Donald L. McDaniel

Sugarloaf

Advisors, Here to Serve.

Phone

678-772-0050

d21mcdaniel@yahoo.com

Business Expertise

My wife and I are part owners of a mid-size manufacturing health food company ($140m to $250m annual sales, 350+ employees). Although I retired 10 years ago I’m active as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Valentine Enterprises, Inc. ( VEI ) and serve on the Boards of 4 other profit and nonprofit companies. We are a 100% co manufacturer.

Career wise I held two other positions with insurance and services companies after graduating from undergraduate school in 1973. In 1975 I moved from GA to NJ to join VEI—I was the 3rd person hired. The company did pharmaceutical R&D and some small supplement manufacture. Basically, I ran the business while the principal at the time developed patents and pharm processes. As VEI grew I went back and completed an MBA from NYIT in Finance and utilized a lot of the skills learned from that degree. In 1986 we moved VEI to GA ( I was in charge of the relocation, go figure!) and built our first plant in Lawrenceville. In 1996 I became the President and CEO of VEI and guided VEI to 15% a year annual growth. Also was involved with Wall Street Venture Capitalist and M&A companies as we sold off all of the pharm patents and products.

Having been in a position with skin in the game, I enjoyed leading VEI through transition, product development, physical moves, building design, corporate restructure and all aspects of growth. It was very stressful at times but I learned to turn matters over to God at the end of each day. It was also a priority of mine to spend time by being there with my kids as a supporter, coach and encourager to them while they were growing up. We homeschooled all 3 of our kids. I can help in many areas of business due to my 37+ years of exposure.

Business is essentially dealing with people (employees, customers, suppliers) and managing them in a cohesive, purposeful way. My approach was to “coach” people in all aspects of cooperation and sharing through the delegation of the team workload.

Reach Out if I Can Serve You