2023 Summit
Navigating Detours on the Road to Success
Location
The Club at Sonterra
Date
Thursday, September 21st, 2023
Speakers
Chad McNair
Chad McNair grew up in the Midwest and graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Civil Engineering. His first job out of college was in Houston, TX working for Turner, Collie and Braden, a civil engineering consulting group. In the mid-eighties while working on his MBA at the University of Houston, Chad started to dabble in coffee extraction. After finishing his MBA, Chad took a position with a large Dutch conglomerate, the Royal Begemann Group, where he held a variety of roles from engineering design to plant management to assisting the CEO with facilities acquisition and sales.
What is now Aspen all started in Chad and Shelly’s family kitchen. Chad sought a perfect coffee extract that could be mixed with milk and used in a “granita” (ice slush) machine or poured over ice. He shared the resulting mix with his favorite café and the customers called it “fabulous.”
Chad explored aspects of coffee extraction knowing that every step in a process contributes or detracts from the final product. He developed proprietary processes and built an industry leader. By applying sophisticated technology to excellent base ingredients, Aspen produced a cleaner, superior beverage. The company consistently earned certification for exceptional food quality and safety and earned the business of some of the top names in retail.
Mona Tawil Helmy
Mona Helmy serves as the CEO of Helmy Plastic Manufacturing. She cofounded the company alongside her late husband, Abe, in 1988. Mona served as Vice President until Abe’s untimely passing in 2009 when she became CEO. Helmy specializes in plastic thermo forming with an in-house industrial design and CNC tooling divisions. Helmy serves many industries including medical, food, cosmetic, and industrial and lists Fortune 500 companies as well as small innovative companies among its clients. Mona’s success is a culmination of love, persistence, and vision and defines her as a role model for leaders today.
Mona was born in Syria and immigrated to the United States with her family in her adolescence. She attended The University of Texas San Antonio and graduated in 1987 with a BFA in Architecture. Mona has received several awards including:
- Family Business Leader Award - SABJ San Antonio Business Journal, 2014
- Business Owner of The Year Award - National Association of Women Business Owners, 2018
- Manufacturer of The Year Award - San Antonio North Chamber of Commerce, 2018
- Small Business Leader Award - San Antonio North Chamber of Commerce, 2018
- Induction to The SA Hall of Fame - San Antonio Women Hall of Fame, 2020
- Manufacturer of The Year Award – SAMA San Antonio Manufacturer’s Association, 2020
Tom Cuthbert
Tom Cuthbert serves as a Vistage Master Chair and CEO Coach in San Antonio. He has had an extensive 35-year career of building, buying and selling businesses across multiple industries. The most recent company, Adometry, wads acquired by Google.
Today Tom chairs six Vistage groups made up of 100m CEO’s and business leaders from diverse industries in San Antonio. He’s been recognized multiple times with the Vistage Chair Excellence Award, STAR Award and consistently ranks in the top 10 nationally.
Since 2014, over 40 Vistage member companies had had exits, liquidity events or significant investment totaling over $3 Billion dollars.
Tom is also Chairman of Sales City Group, the parent company for Sandler San Antonio.
Brian Daley
Brian Daley has over 16 years of professional financial markets/services experience. He began his career in finance as a Senior Equities Trader for KTG, a private quantitative trading ad technology firm. During his time with KTG he designed, managed, and executed algorithmic trading strategies, actively traded NYSE/Nasdaq securities exchanges, and worked with software engineers to develop the firms proprietary trading platform.
Prior to joining Founders Advisors, he served as Managing Director for a national middle market M&A Advisory firm. During his 10-year tenure he advised hundreds of business owners across 15 vertical markets on M&A, growth, and exit strategy. He earned his Series 7, 63, & 55 licenses in 2005.
Will Duke
Will Duke was the CEO of 3Sixty Integrated, a security systems integrator specializing in the design, installation, and support of enterprise electronic physical security systems. Their headquarters are in San Antonio, Texas. He was also the co-founder of SiteOwl, a cloud-based software revolutionizing how security integrators and systems owners build and maintain effective security solutions.
Will joined 3Sixty Integrated in 2002 as Vice President. He steered the company into planning for constant technological innovation by establishing key partnerships with the industry’s leading manufacturers. This maneuver exponentially increased sales and drove the overall business development strategy for 3Sixty Integrated. In 2014, Will became the company CEO, and within five years, 3Sixty Integrated doubled in size serving enterprise clients like H-E-B, CHRISTUS Health and Ben E. Keith.
In December 2021 Will and Joseph sold 3Sixty for eight figures to a private equity group based in Greenwich, Connecticut. His mission is to help other entrepreneurs get to the other side of their sales and begin the next chapter of their life.
Will currently resides in Boerne, Texas with his wife Avery and their five year old daughter, Emilia.
Teryn Grater
Teryn Grater is a partner at ATKG, providing accounting, tax and business advisory services for families and closely held businesses. Teryn received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona and her MBA from the Manchester Business School.
Her professional career includes working with Ernst & Young in San Antonio and overseas in tax & corporate finance consulting; and with Silver Ventures managing financial and tax matters. Teryn joined ATKG in 2001.
Teryn enjoys traveling, hiking and other activities that don’t require a desk. Teryn has two daughters has recently become an empty nester.
Melanie Kirk
Melanie Kirk is a tax partner at ATKG, a San Antonio based public accounting firm providing accounting, tax and business advisory services for families and closely held businesses. After graduating from Trinity University with a Bachelor of Science in accounting, she spent the first six years of her professional career with E&Y before starting her own firm. Melanie served as ATKG’s Managing Partner until 2021.
A native of San Antonio, Melanie is the mother of twin boys and a daughter. She enjoys traveling and getting outdoors and has a goal to hike all of our national parks.
Bianca Rhodes
Bianca Rhodes graduated from UT-Austin with a BBA in Finance in 1981. Rhodes’ career started in banking which led to positions with two companies as their Chief Financial Officer: Intelogic Trace, (NYSE:IT) and Kinetic Concepts Inc. (NASDAQ: KNCI). After KCI’s successful private sale, Rhodes founded CrossRhodes Consulting, specializing in raising capital and structuring buyouts for dozens of companies.
Since 2017, Rhodes has served as the President and CEO of Knight Aerospace which specializes in roll-on, roll-off medical and VIP modules and various palletized systems sold to over thirty-four countries throughout the world.
Her career includes numerous voluntary positions and in 2021, Rhodes was inducted to the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame and named the San Antonio Business Journal Woman of the Year.
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