Advisory board
Bonnie Crabtree
Bonnie M. Crabtree is a Senior Client Advisor at Korn Ferry® and, for 17 years, was Managing Director of its Florida office. She has been in executive search for 25 years and, during that time, has built a solid track record, both, in Florida and internationally. She is widely recognized for her high commitment to client service and global partnering.
Bonnie M. Crabtree is a Senior Client Advisor at Korn Ferry® and, for 17 years, was Managing Director of its Florida office. She has been in executive search for 25 years and, during that time, has built a solid track record, both, in Florida and internationally. She is widely recognized for her high commitment to client service and global partnering.
Ms. Crabtree’s domestic and international assignments have spanned a wide variety of functions. Her searches are mainly at the President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and senior executive levels in general management, sales and marketing, human resources and Board assignments. Ms. Crabtree is a member of the Global Board Services Practice and has worked in merger, acquisition and turnaround situations.
Ms. Crabtree joined Korn Ferry® in 1993 in Atlanta before moving to Miami in 1998. Prior to joining Korn Ferry®, she was a consultant with another major executive search firm. Earlier, she spent ten years with Norrell Corporation as Director of Human Resources.
Her early career was spent teaching at American high schools and colleges in Germany.
In December 2019, Ms. Crabtree was elected to the National Board of Ocean Conservancy.
Ms. Crabtree chaired the Foundation Board of the Greater Miami Chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters for 5 years where she also completed an unprecedented three-year term as Agency Board Chair. She has also served as Vice Chair of the National Leadership Council for BBBS of America. Additionally, she is an Executive Committee member of the Board of Chapman Partnership for the Homeless. Bonnie chaired the BBBS Gala for 2019; and she Chaired the Humane Society Gala (Pawpurrazzi) in 2019.
2019 brought two honors to Bonnie – Women Worth Knowing by the Miami Beach Commission for Women and an honoree at Take a Walk In Her Shoes for Chapman Partnership. In 2018, Bonnie was recognized in the Inner Circle of Twelve by the American Cancer Society. In 2017, Ms. Crabtree was awarded the Woman of Style and Substance by South Florida Luxury Guide and the James W. McLamore Outstanding Volunteer Award on National Philanthropy Day. In 2016, Ms. Crabtree was presented with the Korn Ferry® Founders Award, in recognition of her service to the community. In 2007, Ms. Crabtree was awarded the Association of Executive Search Consultant’s Eleanor Raynolds Award based on a career of excellence in executive search, as well as, an ongoing dedication to volunteerism and improving the community. October 11th is Bonnie Crabtree Day on Miami Beach; and in 2012, Bonnie was named a Miracle Maker, in Miami, for her contributions to the community.
Ms. Crabtree holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in administration from Tennessee Technological University.
Evelyn Follit
Evelyn Follit is the founder and president of Follit Associates, a corporate technology assessment and executive career strategy consulting firm, whose goal is to improve the return on technology investment by aligning information technology practices and leadership capabilities with the goals of the organization. In addition, Follit has extensive experience serving on boards in a variety of industries. Currently, she serves on board of Marine Max.
Evelyn Follit is the founder and president of Follit Associates, a corporate technology assessment and executive career strategy consulting firm, whose goal is to improve the return on technology investment by aligning information technology practices and leadership capabilities with the goals of the organization. In addition, Follit has extensive experience serving on boards in a variety of industries. Currently, she serves on board of Marine Max.
In 2015, Follit joined the board of Marine Max, a Florida-based recreational boat dealer, engaged in the sale, brokerage and service of new and used boats, motors, trailers, and marine parts and accessories. She serves on the Audit and Governance & Nominating committees.
Between 2000 and 2015, Follit has also served on the boards of TECO (Tampa Energy), Nautilus, Winn-Dixie, Linens-n-Things and Catalina Marketing Corporation before the entities were sold to private investors. In addition, she retired after 10 years (from 2007 through 2016) as a member of the board of directors of BEALL’s, a privately held retailer headquartered in Florida. Evelyn Follit believes in “term limits” for board members and exercised her personal guideline in this situation.
Follit retired from RadioShack in 2005 where she served as Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer and Chief Services Officer. She led their internal services business, including global IT and human resources functions. Before joining RadioShack, she served as ACNielsen’s Vice President of Operations & Engineering and Dun & Bradstreet’s global planning and technology leader. Follit also worked for ITT in various European telephony operations, financial/business process improvement and organization design/planning assignments. She worked for six years in IBM’s IT function and another seven years in IBM’s financial organization. She received an MBA from Pace University in finance and information systems and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from City University of New York. She has completed executive planning, finance and technology programs at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Massachusetts’s Institution of Technology’s Sloan School.
