Kathleen is a Senior Consultant with ROCG Americas which is an international professional service and consulting firm with offices throughout North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. ROCG is the only international firm specializing in the areas of business transition strategy, finance and operations for privately owned and emerging growth enterprises. 

Kathleen has owned, started, purchased and run five small companies in her 30+ years and as the President of Florida’s Business Connection Inc., she has successfully assisted over 150 small business owners identify and achieve their business exit goals. As an entrepreneur herself, she has a personal understanding of business ownership challenges and can identify with and empathize with the business owner.  

Kathleen’s professional career began in the banking industry in the 1970s and she found herself working in different capacities in the accounting field. Her passion for helping people led her to enter the financial planning field and in 1993, as a Certified Financial Planner, she started a fee-only financial planning firm and became a Registered Investment Advisor. The culmination of these experiences led her into the field of Mergers and Acquisitions in early 2000. The combination of her professional experiences and her passion for assisting people evolved further in 2008 shifting her focus from the purely transactional world to the field of exit and succession planning. 

Kathleen’s passion for assisting family held business owners continued with her ability to help them determine, plan and execute their successful exit strategies, allowing them to live life on their terms! Her goal is to attract those business owners searching for unbiased assistance in determining the exit strategies that will meet their individual needs. Kathleen achieves this by promoting this emerging profession and developing a solid advisory team assisting business owners in successfully planning their business’ exit while maximizing the wealth trapped in what is most likely their largest asset. Her unique background and skill set enables her to assist the business owner in a holistic and client centered manner that not only considers all of the complex financial aspects of strategic exit planning, but also takes into consideration the often overlooked personal issues. 

Kathleen is a 1993 graduate of the College of Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado, a Certified Merger and Acquisition Advisor professional and a candidate for the prestigious Certified Business Exit Consultant designation. Most recently she served on the certification committee for the development of the CBEC program and will serve the Alliance of Mergers & Acquisition Advisors Education Committee in 2012. 

Kathleen has one daughter, three step-daughters and one step-son, one grandson and three step-grandchildren.  Kathleen is active in her community and her church. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, being outdoors, traveling, sailing, hiking and golf.