Brian Wright, CPC
Managing Partner

Brian is married to Kay and they have two children; Haley and Coleman. Brian serves as the Vice President and Membership Chair on the Board of Directors for the Pinnacle Society, a consortium of the 75 highest volume executive recruiters in the United States. Brian also formerly served as the Vice Chairperson for the National Association of Executive Recruiters.

Brian earned a BA in Business Administration from the University of Kentucky and a MA from Webster University while working fulltime in the convenience store and petroleum industry. Brian’s career started by working in his parent’s franchised convenience stores and at age 18 he was offer a position as a store supervisor for the franchise parent company. This began a 21 year career in the convenience store and later the petroleum industry. Brian served in marketing, operations, gasoline purchasing and human resources during his stint with three different organizations. His final role was a VP Operations/COO for Country Cupboard Food Marts and Chestatee Oil Corp.

In 1997 Brian started Absolute Activewear a uniform manufacturing company providing services to the convenience store, petroleum and quick serve restaurant industries. After selling this venture in 1999 Brian began his career as an executive recruiter and in 2003 he started Executive Leadership Solutions (ELS). Other professional associations include membership in the “National Association of Personnel Services”, “American Staffing Association”, and Brian presently sits on the “Manpower Committee” in support of the “Supplier Board” for the “National Association of Convenience Stores” and the “Education Committee” as well as “New Member Committee” for the “Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America”.

Brian’s personal motto as well as the motto for ELS is “we serve our client’s need by serving our candidate’s needs.”

Ali Waldron
Senior Executive Recruiter

A fifth generation Floridian, Ali graduated from Florida State University earning a Bachelor's degree in Textiles & Consumer Sciences with emphasis in Merchandising. Upon graduation Ali began her career with an upscale retailer working as the Visual Merchandising Manager. On top of her day-to-day management responsibilities she found that she most enjoyed helping her clients' look and feel their best. Demonstrating successful retail management and sales abilities allowed her to be recruited to take on a new sales role at a successful health club chain located throughout the Tampa Bay, FL area. As a Sales Manager of a large health club she challenged and encouraged her staff to meet and exceed monthly sales quotas by consistently prospecting for new members.

Prior to joining ELS, Ali worked for an executive recruiting firm where she successfully placed candidates and built a rapport with many executive officers in the hospitality, finance, and legal industries. Her outgoing personality enables her to meet many people and her astute people skills allow her to find the most qualified people and/or positions for your needs. Ali is interested in assisting people achieve their goals and makes both the client and candidate feel comfortable by finding common interests. She excels at smoothing difficulties that may arise during negotiations because of her strong relationship with both the client and candidate. Ali is a professional recruiter that brings much experience to Executive Leadership Solutions. She looks forward to working with you in the near future.

Bob Iezzi, CPC
Chief Operating Officer

Specializing on the Supplier and Retail side of the industry Bob’s 30 years of business experience is a true asset to Executive Leadership Solution's clients and candidates alike.

Bob has spent most of his adult life in the convenience store industry. Growing up in an entrepreneurial family he was behind the counter at a very young age and joined Thornton Oil Corporation shortly after graduating from The University of Tampa with a BA degree in Business Administration. Bob and his lovely wife Donna have 3 beautiful daughters. The Iezzi’s family resides in Louisville KY

During his 23 year tenure at Thornton’s, Bob came up through the ranks starting as a Manager in a gasoline only operation and progressed his way through each operational position to be the Vice President of Operations, then Vice President of Marketing and ultimately last served as the Executive Vice President for the Corporation and served on the Board of Directors. Bob is well known in the convenience store industry, putting together a very unique and talented operations and marketing team that grew Thornton’s to 130 of the highest volume combination gas/convenience stores in the industry. Under Bob’s direction this unique team was responsible for the development of the very first store as well as over the years developing many unique concepts and brands including the development of the prototype concept, the Quick Café and Market. A true innovator in the industry Thornton’s launched the first full menu Subway, McDonalds and Taco Bell as well as the largest Dunkin Donut franchise in the U.S. within a traditional C-store operation.

