEB 18	Stan Milner,
	President and CEO of Tech Rentals, LLC.
	Tech Rentals is a national audio visual rental and staging company headquartered in Norcross, Georgia. Stan was one of the founders of Tech Rentals in 1986 and became the majority stockholder in 1994. TR is a leading provider of audio visual rental and production services for hotels, convention centers, trade shows, production companies, and corporations across the country. Stan is a 1978 graduate of the University of Georgia.

FEB 25	Mark Koehler,
	Project Manager for Merit Construction Company
	Merit Construction is a medium size General Contractor specializing in office, industrial, telecommunications and retail construction focused on providing exceptional quality and service. Merit Construction has grown from approximately seven employees in 1991 to 75 employees today. Mark has worked for Merit for 15 years and was hired straight out of prison after serving seven years. Because of his own experience, Mark has been able to help many other ex-cons who have fought the same battles of not being given a chance to start over.