ROI’s Into the Corner Office Podcast: Powerhouse Middle Market CEOs Telling it Real—Unexpected Caree...

As Chief Executive Officer at Shell Shack, Dallas Hale is heavenly involved in all decisions with growth and development, as well as research and development to further evolve the Shell Shack brand. His strong entrepreneurial background helps Dallas thrive for operational excellence from all his brands and his successful reputation proceeds him in the hospitality industry. Shell Shack now has 4 locations in DFW and will be opening several more corporate locations in 2017. Since co-founding the Shell Shack brand, Dallas and his partner Matt have been instrumental in the transformation of the Shell Shack culture. Shell Shack will continue to grow corporately in designated markets and will be proudly offering franchises to qualified restaurant groups throughout the country beginning in 2017.

Jim Nooney, CEO of Nooney Controls Corp., North Kingstown, RI. Established in 1982, Nooney Controls is a valve automation integrator serving customers primarily in the domestic and international power generation and energy sector with application specific custom control valves and valve automation. Jim has been the CEO since 2001, overseeing 3X growth over the past 18 years with 2018 revenue of $18M. Nooney Controls has 27 employees and is continually working on growing good to great culture which is a large part of their success. Personally, Jim resides in Charlestown, RI with his wife Linda who he has been married to for 30 years. Jim & Linda have 4 daughters ranging in age from 16-27. Jim is active in leadership at the Harbor Church in West Kingston, RI and is also involved with Hope in Jesus Prison Ministry at the RI ACI Medium Security.

Steve has been CEO of Mspark since September of 2015. Prior to joining Mspark, he was President of C Street Solutions, a consulting firm that he founded in 2014. Steve has led Mspark through six acquisitions in a two-year span spurring the companies top line growth 35% and bottom line 50%. Before that, he worked 14 years at Valassis Communications in various executive-level roles of increasing responsibility culminating in General Manager/Senior Vice President – Shared Mail, a $1 billion-plus division. Steve has deep experience in growing companies from smaller companies to larger companies. He has a proven track record of successful mergers & acquisitions and growth initiatives from innovation. Earlier in his career, he served in finance and accounting leadership roles at Dynamis Solutions, SmithGroup, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Steve holds both an MBA and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and bleeds maize and blue. He is an avid cancer fighter and is the Chairman of the Board of the Dear Jack Foundation. He enjoys running, surfing, listening to music, Michigan Wolverine sports and any downtime he can find!

Aaron B. Steed is president, Co-founder, and CEO of Meathead Movers. He founded Meathead Movers at 17-years-old in 1997 with his brother, Evan. As CEO, Steed has established an open-door style of management, similar to that of a coach, and is well-known for being happily available to assist employees at their jobs or in their personal lives. While running full-scale ahead to success, Steed has never let Meathead Movers forget its roots. He has maintained the same mission of assisting former and current athletes achieve their goals by providing them with a flexible and educational workplace. He has also maintained the practice of assisting victims of domestic violence by providing moving services at no cost. When the media caught wind up of the services being provided in each of Meathead Movers' service areas, Steed and his team used this platform to launch the #MoveToEndDV campaign to continue to bring awareness to the much-needed efforts and encourage more than 200 businesses globally to get involved in similar ways. In 2018, Steed joined the board of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and transitioned the nonprofit under this national umbrella.    This long-standing model has led Meathead Movers to land on the Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies list for seven consecutive years. He was named one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 at the White House in 2014 and remains the largest independent moving company in California with 700 employees, more than 20,000 moves per year, over 100 trucks and 213,00 sq.ft of mini storage.

Bill Dwyer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Helping Hand Center. Helping Hand Center serves the Chicago land area and was started in the early 1950s to provide education, independence, and vocational training to people of all ages with Intellectual and Developmental disabilities. Bill offers over 20 years of experience with children and adult nonprofit organizations. He holds a Masters degree in Counseling with a concentration on Marriage and Family and many Leadership and Management certifications. Bill is best recognized in his field as being forward-looking with his vision, empowering the people around him to reach their fullest potential, and maintaining the respect and dignity of the people he serves.

Oscar Castellano is the CEO, Americas for Deezer since 2016. In his role at Deezer, he accelerates growth in the Americas by further developing existing markets, entering new ones and creating new business opportunities, both directly and via partners. He has over 20 years of industry experience, having worked in IT, Telecom, and Consulting holding various senior management positions in companies like Brightstar, BlackBerry, Orange, and Andersen. Born and raised in Spain, Castellano speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Growing up, Steve Cunningham’s father demonstrated successful entrepreneurship, instilled a life-long passion for learning in him, and helped him learn to not mistake activity for productivity. Steve graduated from Western University with a law degree and after a single week as a lawyer, knew it wasn’t his passion. He moved on to the family signage business and understanding one role wouldn’t be enough to satisfy his goals; he started a fledgling marketing agency as well. As his new business grew, Steve’s personal development reading habit also increased. Knowing he had to show, rather than tell, how social media could help potential clients’ marketing efforts, Steve created an animated video to break down some of his favorite books into easily digestible formats, and a social media viral sensation was born. Steve continued honing his marketing capabilities with three thirty while nurturing his other fledgling company Readitfor.me. Readitfor.me creates beautiful 12-minute videos and workshops utilizing and detailing the best business and personal development books in the world. A born entrepreneur, Steve also publishes a daily podcast and blog and still finds time to read a book a day.

