Mr. Lytle founded BDG Partners in 1992 after leaving a successful career as a senior executive with several Fortune100 Companies. He has proven to be a most effective entrepreneur and businessperson by taking companies he has invested in from bankruptcy and under one million in revenues to over $600 million in revenues in less than two years. He is a successful business coach, with clients across the country, a well-known business stabilization specialist and strategic planner and is considered the foremost authority today in the area of Predictive Modeling (an update on Deming's House of Quality.) Mr. Lytle often acts as the Chairman or CEO of companies in transition and works with Boards of Directors on organizational and strategic planning.

Mr. Lytle is the founder and Executive Director of Live Green, Live Smart, an International organization, focused on environmental initiatives to design low impact, green, sustainable and environmentally friendly housing. Live Green, Live Smart created under Mr. Lytle's leadership one of the world's greenest homes, which was awarded by the US Green Building Council its first LEED for Homes™ Platinum Certification in December of 2007.

Mr. Lytle has served as Chairman and CEO of his own firms and the firms of others: Humanetics Corporation (pharmaceuticals), Primo Piatto, Inc. (the 2nd largest pasta company in the U.S.), Velocity Express (largest same-day shipping company in the U.S., NASDAQ), St. Croix Computing (postal mail management and security firm), Oak Ridge Sports, Inc., Agrotec Inc., AbleNet, Inc., Marchese & Associates, Inc., North American Heritage Brands, Inc., and The Franchise Development Group, a firm focused on socially responsible franchise development, which includes College Nannies (largest nanny provider in the country), College Tutors (one of the countries top tutoring firms) and POCP, LLC,

He has served on numerous Boards of Directors for public and private corporations and nonprofit organizations. He served as Vice President & General Manager of Business Development and Advanced Food Sciences and founded Results Technology, the largest contract research firm in the country, for Land O' Lakes. He was a senior executive with Beatrice Companies in marketing and a co-founder of the Wilderness Recreation Association.

Mr. Lytle is a frequent contributor of articles and research papers to the media and is also a frequent speaker, and guest lecturer at colleges, organizations and business seminars. He attended the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa and began his career as a teacher.

Terry Weber-Johnson
Partner, Unit V.P. Operations, Franchise Development Specialist,
Coach

Mrs. Johnson has over 27 years of business experience working in a variety of industries. She is an experienced business development professional with a strong sales, marketing and human resources background. Mrs. Johnson has been with BDG for ten years and a Partner in the firm for three years. She provides coaching and training for company clients and company operated business units. She is a results-oriented leader with strong communication and operational skills.

Peter C. Barsness, CPA
Partner, CPA, Financial Specialist

Peter Barsness has more than 30 years of solid financial management experience including CFO positions in publicly traded, family owned and start-up companies. He has worked for a variety of well know Minnesota corporations and has been consulting in the fields of turnarounds and business stabilizations for over five years. His expertise has been focused on helping clients with their cash management, financial planning, modeling, accounting and tax management issues.

Joseph Keeley
Partner, Director of Franchise Development, Coaching Young Entrepreneurs

Joseph Keeley is our partner leading franchise development projects and act as the CEO for several franchise business units. He is past president of Bizlounge, a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and Chair of Emerging Entrepreneurs. Mr. Keeley has been associated with BDG Partners since 2003. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of St. Thomas, College of Business. He is winner of the Global Entrepreneur Award (2003), he was previously listed by Business Week as one of the Top 25 business leaders under 25. He is an active speaker in the areas of franchise development, marketing, and business development. Mr. Keeley has owned and operated several businesses and is well versed in franchise law, business start-up methods and has a strong technology background.

Vivian earned her Bachelor of Art at Clarke College, Dubuque, IA; Degree: BA Spanish, History, and Education. She earned her Master of Science degree at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; Degree: Communication Disorders. She has participated in Bilingual Special Education Training of Trainers Institutes at University of TX, Austin TX and Buenos Center for Multicultural Education, University of CO, Boulder, CO. Various University courses and workshops - Anthropology, Reading, English as a Second Language, Bilingual/ Bicultural Education, Bilingual Special Education, Language Immersion, Non-discriminatory Assessment. Teaching Certificate: MN K - 12, Special Education, Spanish and History; File Folder Number: 252697.

John Seymour
Partner, Strategic Planning and Marketing Consultant

In addition to his work developing and supporting the Live Green, Live Smart mission and brand, John is a partner providing consulting services in the areas of strategic planning and marketing. With an MBA, and over seventeen years of broad-based strategic planning, marketing and communications experience, John brings a strong track record of success and delivering results. He brings great passion, curiosity and clarity in helping organizations build their businesses and their brands.

John's career experience spans work in both New York City and Minneapolis to support and lead blue-chip organizations across multiple categories including consumer packaged goods, consumer services, technology, retail, healthcare and social marketing. His experience spans work with AT&T, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Kmart, Hefty consumer brands, Live Green Live Smart, New Jersey's Anti-Tobacco program, Eastman Chemical, Northwest Airlines and Capella University.

John is a native Minnesotan and is married with two children. When not working, John is either playing with his children, working on his house or honing his pick-up basketball skills (he actually was a college letter winner in football and baseball at Whittier College).

John received his MBA in Marketing and Strategic Management from University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and his BA in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Deb Correll
Consulting Specialist in Marketing, Board of Advisors

Deb is a marketing consultant for emerging growth companies. She has over 20 years experience in marketing and sales. She understands the complexity of new product and new business development, entrepreneurial start up environments and the importance of strategic business alliances.

Her experience base includes the food industry: consumer packaged goods and new product development, institutional foodservice, business-to- business marketing and the e-commerce, consumer direct service sector.

She has experience in both corporate management and marketing communication agencies, and now her growing roster of business clients.

Deb's career includes being a member of the senior management team during the initial two-year start up phase at SimonDelivers.com. Prior to joining SimonDelivers, she was director of marketing at Gold'n Plump Poultry where she was responsible for brand strategy, new product development, and corporate PR communications. She has held brand management positions at Land O'Lakes and Beatrice Companies. Her account management at two Minneapolis promotional marketing agencies, included management of numerous marketing programs for major consumer packaged goods clients, including Hormel Foods Corporation and Oscar Mayer Foods.

Correll has a master in business administration (MBA) from the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) and a bachelor's of science degree in business education, concentration marketing, from the University of Minnesota. She graduated with honors from both schools.

Steve Jeffrey
Technology Consultant

Steve has over 20 years in the information technology field with a specialization in document imaging and workflow management. Steve Graduated from Central Washington University with degrees in Financial Administration and Data Processing and was hired by Electronic Data Systems directly out of college. Following 10 years service with EDS in various supervisory and management roles, Mr. Jeffrey accepted a position a Vice President of Information Services and Corporate Officer at American Delivery Systems. After nearly 8 years within the logistics and transportation industry, Mr. Jeffrey is now a consultant for a mid-market document imaging and workflow management company located in Laguna Hills, California. Steve has successfully managed the implementation and training for document imaging and workflow management systems at dozens of mid-to-large sized companies in North America and Europe.