Martin P. Metzler, President & Strategy Manager

Martin has over 20 years experience in senior management positions and as a consultant, business adviser and multiple business owner. A creative visionary, strategist, marketer and innovative leader, he was involved in the successful development and management of several companies domestically and globally with headquarters in Germany and the USA including 3 franchise companies and 2 global companies which he expanded into over 60 countries. His areas of expertise include strategic and business development, corporate planning, strategic partnerships, international development, innovation and change management, sales, marketing, public relations and expansion models.

Martin holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from the University of Cooperative Education (Duale Hochschule) in Ravensburg, Germany.

He served as Director of the Board for various companies and was involved in different capacities in professional clubs, Non-Profits and associations.  Amongst others he served as board member and chairman of the fundraising committee of the Foothills Rotary Club in Tucson and board member/school project coordinator of SEBA (Supporting Education, Business and Achievement) in Tucson, Arizona. Currently, he is a member of the Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce where he serves on different committees.

During his career he was interviewed by CNN, CNBC, Fox News and Channel News Asia and quoted regularly in major trade publications and news media around the world. He was a speaker, facilitator and moderator at numerous events and conferences worldwide.

Chris Miller, Marketing & Market Research Manager

Chris is a senior B to C  marketing executive with over 20 years experience with CPG, restaurant, technology, toys, and franchised businesses.  His expertise includes marketing and brand strategy; consumer insights; product research and development; product line management; digital and offline media; promotions; channel marketing; public relations; and organizational development. 

He has led teams at leading franchised restaurant chains as a senior executive and consultant.  For YUM Brands, he served as Taco Bell Vice President of Brand Marketing; and Senior Director Non-Traditional Channels for multi-branded units with KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s, and A&W.  He was Chief Marketing Officer for Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, an NRN Second 100 leading growth chain.  As Executive Vice President for Sandelman & Associates, Chris provided research and consulting to clients including Bob Evans Farms, IHOP, Hooter’s, Subway, Panera Bread, TOGO’s, Jack In The Box, Popeyes, El Pollo Loco, Del Taco, Rubio’s, Qdoba, Panda, Yoshinoya, Papa Murphy’s Pizza,  Round Table Pizza,  and Marco’s Pizza. 

Chris also served as Vice President Marketing for electronic learning toy maker Leap-Frog Enterprises, where he led marketing plans for the digital-centric and e-commerce re-launch of the brand.

Chris started his marketing career at Young & Rubicam Advertising, managing CPG advertising for the Clorox (Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressings, Kingsford and Matchlight Charcoal, Pine-Sol, Liquid Plumr); Quaker Oats (Rice-a-Roni and Pasta-Roni); and Xerox (Home Office Products) Companies. 

Chris graduated cum laude from Harvard College and continues his marketing education with service to marketing professional organizations including the American Marketing Association and the Marketing Executives Networking Group.  He has been interviewed in leading  trade publications including Advertising Age and Nation’s Restaurant News, and earned Effie awards for effective marketing for the Taco Bell “Chihuahua” ad campaign and Brand Re-launch.

Thom Davis, Information & Operations Manager

Mr. Davis graduated from the University of Texas -Dallas Magna cum Laude with a BSBA with a concentration in accounting in 1985.

Highlights of his career include Chief Financial Officer of Hill Broadcasting, Inc. where he oversaw two television stations located in Washington, D.C. and the greater Boston area.  His responsibilities included cash management, budgeting, information management, banking relationships and day to day accounting operations. Other specific functions included the negotiation of syndicated television programming, equipment sale lease backs and real estate leases. The company had $60 million in annual revenues and 120 employees. 

Mr. Davis redirected his career to focus on the Information Technology component of accounting and successfully took thirty (30) small to medium size companies ($500k to $5 million) through the migration of manual bookkeeping to computer based accounting systems. This led to the formation of TD&C. This new company provided database solutions for a variety of companies. TD&C and its’ largest client ACS have enjoyed an eleven year continuous relationship. The primary solution provided to this Fortune 500 Company is an asset tracking and billing application for their telecom division. Currently over 52,000 assets are tracked and $125 million in monthly telephone charges are processed for payment and rebilling. 

In 1999 CatalogFoundry.com (since re-named 4Intranets.com) was created to exploit the enhanced communication possibilities of the Web. Clients included Nestle and Chrysler.  The challenge was to provide a method of collecting demographic data real time. CFC created a solution that allowed the people in the field to enter the data real time from a cell phone directly to a web engine.