One fact that Bob is very proud of is that virtually every member of the executive team he hired while at Thornton’s has moved to positions of Ownership, Presidents, Executive Vice Presidents and other executive level staff positions among the some of the largest convenience store and big box retailers in America.

In addition to the Convenience store industry Bob’s other business experience has included extensive experience in the Automobile related industry where he served as Vice President of Huber’s Inc. a multi unit automobile franchise and the ownership of a Budget Car and Truck Rental Agency. Bob still dabbles in the entrepreneurial world as co founder and partner in the Country Music Café.

Bob has an eye for talent. His proven skill of putting the right people in the right positions and his unique approach to providing a consulting approach proves to be a real added value to both the client and the candidate.

John Malik, CPC
Senior Executive Recruiter

John is an experienced, professional recruiter who brings over 12 years of recruiting experience to Team-ELS.

The son of a career Air Force officer and avid golfer, John was recruited by the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1987. There, John was 5th Man for their NCAA Div I Golf Team and studied Human Factors Engineering. Upon completion of his military career, John began a Management track in Retail Sporting Goods where he managed single and multi-unit, high volume big box locations for 2 National chains.

In 1997, John officially entered the executive search profession where is focus in HealthCare, Finance, Engineering and the Petroleum/C-Store Industries has helped advance clients and candidates alike. John currently resides in Dayton, Ohio and is married to Stephanie. They have 3 children; Tess, Nick and Gigi. Between the family activities and sports, John like to keep his golf handicap in single digits, participate in triathlons/duathlons, cycling and other outdoor activities. John’s personal motto is ”inspect what you expect” and translates to success for his clients and candidates. John looks forward to working with you in the very near future.

Pete Compise, CPC
Senior Executive Recruiter

Pete is an experienced, professional recruiter who will assist you in accomplishing your goals. He has been involved in recruiting for over twenty years. He also has experience in the retail arena as a Region Manager for a retail chain prior to joining Team-ELS. His varied background includes positions as a Human Resource Manager, Corporate Recruiter, Director of Trade Relations, Regional Trainer and owner of two full service restaurants.

Pete grew up in Western New York and was recruited to play football at the University of Louisville. Upon graduation he entered a career as a College Football Coach, with coaching stints at University of Louisville and at Indiana University in the Big Ten. After thirteen years coaching, Pete had the opportunity to open two full service restaurants in Louisville, KY. As owner and managing partner he developed both into award winning restaurants. During his time spent coaching and developing restaurants Pete realized that winning was a combination of a sound business plan and good people that made a team, and a company successful. The keys to success are to recruit good people, train and develop them into leadership positions, have a great business plan and the winning will take care of itself. He has taken his "Win with People" philosophy and applied it to every aspect of retail operations and recruiting during his career.

After spending the last few years with a successful retail store chain, Pete decided to combine his outstanding knowledge of the industry with his skills as a recruiter and coach and join Team-ELS. His intelligence, work ethic and character driven leadership will help our client companies locate and hire the best candidates for their management team.

Pete is married to Rhonda, has two grown daughters and a new grand son. Favorite past times are Fly Fishing for Trout, camping and cooking. In the fall, Pete spends his Saturday afternoons as the Radio Color Analyst for the Indiana University Football Hoosiers on the Indiana Radio Network.

A native of Southwest Florida, Mason attended Edison College and University of South Florida where he studied Business Administration. Mason’s career has prepared him for excellence and outstanding service in Executive Recruiting.

In his first career of 20 years as an Executive in the International Airline Industry, Mason excelled in creating a management team that ensured delivery of world class customer service, streamlined and highly efficient operations, quality personnel recruitment and management, and award winning sales programs.

This experience was invaluable as Mason ventured into the entrepreneurial world as a key member of the country’s largest travel agency franchise organization. As Divisional Director of Business Development, he assisted in the sales of new travel agency franchises throughout Florida. In this role, he functioned as expert industry advisor and mentor to each and every agency business owner. Totally immersed in franchise image and conversion re-imaging, Mason also used his business skills in planning and assisting owners in their business and sales plans, revenue projections, profit and loss management, and recruiting and hiring expert travel industry personnel.