Follit has been recognized for numerous accomplishments. In 2019, she was identified as one of 2019’s Most Influential Corporate Directors. In 2017, Evelyn received a “Woman Business Pioneer” award from Women’s Executive Leadership. In 2015, she received the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida’s lifetime achievement, “Woman of Distinction”, award for inspiring all women. In 2003, she was named one of the 50 most powerful people in retail I/T by “Executive Technology” magazine and, in 2004, was named a co-recipient of the Society for Information Management’s “CIO of the Year” award. In 2002, Follit received the “Executive Technology” magazine/Compaq Computer award for CIO/IT Leadership and Innovation. During that year, she was also honored as one of the pioneering women in technology by the American Friends of the Jerusalem College of Technology on behalf of the Women’s School of Engineering. In 2001, “Computerworld” chose her as one of the 100 Premier IT Leaders in the country, and “Retail Info Systems News” recognized Follit as one of the “25 Most Influential People in Retail for 2001.”
Follit frequently speaks publically on career, technology, board, and diversity topics. Follit is a member of the Advisory Board of Women’s Executive Leadership and is a member of the NACD. She also serves her local community in Naples as a member of the Finance Committee.
Lauren E. Smith
Lauren E. Smith is a Managing Director in the Miami office, and a core board practice member of Diversified Search, ranked #7 by Forbes. She started her search career in 2000 with Egon Zehnder where she helped design and execute the firm’s first board assessments. She has a proven track record of recruiting standout board members who bring both the skill sets and unique perspectives to add meaningful value in the boardroom and of working with boards to take a fresh approach to defining and attracting diversity.
Lauren E. Smith is a Managing Director in the Miami office, and a core board practice member of Diversified Search, ranked #7 by Forbes. She started her search career in 2000 with Egon Zehnder where she helped design and execute the firm’s first board assessments. She has a proven track record of recruiting standout board members who bring both the skill sets and unique perspectives to add meaningful value in the boardroom and of working with boards to take a fresh approach to defining and attracting diversity. She published an article in the National Association of Corporate Directors Directorship magazine entitled “Building a 21st Century Board” which highlights the need and the roadmap for diversity in the boardroom. Lauren has placed executives and or board members at clients such as International Paper, Jacobs Engineering, Leggett & Platt, Spirit Airlines, Urban Outfitters and Wynn Resorts.
Before moving into executive search, Lauren had twelve years of experience leading marketing and strategy at two Fortune 50 companies – Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Motorola Inc. During her time at Motorola, she also led marketing and customer operations for a new wireless joint venture in Bogotá, Colombia.
Lauren is the President of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Florida Chapter, and an NACD Board Leadership Fellow, a demonstration of her commitment to strong corporate governance. Lauren is a board member of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and sits on the Advisory Board of Women Executive Leadership. She previously served on the board and chaired the Board Development Committee of the American Red Cross South Florida Chapter. She is an active member of Women Corporate Directors and Belizean Grove.
Lauren has been quoted as an expert on executive and board recruiting in Directors & Boards, NACD Directorship, Entrepreneur Magazine, American Way Magazine, the Miami Herald, and South Florida CEO Magazine. She has been a guest lecturer at Nova Southeastern University and a speaker for the National Association of Corporate Directors. Lauren was named by South Florida Business Journal as a Most Influential Business Woman in 2010.
Lauren has lived and worked in Europe and Latin America and is fluent in Spanish. She has a BS from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Madeleine Condit
Madeleine Condit is a globally recognized consultant who has worked for 30 years with major corporations and boards of directors on the key fundamental issues that fuel sustainable growth. Her areas of expertise are building strong leadership teams and structuring corporate boards to ensure continued management oversight through conversation and consensus. She was an early proponent of building diverse leadership teams and worked with clients to broaden diversity at all levels. She is an acknowledged expert on board composition and has been a media contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and Boards & Directors among other publications.
Madeleine Condit is a globally recognized consultant who has worked for 30 years with major corporations and boards of directors on the key fundamental issues that fuel sustainable growth. Her areas of expertise are building strong leadership teams and structuring corporate boards to ensure continued management oversight through conversation and consensus. She was an early proponent of building diverse leadership teams and worked with clients to broaden diversity at all levels. She is an acknowledged expert on board composition and has been a media contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and Boards & Directors among other publications.
Madeleine Condit & Associates was founded after Madeleine stepped down from full time employment at Korn Ferry. While mentoring founders of start-up ventures, Madeleine identified that many small and mid-size businesses require access to processes for building teams, creating sophisticated compensation structures, and recruiting strong boards so that they can capitalize on their ideas within a structure that could support rapid growth. Many companies struggle not because they suffer from poor ideas or execution but because they grow haphazardly without the necessary culture or basic infrastructure in place.
