January 25-27, 2010
Venetian & Palazzo Resort Hotel Casinos

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Speaker Biographies


 


DOUG ANDERSON
Limos.com

Doug Anderson joined Limos.com as senior vice president of product and corporate development in March 2008.  Prior to this, he was vice president of product development for LesConcierges, responsible for product strategy, business development and technology development.  Previously, he worked for Hotwire.com where he managed the hotel and package products.  Before that, he was with Hilton Hotels where he focused on growing and managing electronic distribution channels.  Anderson is a graduate of The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University.

 


DARREN BERG
MTR/Western
Darren Berg is chief executive officer of Seattle-based MTR Western, the largest carbon neutral motorcoach company in North America, operating an all premium fleet of nearly 200 full sized motorcoaches from bases in Calgary, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City.  Founded in 2003, MTR Western was ranked #166 of the 500 Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies by Inc. Magazine in 2008, was awarded the Green Highway Award for Environmental Sustainability from the United Motorcoach Association in 2008, and was selected as one of the 100 Best Places to Work in the State of Washington in 2009.  Berg is a graduate of the Lundquist School of Business at the University of Oregon and of the University of Oregon School of Law.

 


KRISTINA BOUWEIRI
Reston Limousine

Kristina Bouweiri is president, chief executive officer, and co-owner of the Washington, DC metropolitan area's largest limousine/shuttle service, Reston Limousine & Travel Service, Inc., nationally ranked 27th in size.  She is a well-known business leader in the Dulles Corridor area and was named one of the 50 most powerful and influential women in Washington by the Washington Business Journal.  Bouweiri also has been featured in business publications such as Washington SMARTCEO, Enterprising Women and Limousine & Chauffeured Transportation.

 


BARBARA CHRICO
Gem Limousine
Barbara Chirico started Gem Limousine in 1976 with two used Cadillac limousines and worked out of her house for the first 15 years in business.  Today, her enterprise boasts a state-of-the-art facility and almost 100 vehicles for hire.  She has been a member of the Limousine Associations of New Jersey for the entire time she has owned her company and currently is a member of the board of directors serving in the role of treasurer.  Chirico has been a member of the NLA since its inception in 1985, served two terms on the board and held the offices of secretary and president.  She is a past winner of the prestigious LCT “Operator of the Year” award.

 


ERIC DEVLIN
Premier Transportation Services
Eric Devlin is the owner and president of Premier Transportation Services, which he founded in 1996 with two vehicles and three employees. Today, the company has more than 45 vehicles, 60 employees, loyal corporate clients, and a worldwide affiliate network.  Devlin gives credit to his staff and chauffeurs for Premier winning LCT’s awards for 2009 Operator of the Year and Best Marketing Brochure.

 

SARA EASTWOOD-MCLEAN
LCT Magazine
Sara Eastwood-McLean was hired by Bobit Publishing Company (now Bobit Business Media) in 1991 and tasked to revamp the sales and marketing programs for LCT Magazine and the LCT Show.  Since then she has grown the “journal of record” publication to one that has been ranked among the company’s top three most profitable (of more than 20), reached a pinnacle of 3,800 attendees at the 2006 Las Vegas convocation and developed four additional profit centers including the LCT Leadership Summit, the LCT Eastern Conference, a products department that sells myriad business tools to the livery trade, and the management company of the National Limousine Association.

 


MICHAEL FOGARTY
Tristar Services (U.S.) Inc.
Michael Fogarty is chief executive officer of Tristar Services (U.S.) Inc., the U.S. operation for Tristar Worldwide Chauffeur Services, based in the U.K.  He brings close to twenty years of management experience in the ground transportation industry, and has served in his current role since 2005. As CEO in the U.S., he has overall responsibility for all aspect of operations, including sales, service, training, marketing and affiliate relationships.  Prior to joining Tristar, Fogarty spent close to seventeen years at BostonCoach, Corp., where he started in 1988.

 

DIANE FORGY
Overland Limousine Service
Diane Forgy prompted her parents to start a limousine service when she was in high school.  After completing college and working outside of the company in commercial real estate, she returned to the family business in 1987, assumed the lead role in day-to-day operations in 1991 and took complete ownership in 1998.  Overland Limousine Service grew very rapidly during these years and now is established as the highest volume luxury limousine service in Kansas City.  Forgy has served on the board of the National Limousine Association.


NAOMI GLASER
Valera Global
Naomi Glaser brings more than 38 years of experience in sales, marketing and customer relations to her role at Valera Global.  As senior vice president, she is responsible for directing the company’s sales and marketing initiatives, personally conducting sales seminars and overseeing customer service.  She played a key role in developing the company’s rigorous employee training program.  Enterprising Woman Magazine name Glaser Enterprising Woman of the Year in 2007.

 


NEIL GOODMAN
Aventura Worldwide Transportation
Neil Goodman got his start in the transportation business in 1975 when he took a chauffeuring job in Miami.  He advanced from this to the position of general manager for the operation and later, having left that company, became president of the local Carey franchise.  In 1992 he started Aventura Limousine Service with four rental town cars and two used limousines.  Aventura Worldwide Transportation achieved sales of $15 million in 2007.