To satisfy his yearning to have his own successful travel agency franchise, Mason purchased a struggling agency and in a short time, turned it into a local powerhouse agency taking the leading market share in the community. The secret to that success Mason says was the recruiting of the best professional travel agents in the area, taking the sales efforts directly into the community by way of hundreds of personal sales calls, civic and community involvement, and delivering outstanding travel agency services 24/7.

After selling his successful travel agency, Mason continued to employ his expertise in selling enterprise software solutions to Fortune 50, Fortune 100, Fortune 1000 Clients and Governments all around the world.

Using sound business and marketing practices combined with the highest integrity is Mason’s business mantra. His personal belief is to give back to the community through involvement in local charities and volunteer work.

Mason’s goal is to deliver world class service to his Clients and his personal dedication is to “remember that persuasive promises must be backed up by consistent and measurable results.”

Mike Lowe, CPC
Senior Executive Recruiter

Mike and his wife Beth, make their home in Jacksonville, Florida. They have two grown children, Danny and Sarah. Mike grew up in the mid-west, and saw the world while serving in the US Navy for several years. Mike and Beth spent most of their adult life in North Carolina. Mike is famous in a close circle of family and friends for being an excellent backyard grill cook. Mike and his family also enjoy boating on the St. Johns River in North Florida. From 1979 to 1998, Mike worked with Stallings Oil Company of Rocky Mount North Carolina. Mike held numerous positions in the company including Travel Center General Manager, Travel Center division President, and Operations Vice-President for the company. In 1998, Mike transitioned to working with The Pantry Inc. when The Pantry purchased the chain of stores from Stallings Oil Company. While Mike was with the Pantry in North Carolina, he was quickly recognized for his leadership and people skills and promoted to a position in Florida to assist with recent acquisitions the company had made. Mike served in several Vice President positions for The Pantry from 1998 until 2007 when he joined Executive Leadership Solutions. While at The Pantry, Mike experienced the demands and requirements of creating shareholder value in a Fortune 500 publicly traded company.

Mike has been in retail management positions most of his life where he learned he was really “in the people business” and happened to sell various goods and services. During his almost 30 years in management positions, Mike learned from the “hiring side of the desk”, the importance of quality people. Mike’s continues to recognize this strategy today in his recruiting practice. Mike looks forward to serving client and candidate needs in “the people business”.

Ralf Doerstling, CPC
Senior Executive Recruiter

Ralf was born in the Chicago area to parents who immigrated to the US from Germany. After 12 years in northeastern Illinois, his family spent three years near the scenic Amish country in southeastern Pennsylvania. Then it was back over the ocean to Germany, where Ralf graduated from a German college prep high school in Garmisch-Partenkirchen while staring out the classroom window at the beautiful Bavarian Alps. (One of his P.E. classes combined snow skiing and basketball!)

Ralf returned to the US after German high school and obtained his BS in Accounting from BJU in Greenville, South Carolina. He joined the audit staff at Arthur Andersen in Atlanta, Georgia, where he earned his CPA certification. After seven years in accounting and finance with Arthur Andersen, BellSouth, and a start-up company, Ralf moved into the recruiting industry as a retained medical search consultant in Atlanta, where he placed physicians of all specialties in hospitals and group practices around the US. After a tour of duty as the international sales manager for a small consumer products company in Atlanta, Ralf returned to recruiting in the corporate arena. He created happy hiring managers and candidates as the Corporate Recruiting Manager at The HoneyBaked Ham Company of Georgia; as the team lead for an RPO engagement with DBM, a leading global outplacement and career transition firm; as a recruiter for the Data Quality and Integrity practice at Deloitte; and as the Corporate Recruiting Partner at Gartner's inside sales base in Fort Myers, Florida.

