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Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Our Gwinnett Studio





Gwinnett Business Radio

Brandon Keever with Image Harbor Productions and Jauxniece Palmer with Gold’s Gym of Suwanee/Sugar Hill

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Brandon Keever/Image Harbor Productions

Image Harbor Productions is a multimedia company based in the Atlanta market providing clients with cinema quality, high definition video. Your Image Matters… to You, your Brand, your Company, your Staff and to your Clients. If you have a message to deliver, a vision to share, a lesson to teach, a product to launch, or an image to build, video is vital to your business. If you need high quality, effective video, you need “Image Harbor Productions… Because Your Image Matters!”

Jauxniece Palmer/Gold’s Gym of Suwanee/Sugar Hill

Family owned and operated, Gold’s Gym of Suwanee/Sugar Hill is fueled by their passion to help individuals find fun and efficient ways to get Heart Healthy each week through quality programming, a friendly and caring staff, and a clean motivating environment.

The facility is 30,000 square feet. They are locally owned and operated, with 2 group fitness rooms and over 73 classes for both men and women each week. Their average age member is in the 30-50 age range. They also offer tanning, childcare, dry sauna, have a Planet Smoothie inside, and have a partnership with Apex Healthcare next door.

Bob Bryant with BB&T Atlanta Open, Kris Wilkins with Kelly Services and Mike Stiles with Sketchworks

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Bob Bryant/BB&T Atlanta Open

The BB&T Atlanta Open is an ATP World Tour event held July 20-28 in a unique setting at Atlantic Station in the heart of the city. It is the first men’s event of the Emirates Airline US Open Series. Last year’s singles winner was Andy Rodick. Players scheduled to appear this July include John Isner, Mardy Fish, Ryan Harrision and the Bryan Bros.

Bob Bryant has been a part of the sports and entertainment community in Atlanta since the 1980’s including staging and promoting events at the Omni, Philips Arena, the Arena at Gwinnett Center, Atlanta Athletic Club and Atlantic Station. His background includes marketing and executive positions at Feld Entertainment, Universal Studios, Turner Broadcasting, Cartoon Network, CNN, the Atlanta Knights, the Georgia Force and the USTA. Bob is currently the director of sales and marketing for the USTA Southern section and tournament director of the BB&T Atlanta Open.

Kris Wilkins/Kelly Services

Kelly® offers businesses a comprehensive array of outsourcing and consulting services as well as world-class staffing on a temporary, temporary-to-hire, and direct-hire basis. Once on assignment, Kelly continues to make sure employees are meeting the needs of the customer through regular quality checks. Kelly not only helps businesses find employees, but also helps individuals start and advance their careers.  For those entering the workforce, returning to the workforce , or those looking to advance their careers, Kelly assists job seekers as they strive to obtain positions that match their skill sets, ambitions and work preferences. Serving clients around the globe, Kelly provides employment to more than 550,000 employees annually.

Mike Stiles/Sketchworks

Founded in 2001, Sketchworks is Atlanta’s premier live sketch comedy company featuring some of Atlanta’s top comedic working pros. As opposed to unscripted improv, Sketchworks deals in short, written sketches and films, and celebrates comedy writers as much as comic actors. Shows can best be described as similar to SNL or MadTV, though the packed houses at our theatre near Decatur consistently proclaim it much funnier. Sketchworks also conducts classes in both writing and acting, always developing and launching the next generation of Atlanta’s funniest artists and talent.

Mike Fung-A-Wing and Mitch Townley with Toshiba Business Solutions and Melissa Cammack with Farmers Insurance

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Mike Fung-A-Wing & Mitch Townley/Toshiba Business Solutions

As a wholly owned subsidiary of an $80B global technology powerhouse, Toshiba Business Solutions offers cutting edge solutions to reduce costs in the area of printing and managing documents securely and electronically.

Originally from Suriname, South America, Mike Fung-A-Wing has lived in metro Atlanta for the last 21 years, swimming competitively for 18 years including four years at the University of Georgia. Before becoming a U.S. citizen, Mike represented Suriname in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympic Games. He went to medical school for a few years before deciding to make a career change. He has worked for Toshiba in sales for five years and has won numerous awards including President’s Club. He is a Chairman’s Club Member with the Gwinnett Chamber and is actively involved in the business community.

