J. DENISE HUGINNIE - MANAGING DIRECTOR
Denise Huginnie brings more than 20 years of senior financial management experience in major corporations, family-owned companies, start-up enterprises, and financial advisory firms. She specializes in mergers & acquisitions, commercial finance, and business planning & development. Denise has extensive M&A experience in both corporate and middle market transactions.
Denise has served as the Chief Financial Analyst for business advisory services at a nationally-ranked M&A firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she provided support to middle market and corporate clientele.
Denise previously held various corporate M&A positions in New Business Development, Corporate Treasury, Strategic Alliances, etc. for major corporations. Also served as the senior financial executive for various corporate business units with annual revenues exceeding $1B.
Key accomplishments and expertise:
- Corporate strategy, due diligence, and funding support for $3B acquisition program
- Major transactions included both international and domestic transactions in the telecommunications and software sectors
- Also negotiated minority investments in software development firms and strategic alliances with equipment manufacturers related to joint development efforts
- Responsible for the divestiture of major business units
- Extensive middle market business advisory experience
Denise holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University, and M.B.A. degree in Finance / Accounting from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
She is a member of the American Mensa Society and the Commonwealth Club. She previously served on the Arizona State Bar Board of Governors and the SMU Dedman Law School Community Advisors.
TOM PHILLIPS - MANAGING DIRECTOR
For over twenty years, Tom Phillips has been responsible for mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, and other key business transactions for Fortune 500 companies and venture backed start-ups alike. He served as Vice President, Corporate Business Development at DSC Communications Corporation, where he successfully completed acquisitions and divestitures totaling over $500 million.
He has structured joint ventures and strategic alliances in Germany, Israel, Brazil, India, England, Ireland, Italy, Holland, and the United States. He served on the Executive Boards of an Italian joint venture and a German strategic alliance.
As Vice President, Business Development, at TelOptica, a venture backed telecom software start-up, he led a $15.2 Million "B" round that included premiere VC firms and high net worth individuals. At LTV Corporation, Tom managed the divestiture of several units and negotiated the relevant definitive agreements.
Tom Phillips subsequently founded Effective Agreements, Inc. to address the need of small- to mid-market businesses for quality agreements that eliminate errors of omission, are drafted to clearly state the business relationship, and come at an affordable price. He continued to be involved in mergers and acquisitions, acting for IPCell in its sale to Cisco and for Intervoice in an intended acquisition of a new operating unit.
Tom served on the Board of Directors of the local chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, ACG Dallas/Fort Worth, from 2006 through 2008. Mr. Phillips served on the Board of Advisors in 2009. ACG is the premier global association for professionals involved in corporate growth, corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions for mid- to large-companies.
Tom Phillips is a graduate of Leadership Richardson, Class XV, and a member of the Leadership Richardson Alumni Association.
He is also a member of the Texas/Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Middle Market Advisors Network Group, and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Arts Incubator of Richardson.
Mr. Phillips obtained a BA from Rice University and an MBA from the University of Houston, with a specialization in finance.
ANN FIORELLI - RESEARCH DIRECTOR
Ann Fiorelli has more than 20 years experience conducting market research for leaders in IT and BPO outsourcing, including work at ACS, EDS and Accenture. She was the "go-to" person at ACS for the identification of high potential prospects and to conduct customer due diligence for potential acquisitions. She pinpointed high growth markets for Accenture's IT outsourcing business and identified emerging BPO markets.
Ann joined Accenture as part of the executive team to launch a new outsourcing practice. In addition to creating marketing plans and sales tools Ann recognized the need to arm business development executives with marketplace information and created the first-ever market research team, which continued to operate well after she left the group.
Her work provided industry executives with the catalyst they needed to sell outsourcing to clients in over 22 industry segments, revealed barriers to being asked to bid alongside Tier 1 competitors, and pinpointed emerging markets for business process (procurement, logistics, customer care, training) outsourcing, which still produced multi-million dollar revenue streams five to seven years later.
Ann created the first market research programs for MTech (acquired by EDS) and armed senior executives and sales teams with insights on how to improve client satisfaction, land high potential opportunities and ways to capitalize on competitive strengths. Ann was often asked to make presentations at industry conferences and to present research results as part of sales presentations.
When MTech was acquired by EDS, Ann was tapped by EDS to join the finance and insurance market intelligence team. Ann worked with EDS' sales teams, recommending competitive positioning strategies for EDS based on analysis of competitors and emerging industry trends.
Ann's research experience also includes significant work in the professional services sector for leading companies such as Jacobs Engineering, plus extensive market research for middle market clientele in numerous industries.
MARK GOLDSTEIN - RESEARCH DIRECTOR
Mark Goldstein has provided consulting, custom research, and strategic support for business, legal and public policy clients across a variety of disciplines and arenas since 1992. He concentrates on clients needs in the complex worlds of telecommunications, information technology, eCommerce, eContent, eLearning, the Internet, biotechnology and other domains by harnessing global information resources for informed decision making. Mark acts as project leader and principal researcher for a wide variety of research and consulting projects.
Mark is a technophile and technology visionary, advisor, and entrepreneur with extensive experience and connections throughout numerous technology sectors. He is involved with a number of policy, economic development, professional and trade groups, as well as being a frequent speaker and trainer. He frequently addresses business and public groups and consults with government and business enterprises on the fast evolving transition to an information economy and the need to understand and take advantage of this fast changing environment.
In addition, he works with individuals and organizations involved in the telecommunications and other high-tech industry, attends related conferences and works to advance technology deployment, applications innovation, and policy decisions.
Mark Goldstein is the founder of the International Research Center and is profiled in the book, Super Searchers.