Madeleine was a Senior Client Partner of Korn Ferry where she was a member of the firm’s Global Board and CEO Practice. She advised corporate directors and senior management for over 28 years on compensation, board governance, succession planning, talent management, and ethics. Her clients ranged from Fortune 500 to pre-IPO companies spanning all industry segments. She was one of the first women partners in the firm and played an important role in mentoring women, both informally and as a member of the U.S. Mentoring Program.
Before joining Korn/Ferry, Madeleine was the Vice President of the Syndicate Department of Boettcher & Company, then a leading investment bank in Denver where she was responsible for marketing and developing syndicates for IPOs. Madeleine’s early career included a successful start-up that sold commercial information systems to hotels.
Madeleine has been a leader on civic and non-profit boards throughout her career. She is currently a member and former Chairman of the External Advisory Board of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy; Trustee of the Newberry Library; Advisory Board of Women Executive Leadership; Governing Member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association; Secretary of the Joseph B. Glossberg Foundation and on the Advisory Board of WEL. She is a member of the 92nd Street Y Academy of Women Achievers, was recognized as a Woman of Distinction by United Way of Metropolitan Chicago and received the Chicago High Achiever’s 2008 Paradigm Shifter Award.
Madeleine earned a BA from the University of California Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Colorado. She is an Executive Urban Fellow at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management.
Richard Outram
Mr. Outram has 30 years of progressive experience in executive financial management and international business leadership positions within the private equity, home warranty, electronics retail and distribution, IT staffing, business process outsourcing, management consulting, specialty retail and “Big 4” public accounting industries. He held these positions in the United States, United Kingdom and the Caribbean with major public and private companies. Mr. Outram’s significant accomplishments have been in successfully leading enterprises through strategic phases of growth and business cycles and also in turnaround situations.
Mr. Outram has 30 years of progressive experience in executive financial management and international business leadership positions within the private equity, home warranty, electronics retail and distribution, IT staffing, business process outsourcing, management consulting, specialty retail and “Big 4” public accounting industries. He held these positions in the United States, United Kingdom and the Caribbean with major public and private companies. Mr. Outram’s significant accomplishments have been in successfully leading enterprises through strategic phases of growth and business cycles and also in turnaround situations.
Mr. Outram currently serves as CFO for Cinch Home Services Inc. a fast growth home services company and is leading them through a significant transformation phase He is also Chief Executive Officer of Financial Acumen, Inc, which provides Executive Coaching & Leadership Development (www.FinancialAcumen.net). Mr. Outram is a mentor and executive coach to individuals in the South Florida business network and, has been a guest speaker and presenter at several executive education forums. He is the 2020 South Florida Business Journal special honoree recipient for Turnaround Achievement.
Mr. Outram is a Certified Public Accountant in the United States and The United Kingdom as well as a Certified Fraud Examiner. He currently serves as a board member of Financial Executives International (South Florida Chapter), and is a board member of Step up for Students and Women Executive Leadership (WEL). Mr. Outram is author of “Cracking the CFO Code- Relationship Selling to Finance Executives” and is also the author of children’s financial literacy books-“The Adventures of Exokid and the Teachings of Money” (2009) and “The Adventures of Exokid – Growing Financial Wings” (2013). His new podcast series “Prepare4 Growth” will be launched in January 2020.
Mr. Outram is married to Naseema and they have two sons, Ishan (21 years) and Kiran (18 years).
Ruth Brophy
Ruth Brophy resides in Florida and is currently serving as an Independent Board Director for Goodwill South Florida. She is the recently retired Chief Financial and Administrative Officer for the SEC-registered private equity firm, H.I.G. Capital (“HIG”) (AUM $42 Billion and named the second largest private company in Florida for the past three years). In addition, Ruth also served in a governance capacity for several H.I.G. investment-company boards. She continues to serve H.I.G. Capital as a Senior Advisor and investment company board representative focusing on all areas of commercial insurance and cyber security.
Ruth Brophy resides in Florida and is currently serving as an Independent Board Director for Goodwill South Florida. She is the recently retired Chief Financial and Administrative Officer for the SEC-registered private equity firm, H.I.G. Capital (“HIG”) (AUM $42 Billion and named the second largest private company in Florida for the past three years). In addition, Ruth also served in a governance capacity for several H.I.G. investment-company boards. She continues to serve H.I.G. Capital as a Senior Advisor and investment company board representative focusing on all areas of commercial insurance and cyber security.
Ruth is a graduate of Fairfield University, MS Finance and BS Accounting, summa cum laude and a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society. She is qualified as a SEC Financial Expert (actively licensed CPA) and Cyber Security Strategist (Carnegie Mellon University Software Institute and NACD Cyber Oversight Certificate).
