__SECTION CONTENTS

• Bill Hawfield
• Michael Laney
• Ken Ude
• Carl Schroeder

   

  
  

   

 

Hillcrest Associates, located in California, comprises a unique a group of affiliated business professionals who have extensive, real world, bottom line, operating experience. Although we have a strong theoretical credentials, we enhance our consulting impact with over 80 years of combined operating experience in small to mid sized companies. We have been successful in creating real world solutions to complex and challenging problems in over 200 companies. We have operated divisions of companies as large as Disney and General Mills and run companies as small as a local restaurant. Here are the credentials of several Hillcrest Associates:

Bill Hawfield

Founder of Hillcrest Associates, Bill Hawfield, is a professional manager, International speaker and Board process expert. After thirteen years with General Mills, where he was a division President, Bill left and founded Penguin's frozen yogurt company. The successful chain grew was sold five years later.

Hawfield has also been a CEO for two other $40 million companies that grew rapidly, and eventually were sold.  He developed strategic plans for General Mills and for private investors.  He then lead management teams that met the expectations those plans created.

For the past ten years, Hawfield has been a management consultant, speaker and Board expert. Through Hillcrest Associates, his consulting firm, he has coached over 200 CEO's and their teams in a broad variety of industries on creating and implementing successful strategic plans.

Bill is an international speaker for The Executive Committee (TEC), an organization comprising 8,000 CEOs around the world. His topics are Strategic Planning, Business Success and Highly Performing Boards. He is one of TEC's  experts in Advisory Board creation and implementation.  

Hawfield has served on 25 Boards and currently sits on 8 Boards of Advisors. He is a speaker for the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors and a member of that organization on the subject of creating sustained, positive change in organization through a strong Board process. He developed his on-line board assessment tool, TheBoardWorks and has used it successfully to help Boards identify what elements drive board performance and how to improve them.

Hawfield's education background includes an undergraduate degree in Physics, an MBA in Management from the University of Virginia, and 18 years as a member of TEC.

Hawfield's Board Experience

American Business Graphics-document management and printing
American Etching and Manufacturing-Precision metal etching
BDS Marketing-Point of purchase retail marketing agency
Business Life Transitions-CEO development
DACOR-Manufacture Kitchen Appliances
Ettore-Manufacturer of Squeegies window cleaning products
Great Circle Restaurants-Franchisee of Krispy Kreme doughnuts
Howe Marketing-Retail promotion marketing
Industrial Metal Supply-Metals distributor
Management Action Programs-Management consulting
McBride Electric-Commercial and Residential electrical and data services
MPS-Micro filming and document storage
ONTIC-Aerospace parts
Package X-Internet provider of package designs
Ruby's Restaurants-Family casual diners
Two Chefs on a Roll-Specialty Food manufacturers
Saybrook Capital-Investment bankers and fund managers
Small World Toys-Importers of toys and games
Softub-Portable spas
United Ad Label-Labels for hospital use
United Green Mark-Integration supplies
Ventura Lesbro Trucking-Trucking

Michael Laney

Michael Laney has over thirty-five years of senior level executive management experience as President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer specializing in strategic planning, SEC and financial operations, marketing and promotion, management information systems and organizational planning.  Industries served include consumer products, aerospace, electronics and metals distributions, manufacturing, education and the entertainment industry.  Laney was a senior executive at Walt Disney Feature Animation and then founded and led Warner Bros. Feature Animation as Senior Vice-President and built two animation studios that developed, produced and subsequently released two animated movies.

Michael also has entrepreneurial experience by founding and building his CPA firm in Beverly Hills during the 1970’s.  He gained his CPA certificate in California and was a professional at Haskins & Sells, now Deloitte & Touche.  Michael has also held teaching positions as Assistant Professor of Accounting at California State University, Northridge and was on the teaching staff for the Management Course for Presidents for the American Management Association.  Michael founded his consulting firm, Laney & Associates, in 2001 which provides strategic and operational planning, marketing strategies, financial management and organizational development.  He also conducts workshops on team development utilizing the Myers-Briggs Temperament Indicator.

 Executive Management Positions

            Senior Vice-President:  Warner Bros. Feature Animation

            Vice-President of Operations:  Walt Disney Feature Animation

            Office of the President, Vice-President, CFO:  Dacor

            President:  Children’s Wonderland, Inc.

            President:  Cool Roof of California, Inc.     

            Vice-President, Controller:  Ducommun, Inc.

