Leadership

Dr. Arthur Laffer

Arthur Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm.

Dr. Laffer currently sits on the board of directors or board of advisors of a number of public and private companies, including Alpha Theory, Atrevida Partners, BAP Power, BridgeHealth Medical, F-Squared Investments, HealthEdge Partners, LifePics, Nicholas Applegate Institutional Funds, Oxigene Inc. (OXGN), Pillar Data Systems, and Retirement Capital Group.

Dr. Laffer was a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981-1989). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Reagan/Bush Finance Committee in 1984 and was a founding member of the Reagan Executive Advisory Committee for the presidential race of 1980.

During the years 1972 to 1977, Dr. Laffer was a consultant to Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld, and Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz. He was the first to hold the title of Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget (0MB) under Mr. Shultz from October 1970 to July 1972.

Dr. Laffer’s economic acumen and influence in triggering a world-wide tax-cutting movement in the 1980s have earned him the distinction as “The Father of Supply-Side Economics.” Dr. Laffer has been widely acknowledged for his economic achievements. He was noted in Time Magazine’s March 29, 1999 cover story, “The Century’s Greatest Minds” for inventing the Laffer Curve, which it deemed one of “a few of the advances that powered this extraordinary century.”

Dr. Laffer received a B.A. in economics from Yale University in 1963. He received an MBA and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1965 and 1971, respectively.

Mr. William (Bill) Brennan

Bill founded Mailnet Services, the now-Charlotte-based business operating as Conclusive Marketing. Mailnet Services Inc. was spun-out of Brennan’s earlier venture, Data Marketing Network Inc. (DNI), which he eventually sold in 2008. Bill is not only a successful entrepreneur, but a hands-on visionary and technologist who inspires us on a daily basis.

His career highlights at DNI include:

• Expanding operations with a growth rate exceeding 30% annually, creating one of the largest direct mail and fulfillment companies in the Southeast.
• First company in the U.S. to provide high-speed list processing services via the internet.
• Attracting a wide-range of Fortune 500 clients including: MCI, GM, Microsoft, AT&T, Checks Unlimited, Kroger, American General, Rollins and Globe Insurance.

Mr. Crom Carmichael

Crom Carmichael is a native of South Bend, Indiana, and a 1971 graduate of Vanderbilt University. He now resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Over the last 10 years Crom has funded and participated in the founding of over a dozen companies in a variety of high tech industries. Crom currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Nashai Biotech.

In addition to his business career, Crom has been an active political commentator in the Nashville media market for the past twenty years. From 1989 to 1996, Crom wrote a bi-monthly column for the Nashville Tennessean, opposing the paper’s editorial positions. From 1990 to 1992, he provided regular commentaries on the NBC local affiliate in Nashville, WSMV-TV’s 6:00 p.m. news telecast, The Scene at 6. Crom also brought his views on local and national issues to the Nashville airwaves between 1985 and 1994, as a regular commentator on Teddy Bart’s Round Table, a morning radio talk show.

Eric Brown

CEO and Co-Founder. Mr. Brown is a senior executive with over 25 years experience in building high-growth companies. His experience includes building from the ground up for angel backed start-ups or re-engineering acquisitions of international Fortune 100 companies for optimum performance and dramatic revenue growth. In addition, he has a demonstrated ability to lead the creation of new companies, products and services, or business models to secure significant market share within a narrow time line. His executive career includes leadership positions with companies such the Gannett Company, InteliStaf Healthcare, and SaaS WMS provider Shiftwise. Mr. Brown is a member of the Gerson Lehrman Group Automotive Council.

Mr. Brown is a graduate of Missouri Southern State University with additional studies in Executive Leadership from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA and eCommerce Strategies, Columbia University, New York, NY.

Jason Ezell

President and Co-Founder. Mr. Ezell is a founding partner of Dealerskins which was acquired by Dominion Enterprises in 2005. With 20 years experience in the automotive industry, Jason Ezell’s career has focused on one objective, helping automotive dealers sell more cars. Mr. Ezell went from starting two of the first local dealership Internet departments in the United States, to starting one of the most unique and well respected automotive website companies in the industry.

