Alchemy

Mark Lorimer is seeking to serve a business ($150-$200 mm revenue range) that is in need of leadership to assist its executive team in executing a specific set of strategic initiatives such as growing the business, focusing the business, selling the business, or growing through acquisitions. Mark has led both public and private companies as CEO, advised both public and private companies through complex acquisitions, dispositions and financing transactions as a law firm partner, and advised boards and executives of both for-profit and charitable organizations as a leadership consultant. Mark's leadership style emphasizes a strong senior management team (right people), alignment of understanding of strategic and operating goals (right direction), sustainable growth of market share and capitalization through results-driven accountability and compensation structures (right results), and commitment to data-driven decision making and continuous improvement at all levels (right thinking). Mark is currently the President of Alchemy Business Group, Inc., a business services and investment firm. Alchemy's Orgalignment Services group assists clients with Vision and Value Statement development, strategic plan development and strategic/operational plan alignment. Through its Business Development Services group, Alchemy serves clients seeking business development evaluation, post-merger integration assistance, and new business creation services. Its Leveraged Management Group provides general leadership and management development, succession planning, board consulting and retained negotiation services to Alchemy clients. Prior to founding Alchemy, Mark served as President and CEO of Autobytel, Inc., a publicly traded company serving the automotive industry. During Mark's five years with Autobytel, the company was named the 17th fastest growing technology company in the U.S. by Deloitte & Touche and established operations on four continents. The Autobytel business plan is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, has been the subject of a Harvard Business School case study, as well as studies by the University of California at Berkeley, Yale, and overseas universities. Autobytel bought and successfully integrated both public and private companies on Mark's watch. Today, Autobytel is one of the few surviving, profitable success stories of the dot com era. Mark was a partner of the law firm of Dewey Ballantine LLC, in New York, where he practiced corporate and securities law before entering industry. Mark's clients included commercial and investment banks, investment funds and finance companies as well as manufacturing, transportation, service, technology and natural resource companies in all manner of corporate transactions and governance. He has served on the adjunct faculty of Fordham University's Graduate School of Business where he taught securities transactions throughout the growth cycle of companies and has lectured at the University of California, Irvine, Pepperdine University and the University of Illinois. Mark has served on several public and private boards of directors and advisory boards, including two terms as a National Director-at-Large of the American Electronics Association (AEA). Mark has been the featured speaker at events including the Inc. Magazine CEO Symposium, the Economist Technology Conference in Paris, the J.D. Power International Roundtable, and the Frankfurt Auto Show. He holds a B.S. in Communications from Northwestern University and a law degree from Fordham University School of Law. Mark and his wife Mamie live in San Clemente, California with their four children, where Mark devotes a substantial amount of his time to several community service organizations and to his church.

Brenda Smoak is the owner of Alchemy, a retail store that shows and sells the work of local artists and vendors, located at 8025 Georgia Avenue in Spring, Maryland. As a business owner, Ms. Smoak is actively involved in the local community. She is an advocate for arts-related projects and is an active participant in the revitalization of south Silver Spring. She is a member of the Silver Spring Marketing Team, the Underpass Committee and is a board member of Gateway Georgia Avenue Revitalization Corporation. Prior to opening Alchemy, Ms. Smoak was a Project Manager in the construction industry where she served on many site development committees and task forces. She also owned a previous company that afforded her the opportunity to travel extensively painting murals and faux finishes.