Melissa Cammack/Farmers Insurance

Farmers is the 3rd largest Property and Casualty Company in the nation. They originated in California in 1928.  Farmers has a solid insurance presence west of the Mississippi, and it was not until recently that the company began to expand east of the Mississippi. Farmers is a solid insurance company that is backed by Zurich Financial which means it has assets available to cover claims. Farmers not only offers auto, home, commercial, and umbrella insurance, it also offers a wide array of financial services to its clients. Farmers agency owners value and are committed to the community in which they serve, and they seek to form life-long relationships with their clients.

Melissa Cammack has quite a diverse background in sales and education. She relies on her 13 years of education experience to help her to truly listen to her clients and assess their insurance needs. By listening to her clients, she enables them to make appropriate insurance decisions throughout the many transitions during her clients’ lives.

Melissa enjoys networking events through the Chamber of Commerce in Gwinnett County, Suwanee Business Alliance, and Women and Wine Meet-up groups. She was named as a 2013 Business Woman of the Year with the National Association of Professional Women. Outside of professional organizations and activities, Melissa enjoys reading, hiking, running, and kayaking.

John Ernst with Ernst & Partners, Mark Treager with Cornerstone Media Group and Dave Lezotte with the Gwinnett Braves

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John Ernst/Ernst & Partners

Ernst & Partners is a law firm that handles Personal Injury, Real Estate Closings, Bankruptcy, Criminal and Divorce.

John A. Ernst Jr. is a graduate of Emory University and University of Georgia, School of Law. Mr. Ernst graduated from Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts in History. After graduating from Emory, Mr. Ernst was the assistant to Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, in which capacity he had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of the state and from around the world. Mr. Ernst is also a veteran of many political campaigns around the state. He then continued his education and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. During his tenure in law school, Mr. Ernst was a member of the prosecutorial clinic where he served as a prosecutor in the Athens-Clarke County District Attorney’s office and was a summer clerk for the Honorable John J Ellington, Georgia Court of Appeals. After law school, Mr. Ernst served as the Attorney of the Majority Caucus in the Georgia House of Representatives for the 2004 Legislative Session. John opened his own law firm in 2005 where he handles Real Estate Transactions, Bankruptcy cases, and Personal Injury Clients. 

Mr. Ernst is licensed to practice before all Georgia Trial Courts and the Georgia Supreme Court and is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the American Bar Association, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Association for Justice. Mr. Ernst is a title agent for Stewart Title.

Mark Treager/Cornerstone Media Group

Cornerstone Media Group, Inc. is a marketing, media and web development company committed to disrupting their clients marketplace in order to make sure that their brand is IN Demand!

For over 20 years, Mark and his team at Cornerstone Media Group have been providing marketing, media and web development solutions nationwide. They have worked on a variety of projects ranging from the simple to complex, and feature a broad range of clients from small Mom and Pop shops to the US Army. 

Dave Lezotte/Gwinnett Braves

The Gwinnett Braves are the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The franchise celebrates its fifth season of Triple-A International League baseball at Coolray Field in 2013. As the top level of the Braves’ minor league system, the G-Braves have featured such current Atlanta stars as Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, Craig Kimbrel and Kris Medlen on the roster since 2009. Season tickets are available at gwinnettbraves.com/2013 and by calling (678) 277-0340. Follow the Gwinnett Braves at gwinnettbraves.com, facebook.com/GwinnettBraves1 and twitter.com/GwinnettBraves.

