ATLANTA— Michael Ramatowski, president of Georgia Business Associates, Inc., has been elected the 2017 president of GABB, the state’s only professional association of business brokers.
Other officers include Jay Fenello of BizPlacements.com as vice president, Thomas Crumpton of Commercial Experts, Inc., as treasurer and Yasmine Jandali, owner and Managing Broker at Starwood Business Group as secretary. Board members nominated include Richard Burgess, president of Priority Business Acquisitions, Inc.; Jeffery Merry, founder and owner of the BUSINESS HOUSE, inc. SM, and Dean Burnette, founder of Best Business Brokers. Greg DeFoor, founder and President of DeFoor Business Services of Kennesaw and the GABB president for 2015 and 2016, will remain on the board as the GABB’s past president. GABB members unanimously elected the board at their Nov. 29 meeting.
GABB members represent owners of Georgia businesses and help them establish the sales price of their business, create marketing plans and strategies for the sale of their business, identify and qualify potential buyers, and work to protect the confidentiality of the entire process.
Mike Ramatowski
Mr. Ramatowski, CBI, president of Georgia Business Associates, Inc., works with business owners and sellers and candidates for merger by acquisition from manufacturing, distribution, and service businesses. He has owned and managed businesses that included a real estate master franchise, a property management networking company, and a service business. As COO of a banking conglomerate he managed brokerage operations, title companies, home and service warranty programs, and a relocation company. Mr. Ramatowski has served on the board of directors of 12 different organizations with diverse specialties including real estate brokerage, mortgage companies, title insurance, banking, health care, fitness center operations, and office supply operations, providing marketing and organizational growth expertise. He served as an Electronic Specialist in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service. He attended Cleveland State University and Baldwin Wallace College. He has earned the Certified Business Intermediary professional designation by the International Business Brokers Association.
Jay Fenello
Mr. Fenello started his career as a computer engineer for IBM, Boca Raton, where he worked on a new product called the IBM PC. After a successful career in computer hardware and software design, he earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Arizona. He has been involved in small businesses and start-ups ever since. He first started in business brokerage in 1995, and has since worked for several brokerage firms, including one of the largest M&A firms in the country. Today, Mr. Fenello is with BizPlacements.com, where he helps people buy, sell and improve small businesses and start-ups, especially owner-operated businesses and franchises. Jay has an engineering degree from the University of Florida, and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Arizona. He is a member of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors, and lives in Woodstock with his wife Beverly.
GABB Secretary Yasmine Jandali
Mrs. Jandali is an experienced business broker with a track record of more than 10 years of successful transactions and highly satisfied clients. Mrs. Jandali founded Starwood Business Group in order to provide a boutique brokerage firm for clients seeking personalized service and specialized attention. As a certified Master Business Intermediary, she provides professional business intermediary services to both business sellers and buyers, including high-level business valuation services to business sellers. She has worked as a foreign exchange analyst at Wells Fargo, a marketing specialist at the Bank of America Corporation, vice president of Jandali Enterprises, Inc., and was managing broker and managing director of VR Business Brokers Mergers and Acquisitions. She has a B.A. in Business Administration Marketing from the McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte, and also studied management at The Belk College of Business at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Thomas Crumpton of Business Acquisitions Brokerage, Inc.
Mr. Crumpton earned his first real estate license while in college and bought his first investment property while still in school by using his commission as the down payment. Upon graduation, with interest rates hovering around 18%, Tom embarked into the corporate world with Pitney Bowes, ADP, and Enterprise where he benefited from top sales and management programs. Eventually he turned back to Commercial Real Estate and added Business Brokerage to his business. For 12 years Tom owned and operated Business Acquisitions Brokerage, Inc., a Merger and Acquisition firm that he founded, which he has since merged into Commercial Experts, Inc., which handles Commercial Real Estate transactions, Merger Acquisition work and business sales. Tom, a well-respected commercial real estate industry veteran has numerous successes throughout his 30-plus years in real estate. He has completed sales of multi-million dollar businesses, worked with national and regional franchises, assisted in Visa-related transactions involving many different countries and treaties, and has made many people wealthier through his knowledge of his craft and his work ethic. His degree in Finance from Indiana University is the platform on which he built his financial and investment knowledge. He has been a Million Dollar Club member multiple times, and has earned a Certified Commercial Investment Manager, or CCIM, designation, held by only one in ten commercial brokers. Tom currently serves on the Education Committee and is the current chair of the Forms Committee of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors, the largest commercial board in the country.
Richard Burgess, GABB board member
Mr. Burgess is president and owner of Priority Business Acquisitions, Inc. & Priority Real Estate Services, LLC, of Lawrenceville, Ga. Mr. Burgess is a licensed business and real estate broker with more than 20 years successful experience handling the sale, acquisition and financing of privately held companies and real estate in the Southeastern United States. Mr. Burgess has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Maryland, and he and his agents use a Christ-centered, straightforward, successful approach to their brokerage services. He resides in Lawrenceville, Ga., and is an active member of Christ the Lord Lutheran Church in Lawrenceville, Ga.
Jeff Merry
Mr. Merry is a lifetime member of the Georgia Association of Business Brokers (GABB) prestigious Multi-Million Dollar Club and was the first Georgia broker in the GABB to receive the Phoenix award for being in the Multi-Million Dollar Club for 10 consecutive years. Jeffery has been a member of GABB for more than 20 years, and is a past president and board member. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Mercer University, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Illinois, and a Juris Doctorate from Atlanta Law School. He is also a licensed real estate broker in Georgia and Florida. Further, he is an Adjunct Professor of strategic management, accounting, and finance in MBA programs.
Dean Burnette
Mr. Burnette is the founder of Best Business Brokers in Savannah. More than two decades of business ownership and management experience in the Textile, Food, Golf and Petroleum industries have given Dean a wide range of experience and business knowledge. These experiences contribute to his abilities to help identify and qualify appropriate buyers, put together sales prospectus, negotiate terms of a sale, all while maintaining confidentiality so that only prospective purchasers know your business is transitioning. Dean is excited about the many opportunities that the current economic conditions and recent economic events have created in the Coastal Savannah Georgia area. He is married, the father of two children and has three grandchildren, an
Greg DeFoor, GABB president in 2015 & 2016
d is a member of Asbury United Methodist Church and the Derenne Business Owners Association.
Mr. DeFoor is a business broker, a CPA and a Certified Fraud Examiner. He became a business broker in 2002 after working in public accounting followed by private industry experience as an accounting and financial executive in the healthcare and retail automotive industries. While in private industry, he was involved in a number of business transactions and decided to use that knowledge and experience to start his own firm. He has a unique blend of audit, tax, accounting, corporate finance, business advisory and transaction experience to use for the benefit of his clients. He has an active Georgia real estate broker’s license. His firm specializes in the sale of small and middle-market privately owned businesses in a number of industrial classifications. Mr. DeFoor has an accounting degree from Auburn University and lives in Powder Springs.
The GABB is composed of professionals who work with owners of Georgia businesses. Many of today’s business buyers are individuals who have decided not to re-enter corporate America, but are ready to control their own destiny by purchasing and operating a Georgia business. The GABB’s monthly meeting is at the South Terraces Conference Center at 115 Perimeter Center Place, Atlanta. For more information about the GABB, contact GABB President Greg DeFoor at president@gabb.org or call Diane Loupe at 404-374-3990.