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After graduating from Vanderbilt University with a double major in Economics and Business Administration in 1980, Jim Conn started Commercial Door and Hardware in 1980; Purchased Calvert City Lumber Company in 1986; Started Commercial Plumbers Supply, Atlas Door of Paducah and TOSF Development in 1990; Started Multi Storage Systems around 1988.; Formed Juniper Group Partnership around 1985.; Formed Huntington Creek Partnership around 1990.; Formed Shadow Ridge Partnership around 1995.

Jim brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Wholesale and retail building supplies and real estate.
Experience with: Creating multiple businesses in a certain business sector, expanding a multi-generational family business, starting a business from the ground up, working full-time while staring a new business on the side.
Expertise in: Brainstorming, customer relations, strategic planning.

Jeff grew up in a small town where farming and oil were the biggest employers. He received his BS and MS in Geological Engineering and began a career with Lockheed Martin where he stayed for nine years. For the past ten years, Jeff has owned his own business, GEO Consultants.

Jeff brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: 1) Environmental Consulting/Remediation 2) Oil exploration and development
Experience with: Starting a business from the ground up
Expertise in: Brainstorming, government contracting, strategic planning, geological engineering

Computer Services, Inc. named Drossos to its board in March 2007. He completed the program "Making Corporate Boards More Effective" at the Harvard Business School in November 2007.

In June 2008, Drossos was named to the board of the Paducah/McCracken County, Kentucky, Joint Sewer Agency and became Chairman in October 2008. In July 2008, he was named Co-Chairman of the Business Advisory Council for the Western Kentucky Community and Technical College Emerging Technology Center.

He is a retired General Motors Corporation executive with 32 years experience in the automotive industry. Prior to retirement March 1, 2008, he served as an Executive Director, Global Purchasing and Supply Chain from July 1, 2006.

Previously located in Tokyo, he served as a member of the General Motors Asia Pacific (GMAP) Strategy Board from January 1, 2000. He was appointed Executive Vice President and Representative Director, Isuzu Motors Limited, on November 1, 2002.

Drossos had been GMAP vice president of vehicle sales, marketing, and after sales, with additional responsibility for GM in India (residing in Singapore). In January 2000, he was named executive director, Southeast Asia and India. Prior to that, he was President of General Motors Argentina.

Since joining GM in 1979, Drossos held leadership positions in various corporate disciplines including regional and general management, sales and marketing, manufacturing, purchasing, and finance within GM's Latin America, Africa and Middle East (GM LAAM) region and GM Europe (GME). He has been regional director of the Andean region for GM LAAM in Miami, regional director of sales and marketing for Southern Europe at GME in Zurich, and President of GM Chile. In GM de Mexico (GMM), he was Toluca plant manager (foundry and engine), GMM director of materials management, and comptroller at the Ramos Arizpe Assembly Plant. He was resident comptroller at GM Venezolana.

Prior to GM, Drossos worked for Chrysler Corporation in Detroit, Michigan and Lima, Peru. His career began in commercial banking at the Central Trust Company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Drossos holds masters degrees from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona (MIM), and Xavier University (MBA). He is a graduate of Centre College of Kentucky. Drossos speaks English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese.

Todd founded Integrated Visualization Systems Inc. in the late 90's. Its beginnings were of large proportions, he says. The first handful of contracts was with major fortune 500 companies. IVS specialized in products that could not be effectively constructed within the company. Animation and technical illustration were our major services. Soon IVS began to realize that their products and services were not a "from start to finish" package. The contacts made during their early years were more than just names in a list. "They were relationships," Todd says, "and the same practice holds true today. The relationships that now exist are both regionally and globally based."

Todd brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Service
Experience with: Starting a business from the ground up, turning a hobby into a business, working full-time and starting a business on the side.
Expertise in: Brainstorming, business planning, customer relations, information technology, market research.

Deborah is a life-long resident of Paducah. She graduated from Western Kentucky University with a B.S. degree. A twenty-year veteran of the insurance business, Deborah's knowledge and understanding of the people in the community helps her provide customers with an outstanding level of service. She is married to Eddie Edmonds and they have two grown sons & three grandchildren. "I believe that you have to like what you do to be successful," Deborah says.

Deborah brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Insurance sales and lots of service.
Expertise in: Customer relations, human resources.

Caryl Bryer Fallert is internationally recognized for her award-winning art quilts, which have appeared in hundreds of national and international exhibitions, collections, and publications. She is the only three time winner of the coveted AQS Best of Show purchase award. Other honors include 100 Best Quilts of the 20th Century, and selection as one of the thirty most influential quilt makers in the world. Caryl has lectured and taught in eleven countries around the world and recently opened the Bryerpatch Studio & Workshop Center in Paducah Kentucky. Since 1997, she has maintained an internet store shipping her publications and fabric designs to quilters around the world. (www.bryerpatch.com).

Caryl brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: I am primarily a working artist and lecturer/seminar leader. Our retail business creates a steady cash flow, but I find it the least interesting part of our business.
Experience with: Starting a business from the ground up, turning a hobby into a business, working full-time and starting a business on the side.
Expertise in: Brainstorming, customer relations, information technology, marketing/promotions.