Ralf is blessed to be married to his wife, Patty. They have been enjoying southwest Florida for almost two years now and have four school age children who excel academically and athletically. His favorite pastimes include chasing his children around the soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball, and softball fields; playing tennis and golf; snow skiing; and travel. Ralf is fully bi-lingual in German and managed to add a few years worth of French while he lived in Germany. However, please don't ask him to remember too much of that!

Ralf's strengths include his ability to learn fast, his broad experience, and a rare blend of technical acumen and strong people skills. He excels at building mutually beneficial, long-term client relationships founded on absolute integrity.

Mike Rasnak
Senior Executive Recruiter

Mike and his lovely wife of nearly 30 years are empty nesters who enjoy country living. While their 2 grown children have gone, the 2 horses, 3 cats and 2 dogs remaining. He splits his time between his South Carolina and Florida homes.

Mike is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy. He was Class president for 3 years and a member of the executive search committee for a new chancellor. He has attended Penn State’s Executive Strategic Management Program, been through the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, and a graduate of Ashland Chemicals “Simply the Best” program.

Mike’s career has been heavily tilted to retail for 30 years. His career started by purchasing his first of three pharmacies in the Chicago market during his senior year of college. He then helped developed the Kmart pharmacies through out the Midwest, opening over 200 units in 7 states. In the mid-seventies, Mike was recruited by Super America to develop pharmacies within convenience stores. This led to a whole new direction in careers as he was promoted to Regional VP of operations. With the joint venture of SpeedwaySuperAmerica, Mike was named Divisional VP of Ops with over 600 hundred stores under his leadership. Mike has been active in numerous pharmacy and oil convenience organizations.

Most recently Mike assisted Family Express in the development of in-house commissary, bakery, and self distribution as the VP of marketing.

Mike is an avid aviator holding a commercial pilots license with instrument and multiengine ratings. He currently flies a Korean War vintage army plane, and is active in numerous aviation organizations.

Hap Howeth
Senior Executive Recruiter

Hap and his wife Tammy have two children living at home and two grown children with three grandchildren. Hap is a native of Texas, growing up in San Antonio. He graduated from the University of Texas in Austin where he was a member of the Longhorn Band. During high school and college Hap held various part time and full time jobs in grocery, big box, and convenience stores. After he received his degree, he immediately started his retail management career in Woolco Department Stores and then as Store Manager at Service Merchandise Company. He then moved to convenience stores joining 7-Eleven in Dallas as a Field Representative running Territories in North Dallas and Richardson. After leaving 7-Eleven, he joined E Z Serve becoming a Marketing Manager and then Area Manager over New Orleans. After E Z Serve Hap became Vice President of Operations for Griffin Express, Clark Oil Company as Director of Marketing, and CEFCO stores as Regional Store Director.

Hap has applied his lifetime of experience in retail for the past three years recruiting management successfully for convenience store companies and suppliers. After 30+ years in retail management, Hap has learned the key to success in any retail management position is to surround yourself with knowledgeable and competent associates who know their jobs. He has used this philosophy in all his placements. Hap will do anything he possibly can to a great right candidate at the right time for your company.

Robin Buboltz, CPM, CBM
Senior Executive Recruiter

Robin has over 23 years of experience in the lean manufacturing, operations, logistics, procurement and materials environments where he has served in various capacities from Director to Operation/Business Unit Manager. In addition to his experience in the manufacturing arena, Robin was the Owner/President of a successful, full-service marina and retail boat facility.

Robin is married and has a grown son. His favorite pastimes are fishing, motorcycling, boating and cooking. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota and attended college at Southwest State University where he earned his BA in Business Management. He began his career in manufacturing as the Director of Materials at a state-of-the art defense contractor with plants in Anniston, Alabama and Naples, Florida, where he was responsible for materials management, procurement, and logistics. When this company moved its full-time operations to Alabama, Robin decided to stay in Florida and signed on as Purchasing Manager with a global manufacturing facility in Fort Myers, Florida, where he was quickly promoted to Operations/Business Unit Manager. While working for these companies, Robin acquired extensive experience in the commercial, aerospace and defense manufacturing arenas.