Mr. Ezell is a highly respected and sought after speaker in the automotive industry, having spoke at internet conferences and NADA 20 groups nationally, published author within leading industry trade publications, and consultant to multiple automotive dealer groups. Jason is known for his statistical approach to analyzing Internet user data to better understand how to sell cars via the Internet. Mr. Ezell is a member of the JD Power Internet Round Table, an NADA 20 Group Preferred Speaker and a Digital Dealer Conference guest speaker.

Aaron West

Aaron West serves Dataium as Chief Technology Officer. For the past twelve years Aaron has been heavily involved in the Web development space building enterprise-level, database-driven Web applications and leading technology teams. He is incredibly passionate about technology and loves immersing himself in bleeding edge software such as Apache Hadoop, Node.js, and Vertica.

Aaron has been a technical writer and contributor to a book on Internet programming and he’s written several whitepapers on using open source technology such as Apache httpd and Subversion. Since 2006 he has spoken at several technology conferences including CFUnited and Adobe MAX.

At Dataium Aaron is responsible for orchestrating the entire technology platform. From researching and testing new technologies such as Vertica and Node.js, to hiring and coordinating efforts between sales, product development, customer support, and ultimately the programmers. Aaron’s mission is to ensure the best possible technology experience is delivered to our customers, partners, and vendors.

Jim Phillips

Jim has focused on supporting entrepreneurial companies over a 25 year career. Today, XMi supports the success of small growth oriented businesses through providing a portfolio of business infrastructure services designed to help focus each entrepreneur on revenue development activities and its competitive advantages. Experience indisputably demonstrates that when CEOs focus on the right things, their businesses outperform. As a result, XMi provides support in human resources, accounting, full service real estate, legal services, web hosting and development, IT services, purchasing, and assistance with strategic transactions. Select businesses are eligible for funding from XMi’s venture capital fund, XMi High Growth Development, LLC. XMi applies the same methodologies to the companies it owns or manages including Health Connect America, Inc., XMi Financial Services, LLC, Choice Food Group, Inc., Maynard Select, LLC, Abe’s Garden, Inc. (non-profit), and Samaritan Recovery Center, Inc. (non-profit).

Prior to XMi, Jim managed a boutique business advisory firm and was a founder in a small business investment company sponsored through the Small Business Administration. While in graduate school, Jim founded a small business consulting business focused on assisting local CEOs.

Jim graduated with an MBA from the Owen School at Vanderbilt University (1993) and earned a bachelor degree in Management and Psychology from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA (1989).

Jim serves on the following board of directors:

Abe’s Garden, Inc. (www.abesgarden.org)

Chairman’s Foods, LLC. (www.chairmansfood.com)

Choice Food Group, Inc. (www.choicefood.com)

Criterion Holdings Corporation (www.criterionsecurity.com)

Health Connect America, Inc. (www.healthconnectamerica.com)

Industrial Ceramic Solutions, LLC (www.indceramics.com)

Maynard Select, LLC (www.selectairserv.com)

Penuel Ridge Retreat Center (www.penuelridge.org)

ProviderTrust, LLC (www.providertrust.com)

Stratasan, LLC (www.stratasan.com)

XMi Holdings, Inc. (www.xmiholdings.com)

Lee Beaman

Mr Beaman is Owner and CEO of Beaman Automotive Group, Nashville, TN. Mr. Beaman has built a $300+ million dealer group that consistently earns rewards for sales and CSI performance.

He brings an extraordinary amount of knowledge and expertise to the business side of automotive.

Donald Leyrer

Mr Leyrer is Co-founder of Conclusive Marketing a data-driven marketing solutions company.

Mr Leyrer also has over 15 years of widespread experience in sales, marketing, and management in the payment systems industry, including electronic funds transfer, consumer based transactions, and information management.