Mr. Davis most recently held positions as CIO and COO with Omega Environmental Technologies. He has helped Omega grow to $120 million in revenue and become a leader in their industry in the use of technology.

Current Civic services include Director – Irving Symphony Orchestra, Director – Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce, President – Irving Sister Cities/International Trade Development Assistance Center, Director - Irving Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Director – Irving HealthCare Foundation, Member – TMAC Advisory Council and Irving Sunrise Rotary.

Robert Fulcher, Delivery Manager

Robert has more than 30 years experience in the information systems industry as manager, solutions architect, and entrepreneur in bringing the right information solution and technology to align with corporate business objectives.  Robert has experience in large multi-national business development and growth of startups through $50m.  Robert has both technical and managerial experience across a number of industries including Finance, Energy, Manufacturing, Telecom, Education, Resort and Leisure, Family Business, Event Management, and Commercial Software.

Robert has served in worldwide technical management positions for Texas Instruments, Practice Manager for delivery methodology in small business, consulting and contracting roles, and most recently as President of Commercial Insurance Software Systems at TeoTios, Inc.

Robert holds a B.S. degree in Mathematics from the University at Arlington and has held a PMP certification in Project Management.

Nader Barghouthi, Consultant

Nader Barghouthi has over 18 years of experience engineering and building solutions for enterprises and service providers within the Telecommunications, Cloud Services, Professional Services & Managed Services industries for both Direct Sales & Partner Channels. He has held various roles in Sales, Account Management and Engineering with Verizon, Level 3 and most recently with EarthLink Business as Director Technology Solutions Engineering for the Indirect National Sales Organization. Nader’s responsibilities included developing a consultant organization to provide technical sales support, focused on developing and engineering IT Services such as data center services, virtualization services, application services, security services, unified communications and connectivity services.

Currently Nader heads up a technical organization assisting customers with their Technology needs. Nader’s expertise includes re-designing entire infrastructure of WAN and LAN, optimizing throughputs on application, business technology designs including (but not limited to) VMware cloud technologies, VoIP and SIP configurations, and VDI and Cloud migrations, and bringing Enterprise technologies up to Compliance industry standards including GLBA/FISMA/SSAE16/PCI DSS/HIPPA.

Nader attended University of Texas in Austin where he studied Mathematics and Business. He is a member of the Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce where he serves on the Economic Development Advisory Council.

Krista Kramer Hartman, Consultant

Krista Kramer Hartman is an engaging visionary. She is a collaborative, energetic, results oriented strategist, accountability partner and facilitator. Capable of leading forward, improving lives and business cultures, and developing people comes naturally to Krista. Her Clifton Strengths Finder top five themes of talent are Strategic, Positivity, Harmony, Discipline and Restorative. These talents support her knack for relationship building, strategic thinking and executing. Her clients benefit from these talents combined with her diverse life experiences and people skills developed as a result of her dedication to working in people focused environments during her 25-year career. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.S. in Commercial/Industrial Recreation Management, and Marketing Minor. She is a Core Essentials Graduate of Coach University, the leading institute for business and personal coaching.

She began her career in Des Moines, Iowa as a golf professional, and owned and operated a retail photography studio. Krista worked in the downtown Chicago Real Estate industry for fourteen years, first as a Marketing Director for Lincoln Property Company and Leasing Manager at the Chicago Board of Trade and later as a Residential Realtor® for Rubloff (now Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group). Following her career as a golf professional, small business owner and in real estate she successfully developed and operated her coaching practice. Krista and her mother, Mary Kramer (Retired US Ambassador), have co-authored a book about their unique mother-daughter leadership and life perspectives. Their stories, lessons learned, and personal values confirmed are shared with their readers in three areas; legacy, responsibility and possibility.

Krista has the heart for service and volunteering. Over the years Krista has served as a member of numerous volunteer and non-profit boards in Des Moines, Chicago, and Dallas. She currently serves the board of her Rotary club, the Rotary Club of Dallas-Uptown as Leadership Development Chair, and International Service Chair. For her service during the 2012-2013 Rotary year, her club honored her as recipient of Uptown's annual Rotarian of the year award. At the District Level, for 2012-2013 she was nominated for both Club President of the Year and Rotarian of the Year. She currently serves Rotary International District 5810 as an Assistant Governor for 4 clubs, and she is the Chair of the vision and strategic planning program for clubs and leadership groups called GATE-Way. (Goals, Action, Talent, Execution and the Way).