            Sr. Vice-President, COO and CFO:  Monarch Mirror Door, Inc. (Stanley Works)

            Chief Financial Officer:  Education Management Systems, Inc.

 Professional Associations

Association for Corporate Growth

Financial Executives Institute

Association for Psychological Type

American School Counselors Association

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

California Society of Certified Public Accountants

 Woodland Hills Country Club

 Board Associations

 BDS Marketing, Inc.—Board of Advisors

 Industrial Metal Supply Co.—Board of Advisors

 Perceptronics, Inc.—Board of Directors (NASDAQ)

 Childrens’ Wonderland, Inc.—Board of Directors (OTC)

 Cool Roof of California, Inc.—Board of Directors

 Ducommun, Inc.—Chief Accounting Officer/SEC officer

 Education

M.B.A., Management, University of California, Los Angeles

B.S., cum laude, California State University, Northridge

Management Course for Presidents, American Management Association

Program on Negotiation, Harvard University

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Qualifying Program, Center for Applications of                         Psychological Type

 

Ken Ude

Ken Ude has over thirty-five years of diverse domestic and international business-to-business and consumer products experience. For the past 10 years he has been President, CEO or COO of several mid-sized venture-owned companies where he has successfully transitioned and grown them through the implementation of his “CEO Toolkit”.  His approach to running a business starts with a solid strategic and operational plan and steps through the development of a series of tactical measurement tools to focus the organization on quality, customer service, efficiency and financial responsibility.  Ken believes that if it can be measured, it can be improved and that the P&L is the result of operational effectiveness.

Ken has a keen focus on the customer and in developing operational efficiencies.  His skills evolved through his career working with a number of best-in-class companies and through his association with TEC (an international association of CEOs).  Ken has worked with Rain Bird Sprinkler Manufacturing Corp, Bell Racing Company, the Reliable Company, ESPN Russell Racing Schools, Hill & Knowlton, and ARCO Solar. 

Ken also understands the venture capital world and has worked for companies owned by Sun Capital Partners, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Brentwood Associates, Equinox and Hayden Capital Investments

Executive Management Positions

President and CEO, Jim Russell Racing Schools

President and CEO, Bell Racing Company

President and CEO, Nailite International

President and COO, the Reliable Company

Vice President of Marketing, Petoseed

Director and General Manager, Rain Bird Sprinkler Manufacturing Corp               

Company and Industry Experience

Rain Bird Sprinkler Manufacturing Corp, world leader in irrigation systems.

Bell Racing Company, recognized leader in developing auto racing helmets

Jim Russell Racing Schools, best-in-class in producing racing and driving programs

The Reliable Company, laundry services company recognized by Maytag

Petoseed, the world’s largest producer of hybrid vegetable seeds

ARCO Solar, photovoltaic solar-electric cell

Hill and Knowlton, Inc. one of the world’s largest public relations firms.

Education

MBA, University of Southern California

Masters of Public Relations, University of Southern California.

 

Email: kude@HillcrestAssociates.com

 

Carl Schroeder

Diagnostic Analysis and Technology GeoStrategies   

Carl Schroeder, founder of GeoStrategies, has been involved in some of this country’s most successful marketing programs and product releases over the past 19 years.  In 1985, Schroeder founded Paradigm Communications.  Paradigm helped launch Investor’s Daily Newspaper, doubling the paper’s subscriber base in the first 6 months on the project.  The company launched the Datamaxx hand-held computer in 1988, which became the country’s fastest selling computer of its kind. Major clients included Ford Motor Company, Toyota Motor Corporation and K-Mart Corporation.

In 1989, Schroeder joined with L.L. Knickerbocker to develop the “Shop at Home” network’s first and most successful celebrity-driven programs.  These programs shattered the standards previously set for conventional product programs, covering every major category in the home shopping inventory (cosmetics, apparel, jewelry and collectibles).

In 1993, Schroeder began consulting with corporate accounts. His development of proprietary computer tools to assist in strategic and tactical analysis during his time with Knickerbocker and Paradigm helped position GeoStrategies as a top consulting firm in the United States in the area of Data Forensics.  Currently, GeoStrategies has a collection of proprietary software tools and models that position it as one of the premier strategic information Development companies in the U.S. 

GeoStrategies has worked with investors at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Sun Capital, and Graham Partners to provide strategic information during due diligence exercises, and also currently works with many members of TEC's worldwide network.  

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