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MEET DARLENE LEONARD

Darlene has over 30 years of experience serving a broad range of clients. She primarily focuses on manufacturing and distribution companies, but also assists retail, transportation, and service companies with their attestation needs.

As practice leader for the firm’s transaction advisory services group, she especially enjoys working with a variety of companies to complete both buy-side and sell-side transactions, including strategic buyers, lenders, and private equity investor. Over 30 years of experience serving both public and privately-held companies

• Industries served – manufacturing, distribution, retail, service, and transportation
• Specialties include – due diligence for mergers & acquisitions, ESOPs, purchase accounting
• NC CPA
• Designations:  Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA), Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA)
• Averett University – B.S. Business Administration, Accounting

Darlene and her husband Todd live in Summerfield. They have two grown sons – Myles and Sidney. Darlene enjoys exercising, traveling, and reading inspirational books.

MEET ABBY DONNELLY

Abby Donnelly works closely with business owners and C-Suite leaders on the leadership side of succession and exit. She brings deep expertise:

• Developing strong leaders who can run the company profitably and sustainably.
• Originally from Poughkeepsie, NY, Abby is a 14-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, where she facilitated strategic planning, led category-wide process improvement efforts and managed manufacturing teams.
• She was also a partner at Sandler Training (Triad) for 9 years.
• Abby graduated from the University of Florida with a Master of Statistics and from SUNY Albany with a BA in Mathematics.

Relevant Leadership:

• Board: Society of Financial Service Professionals- Greensboro (SFSP). Founder: Succession Planning RoundTable, a forum for sharing best practices among experts in the field.
• Faculty Expert in ‘Mental Readiness’ for Pinnacle Equity Solution’s Exit Planning Certification. Abby’s book, Straight Talk About Planning Your Succession, is required reading.
• Value Builder Certification (TM) and Certificate in Exit Planning

Abby has been happily married to Jim Donnelly for over 31 years. She loves working with talented leaders! She also enjoys networking, reading, working out… and dancing to Motown.