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.

Jim has an extensive twenty years career in the Gasoline Supply and Convenience store industry. A Certified Public Accountant; Jim worked with Ernst & Whinney in their tax department before taking a position as Director of Operations with one of the largest Shell Oil Jobber ships in the country. He had complete operational and financial responsibility for forty three convenience stores over a three state area. Upon the sale of that business, Jim built and operated his own Convenience store. Over the next twelve years, he expanded the business and built a chain of stores with sales exceeding fifteen million dollars. Jim has extensive experience in buying and selling various businesses and looks forward to the opportunity in assisting you in selling or purchasing a business.

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, & 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.

Kevin Boyle was formerly founder and President of Merrimac Corporate Finance, Inc., an NASD member, and has extensive hands on experience with capital formation, start-up, acquisition and divestiture of growth companies as a CEO, a CFO and investment banker. In addition to leading companies in their formative and rapid growth stages, he completed an IPO and several acquisitions, joint ventures and divestitures. He now specializes in providing creative finance, marketing and management problem solving to small and mid-size companies.

He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire High Technology Council, and chaired its Business Clinic small business advisory program. He has been a frequent panelist for the MIT Enterprise Forum and has been an active member of the NH Small Business Development Centers Professional Assistance Network. He has appeared on television and radio, has published several articles and is a frequent speaker on early stage and non-traditional financing techniques.

He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and received his Master of Business Administration degree from Northeastern University in Boston.

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.

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.

Patty Norman is passionate about helping people realize their dreams. She believes that business ownership is an ideal vehicle for the right people to reach their goals and enjoys sharing with others the knowledge she has gained on her own entrepreneurial journey.

In October of 1992, Patty decided to get into the franchise business and became the first franchisee for a restaurant that featured American cuisine and a bakery. She created several subsidiary businesses associated with the café, including a catering and retail gift business. While under her leadership her store had the top revenue per square footage in the chain. Her involvement included hiring, payroll, daily operational accounting and coordinating a television marketing campaign. She negotiated the purchase of the franchise as well as the sale of the business.

Prior to owning her own restaurant, Patty worked in the corporate setting for Marion Merrill Dow as a sales executive selling pharmaceuticals. Patty was responsible for a two state area selling to doctors, nurses and staff.

After college, Patty spent 12 years as an educator and coach. As an educator, Patty led a campaign with key business leaders and the Chamber of Commerce to develop programs that assisted young adults to gain a higher level of understanding of business in the real world.

From 2004 to 2006, Patty was a Consultant Development Manager for FranChoice. She focused on the development of the FranChoice independent consultant base, teaching them the systems and materials as they acclimated to the business and their new consultant role. Patty also coached experienced consultants and franchisors, helping them maximize their potential and effectiveness. She became an independent consultant in 2006.

Today Patty is thrilled to be a franchise specialist with Sunbelt and uses her extensive knowledge and background to counsel candidates on franchise opportunities. She resides in Excelsior, Minnesota with her husband Jim, and she can be reached by email at pnorman@sunbeltnetwork.com or by calling 888-406-0144. Patty will be working with Satish Patel’s Boston, MA office.

"In representing our clients, I strongly believe in always placing the client first and foremost. By maintaining a client-driven perspective a clear vision of the client's goals and objectives come into focus and provide the direction for a successful transaction."

Mr. Ekstrom bring to Sunbelt 25 years of experience in acquisitions and divestiture from his own entrepreneurial endeavors as well as successfully brokering a variety of transactions including healthcare, manufacturing, plastics and more.

Mr. Ekstrom's career has also included life in the corporate world working for the giants in media such as the Tribune Co., Gannett & USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times and being President & Publisher of his own weekly newspaper where he orchestrated 300% revenue growth and was eventually purchased by Media News Group, 7th largest newspaper group in the world.

Mr. Ekstrom brings to Sunbelt all well balanced experience from corporate life and entrepreneurial endeavors that has led to implementing creative and strategic solutions in representing our clients. His overall experience with accounting, budgeting, financials, marketing and advertising provide him with the aptitude to assist clients with the their exit strategy.

Mr. Patels business career spans more than two decades, during which he built, acquired and sold several successful businesses in the high technology and retail sectors. From these experiences, he has gained an intimate insight into the issues faced by entrepreneurs seeking to buy or sell businesses.

Mr. Patel began his career as a CPA conducting audits for small and medium size firms, advising 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 the Chief Financial Officer. In that capacity he directed all the operational activities of the firm including human resources, information technology, international operations and tax planning . He established the firms presence in overseas markets such as Japan, Germany, China and India. Mr. Patel and his partners grew the firm to over $ 10 million in sales before selling it to a publicly traded company. He stayed on as Vice President of International operations and managed the firms subsidiaries overseas. He engineered several mergers and acquisition deals and also built a chain of 12 retail stores which were later acquired by another publicly traded company. Mr. Patel currently owns and co owns several small businesses in the New England area. He participated in raising venture capital and angel financing. Mr. Patel has a degree in International Management from MS University in Baroda, India and a degree in Accounting from California State University at Fullerton.

Armed with an engineering degree and an MBA in sales marketing. He holds a varied experience in Sales and marketing which spans across 15 years. He has held senior positions in various organizations and loves to meet people from various fields.