Dave Lezotte is in his second season as the Media Relations Manager for the Gwinnett Braves. Prior to joining the club, he spent six seasons as the Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations for the Clinton LumberKings, Class-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Dave’s baseball career began with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he worked six seasons in positions varying from the grounds crew to Television Broadcast Intern to Ticket Sales representative. He is originally from Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Nanette Freiman with LegalShield, Doug Ireland with Freeland Painting & Construction and Marie Fratoni with Reinvent Yourself Seminars

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Nanette Freiman/LegalShield

Nanette Freiman assists business owners and families across the U.S. with LegalShield Identity Theft and Legal Plan coverage. As a former business owner, Nanette understands the value of having affordable legal access on a daily basis for business and personal needs. For ten years she has built a client base in a wide range of industries across the U.S.  Nanette welcomes your phone call or e-mail so she can answer your questions. Contact Nanette at 770-393-8290 or nsfreiman@bellsouth.net.

LegalShield. Worry less. Live more.

Doug Ireland/Freeland Painting & Construction

Freeland Painting & Construction is a residential and commercial painting, roofing, siding and gutter company. They service the northern arc of the metro Atlanta area for residential business and the entire metro Atlanta region for commercial business.

Beginning his career on the residential side of the industry, Doug Ireland spent many years learning how to manage labor, materials, and money in residential rehab projects. Founding Freeland Property Group, Doug began by purchasing distressed properties and converting them into beautiful homes. Starting with demolition and moving on through plumbing, drywall, electrical, cabinets, and flooring he was able to transform the properties into quick sales in the residential market.

As a second step in his career, Doug began building new residential homes from the ground up, selling them with his wife Keri by his side as his real estate broker and partner. As time progressed, Doug eventually began managing major rehab work on large scale apartment renovations throughout the southeast from Mississippi to North Carolina and even Ohio.

All this experience finally culminated in the creation of Freeland Painting & Construction in early 2009. As the end of the decade drew near and with the collapse of the housing market, Doug realized there was a need for quality roofing and painting in the residential sector as many people began fixing up their homes and staying in them rather than moving and buying newer homes.

For more information, contact Doug at 770-265-0880.

Marie Fratoni, Reinvent Yourself Seminars

Reinvent Yourself Seminars is a Coaching and Training Company which supports people in creating happy, fulfilling careers. They provide speaking engagements, skill-building seminars, 1-on-1 Coaching, and vacation-courses in Italy where people develop success skills and business growth strategies to make the leap from “same old, same old” to a thriving and prosperous career or business.

Marie Fratoni, M.Ed. is a talented human potential expert and a top reinvention strategist. She is a dynamic Coach and Speaker, and brings a wealth of talent and experience to her programs, demonstrating a high level of commitment and expertise.

A popular speaker for associations, conventions, and conferences she infuses these programs with proven success strategies, infectious enthusiasm, and bold, powerful direction.

A community leader, Ms. Fratoni makes a difference! She was a Founder of the Women’s Success Network, a senior consultant with the Employers Association, The Atlanta Coaching Alliance, and currently leads The Women’s Professional Development Group. Her strong community involvement in charitable causes and organizations placed her into the Who’s Who of Women in Business, and the Who’s Who of International Business.

She has worked with individuals and corporations throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.

Marie is the Principal and Owner of Reinvent Yourself Seminars, and trains and coaches people to create happy careers and businesses that are successful, fulfilling, and profitable.

Marie’s promise for the world is: “All people celebrate their full human potential, generating worlds of abundance and joy!”

For more information, contact Marie at 770-480-6839 or mfratoni@bellsouth.net.

Harper LeBel with FIS Fidelity Information Services

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Harper LeBel/FIS Fidelity Information Services

FIS™ is the world’s largest global provider dedicated to banking and payments technologies. With a long history deeply rooted in the financial services sector, FIS serves more than 14,000 institutions in over 100 countries. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., FIS employs more than 32,000 people worldwide and holds leadership positions in payment processing and banking solutions, providing software, services and outsourcing of the technology that drives financial institutions.

FIS is ranked 425 on the Fortune 500 and is a member of Standard & Poor’s 500® Index. FIS has also been named the No. 1 overall financial technology provider in the annual FinTech 100 rankings. Despite these achievements, they never lose sight of the fact that it’s their clients that make them successful. That’s why FIS’ commitment to operational excellence and client satisfaction is at the forefront of their business strategies and top of mind with every decision they make.

