Karen Rehn, President, Broker

Ms. Rehn purchased a small business brokering firm located in Hartland in 2003, which was founded in 1993. She later changed the name to Rehn Business Brokers.  She purchased the firm after selling her manufacturing company which she owned for 13 years.  In 2006, Rehn changed the name once again to Acquisition Business Advisory Services, Inc. to reflect the changing and growing firm which added other value added services they currently perform.  Karen is responsible for new business development and market research. She focuses on identifying and developing consultative relationships with prospective clients. A win-win style of negotiating has worked extremely well for Karen over the years, and will help any interested buyer or seller get off to a solid start.

Karen also offers business consulting and exit strategy planning, and is currently active consulting throughout the United States for the staffing industry.  On the buy side, she manages a successful Buyer Agency Program that helps buyers acquire special interest acquisitions.

Karen has an extensive background in sales and marketing and has received numerous sales awards for top performance. She is a licensed broker by the State of Wisconsin, and is currently on the board of directors for Tempo Envision, a group of women executives and business owners.

Kelly Skarda,, CBA, MBA, Valuation Director

Kelly leads ABA Services Business Valuation and Litigation Services Department, which provides business valuations, litigation support and other consultative services.  She is accredited as a Certified Business Appraiser (CBA) through the Institute of Business Appraisers (IBA).

Kelly has performed valuations for companies in a variety of industries including: wholesale distribution, manufacturing, construction, retail, health care and financial institutions.  Kelly provides accurate and defensible business valuations by applying the firm's first-hand market knowledge with the most advanced and appropriate business valuation techniques.  She has testified as an expert witness in several court cases supporting her business valuation reports.

Prior to joining ABA Services, Kelly worked in the finance division of a Fortune 500 company where she performed various activities including financial market analysis, financial reporting and project management. 

Kelly received her bachelor's degree in finance (magna cum laude) from Kansas State University, and her MBA in finance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

 

 

Michael J. Browne, Strategic Business Intermediary

Michael J. Browne, MSA, CPA, CMA, CFM, CPIM has over 30 years of hands on experience and successfully completed hundreds of engagements throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Latin America. 
He has served as Chief Financial Officer for a manufacturing company and was Partner In Charge of Consulting for one of the largest CPA and Consulting Firms in the United States.  His entrepreneurial experience includes founding an accounting and consulting firm and growing it to a top 15 ranking in the Milwaukee marketplace.  He has assisted Clients ranging from start ups to Fortune 100 companies.
 
Mr. Browne is expert in mergers and acquisitions, business valuations, exit strategy planning, pricing, cost and performance measurement, strategic planning, profit planning, and budgetary control.  Michael has extensive consulting experience including recent Client engagements in business valuations, seller exit strategy, improvement of customer, product, and service profitability, process and efficiency improvement, benchmarking, pricing and estimating, performance metrics and Balanced Scorecard, strategic assessment and planning, budgeting and profit planning, capital justification, outsourcing, and economic scenario evaluation.
 
Michael holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater.  He is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Management Accountant, and holds Certified Financial Management and Certified Production and Inventory Management designations.  He is also an Adjunct Professor of Accounting in the MBA program at Marquette University.  The Marquette MBA program ranks in the top 20 part-time programs in the United States.  He is a guest lecturer for a number of universities and a national speaker in the Cost, Performance, and Profitability Management field.

A partial consulting Client list includes Fidelity Investments, Harley-Davidson, Menasha Corporation, AmeriPride Services, Oshkosh B’Gosh, S.C. Johnson Wax, Lockheed Martin, Potlatch Corporation, Champion International, Donnelly Corporation, West Bend Corporation, Molex, Kimberly Clark,Sentry Insurance, Immuno US, WE Energies, Allegheny Power, Citizens Gas and numerous small and medium size organizations.

Jerry Hegy, CPA, Merger/Acquisition Specialist

Jerry joined ABA Services after they assisted him in selling his local staffing franchise.  He has over 35 years experience in accounting, human resources and mergers and acquisitions, working for both buyers and sellers.

Jerry holds an undergraduate degree in accounting and a MBA.  After obtaining his CPA designation and working in public accounting, he moved into CFO positions for several Milwaukee manufacturing and distribution companies.  In 1989 he started the local franchise for Remedy Staffing and developed into multiple offices, which consistently ranked in the top 10 employment agencies published by the Milwaukee Business Journal.  Jerry uses these past experiences in both the buy and the sell side of the transactions to ABA's arsenal. 

Jeanette Clayton Garczynski, Sales and Marketing Assistant

Jeanette has been on the ABA Services team for 4 years.  Jeanette brings valuable customer service skills to the team and works with dozens of buyers at one time, providing updated information on our listing opportunities so proper assessments can be made on their acquisitions criteria. She does a great job....connecting business buyers and sellers. She also assists with client material preparation and administrative duties.

Prior to joining ABA, Jeanette worked in sales, management and human resources in the insurance and technology fields. She is currently active as a volunteer fund raiser, basketball coach and as a figure skating instructor.

Jeanette holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business & Psychology from the University of Rochester located in New York.

John Hardgrove, Merger/Acquisition Specialist

John brings over 25 years experience operating/managing and owning small to medium size businesses, primarily in the petroleum industry and quick oil change centers.   His experience of being a business owner has given him a thorough grounding in the challenges, opportunities and duties of operating a business including strategic business planning, acquisitions (lease and purchase), marketing, human resources, financial analysis and purchasing.  He understands the many pressures, responsibilities and tasks our clients are handling every day.  Also, John comes with Business Banker experience at a major national bank in the Milwaukee area, this gives him a unique perspective on the business loan process which he uses to advise both Buyers and Sellers for financing options.  Most recently he worked at a competitor of ABA'S in the Milwaukee area as a Business Broker where he handled deals in the small to midsize markets with the utmost dedication and confidentiality.   A well rounded businessman and entrepreneur who relates well to both Sellers and Buyers, a valuable member of our team.

 

Sara Krill, Health Care Advisor

As a member of the ABA team, Sara Krill provides our healthcare clients with the experience and knowledge to further develop their healthcare-related companies. Sara’s professional experience spans over twenty years in the healthcare field. She has administrative experience in hospitals and physician groups, an advertising agency, and is an entrepreneur who understands business ownership and development. In addition, Sara enhanced her skills with a Master’s degree in healthcare administration and another in business administration. 
As a partner in Integrated Healthcare Business Solutions, Sara has strategically aligned with ABA to assist new owners of healthcare-related organizations to grow their business. Based on the need of the client, she applies the tools of strategic planning, marketing and advertising, revenue cycle management, operations, staff development and new clinic start-up services. Sara and the other members of ABA work with our healthcare clients to create solid business strategies to realize growth and increased revenue.

Susan Catrini, Marketing Specialist

 

Susan has over 20 years of experience in marketing, graphic design, advertising and photography.  She is the owner of The Catrini Group, which is a graphic design and brand-marketing firm.  Susan generates creative ideas and effective designs with her client’s objectives always top-of-mind.  She will work intimately with you – her partner - in many cases becoming an extension to your own internal marketing and sales teams. Her experience and creative process help to serve her clients with the most innovative solutions.

Susan’s goal is to successfully promote and market your company to your target audience in the most unique, creative and impressionable manner that will help to raise the level of quality in which your audience perceives your brand, and your company.  Susan has proven to be a true asset to her clients in an array of industries including manufacturing, service, government, food and non-profit sectors.