Robin held the position of ISM/NAPM - Florida Sun Coast Inc. affiliate's second Vice President and has be awarded the life time "Certified Purchasing Managers" designation from the Institute for Supply Management, Inc. He was also awarded the "Certificate in Business Management" from The Association of Professionals in Business Management (APBM).

Robin strongly feels that people are an organization's most valuable asset. Succeeding tomorrow depends upon choosing the right leaders today. As a high-energy individual with extensive knowledge in all aspects of the manufacturing environment, Robin will provide a competitive recruiting edge to companies by identifying outstanding leaders with critical and strategic skills. He is a hands-on practitioner of lean manufacturing, operations, logistics, materials and supply chain management. He knows that continually seeking to find and hire top talent is a critical success factor for growing companies.

Many people have come to realize that there is no such thing as job security in today's world. Robin believes that security is now replaced by opportunity, and his mission is to insure that his top-level candidates are connected to viable clients with the ultimate goal of increasing the company's profits.

Kirk Riley, CPC
Senior Executive Recruiter

Kirk is married to Robin and they have two children; Katie (18) and Heather (16). They make there home in Ft. Myers, FL. Kirk has four years experience in recruiting, working in the banking industry placing banking executives. During his previous recruiting experience, Kirk won numerous honors for number of placements and total billings, that put him in the top 10 % of Account Executives worldwide for a major recruiting firm in the United States.

Kirk earned an Associate Degree in Small Business Management from Schoolcraft College, Livonia, MI, and a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Madonna University, Livonia, MI. Kirk brings to Executive Leadership Solutions over 20 years experience in the banking industry. During his banking career Kirk was successful in working his way through a number of Management positions, that included being a First Vice President/ Senior Lending Officer of a $145 Million Community Bank.

Kirk looks forward to utilizing his previous experience in the recruiting and banking industry, that will allow him to create a successful environment for our clients and candidates. His favorite past times are family activities, sports, and following politics.

Kim Ferguson
Senior Executive Recruiter

Kim brings 15 years of experience in recruiting, management, and human resources to Executive Leadership Solutions. In 1998, she began her career in recruiting with the world's largest staffing firm where she was quickly promoted to Director and given the opportunity to open a new branch. She has extensive knowledge and understanding from both clients' and candidates' perspectives during the interviewing and hiring process and goes above and beyond to ensure she provides outstanding assistance and guidance. In her previous role as the manager of a regional office with one of the nation's largest employment firms, Kim successfully lead a team of account managers and interviewers who matched candidates with clients in the medical, call center, retail, construction, administrative, engineering & IT, as well as accounting and finance fields. Kim prides herself in building long-term relationships with her clients and candidates through excellent communication, follow-through skills, and customer service.

Kim is the proud mother of two boys; Joseph and Aidan. Both boys are actively involved in soccer, basketball, cub scouts, and activities within our Church.

Tara Simpson
Technical Research Recruiter

Tara's diverse career has prepared her for excellence and outstanding service in the field of Executive Recruiting. A native of Florida, her outgoing personality enables her to successfully network and her perceptive communication provides her skills necessary to make the most successful match between qualified people and positions. Tara's strives to make both client and candidate confident in their match through commonality. Negotiations are a welcome challenge thanks to her ability to understand what each party is seeking.

In the words of William Jennings, "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." Tara lives by these words and strives to help each candidate and client make the choices that will help them achieve their destinies.

Tara has three children who shine both academically and athletically. She spends her free time shuffling them to football, gymnastics, scouts, chorus, and church groups. As a professional recruiter, Tara brings a wealth of determination and knowledge to Executive Leadership Solutions. She looks forward to working with you.

Terri Knapp
Database Administrator

Terri is married to Bob and they have three children; Christina, Casey and Tim and one grandchild Aiden.

Terri’s experience prior to joining Executive Leadership Solutions was working for the Law Firm of Cole, Brown & Fesmier, where she served as their office manager and bookkeeper for nine years. A native of Michigan; Terri moved from Ohio to Florida in 2006.  Terri’s duty at Executive Leadership Solutions primarily revolves around maintaining and updating the firm’s growing database of clients and candidates.