SOUTHBRIDGE ADVISORY GROUP S E N I O R   A S S O C I A T E S
Southbridge Advisory Group Senior Associates

Ron Brewer - Managing Director
Mr. Brewer has served as Managing Director of Southbridge Business Resources since 1990. Southbridge is a boutique management group with a primary focus in management services and merger / acquisition representation. Ron has experience in a broad spectrum of business disciplines in both public and private sectors; they include: manufacturing & distribution, health services, energy, environmental, technology driven products, real estate, marketing and non-profit entities.

Management services performed by Southbridge are typically company turnaround or launch, and post acquisition implementation. These services have been performed in both the private and small cap public sector. In turnaround situations Southbridge brings needed changes and implementations into an organization assisting them in meeting defined improvement targets. In launch or post acquisition environments the Company will implement systems and staff, creating an operating unit that meets defined benchmarks of performance. A specialty focus is consolidation of companies, in a synergistic market niche, where SBRI services utilized are M & A, funding, and management implementation.

Prior to 1990 Mr. Brewer served as President of Mid-Continent Companies, which was a multiple division enterprise that grew ten-fold from 1980 until 1990 through acquisition, start-up and growth of existing revenue opportunities.

Ron has created and facilitated all steps in formation of emerging public companies to include; merger & acquisition, capital procurement, public formation, and management implementation.

Michael La Lond - Director Management Consulting
Mike offers over twenty-five years of experience in process design and improvement, implementation of analytical applications and best practices at companies ranging in size from eleven billion in annual sales to five million in annual sales. Mr. La Lond offers executive expertise in Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain Management, Budgeting and Planning, Forecasting Financial Consolidation, Manufacturing and Employee Development.

Mike's education includes: BS in Business and Education, MS in Business Management, and Doctorate in Business Law and Finance.

Noteworthy accomplishments include:

  • CFO-CEO for seven start-up companies under the umbrella of a holding company privately held by a single multimillionaire investor. Created the processes, designed the businesses plans, identified the financial requirements and managed the day to day financial and operational management of the seven companies.
  • Vice President, General Manager of a specialized polymer manufacture. Reorganized the company, implementing new manufacturing processes, rebuilt the distributor network and worked with the chemists and research department to introduce new products with very successful results readying the company for divestiture.
  • Division Manager of one of seven divisions of Moorman Mfg, a billion dollar annual revenue company
  • After a rapid ascension through the management ranks and establishing company performance records; Mike functioned as one of a seven executives to manage and reorganize a century old company with over one and half billion dollars in annual sales.
  • Created new processes for the handling of information as part of a large reorganization for Bush Brothers.( Bush Beans)
  • Facilitated the identification of the processes and procedures from seventy five HR managers for the SAP implementation of an eleven billion dollar company. (Anheiser Busch)
  • Designed the training materials necessary to support the SAP implementation. (Nike)
  • Designed a satellite distribution system with master distributors for a hundred million dollar animal health and Equipment Company.
  • Created a process for manufacturing and shipping concentrated products to the master satellite distributors, reducing costs, increasing sales and profits.(Babson Brothers)
  • Functioned as contract management for the facilitation, process design and merger of five environmental companies into one corporation and managed several of the facilities. (Amerex)
  • Created all the processes and performed the day to management of a multimillion contract with the Department of Justice to handle the clean up of Meth labs for the DEA. (The Department of Justice)
  • Created the processes for a company to manufacture and ship a concentrated form of their product to satellite distributors, reducing manufacturing costs, reducing shipping costs, increasing market share and substantially increasing profits.
  • Designed a national telemarketing center. Developed all the processes and training materials to staff, train and operate the center. Increased sales and profits over 100% through increasing the sales team and management of the team.

John Rabbitt - Senior Associate
John's extensive and diverse background in business evolved through consistent promotion and growth within fortune 500 firms including The Pillsbury Company and PepsiCo, in addition to the CPA firm of Ernst and Ernst. This experience is enhanced by a twenty year career with one of America's most successful Entrepreneurs (Forbes 102nd wealthiest U.S.A. person in 2008) where John was directly involved with numerous acquisitions and served in executive capacities for several multi-national subsidiaries. John played a key role in assisting the growth of MEI Corporation from $20 million annual revenue to $850 million annual revenue in nine years, at which time it was acquired by PepsiCo.

Mr. Rabbitt has served in CEO/COO and CFO positions for firms ranging from $5,000,000 to $300,000,000 annual revenue. As well as serving as a member of PepsiCo's Mid-West Advisory Board, and as a Director and Secretary/Treasurer of their largest canning division.

John has a proven track record in both fast-growth and turn-around environments. Previous experience includes several notable projects:

  • Barker Lemar Engineering where he was responsible for the restructuring and strategic growth of the company which resulted in 327% pre-tax growth within eight months.
  • Served as the corporate Executive Vice President of MEI Diversified as well as Senior Executive Vice President with direct responsibility for finance, operations and strategic planning to include mergers and acquisitions for $300,000,000 annual sales and 22,000 employees.
  • Re-designed financial systems, reporting and sales / marketing for L'Anza Research International resulting in sales growth of 100% over three years while reducing cost of operation by over 20%.
  • Financial management assistance, strategic planning and merger / acquisition assistance for multiple companies that include Greater Dallas Homeland Security Alliance, Zone Innovations, The Comb Group, Exit Solutions and Power Pulse Technology.

Mr. Rabbitt's education includes a BBA in Accounting and Business from Drake University, graduate work at Xavier University in Cincinnati, and PepsiCo's Management Institute.

Rex Washburn - Senior Associate
Rex offers 23 years of senior management experience with 17 of those years as CEO. Mr. Washburn has in-depth experience in international franchising and is recognized as a corporate structural and "turnaround" specialists.

Rex has success experience both as franchisor and franchisee. His specialty focus is turn-key franchise development requiring structuring, implementation and sales / marketing

Noteworthy accomplishments include; tenure as CEO of a franchise voted "Top 50 Growth Franchise" for two consecutive years by Entrepreneur Magazine, development of over 10 national and international formation companies and systems, CEO of a public company that had profit growth for seven consecutive years, and CEO of a multi-national public company "turnaround" doubling its size after restructure.

Rex received a BBA in finance from Regis University and a MS in Economics from the University of Edinburg. Rex was a Navy Seal in his military service.

Bruce Bales - Director Investor Relations
Mr. Bales has actively participated in all phases of broker / dealer - wholesaler operations, sales and sales education, sales management and compliance.

In his experience Bruce developed highly successful national sales advisory boards such as Diversified Property Corporation where their focus was execution of investor private placements in high growth opportunities.

His experience includes coverage of the western United States securities industry introducing mutual funds management companies (The Wellington Fund and The Delaware Fund) and their products and services available for the securities industry's clients.

Other areas in which Mr. Bales has extensive experience include; energy, real estate, and emerging growth companies.

Tammy Trotter - Marketing and Business Development Associate
Ms. Trotter has served in both General Management and Sales Management positions in the service industry and industrial sector offering over fifteen years of expertise. She has performed all aspects of marketing, insides sales, and direct sales efforts in the same fields. Tammy excels in developing fast-track business development programs that create desired results.

Ms. Trotter offers further expertise in facilitating streamlined, integrated administrative and accounting procedures for the small business sector.