Christos Efstathiou's professional experience in the restaurant industry spans over more than 25 years. However his passion for this business started as he grew up in a family restaurant environment. Christos owned, operated, managed and sold restaurants and commercial properties in Massachusetts from mom and pop to full service restaurants.

As a recurrent business buyer and seller himself, Christos has a deep understanding of the restaurant brokerage business. In quality of marketing consultant for one of the largest American food service company, Christos developed an extensive network by working in collaboration with hundreds of accounts in Massachusetts.

Carols experience spans some 30 years in business having worked both sides of the negotiating table, sales development, project coordinator, management, account executive, and inventory reconciliation. In her career as a buyer for the third largest catalog group in the country she was a Senior Buyer negotiating with major camera and electronic companies such as Olympus, Canon, Polaroid and others. Carol also has extensive experience in the publishing arena having worked as an outside advertising executive, classified manager, and joint-owner of a weekly newspaper in Massachusetts. Carol was instrumental in increasing sales some 300% in 18-months culminating with Media News Group, the 7th largest newspaper chain in the world, acquiring the paper in September 2004.

Mr. Smurro has over twenty five years experience as principal, investor or advisor to entrepreneurs and emerging growth companies in real estate, commercial banking, healthcare services and information technology. He has also served as corporate development officer and chief strategist for several technology start-ups. Mr. Smurro has worked with numerous privately held companies first to formulate, and then successfully implement aggressive plans for revenue growth, performance improvement and capitalization.

He has developed decision support software ("DealMaker^TM") to upgrade project selection and help raise venture equity by boosting capital efficiency and performance returns from project portfolios. He has also designed and installed credit evaluation systems for commercial banks, and trained hundreds of middle-market lenders in Uniform Credit Analysis, a cash flow approach to valuation and sustainable growth financing. UCA is especially useful for rapidly growing companies whose market success generate ongoing demands for cash far in excess of their ability to satisfy internally. Mr. Smurro holds an MBA from Harvard University in the Management of Technology, where he also earned undergraduate and masters degrees in Engineering and Applied Physics, and maintains an active interest in the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at the Harvard Business School.

Business intermediary and Managing Partner of Sunbelt Business Brokers of Boston/Southeastern Massachusetts, John is a former business owner and has many years of experience working with business owners in multiple capacities including: investment, planning, and sales and acquisition strategy. A graduate of Northeastern University with a degree in Medical Technology, as well as advanced studies in Business Administration, he worked for many years in the biomedical industry and has extensive experience in quality assurance, control, and protocols. He has been Series 7, 63, and 65 licensed and brings the requisite analytical and discipline skills necessary to direct and co-ordinate the business transfer process in a confidential, value added, and user friendly fashion. He also specializes in business valuation and would look forward to the opportunity to assist with the direction of the sale and transfer of your business.

Mariola Andoni has 12 years experience assisting start up's, small businesses and mid market companies with their business development and growth strategies. She has advised businesses in a variety of sectors including retail, services, publishing, transportation, and communications. As an entrepreneur Mariola established her own consulting services advising on sustainable practices and business plans for lifestyle enterprises, new media businesses, and non profit organizations. She studied Entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University and Sustainable Ethical Enterprise Design and Development at Presidio World College in San Francisco and earned a BA in Sustainable Entrepreneurship.

Mark Chiavelli has more than a dozen years of business experience in management roles with major U.S. corporations. In these roles, Mark was involved with strategic growth planning and execution, operations management, mergers & acquisitions and P&L management. In the role of Business Analyst, Mark utilizes these skills, along with experiences garnered as a business buyer, to advise clients through the transaction process. Mark studied Political Science and Aviation at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, and earned a BA in Political Science along with Commercial and Instrument Pilot certification. Mark’s business skills were further developed through participation in highly regarded corporate training programs for business management.

Prior to joining Sunbelt Melahat was a Medical Research Coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital. Melahat has worked with many pharmaceutical companies, overseeing a variety of scientific research studies in the area of Pulmonary Diseases. In addition to her medical significant medical research background, Melahat also founded and operated several successful retail operations. Melahat has a keen sense of business and a tenacious work ethic. She was the youngest freshman to attend Springfield Community College at the age of sixteen. Melahat holds a Masters in Business Administration from New Hampshire College and a Bachelors of Science in biomedical studies.

Note: 12/03-05/07 Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager and Managing Partner; Ivy Global LLC, Burlington, MA; 11/01-11/03 Senior Financial Consultant Bank of America Securities, Boston, MA; 01/95-10/01 Personal Financial Advisor, Business Financial Advisor, Financial Planning Franchise Owner; American Express Financial Advisors, New York, New York; 09/90-03/92 Lecturer Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.

Ron Ekstrom has more than 25 years of business experience working within large corporations in management, financing and M&A at executive level positions and has also acted as an independent consultant to a wide range of businesses. He has started, acquired and sold a range of his own businesses in sectors that include retail, marketing and media. Ron’s skills were sharpened through select corporate training programs within such media giants as the Tribune Co., Gannett and News Media Group and through direct involvement in their acquisitions and divestitures activity.

Satish Patel is the founder CEO and President of Sunbelt Business Sales and Acquisitions, New England (www.sunbeltne.com). SunbeltNE is a franchise of Sunbelt Network, world’s largest business brokerage network with presence in over 30 countries through 300 offices. Patel owns the franchise rights for the states of MA, NH, RI, VT and ME.

Patel’s career spans over two decades, during which he built, acquired and sold several successful businesses in the high technology and retail sectors.

He first started as a CPA conducting audits for small and mid-sized firms, advising their business owners on financial and accounting issues, buying and selling decisions; as well as business valuations. He was later certified as a Financial Planner and joined a software start-up as its Chief Financial Officer that soon expanded its operations to 4 other countries and grew to $10 million in sales, prior to being acquired by a publicly traded company.

Patel set-up SunbeltNE in 2003 and till date the company has brokered over 400 business transactions. SunbeltNE also holds the credit for closing a deal of over $50 million, the largest ever by any Sunbelt Franchise worldwide till date.

Patel owns and co-owns several other businesses in New England area that also includes Blackbridge Partners LLC (www.blackbridgepartners.com), an investment banking boutique.

He has a degree in International Management from MS University in Baroda, India and a degree in Accounting from California State University at Fullerton, USA. He is a member of International Business Brokerage Association (www.ibba.org) and a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs Boston chapter (www.tie-boston.org). He actively contributes to community development through his participation for Gurjar (www.gurjar.org) and Fogana (www.fogana.org).