P. Richard Berlin, JD, MBA.  Richard is President and CEO at MedStarts.  He brings more than 25 years of experience in New Business Start Ups, Strategy, Change Management, Leadership, Marketing, Sales, Business Development, Operations, and Organization Development.  Richard’s experience includes a successful track record with self funded businesses, venture capital businesses, public companies, and non-profit organizations. 

Prior to founding MedStarts, Richard worked for Accenture, a $19B consulting firm, in their Management Consulting practice specializing in Organizational Change and Strategy.  His work there included serving as the Change Management lead for an $80M engagement with the State of Ohio, designing and executing the Leadership Development program at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University, designing a new $5B business strategy for Best Buy, and creating new service offerings targeting Board of Directors at public companies.

Before his work with Accenture, Richard was Chief Operating Officer at Hands On Network, an international non-profit based in Atlanta.  In this role, Richard held P&L accountability with a $7M annual budget, managed a staff of 40, developed the annual strategic plan, fostered strategic alliances, and supported ongoing operational initiatives.  As Vice President/General Manager of Verso Technologies eProcurement group, Richard launched an eCommerce business unit to the mid-Fortune 1000 market.  Clients included Cox Communications and ImagePoint (formerly Plasti-Line).   This technology business unit generated $400K in annual recurring revenue in just 6 months prior to its acquisition by Clarus Corporation (former NASDAQ listing). As Executive Director at the Kaplan Educational Center, Richard managed the 4th largest unit of the Washington Post subsidiary. Richard instituted a business unit turnaround resulting in increased margin over prior year’s performance.

Richard has also provided strategic insight and operational support to a number of product and services companies including LidHygenix (a medical products company treating Blepharitis, an inflammation of the eyelids), Piedmont Hospital, Blue Cross Blue Shield, the World Health Organization, Dell, Emory University, Nissan, BellSouth, Coca-Cola Company, Kimberly Clark, What’s Up Interactive, Securiant, Gaslowitz & Frankel, Exactium Software, Navision Software, Lawstudent.com, Salesgiant.com, and Corporate Environments, to name just a few.  He began his career as an Attorney focusing on serving clients in the areas of commercial business litigation, employment law, real estate law, and bankruptcy law.  After practicing law for several years, he returned to school to gain an M.B.A.

Richard serves as a member on the Board of Directors for the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Foundation and the Institute for Enterprise & Innovation, a non-profit focused on serving the needs of entrepreneurs.  He was a former board member on TAG’s Southeastern Software Association (SSA) where he was Director of SSA’s Web Challenge from 2002 to 2004.  Richard was also the former Board Chair of What’s Up Interactive, an interactive marketing media agency.  He has been an adjunct professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University since 1994.  Richard is also licensed to practice law in Georgia. 

His education includes an M.B.A. from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and a J.D. and a B.A. from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Contact Richard at richard.berlin@medstarts.com.

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Marti A. Breen, MBA.  Marti is Chief Marketing Officer at MedStarts.  She has built an impressive practice helping companies large and small improve their marketing efforts.  Marti’s has worked with small start-ups to Fortune 1000 companies.  She applies her expertise devising strategic marketing plans that work and then puts them into action.  Marti’s experiences range from exploring new market segments for existing products to designing a sales and marketing process based on best practices.  She has helped start up firms secure funding by devising complete business plans and furthered established firms’ growth by focusing their marketing strategy.  Breen is known for increasing sales and profitability by instituting concrete systems to more efficiently fulfill customers’ needs. 

Prior to working at MedStarts, Breen had over 15 years corporate marketing experience.  She led the marketing team at Medirisk, a start-up health information technology company.  Under her direction, this group of 20 marketers introduced new products, maintained ongoing product marketing efforts, generated leads and conducted market research.  At Siemens, she directed marketing for a division selling equipment in the medical and dental markets.  With Healthdyne, she introduced new products and devised innovative programs to help the company grow from $8M to $250M revenue in three years.  She entered the marketing profession in New York with Pfizer and Celanese.

A common thread in her career is successfully managing products and services to realize high growth and exceed goals and expectations.  She has won several awards for outstanding marketing programs and serves on several boards.  She is an active member of the Technology Association of Georgia, and is a former board member of the Business Marketing Association, Women in Technology (WIT) and PushPush Theater.   She currently serves on executive committees with WIT and on the board of Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL). 

At the Tilden School at the University of Maryland, Breen taught consumer marketing and conducted research in business-to-business marketing.  Marti has an MBA from the AB Freeman School of Business at Tulane University.  Marti can be reached at marti.breen@medstarts.com.

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Chris Hutchings has over 30 years of business experience in finance and operations both domestically and internationally. Chris is Chief Financial Officer at MedStarts.  His experience includes a broad mixture of project, staff, and line roles, internationally and domestically, with Deloitte Touche and The Coca-Cola Company.  Mr. Hutchings’ most recent assignment with Coca-Cola was as Chief Financial Officer of Coca-Cola Fountain (Restaurant and Hospitality Division), the company’s largest operating division with $3.5 Billion in revenues. He was responsible for the financial management of the division including financial strategies, pricing, customer support, reporting, controls, financial systems, and financial talent development.  Prior to this role, Mr. Hutchings had a series of increasingly responsible assignments with Coca-Cola including Assistant Vice President and assistant controller in Corporate Headquarters; CFO of the Coca-Cola Company’s German division; and Assistant Vice President and Director of Corporate Audit. Mr. Hutchings twice served as chairman of the company’s global finance Talent Development Committee that provides strategic direction and oversight of the development and placement of the company’s mid and senior level financial talent worldwide.  Mr. Hutchings' educational experiences include the Coca-Cola Executive Program at The Wharton School / Goizueta Business School of Emory University, and the International Executive Program at INSEAD Business School of Fountainbleau, France.  Mr. Hutchings was admitted as a member of the Rhodesia Society of Chartered Accountants (CPA equivalent) and has a B.Sc. (Honors) in Biochemistry, from the University of Natal, South Africa.  Mr. Hutchings serves on the Board of Directors of SkillFusion, Inc, a Georgia based software product and services firm. He is Chairman of the Atlanta International School’s Investment Committee, and has served on the Finance Committee and the Board of Trustees since 1998. He also serves as Chairman of Fakawi Investments, a private investment group in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact Chris at chris.hutchings@medstarts.com.

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