Scott Dizon with CorFire

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Scott Dizon/CorFire

CorFire, a SK C&C company, is a 2½ year old start up mobile commerce company that is funded and owned by SK Holdings, a $104B Korean multinational corporation. CorFire offers mobile commerce solutions to financial institutions, mobile network operators (MNOs), payment processors, credit card issuers, merchant retailers, and other technology innovators that enable a robust suite of payment and value added services delivered to the mobile device.

Its three core technology offerings include CorTSM, a Trusted Services Manager platform, CorPay, a mobile wallet platform, and Cor360 a content, loyalty, and offers mobile marketing platform.

Scott Dizon is the director of sales at CorFire where he is responsible for direct sales to merchant accounts and financial institutions. Scott has over 20 years in working for enterprise software technology companies with the last 5 years concentrating on technologies focused specifically on mobile and data security. 

Chris Abbey with Van Winkle Construction, Chris Wilson with FisherBroyles, Lynn Duffy with Citagus Software and Dave Hudson with Inside Edge Hockey

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Chris Abbey/Van Winkle Construction

Van Winkle Construction is a third generation, Georgia-based general contracting firm that has been providing general contracting, construction management and design/build services to the Corporate, Medical, Religious, Education, Civic and Industrial market segments since 1931.

Chris Wilson/FisherBroyles, LLP

FisherBroyles, LLP is a full-service law firm for the twenty-first century. Their Law Firm 2.0®business model prioritizes the highest quality of legal services by partners who have the most relevant expertise, while our structure maximizes efficiency, responsiveness, and value. Their law firm model simply aligns the interests of clients and attorneys by identifying and eliminating the inefficiencies of the traditional law firm model. In many ways, FisherBroyles is like other large traditional law firms, except they eliminated unnecessary overhead and inexperienced attorneys and they utilize cloud computing technology to make it more efficient. Their efficiencies allow them to charge dramatically lower fees without sacrificing quality of service. They believe their business model represents the beginning of a paradigm shift in the way law will be practiced in the future. It appears that the marketplace agrees with them. FisherBroyles has become widely accepted as a viable, alternative law firm and they have enjoyed explosive growth. FisherBroyles currently has 75+ partners in 6 offices – Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, and Palo Alto.

Lynn Duffy/Citagus Software

Citagus is an onsite/offshore IT Services Organization offering services and solutions primarily around Oracle and Microsoft Applications, Business Intelligence and Database Management. More specifically, from an ERP perspective, as ex PeopleSoft executives, they excel in anything PeopleSoft which is now an Oracle Application Suite; Oracle eBusiness Applications, Microsoft CRM, Sharepoint and .Net applications.  Implementing, upgrading, customizing, reporting are some of the services they provide for these clients.

In terms of Business Intelligence, they offer services around all the major platforms that provide analytics and data management to their clients – OBIEE, Business Objects, QlikView, Hyperion, IBM Cognos and TM1.  They are able to help clients analyze their own data as well as that of their competition to form strategies for the future that will help them grow and ensure success.

Their Database Management Teams specialize in Oracle and SQL Server environments for both development and production support.  Additionally, they can actually execute data moves from one environment to another as well as establish new DB and instances for specific needs.

In addition to this suite of services, they do anything their clients require as long as they know they can find the talent both onsite in the US and in their offshore lab in India to support it.  Examples where they’ve built practices for our clients are in Sharepoint, .net and java technologies to meet their needs.

As an Oracle Gold Partner, most of their consultants are highly certified in their specific areas of Oracle.  The same is true with Microsoft. They take pride in being able to offer high quality, cost effective solutions (due to the hybrid nature of their services providing some onsite and many offshore). They are in business to serve their clients so well that they become “clients for life” returning to them for all their IT needs. They also like to tell people that they are “small enough to care and large enough to deliver” the quality they expect and deserve.

Dave Hudson/Inside Edge Hockey

Inside Edge Hockey is a full service retail store and pro shop located at 2148 Duluth Hwy, Suite 115 in Duluth. They welcome all skaters from beginner to pro, toddler to grizzled vet.

