Louis Garner

American Plan Review is a third party plan review and code inspection agency which provides plan review and code consulting services to several development and architecture firms in the District of Columbia.

• APR was founded in March 2018 by myself and one partner who serves as technical lead, while I manage all other affairs.
• YoY sales more than tripled from 2019 to 2020, even during the height of pandemic lockdowns.
• Responsibilities include: management of all operations, marketing, sales, and staff including a team of contractors.
• Secured contract with national level firms (Verizon) for assignment of all their local work in our industry.
• Attended and managed presence at all local professional organizations (AIA, DCBIA, NAIOP, SMPS)

Salary: $120,000

CTI Consultants is an integrated Testing & Inspections company based in Richmond, VA, with a national presence across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, South and Southwest. In 2013, I was hired as Sales Manager, but was quickly promoted to Business Development Manager and assumed all the duties of client management for my local area. Three years later, I was promoted to VP of Business Development and assumed the same responsibilities for the firm itself. I was responsible for management of the full sales process, direct negotiations of select large clients, management and hiring of junior sales and BD staff and overall client management. I was also responsible for management of CRM and attendance of all local professional organizations. As part of my promotion I was also given options in the firm as a whole, one of less than ten with similar situations.

• Interfaced daily with the senior leadership team from CEO, President, COO, and General Counsel
• Negotiated most large contracts and clients directly, delegating smaller contracts as necessary.
• Maintained critical client relationships
• Responsible for initiative to break down the silos of the company, as the firm operated as 20+ independent branch offices, instead of an integrated firm.

• Established relationships with key decision-makers within customer's organization to promote growth and retention.
• Researched and identified opportunities for account growth, account penetration and market expansion.
• Negotiated and closed long-term agreements with new clients in assigned territory.
• Attended for attendance of AIA, DCBIA, NAIOP and other professional organizations on behalf of firm

Salary: $65,000

Evolution Finance is a financial tech startup based in Washington D.C. which operates the websites CardHub.com and WalletHub.com, with a mission to democratize finance for the average person. I joined the company as Business Development Manager and employee #14. With our small staff decentralized across the United States and internationally (Bucharest, Manila, Kentucky, North Carolina, Fort Belvoir), I grew accustomed to operations at all hours of the business day and to living in a 24 hour business environment.

Managed several teams across multiple business departments:

During my time with Evolution Finance I was responsible for:

• Managing all outreach to financial advisers, credit card companies, banks, credit unions and other parties
• Managing a team of professional writers creating articles and pieces for our websites
• Directing a team of Facebook developers and engineers to implement our web development strategy
• Managing a team of moderators who review all of the incoming content on our websites
• Leading team of data entry personnel who created and edited hundreds of web pages daily

I reported directly the CEO on a daily basis and routinely worked extreme hours to meet the demands of a small highly ambitious and disruptive firm.

Salary: $55,000

Union offers a full line of retirement consulting and financial planning courses for federal government employees. I served as the primary point of contact for the company’s owner, reporting to him directly and managing his travel accommodations and scheduling. With other management staff out of the office on regular business travel, I was often left solely in charge of the office. I served as Union’s representative during most negotiations with our clients; regularly flying out and working out our contracts. I was responsible for administration, billing, marketing, payroll, sales, scheduling, travel; as well as handling any other tasks that come up during the course of business. During my time as an employee, Union saw strong growth in both revenue and profitability; both coming about as a result of an aggressive marketing, expense cutting, and client retention program that I implemented, after taking over operations from the previous manager.

• Management of all business operations
• Managed access to and scheduling for the President/Owner
• Responsible for the office during Owner’s regular business travel
• Strong revenue growth during my time in position
• Ran a successful cost cutting program
• Recruited and managed a team of support contractors and professionals