JEFF GREENE
Greene Classic Limousines
Jeff Greene was president of the National Limousine Association in 2006 and 2007 and served on the board of directors for six years.  He is president of Greene Classic Limousines that he founded in 1988 and is a director of the Georgia Limousine Association.  Greene Classic Limousines was named “Operator of the Year” (large company category) by LCT in 2003.

 


TONY HANCUFF
Coach America

Tony Hancuff is the vice president and general manager for Coach America and Southern California Gray Line in Anaheim, Calif.  He joined the company in 2006.  Southern California Gray Line operates a variety of sightseeing tours in the Southern California area as well as the Disneyland Resort Express Airport Service which offers transportation to and from both the John Wayne and Los Angeles International airports and the Anaheim Resort Hotels.  Prior to relocating to Southern California, Hancuff lived in Anchorage, Alas. and worked in the tourism industry for Holland America Line and Gray Line of Alaska for 22 years.

 

GEORGE JACOBS
Windy City Limousine
George Jacobs built American Limousine into the largest limousine company in America in one city.  In 1998 he sold the company to Carey International, stayed on with them for seven years, briefly retired, and then returned with a vengeance, starting Windy City Limousine in 2006 and making LCT’s top 100 in his second year of operation.  This former four-time president of the NLA has bested the IRS, testified in front of Congress, and been LCT Operator of the Year as well as Entrepreneur of the Year. Jacobs currently is serving his first three-year term on the NLA Board of Directors.


MIKE JENSEN
Mike Jensen, the Emmy award-winning former Chief Financial Correspondent for NBC News, was named by TV Guide as the best economics/business correspondent in America.  In his 40 years as a journalist for NBC Nightly News, the Today Show and The New York Times, he has covered every major economic event of our times, reporting from the oil fields of the Persian Gulf, the trading rooms of Wall Street, and Alan Greenspan’s inner-sanctum at the Federal Reserve in Washington, DC.  Jensen was in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, in China after Tiananmen Square exploded in violence, and in Russia and Poland when Communism fell.  In the U.S., he reported on the energy crisis of the ‘70’s, the stock market boom and crash of the ‘80’s, corporate downsizing in the ‘90’s, and the internet revolution in the new millennium.  He has interviewed, one-on-one, everyone from Bill Clinton and Lech Walesa to Mick Jagger and a Zimbabwe medicine man.

 


SUSIE MARTIN
Stardust Cruises Limousine Service
A native of California’s Central Coast, Susie Martin has been an entrepreneur all her adult life.  She has worked as a commercial fisher, owned a seafood market and restaurant, an automotive repair business, and is a working registered nurse.  She and her husband, Ken Martin, started Stardust Cruises Limousines in 2002.  They were the first to introduce the limo bus to the Central Coast market, and now have diverse fleet of six vehicles including a classic 1930 Model A stretch, a Lincoln 5th door, a limo van, a Hummer stretch and two limo buses.  Martin was the recipient of the 2006 LCT Operator of the Year Award.

 


TOM MILLER
Regency Global Transportation Group
Tom Miller is president and chief executive officer of Pittsburgh-based Regency Global Transportation Group, the company he started in 1991 with two cars.  Currently the firm, which focuses on the corporate market, has a diverse fleet of 34 vehicles.  Prior to founding his limousine enterprise, Miller worked for PNC Bank for 13 years.  He holds a M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, a B.A. in economics from Bethany College and is a 2005 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

 


CHARLES MIRAGLIA
Dav El Chauffeured Transportation Network
Charlie Miraglia is the chief financial officer of Dav El Chauffeured Transportation Network, one of the world’s largest privately held luxury chauffeured transportation companies.  He joined Dav El in 2002 as senior controller, and was promoted to CFO in 2005.  He has over 20 years of financial and accounting experience in various industries including public accounting and banking and has held senior financial positions in both public and private organizations.  Miraglia is a licensed certified public accountant in Massachusetts and a graduate of Suffolk University in Boston.



CARRIE PEELE
Blue Diamond Limousines
Carrie Peele is the president and CEO of Blue Diamond Limousines which was established in 1990.  Since then Blue Diamond has grown to be the largest woman-owned limousine service in North and South Carolina.  Peele also serves as the secretary of the North Carolina Limousine Association (NCLA). In 2009 she took on the city council of Raleigh against a limousine company discriminating tax act and, acting on behalf of the NCLA, succeeded in preventing limousine services from threatened taxi regulations.

 

DEENA PAPAGNI
A Touch of Class Transportation, Inc.
Deena Papagni has been president of A Touch of Class Transportation, Inc. (dba Touch of Class Limousine Service) since 1989.  From a start-up with three limousines she has built the company into the largest limousine service in Central California.  She attributes this success to her education, which includes a B.A. in business and marketing and a M.B.A., a ferocious work ethic and a growing community.  Papagni strongly believes in GPS tracking, recorded phone conversations, visual surveillance and other technological products that protect the company.  She currently is in her third year as a member of the NLA Board of Directors.