Owner Dave Hudson, husband and proud father of two, is a seasoned survey/engineering veteran turned businessman. Described by some as eclectic or left-of-center, he yearns to translate his creative energy and vision into successful business by breaking whatever molds necessary and delivering sustained energy to future projects.

Tom Leatherberry with Leatherberry Associates, Raymer Sale with E2E Benefits Services and E2E Resources, and James Scuka and Jamie Scuka with Everdry Roofing

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Tom Leatherberry/Leatherberry Associates

Tom Leatherberry is the Founder and CEO of Leatherberry Associates, a performance driven provider of CRM, BI Reporting, Marketing and Workflow Automation software solutions. If you are serious about finding the right solution for your business, one that will provide measurable value through increased employee efficiency, reduced fiscal costs, and improved customer tracking, then they want to talk to you.

Raymer Sale/E2E Benefits Services & E2E Resources

E2E Benefits Services, Inc. provides employee benefits plans, wellness programs, and employer support services to medium and large employer groups.  They are the link between the employers, the employees and the insurance company in providing assistance and support for the employee group benefits programs. 

E2E Resources, Inc. is an HR company that supports employers HR needs, payroll processing and tracking for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the evolving health care law.

Raymer Sale is the President of E2E Benefits Services, Inc., and E2E Resources, Inc. The combined companies sell and support employee benefits and HR services with a staff of 6. Raymer began his insurance career in 1974 with The Travelers Insurance Company and in 1983 he joined Gulf Group Services Corporation as a field representative. Over the next 10 years, he rose through the ranks to Vice President of Marketing for Acordia of the South. In 1993 he left the corporate world and formed Business Benefits Incorporated (currently E2E) an employee benefits and HR agency.  

James Scuka & Jamie Scuka/Everdry Roofing

Everdry Roofing, Inc. is a full service roofing company. They offer commercial and residential services that include repair, replacement, maintenance, and cleaning of all types of roofs and gutters.

Their staff consists of highly trained project managers, experienced crews and technicians, all of which are backed by a cohesive management team. Whether you have a residential roofing emergency or you represent a large property management company, they are able to respond to your unique needs with speed and flexibility. ERI only employs competent crew members and expert installers, so you can be confident that your job will be completed by true professionals. They deliver superior craftsmanship at reasonable rates, resulting in loads of customer referrals. In fact, most of their business comes from referrals by satisfied customers.

Everdry Roofing believes in community support. They are proud corporate sponsors for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and continue to do events around the community. They have offices in three major metropolitan areas including Atlanta, Greenville and Charlotte.

Alan Mishkoff with Granite Garage Floors, Debbie Henderson with Medical Education Resource and Bill Fasig with Sports Challenge Network (XBowling)

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Alan Mishkoff/Granite Garage Floors

Granite Garage Floors is a residential consumer service company that specializes in upgrading garage floors with a decorative epoxy coating system that “Looks And Last Like Granite”. Current locations include Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond and South Florida. 

Debbie Henderson/Medical Education Resource

Medical Education Resource provides CPR/AED, First Aid and other Health and Safety training to meet OSHA requirements in the corporate environment. Contact Debbie Henderson at medicaleducation@bellsouth.net for more information.

Bill Fasig/Sports Challenge Network (XBowling)

XBowling is the first social mobile sports application from the Sports Challenge Network. It is designed to increase participation in recreational sports using the power of social mobile technology and personal smart devices. XBowling creates new types of bowling experiences and competitions plus new ways to build and connect your social community around one of your favorite recreational sports, all through the real-time connectivity of your smart device (iPhone®, iPad®, iTouch® or Android™ – coming soon). 

XBowling empowers bowlers to connect and compete, from any XBowling enabled center to any other XBowling enabled center.  The app allows bowlers to set up their own competitions or challenges against themselves or head-to-head against any other bowler without the limitation of time or place. 

To get started, simply download the XBowling Beta application to your smart device, confirm you are bowling at an XBowling enabled center, and you are set to connect and compete!

Bill Fasig is the Chief Marketing Officer at Sports Challenge Network. He is the former President and CEO of GameTech International. He was also a technology industry senior operating executive at Apple, Compaq, VeriSign and Young & Rubicam.