A global financier and philanthropist, George Soros is the founder and chairman of a network of foundations that promote, among other things, the creation of open, democratic societies based upon the rule of law, market economies, transparent and accountable governance, freedom of the press, and respect for human rights. Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930. His father was taken prisoner during World War I and eventually fled from captivity in Russia to reunite with his family in Budapest. Soros was thirteen years old when Hitler's Wehrmacht seized Hungary and began deporting the country's Jews to extermination camps. In 1946, as the Soviet Union was taking control of the country, Soros attended a conference in the West and defected. He immigrated in 1947 to England, supported himself by working as a railroad porter and a restaurant waiter, graduated in 1952 from the London School of Economics, and obtained an entry-level position with an investment bank. In 1956, Soros immigrated to the United States. He worked as a trader and analyst until 1963. During this period, Soros adapted Popper's ideas to develop his own "theory of reflexivity," a set of ideas that seeks to explain the relationship between thought and reality, which he used to predict, among other things, the emergence of financial bubbles. Soros began to apply his theory to investing and concluded that he had more talent for trading than for philosophy. In 1967 he helped establish an offshore investment fund; and in 1973 he set up a private investment firm that eventually evolved into the Quantum Fund, one of the first hedge funds, through which he accumulated a vast fortune. The magnitude and geographical scope of his philanthropic commitments, coupled with the core principle of fostering open societies, has allowed Soros to transcend the limitations of many national governments and international institutions. During the 1980s, Soros financed a trip by young economists at a reform-minded think tank in China to a business university in Budapest; he also established a grantmaking foundation in China to foster civil society and transparency. In 1991, he helped found the Central European University, a graduate institution in Budapest that focuses on social and political development. Soros spent $50 million to help the citizens of Sarajevo endure the city’s siege during the Bosnian war, funding among other projects a water-filtration plant that allowed residents to avoid having to draw water from distribution points targeted by Serb snipers. Most recently, he has provided $50 million to support the Millennium Villages initiative, which seeks to lift some of the least developed villages in Africa out of poverty. In 1993, Soros created the Open Society Institute, which supports the Soros foundations working to develop democratic institutions throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His network of philanthropic organizations dedicated to building open societies has expanded to include more than 60 countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Despite the breadth of his endeavors, Soros is personally involved in planning and implementing many of the foundation network’s projects. His visionary efforts have produced a remarkable record of successful philanthropy, including efforts to free developmentally challenged people from life-long confinement in state institutions, to provide palliative care to the dying, to win release for prisoners held without legal grounds in penitentiaries in Nigeria, to halt the spread of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, to create debate societies, to promote freedom of the press, and to help resource-rich countries establish mechanisms to manage their revenues in a way that will promote economic growth and good governance rather than poverty and instability.

Kevin Sousa grew up in a food oriented family in Mckees Rocks, PA spending afternoons in his family's restaurant kitchen. With his mother's blue collar work ethic and father's love for food Kevin believes that he was predisposed to the life of a professional chef. Through years of domestic and foreign travel Kevin's exposure to different styles of food led him back to Pittsburgh to pursue a career in cooking. After five years of establishing himself as one of the best chefs in the city Kevin started looking for new and exciting opportunities. The idea of helping to open a new concept restaurant coinciding with the re-branding of a major hotel was something that had never occurred to Kevin. That being said, it was an opportunity not to be passed up and he pursued the position with much enthusiasm. Currently, Kevin Sousa is the Executive Chef of Alchemy (ultra-modern American concept), Bigelow Grille Regional Cooking and Bar, and the Doubletree Hotel.

Mahmoud Shelton studied at the University of Edinburgh before taking a degree in Medieval Studies at Stanford University. He has traveled in search of Hermeticism's legacy from the Western Mediterranean to the Far East. Shelton is the author of Alchemy in Middle Earth: The Significance of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, is a contributor to The Royal Book of Spiritual Chivalry, and has numerous magazine articles to his credit.

Sharon Benjamin, PhD, is principal of Alchemy, a Washington DC based management consulting practice. She is a seasoned organizational executive who has served as a CEO and directed institutional development and finance. Her positions have included Vice President for Marketing for the-Rails to-Trails Conservancy in DC and Director for Major Gifts for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge MA. She earned her doctorate in organizational behavior from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati OH, where she has co-taught three leadership seminars. She has been active in the non-profit community, serving as Treasurer of the Board Earthworks, chair of the Board of Directors of Bluevoice.org, and a member of Oceana's Board of Governors.

Joanna Ross Hersey is Assistant Professor of Low Brass at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where she also teaches music history and conducts the Low Brass Ensemble. Joanna studied with Dan Perantoni at Arizona State University, received a Master of Music in Tuba Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music studying with Chester Schmitz, and earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Tuba Performance from the Hartt School. As Principal Tubist with the United States Coast Guard Band, Joanna performed throughout the country as a soloist and clinician after winning the position at the age of nineteen. Joanna has played for three U.S. Presidents, performed at numerous state functions for visiting dignitaries, and has appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America. In her freelance career she has performed with artists including Placido Domingo, Roberta Flack, Marilyn Horne, Arlo Guthrie, Michael Bolton, Lee Greenwood, Arturo Sandoval and Jack Nicholson. Joanna is a founding member of the Athena Brass Band. As a member of Alchemy, Joanna performs throughout North America and can be heard on the group?s compact disc recording Village Dances. Alchemy is in residence each February at the Horn-Tuba Workshop in Jever, Germany where the group performs recitals, gives master-classes and conducts ensembles.