PETER POST
The Emily Post Institute
Peter Post is the co-author of The Etiquette Advantage in Business, a directory of The Emily Post Institute, and the great-grandson of Emily Post.  He conducts business seminars for corporations across the country.  Peter is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Essential Manners for Men as well as Essential Manners for Couples and Playing Through: A Guide to the Unwritten Rules of Golf.  You’ll find Post’s columns in the Boston Globe and Training Magazine.


CHRISTOPHER QUINN
Corporate Transportation Solutions, Inc.
Christopher Quinn is president and chief executive officer of Corporate Transportation Solutions based in Sacramento, Calif., a company he co-founded with his wife Shannon.  In the last seven years Quinn has grown CTS from a two-car operation to 2009 LCT Operator of the Year status.  Quinn brings nearly 25 years of Mission Critical Fire and EMS management experience to the day-to-day operations of CTS.  He currently is serving his third term on the Board of Directors of the Greater California Livery Association.  He also serves as secretary of the organization.


JOHN RODGERS
Dale Carnegie® Training
John Rodgers has been a Dale Carnegieâ instructor since 1989 and has gained international recognition by Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. as one of the top marketing associates and instructors in the world.  He is the franchise owner for JR Rodgers & Associates, Inc., the Dale Carnegie Trainingâ sponsor in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Las Vegas.  Rodgers holds an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and a graduate degree from Shippensburg University.


JEFF ROSE
Attitude New York
Jeff Roseis president and CEO of Attitude New York. He got his start in the industry driving yellow cabs in New York City while pursuing an acting career. After studying under Dav El “University” founder David Klein, he started his own company in 1986 with one car. Sensing that trends in the industry were going in a new direction, Jeff was among the first to ever launch a limousine service with a sedan instead of a stretch limousine. Today Attitude New York caters to New York’s most demanding clientele with 36 vehicles and a staff of 70. Rose is the president of the New York Limousine Association.


STUART ROTHSTEIN
Smart Cars Worldwide

Starting his professional life in the financial sector, Stuart Rothstein became involved in ground transportation when he considered the purchase of taxi medallions as an investment in 1994. As it turned out, he launched a sedan service instead.  Now, 14 years later, his company is ranked #30 on LCT’s 2009 Top 100 Fleet (Independent Operators) list.  Rothstein attributes much of Smart Cars’ success to membership in the NLA and the Illinois Limousine Association (ILA), which he has served as vice president and secretary/treasurer.


SCOTT SOLOMBRINO
Dav El Chauffeured Transportation Network
Scott Solombrino is the president and CEO of Dav El Chauffeured Transportation Network, one of the world's largest privately held luxury chauffeured ground transportation companies.  In 1978 he founded the Massachusetts Limousine Owners Association and six years later helped start the National Limousine Association.  Since then he has served four consecutive terms as its president and many years (including the current one) as a member of its board.  Solombrino also is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Business Travel Association and was named president of the NBTA Allied Leadership Council in 2005.


RON SORCI
Aventura Worldwide Transportation
Ron Sorci is the president of the National Limousine Association and chief financial officer of Aventura Worldwide Transportation, a 90-vehicle organization headquartered in Miami.  He launched his career in the ground transportation industry in 1969 when he worked for Fugazy International while attending college.  He became CFO of Fugazy in 1972 and, later that decade, fulfilled the same role for Carey International.  Subsequently he owned and operated his own company RPS Executive Limousines, Ltd.  After selling RPS in 1996, Sorci served as president of U.S. Transportation Systems, Inc. and then president of Precept Transportation before joining Aventura.

 


WILLIAM STIEREN
Allied Business Intermediary International, Inc.
William Stieren is a licensed CPA with 15 years public accounting experience.  He has worked for four years with a major life insurance company, worked in a investigative capacity with the federal government,  owned and operated multiple business and has years of extensive experience consulting to small and mid size companies on acquisitions, growth, financial restructuring and distress situations.  He was the first to develop the family limited partnership to reduce estate taxes which has become a standard tool with financial planners.  Stieren is a member of the Nevada CPA Society and the Nevada Turnaround Management Association.  He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois.

 

JOE THEISMANN
Losing his successful football career at 35 to a serious injury, Joe Theismann learned firsthand how to think, analyze and reinvent in the face of adversity and change. The most successful quarterback in the history of the Washington Redskins, Joe Theismann is also a world-class entrepreneur whose positive, high-energy presentations provide audiences with strategies for handling trying circumstances and dealing with unforeseen change. A successful businessman who currently serve on the board of directors of Johnny Rocket’s Group, he always challenges audiences to recognize the potential that lies within—as individuals and as members of a team. Voted the NFL’s Most Valuable Player, inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and twice named both the Pro Bowl’s Most Valuable Player and the NFL’s Man of the Year, Theismann led his team to the Super Bowl XVII championship.


 

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