Steve is the owner operator of ZebraGraphics in Paducah, Kentucky. Zebra is a source for all marketing needs such as tradeshow materials, renewing your web presence or simply needing a brochure.

Steve brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Full service print and design firm.
Experience with: Starting a business from the ground up.
Expertise in: Customer relations, marketing/promotions.

Raised on a farm in West Kentucky and a lifelong resident of Paducah, Billy Harper graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1966. Upon graduation he accepted a position with Shell Oil in Midland, Texas, as a production engineer designing downhole oil production equipment. In 1971 returned to Paducah to join his father in the construction business. In 1980, Harper Industries, Inc., a holding company, was founded by Billy Harper who serves as its president. Subsidiaries of the company initially consisted of a general contractor, a mechanical contractor and a ready-mix concrete operation. Today, Harper Industries has grown into a holding company consisting of seven construction related subsidiaries with offices in Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas and with construction sites in twenty to twenty five states.

Billy brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Construction
Experience with: Expanding a multi-generational family business.
Expertise in: Company acquisition, business planning, human resources, strategic planning.

Helen holds a B.S. degree in Medical Technology and came into Health Care Management because of her mother's business venture in Health Care. She has worked in all phases of the business over the last 36 years. Helen is majority owner of Superior Care.

Helen brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Health Care
Experience with: Expanding a multi-generational family business.
Expertise in: Business planning, customer relations, government contracting, human resources, strategic planning.

Mary Thorsby uses her corporate communications, journalism, public relations and marketing skills to run iList Media LLC, a community Web site service. iList Media includes iList Paducah (ilistpaducah.com), Paducah's most comprehensive community events calendar, and its accompanying blog (ilistpaducah.blogspot.com). She also writes The Internet column for the Four Rivers Business Journal and Look Who's Blogging for Current.

Mary brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Community Web-site
Experience with: Starting a business from the ground up, turning a hobby into a business, working full-time and starting a business on the side.
Expertise in: Brainstorming, customer relations, information technology, marketing/promotions.

In the mid-1960s three Paducah, Kentucky, bankers began searching for a way to streamline the 50,000 checks and deposit slips their banks processed each day. Bank data processing was in its infancy and carried incredible price tags. Around that same time, Second Lieutenant John A. Williams was ending a stint with the U. S. Army after graduating from the University of Kentucky. While still at UK, Williams' fascination with MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) and recognition of the benefits MICR could provide for community banks inspired him to develop a business plan for a company that could take advantage of this new process. The rest, as they say, is history.

Computer Services, Inc. (CSVI) was incorporated in March 1965, Williams was hired as Executive Director, and operations began with six employees and three customers in Paducah.

From the outset, CSI demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit that has led to the company's success. CSI was the first independent servicer in Kentucky; first to provide commercial loan processing for commercial banks; first to offer a nationwide PC software sales program; first to convert a Kentucky bank to check imaging; first to offer Internet Banking; first to offer Internet Service Provider (ISP) service; and first to provide a corporate intranet, CSI Web@Work.

A carefully planned acquisition strategy has expanded the CSI presence into new geographies, and CSI has carefully gathered companies under its umbrella that complement its core business: Indiana Information Controls, Inc., a sister bank processing company in northern Indiana; Computer Bank, Inc. which expanded CSI's presence into Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana; First Commerce Technologies (FCT) which moved CSI westward into Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Iowa, New Mexico and Nebraska and to the other side of the U.S. into Florida; ATTUS Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of compliance solutions; McCoy Myers & Associates, provider of in-house and service bureau processing systems; and Summit Financial Solutions, Inc., provider of payments processing and imaging solutions; and Heartland Communications Internet Services, Inc., provider of telecommunication services. Visit CSI's affiliates from our home page for more information.

Throughout CSI's history, the vision of John A. Williams, Chairman, has been a firm foundation and a driving force behind the success of the company.

John brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Computer software and services
Experience with: Starting a business from the ground up.
Expertise in: Company acquisition, brainstorming, business planning, information technology, strategic planning.

IGary received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University in 1990. From then until 1993, he worked for Westinghouse Electric's Distribution and Control Business Unit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a Sales Engineer managing the west coast distributors and sales offices.

In 1992 Gary moved to Paducah to be an outside sales engineer calling on the local Westinghouse Control House Distributor, Hannan Supply.

Gary left Westinghouse in 1995 to pursue his dream of being an independent business owner. Since 1995, Kevin Baer and Gary have developed and started four different businesses,all in the energy management and energy services markets. Those companies are: UtilitiesDynamics, Inc.,Merit Electric, Energy Impact, and Impact Industrial Services.

Gary is formerly from Pittsburgh and is married to Lisa Zakutney. He adds, "I have four of the best gifts I could have every asked for which are our four sons!"

Gary brings to EntreForum…
Business characterization: Turnkey Energy Management Solutions
Experience with: Creating multiple businesses in a certain business sector, and starting businesses from the ground up.
Expertise in: Customer relations; strategic planning.