Personally, Ruth enjoys global travel and career mentoring business students and young professionals during their progression into new roles. She is involved in several organizations: Private Equity CFO Organization, U.S. Member since 2004; AICPA member since 1982; International Women’s Forum, Women Corporate Directors, Women Executive Leadership – Advisory Council and The Venture Mentoring Group.
Sherrill W. Hudson
Sherrill W. Hudson was Chairman of TECO Energy’s board until July 2016. He was executive chairman from August of 2010 until December 2012, after having served as Chairman and CEO since July 2004. He joined the board in January 2003 and previously was chair of the Audit Committee. Hudson was a member of the Finance Committee, and as CEO was intimately involved in overseeing TECO Energy’s operations and the implementation of new corporate strategies. Under his leadership, TECO achieved the 25th position out of the 338 S&P 500 companies who were included in Chief Executive Magazine’s 2010 Wealth-Creation Ranking. On July 1, 2016, TECO was acquired by Emera, Inc. who paid a 48% premium from the pre-announcement stock price.
Sherrill W. Hudson was Chairman of TECO Energy’s board until July 2016. He was executive chairman from August of 2010 until December 2012, after having served as Chairman and CEO since July 2004. He joined the board in January 2003 and previously was chair of the Audit Committee. Hudson was a member of the Finance Committee, and as CEO was intimately involved in overseeing TECO Energy’s operations and the implementation of new corporate strategies. Under his leadership, TECO achieved the 25th position out of the 338 S&P 500 companies who were included in Chief Executive Magazine’s 2010 Wealth-Creation Ranking. On July 1, 2016, TECO was acquired by Emera, Inc. who paid a 48% premium from the pre-announcement stock price.
He also serves on the boards of Lennar Corporation, United Insurance Holdings Corporation and CBIZ, Inc. In April 2015, he retired from the Publix Super Markets board after 12 years of service. Hudson was named to The National Association of Corporate Directors’ (NACD) 2015 Directorship 100 list, a distinguished honor which annually recognizes the most influential leaders in the boardroom and corporate governance community. He serves as Chairman of the Board of NACD’s Florida Chapter.
Hudson retired from Deloitte & Touche, LLP in August 2002, after 37 years of service. He spent 19 years in Miami as Managing Partner for its South Florida offices, which included oversight responsibilities for Deloitte’s Florida and Puerto Rico offices for much of that time.
Hudson is a member of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, who recognized him as the 2006 Outstanding CPA in Business and Industry. He received his bachelor’s degree and graduated cum laude, valedictorian from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. He serves on Ashland’s Presidential Advisory Board.
Known for his community service, he has served as past chair, Florida International University Foundation; past executive committee member, Miami Business Forum; past president and current member, Orange Bowl Committee; past president, Zoological Society of Florida; past chair and board of governors, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; past chair, Dade Community Foundation, Jackson Memorial Foundation and American Cancer Society; co-chair, United Way Miami-Dade County Campaign (1996); past vice chairman, Goodwill Industries of Miami-Dade County; past member and board member of The Florida Council of 100; and currently serves as a board member and co-chair, development committee, Chapman Partnership for Homeless, Inc.. He is also a member of the board and executive committee of Baptist Hospital and a board member of Miami Cancer Institute.
His community activities during his time in Tampa include past chair of the 2007 United Way Tampa Bay Campaign, past chair of the Council of Governors of the Tampa Bay Partnership and member of the Board of Directors and past president of the University Club of Tampa. On August 15, 2008, he was appointed by Governor Charlie Crist to the board of directors of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation and served until June 2011.
Hudson and his wife, Mary Ann, have three children: Rick, Mike and Rob; seven grandchildren; and one great grandson. He is an avid golfer and is active in the Sunset Church of Christ as an elder.
Brian Zophin
As a Certified Public Accountant and audit partner with more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Zophin serves as the local office managing partner and area lead for the general audit practice for the Tampa Bay region. His audit experience includes providing services to both public companies and private businesses ranging from start-ups to entities with over $1 billion in revenue.
As a Certified Public Accountant and audit partner with more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Zophin serves as the local office managing partner and area lead for the general audit practice for the Tampa Bay region. His audit experience includes providing services to both public companies and private businesses ranging from start-ups to entities with over $1 billion in revenue.
Mr. Zophin has provided professional services to clients in the healthcare, timeshares, manufacturing, distribution, hospitality, and restaurant industries. His experience includes assisting clients with public and private offerings, registration statements, employee benefit plan audits, agreed-upon procedures and internal controls projects.
Copyright ©2024. All Rights Reserved
Designed & Developed by Kingdom-Vision