7 Questions with leaders of small and medium enterprises

Name: Jose-Luis Bretones

Current title: Managing Partner

Current organisation: LINAR Advisors

Jose-Luis was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. He graduated with a MS/BS degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ETSII). He joined AT&T Bell Labs in 1991 and began his career optimizing manufacturing processes. He stayed in the telecommunications industry, progressing through several European roles in the global supply chain and manufacturing operations arena. In 1998, he was appointed as the EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) Lead to a global supply chain re- engineering team, and relocated to Oklahoma City, OK where Lucent Technologies headquartered its Switching business unit. During this assignment, he earned his MBA degree.
Jose-Luis left Lucent-Bell Labs in 2002 to join McDonald’s APMEA (Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa) and moved to McD’s global headquarters in Chicago, IL. In his first role at McD, Jose-Luis spent most of his time traveling throughout the region for almost six years as the regional lead for Strategic Planning, Program and Project Management. During his tenure, the APMEA region delivered innovative initiatives like 24Hrs (Hong Kong), Delivery (Egypt) and McCafé (Australia). In 2008, he was internally recruited to revitalize the global sourcing strategy for beef and pork (~$4B in annual spend), and to lead the sustainability and animal welfare strategy (for all protein-based products) as Director Global Supply Chain Strategy. In late 2012, Jose-Luis left McDonald’s to join A.M.Castle, a $1B publicly-traded company operating in Industrial Metals, Aerospace and Oil & Gas as EVP Strategic Sourcing Supply Chain and executive Officer.. He was accountable to the Board of Directors and the CEO for redesigning the global supply chain as well as manufacturing and distribution operations.
After leaving A.M.Castle in 2015, Jose-Luis founded a boutique global consulting firm, LINAR Advisors, which he currently leads as Managing Partner.

Jose-Luis is often retained to serve at the Board level, including the following organizations:
- University of Loyola. Business Leadership Hub. Center for Risk Management. (2020-Present) Board of Advisors.
- Griffith Foods. (2019-Present) Independent Director. A family owned global developer and manufacturer of customized food ingredients.
- USEC (US-Spain Executives Community). (2018-Present) Board of directors and Treasurer.
- Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB). (2011-2012) Founding member and director, representing McD and partnering with WWF, Walmart, Cargill among other industry leaders, to drive impactful changes in the way cattle is raised around the world.
- Roycemore School. (2010-2019) Trustee, Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Chair for the Finance Committee. Jose-Luis has earned numerous professional accreditations from the Kellogg School of Management (USA), INSEAD School of Management (France), Goldratt Institute (Spain), and APICS; He has also been recognized, quoted and profiled as a thought leader and supply chain expert in several publications, including:
• Recognized as 2020 Director to Watch by Private Company Director magazine: https://www.privatecompanydirector.com/features/full-bore-fiduciary-boards-private-companies
• Strategic Supply Chain Management: The Five Core Disciplines for Top Performance, 2nd Edition (By Shoshanah Cohen, McGraw-Hill 2013)
• Leadership without Excuses: How to Create Performance and High Accountability (Instead of Just Talking about It) (By Jeff Grimshaw, McGraw-Hill, 2010)
• Vested Outsourcing: five rules that will transform outsourcing. (By Kate Vitasec, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) Jose-Luis currently lives in Evanston, IL with his wife Lisa and their two daughters.

Name: Jamie Prince

Current title: Founder

Current organisation: flourish

In the pit of the 2009 Great Recession, Jamie Prince took a leap of faith and started flourish, a consultancy for small- and family-owned businesses located in Greenville, South Carolina. Nearly twelve years later, flourish includes more than a dozen subject-matter experts in marketing, public relations, strategic communications, and corporate and non-profit fundraising event production, each averaging 19 years of experience.

Jamie's gift is seeing what others may miss, and identifying ways for businesses to grow, through a blend of best practices and unique, customized strategy. She and her team have served more than 125 brands and have been honored with more than 60 awards at the international, national, and local levels.

Name: Ionut Danifeld

Current title: CMO

Current organisation: Trapo Asia

I have professional experience of more than 12 years in digital marketing working at an international level. Currently, I'm the CMO of Trapo, a leading car accessories company in Asia, present in Malaysia-Indonesia-Singapore and Thailand.

Name: John Salzinger

Current title: Founder, Chief Business Development Officer

Current organisation: MPOWERD Inc.

Our Chief Business Development Officer and Founder John, a native New Yorker, and born entrepreneur, launched MPOWERD with the idea that innovative companies have a responsibility to lead – not only in the marketplace but as a real force for good. He launched and managed several global media, tech and finance companies before starting MPOWERD, where he’s been a guiding force behind pretty much every aspect of the company’s strategy. From business growth to sales, marketing, and product development - he holds multiple Luci patents. Outside the office, you’d most likely find him practicing his jump shot on the court or surfing waves!

Name: Tajinder Kaur

Current title: CEO & Founder

Current organisation: The Kaur Research

Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and ImmersiveTechnology Enthusiast with 12 years of Lead Generation, Sales, and Marketing experience. International Business Degree from London and Masters from India. Writing a book on Lead Generation. Growth Ambassador for an NGO, New Alumni Officer, India of Brunel University. Growing at a slow and steady pace.

