Leslie Horton: Founder and President
Leslie Horton created the CFO As You Grow and CFO For Exits designed for Northern California and Nevada executives/business owners who seek outside guidance in several key areas.
Ms. Horton believes in integrated thinking and loves to see clients achieve their professional goals. She works with clients across a variety of industries. She has worked with thousands of company owners during her career
She is a successful entrepreneur, business strategist, business development expert, CFO and an M&A Advisor. Leslie has worked with Fortune 500 firms such as Bay Networks, Advanced Micro Devices and Apple Computer, as well as small and early stage companies.
Select accomplishments include:
Raising/facilitating $100+ Million in two public offerings, in funding through private placement with angel investors and venture capitalists, conducting a US and European road show and serving as a key contributor on two public offerings.
Creating innovative business development campaigns such as the one that accelerated revenue achievement via a server platform client’s “Who’s Who” customer advisory board and another for a hardware solution for backups. She has opened doors or strengthened the relationships for clients with such Fortune 500 companies as Google, Home Depot, Chevron, IBM, Juniper Networks among others .
Spearheading mergers & acquisitions to ensure rapid traction, market success and achieve shareholder objectives. She has negotiated with Fortune 500 firms while representing small clients from several industries including construction, high technology, manufacturing, specialized plastics and professional services. Ms. Horton sells both businesses and commercial buildings and enjoys finding the right acquirer for every good business.
She completed her undergraduate work at CSU Northridge and received her MBA from Santa Clara University and graduated summa cum laude in both programs. She is an executive, entrepreneur, CPA, M&A Advisor (DRE #00941805 ) and a published journalist.
Edward Cotney: Business Taxation Advisor
Edward (Ed) is the founder and principal at Olympus Tax, Business and Insurance Solutions, Inc. and author of Tax Secrets Made Simple. He hails from Alabama (Roll Tide), earned degrees in Physiology and Aviation Management and served active duty in the US Air Force for twenty years before retiring in 1998 in Northern California.
His introduction to Family Wealth Counseling, Ed explains, came as a close friend was struggling with the preparation and future sale of his very successful multi-million-dollar business. He was anticipating a tax liability of nearly half of the proceeds.
Ed graduated from the prestigious Professional Mentoring Program in Franklin, Indiana, where he became a Family Wealth Counselor in 2000. Working as a strategy and tax designer over the past since then, he applied this practical knowledge to helping families implement advanced strategies to significantly reduce taxes, increase income and make a difference in the world.
Lauded for making the complex simple to understand, Ed is well known for providing continuing education classes to professional advisors from basic to sophisticated estate planning techniques, business formations, mergers, private placement, research and development tax credits, domestic asset protection trusts, domestic international sales corporations, business succession planning and multi-generational business planning.
Ed has provided input to several senate and congressional committees on legislation to benefit philanthropic tax law for non-profit operations. Ed is a popular speaker and participates in radio programs on the topic of Maximum Wealth Control.
Scott Metcalf: Venture Catalyst Advisor
Mr. Metcalf is a successful Silicon Valley CEO and entrepreneur. He has raised more than $200 million in venture capital for technology startups. Mr. Metcalf is noted for his strong presentation and negotiation skills.
Mr. Metcalf brings 30+ years of international high technology business experience to bear in his business dealings during which time he has consistently raised private capital, developed technologies and infrastructure to maturity, and facilitated a number of merger and acquisition transactions.
Some key CEO career highlights are: Semio, an enterprise knowledge management software firm, acquired by Entrieva; Digitivity, a Java server and security software company, acquired by Citrix; HAL Computer Systems, a maker of super-computing workstations and servers, acquired by Fujitsu; and Dynabook Computers, a portable computer design firm, acquired by Unisys. Earlier in his career, Mr. Metcalf was a high-level executive at Sun Microsystems where he handled global operations and procurement for this Fortune 500 company.
Mr. Metcalf serves on the boards of more than a dozen public and privately held high technology companies in the United States and Europe. He is also a limited partner investor at several Silicon Valley venture capital firms. Mr. Metcalf is regularly invited by select venture capital firms to trouble shoot and resolve their portfolio company challenge.