Harvest Business Advisors is pleased to announce that Richard Stopa has joined the firm as a Partner and Jill Kerr has joined Harvest as Director of Marketing and Business Development.
Richard Stopa has been connecting buyers and sellers in the Washington DC-Baltimore Metro Area for more than 15 years.
Richard’s credentials include over 40 years of business brokerage, business ownership and working in senior level management positions in the IT industry. He has been involved in entrepreneurial ventures in addition to helping many others get a start in the business world. He is experienced in B2B and B2C services, construction, property management, retail, computer distribution, computer reselling, e-commerce and software.
Richard led the development of a 600 unit computer franchise and reseller network across the U.S. serving as a senior executive of the company and reporting to the CEO. The company’s revenue growth during his eight year tenure went from $25 million to over $1 billion.
Richard has been involved in mergers and acquisitions work and franchise sales since 1984. Because Richard believes so sincerely in entrepreneurship, he has a keen desire to match up buyers and sellers and see both parties meet their business goals.
Richard is a past Chairman of CompTIA the world’s leading association for the technology industry. He is also a member of the International Business Brokers Association, Exit Planning Exchange (XPX) and was a co-founder and has served as president of the Mid-Atlantic Business Intermediaries Association.
Jill Kerr joins Harvest as a senior member of the team. She has more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry where she has served in executive leadership positions in both non-profit and for-profit organizations. Her expertise is in marketing and recruitment with a specialty in membership organizations.
For 10 years, Jill held senior positions with The ASCII Group, Inc. the nation’s largest buying group of independent computer solution providers with system-wide sales of over $11 billion. As President of that company, she was responsible for managing the company’s sales and marketing programs as well as overseeing the day-to-day operations of the organization. During her tenure, The ASCII Group grew from 400 members to more than 2,000 members in the United States and Canada.
Jill has held several roles at CompTIA: The Computing Technology Industry Association which is the world’s leading information technology trade association. Most recently she was CompTIA’s Vice President of Industry Development and was responsible for North American sales of CompTIA products and services, including membership, events and sponsorships.
Jill has also held executive leadership roles in five Internet ventures. She served as Vice President of Sales for eDeposit.com and LegalNotice.org, as VP of Membership for Someone With Group, as VP of Business Development for Zoomus and was a founder of TechnologyNet, Inc. the e-commerce arm of The ASCII Group.
Jill holds a B.A. in Communications Studies from Muhlenberg College and has completed advanced studies in e-commerce management at The University of Virginia.