Rodney began his business career in 1970 as a sales representative for BellSouth (then Southern Bell.) He progressed rapidly in the sales organization holding various sales management positions, culminating as District Sales Manager responsible for all public sector accounts in Georgia.
In 1980, Rodney moved to the corporate training organization managing
all sales and product training for the 9-state region. In 1985, he developed
a business plan that led to the creation of BellSouth Educational Services,
an unregulated profit center which developed customized training services
for firms in the telecommunications industry. Rodney was appointed President
of this subsidiary.
In 1991, Rodney joined Schroeder-Flynn, Inc., a large regional outplacement
firm. As Executive Vice President he managed the Atlanta office and
worked with dozens of senior executives from many industries in a career
counseling capacity. The company was purchased by a large national firm
in 1993, and Rodney established his own consulting practice.
From 1993 to 1999, Rodney consulted in two broad areas: 1) Sales/Marketing/Customer
care in the telecommunications industry; 2) Strategic Planning, Organizational
Development, Sales/Marketing, etc. with small and medium size firms.
The practice provided a broad array of experiences … from working
with very large national/international corporations to entrepreneurial
startup efforts to rapidly growing small and medium size companies.
In late 1998, Rodney was engaged by Access Integrated Networks, Inc.
(a telecom company in nine southern states). He worked on various projects
for Access, and in July 1999 accepted the positions of Vice President
and Secretary of the corporation, and a seat on the Board.
Though Rodney’s background had been sales/marketing and general
management, at various times he had responsibility for the company’s
Operations and Human Resources functions. As the company matured Rodney
retained the Marketing responsibilities and also established and managed
the company’s Policy Advocacy efforts.
Rodney played a key senior management role as Access experienced phenomenal
success:
> The company increased annual revenues from $4M
to $70M.
> The employee base grew from 14 to approximately 250.
> In a very competitive industry, the company achieved positive cash
flow in less than 4 years.
Rodney left Access to co-found The Focus Group in 2004.
Rodney is a graduate of the University of Georgia where he majored in
advertising/marketing.