Name: Aline Miller

Current title: Founding CEO & Professor

Current organisation: Manchester BIOGEL & University of Manchester

Aline is currently CEO and Founding Director of Manchester BIOGEL, which is a leading biomaterials company focussed on the design and manufacture of 3D synthetic peptide hydrogels that are redefining cell culture for life science. As CEO she leads on all aspects of the business, with particular focus on developing and implementing strategic plans and budgets to scale the business, identifying, building and mentoring a capable, competent and motivated team, accelerating sales growth and strengthening the R&D pipeline through in-house development and cultivating partnerships. Over the past 7 years Aline has raised over £2.5M in Venture Capital, Angel and Private Investment and won two Innovate UK grants. The company is revenue generating and doubled its annual turnover each year, for the past three years. Aline is also Professor of Biomolecular Engineering and has recently taken on the Associate Dean role for Business Engagement and Innovation for Science and Engineering at The University of Manchester. Aline’s current research interests lie at the life-science interface with emphasis on designing materials through self-assembly for biomedical applications. In this area she has published over 100 refereed papers, authored 5 patents and has won > £8M from research councils, EU, charities and industry to support her research group. She has won several awards including the 2014 Philip Leverhulme Prize for Engineering. She continues to be passionate about encouraging women and girls into science, engineering and leadership roles and regularly mentors’ others and gives outreach talks and demonstrations within the local community.

Name: Barbara Salopek

Current title: CEO

Current organisation: Vinco Innovation

Barbara was born and raised in Zagreb, Croatia, COE of Vinco, is a Master’s graduate from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) in Bergen. Barbara has vast experience behind her in innovation and commercialization. She has working experience from three foreign countries. She is speaking three foreign languages, and has studied in three different countries. The five biggest projects she has enjoyed leading had a total value of cc. 30 million NOK. Barbara is a successful doer who makes things really do happen. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion.

Name: Dante St James

Current title: Digital Lead

Current organisation: Clickstarter

Dante St James is a Lead Trainer for Facebook Australia and the Blueprint Certified Trainer program, along with being an accredited advisor and presenter for the Australian Small Business Advisory Services Digital Solutions program. He contracts to the New Business Assistance with NEIS program for the Australian Government, founded his own digital services agency, Clickstarter and is the editor of The Small Marketer online magazine for guiding small businesses on the use of digital marketing.

Name: Greg Clute

Current title: CSO

Current organisation: HealtheFirst

As a graduate of the University of St. Thomas in accounting, I have grown through my work at Wells Fargo, Merrill Corporation, and PwC. I also had the privilege of building my own retail sales company prior to those corporate experiences and have greatly benefited from all my diverse experiences. I learned that passion, energy, and intelligence are appreciated and respected at every level of business I have been in.

I’ve always felt the need to give back. I've done that as a coach/teacher/mentor for youth and my peers at school, church, and work. I've been recognized for my ability to interact and build lasting relationships with the people I serve. Knowing that financial reporting and accounting knowledge are essential to business success, I've always worked to learn and then outperformed expectations throughout my career. At PwC, I learned rapidly from other driven, intelligent, honest, and respectful people. My unique experiences that have been filled with energy, obstacles, surprises, and challenges help me to assess, address, communicate and plan using processes and intelligence that are typically only available to major companies.

I currently serve as the CFO/CSO at HealtheFirst as well as the Director of Business Development at AtEase Glasses. I have led and assisted our exceptionally well-networked team in growing both businesses from seed stage thru initial launch and into growth phase. I am thrilled to be part of these new, nimble, innovative, and energetic companies where I can help people both with our SaaS software(HealtheFirst) and our product(AtEase Glasses). Our companies represent the American Dream and I am thrilled to be part of it and to offer all my network the ability to get involved and benefit. Please email, text, or call me to talk about what we're up to, catch me up on where you're at, brainstorm and create a strategy around your career, or just to chat and see where energies might lead!

Name: Rob Napoli

Current title: Founder of Rise Up Coaching and Co-Founder and Board Member at Hapday Group

Current organisation: Rise Up Coaching and Hapday Group

An accomplished trainer, speaker, entrepreneur, business, and career coach based in Brooklyn, NYC. Originally from the Midwest, my journey has taken me from my hometown in Kansas City, Missouri to New York City by way of Milan, Italy. My career started in recruitment within Fortune 500/Forbes 100 companies before moving to Milan, Italy to pursue a Masters in International Multi-Channel Marketing, where I also spent two years working for a global e-commerce startup and coaching professional American Football. I moved to New York years ago and have to work for a large global corporation before transitioning over to training and development for startup and growth-stage founders.

Currently I run 2 businesses; Hapday Group, a US GTM company that helps startups enter and scale in the US Market through Sales as a Service. Rise Up Coaching is a training and development business that works with companies on creating and scaling entrepreneurship and innovation through scaling and hiring.

Name: Rashad Noah Ismayilov

Current title: Commercial Finance Engineer

Current organisation: Kinetic Consulting

Experienced finance and business professional with 11 years of experience at International Strategic Consulting and Consumer Goods firms diverse experience at leading companies in Turkey, Central Asia and Caucasus markets. Holds Executive MBA degree from Koç University & CEIBS.

Name: Sagar Chaudhuri

Current title: CEO

Current organisation: HiFives

CEO and Founder of HR Tech Saas Company - HiFives. 22+ years of overall corporate experience in tech, management and operations. Graduated from IIT Kharagpur and IIM Lucknow

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagarchaudhuri/