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Management Team Profiles

Paul M. Keating, JR - Owner/President/CEO
Paul Keating Paul Keating is owner/president of Elite Brands and is responsible for the vision and direction of worldwide sales, marketing, and distribution to the military resale markets.

Prior to founding Elite, Mr. Keating served as vice president of sales and marketing for Military Sales and Marketing Company where he was influential in creating the infrastructure and sales team that succeeded in taking the company worldwide. At Elite, Mr. Keating has built a leadership team of highly experienced, top resale personnel from throughout the military resale industry.

Mr. Keating and Elite Brands are members of the American Logistics Association (ALA). He has been an active member of ALA's Commissary Council representing small business interests for nine consecutive years.

Paul Keating holds a BS in Business Administration from Bryant College.


Gregory D. Sheldon - Vice President of Operations 
Greg Sheldon Greg Sheldon joined Elite in 2000 as Vice President of Information Technology. Prior to joining Elite, he served as hotel manager at the Boston Copley Marriott, a 1,200 room convention hotel. Mr. Sheldon worked with Marriott International for over 15 years and held positions in all areas of hotel management in both the US and Japan.

As Vice President of Information Technology, Mr. Sheldon was instrumental in procuring and building the network and server infrastructure currently in place at Elite. Mr. Sheldon has worked closely with vendors to build the ordering and customer management systems that have been critical to Elite's yearly double-digit growth since 2000.

As the current Vice President of Operations, Mr. Sheldon is directly responsible for ensuring that cost effective operations and infrastructure are in place to support the daily flow of business.

Mr. Sheldon holds a BSBA with concentration in Finance from Boston University.


John M. Whouley - Vice President of Finance
John WhouleyJohn Whouley joined Elite in 2000 as Vice President of Finance. Prior to working in the military resale industry, he spent 14 years employed by Coastal Oil Corporation, an international wholesaler of oil and natural gas primarily as corporate controller.

Mr. Whouley has extensive experience working with government contracting officers and contracting agencies including Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and On-Line Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA). He has developed cutting-edge financial operating systems at Elite, fully automating electronic data interchange (EDI) with business trading partners that accurately and efficiently process purchase orders, deliveries, delivery ticket invoices (DTI), electronic payments (EFT) and price transmissions. He is responsible for maintaining strong relationships with Elite's banking and investment providers, vendor partners and distributor network to achieve the overall financial objectives of the company.

Mr. Whouley holds a BS in Finance from Bentley College and an MBA from Boston College.




Management Team Profiles (cont)

Keith A. Smith - Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Keith SmithKeith Smith joined Elite in January of 2006 and has worked in the Military resale system since 1981. Prior to joining Elite, Mr. Smith worked for a worldwide military broker and held numerous positions including VP of Sales. During Mr. Smith's time in the resale system he worked extensively with Commissary Headquarter and Region management, and has traveled extensively in overseas markets to fully develop export sales. He has also developed business in both the AAFES and NEXCOM Exchange systems, and is a member of the ALA Exchange Council.

Currently, Mr. Smith's primary focus is on the field execution of all distribution and promotional objectives. He ensures sales efforts are coordinated between the Elite Regional Managers and store sales representatives to ensure timely and successful sales events.

Mr. Smith is a graduate of Western Washington University with a BA in Communications.

Dustin Whitney - Vice President of Marketing
Dustin WhitneyDustin Whitney has worked in the military resale market for the past seven years. He has worked and managed brands throughout his career. His current role is to develop and promote Elite's various product lines.

Mr. Whitney is an active community volunteer. He currently is involved with several scholarship efforts, a local mentoring program and Prevent Blindess MA.

He holds a BS degree in Marketing from Boston College's Carroll School of Management

Milton E. Ackerman Jr. - Vice President of Customer Sales
Milt Ackerman Milt Ackerman joined Elite in 2002 following 25-plus years with Nabisco. During his career with Nabisco, he was responsible for establishing customer-specific marketing and sales plans and managing the DSD military sales organization.

Currently, Mr. Ackerman's position as the Vice President of Customer Sales for Elite includes managing DeCA headquarters, as well as conducting category specific reviews, presenting monthly promotions, and establishing plan-o-grams for an ever-changing customer. In addition to these responsibilities, he also manages all Exchange AAFES and NEXCOM sales channels.

Mr. Ackerman is President Emeritus for the Hampton Roads Chapter of the American Logistics Assocation (ALA) and serves on various National ALA working groups and the local YMCA Board of Directors. He is a graduate of Syracuse University.

Robert E. Denecke - National Sales Manager
Robert Denecke Rob Denecke joined the Elite Sales team in 2003 and is responsible for field sales in the domestic market and direct oversight of the European commissary market. Mr. Denecke is also directly involved with all DeCA test sets and coordinating Elite's reset team for the continental US.

Mr. Denecke was previously the Regional Sales manager for Paul Keating Jr. at Military Sales and Marketing and was responsible for the Eastern Region, Headquarters Presentations and managing DeCA Europe.

Mr. Denecke has been involved in the commissary resale system since 1990 and is a graduate of Bryant College with a Bachelors in Business Administration


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