Serhat Unsal is the Chief Executive Officer of Jackson, MI-based Dawn Foods. Sharing CEO responsibilities with Carrie Jones-Barber, Unsal leverages his extensive global leadership experience to help drive greater growth and success for Dawn. Unsal joined Dawn in early 2011. As President International from 2011-2016, Unsal led Dawn’s global growth in the company’s key European markets along with emerging markets in Africa, Middle East, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America. In his four years as President, Unsal doubled the international divisions’ operating profit by developing and deploying completely new regional strategies for Europe, LATAM and AMEAP. During the same period, he also led Dawn’s corporate strategy development & execution. Prior to Dawn, Unsal spent 18 years with Unilever where he started his career as a Project Manager. By 2010, Unsal had risen to the role of Managing Director Unilever Foodsolutions Turkey, Central Asia & Caucasia. In this role, he doubled his division’s annual revenue and operating profit. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Unilever Turkey. Unsal earned a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from the University of Toronto.

Hollenstein joined the roster at eyebobs in July of 2016. As VP of Direct, Hollenstein was responsible for expanding the direct-to-consumer business, which includes e-commerce and catalog. In December of 2017, Hollenstein was named CEO and continues to utilize his collaborative style and passion for building eyebobs unique brand to drive the business forward. Prior to joining eyebobs, Hollenstein was Vice President, Merchandising for Sportsman's Guide. As leader of the product management team, he helped Sportsman's Guide deliver over $300M in annual volume. Previously, Hollenstein led the direct purchase division at G&K Services, and from 2000 to 2008 he helped build the Duluth Trading Co. business as Vice President of Product Development.

James M. Nolan is an Operating Partner of Velocity Fund Partners, in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he currently serves as CEO for InClinica, a global CRO; CEO for SkinJect; Operations Partner for Velocity Fund; and President and CEO for E3 Therapeutics. In addition, Mr. Nolan is a Principle Consultant of ChemImage Holdings, and recently served as a Principle Consultant for Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa. Mr. Nolan’s mission is to explore and identify business opportunities and novel technologies to establish new life science companies, both domestically and globally. He works to identify opportunities; create high-quality research programs; establish and maintain dedicated executive teams; deliver strong revenues and profits, as well as accountability; and position start-up and existing businesses for sustainable market growth. His areas of expertise include R&D evaluation and implementation, product development and marketing, recruiting top scientific talent and evaluating executive team members, new product/service/market launches, deal structuring and contract negotiation, budgets and timelines, investor relations and coordinating senior team management. Mr. Nolan began his pharmaceutical career at Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, a division of Dow Chemical. During his career at Dow, he participated in the development of corporate strategies and product positioning for allergy, AIDS, gastrointestinal and anti-infective products. His major role at Dow was as an interface between R&D and the business organization. Following his time at Dow, Mr. Nolan served as the Director of Product Planning and Marketing, North America for Anequest focusing on anesthesia and related products. Later, Mr. Nolan was responsible for global marketing and new product and program development at Wyeth-Ayerst International, and he also served as the Chairman of the Research and Development Task Force. He managed strategic planning for domestic and international new product introductions, as well as research development and marketing management, with a focus on new product and business discovery, rollout and acquisition. In late 1995, Mr. Nolan established the Institutes for Pharmaceutical Discovery, L.L.C. (IPD), based in Branford, Ct. to discover novel therapies for diabetic complications, diabetes, obesity, and related disorders. For 17 years, he served as the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. IPD consisted of three institutes: the Institute for Drug Discovery, L.L.C., (IDD), the Institute for Bioanalytics, L.L.C. (IBA), and IPD Consumer Health, L.L.C. The focus of IPD grew to include inflammation, cardiovascular disease, dermatology, asthma, and cancer. IPD employed research scientists having expertise in synthetic medicinal chemistry, in vitro screening, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and in vivo modeling. In 1998, Mr. Nolan organized IBA, which developed customized single-plexed and multiplexed assays for the pharmaceutical and diagnostic/device industries. IPD Consumer Health was established in 2004 and provided specific, business development, targeted marketing and sales initiatives for global niche markets with solid scientific support. In 2012, Mr. Nolan moved back to Pittsburgh, founded NKV Consulting and joined the management team of ChemImage Holdings Inc., where he continues to serve as a Principal Consultant. He is a graduate of Villanova University and completed the Executive Progam in Marketing Management at the University of Michigan.