Neil and his family, wife Janet and son David, moved from Scotland (UK) to the USA in 1992 with his then employer Allied Domecq Wines and Spirits, an International drinks and retailing conglomerate, where Neil held the positions of Senior Brand Manager and Marketing Manager for several of their key Scotch whiskey brands in charge of new product development.

He later joined the Company's International Liqueurs Division based out of two California offices, as their International Field Director representing Kahlua, Tia Maria and the Hiram Walker Liqueurs brands. He was then promoted to International Marketing Director for their International Retail Division responsible for the marketing and development of their franchised food brands division, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts and TOGO's across all international markets.

After an out of state company relocation in 2003, Neil remained in California to pursue his own business ventures. Neil started his own Marketing Consultancy business, "The Marketing Practice" while simultaneously becoming a franchise consultant with the Franchise Network, or FranNet for short. During this time, he was introduced to Express Employment Professionals.

Having referred many executive candidates to Express, Neil was impressed with their feedback, and decided to pursue a franchise opportunity. Neil launched his first Express office in Ventura in August 2006 and moved to a larger office in Oxnard a year later, just before the Great Recession. Despite the recession, Neil and his team grew his Employment and HR Services business every year through 2019 until the start of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Since joining the Express family 16 years ago, Neil and his team have grown the business every year, except 2020, the first year of the full Covid lockdown. The Oxnard office is one of Express's Top performing offices, consistently ranking in the top 10 out of 850 offices in the USA and Internationally. The Thousand Oaks office opened in 2012 and has also grown significantly, achieving Bronze Circle of Excellence level multiple times.

Neil and his teams have been recognized with numerous awards over the years including:

• Achieving Top 50 Fastest Growing Businesses in the Pacific Coast Business Times Tri-Counties rankings 3x
• Express' Chairman's Club Award on multiple occasions
• The 2019 IFA Franchisee of the Year award
• Platinum Circle of Excellence (Oxnard)
• Bronze Circle of Excellence (Thousand Oaks)

• Financial BA/CPA level degree from the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, United Kingdom
• 20+ years' experience in international banking, accounting, and project accounting (including Govt. contracts)

Biography

I was born in Mansfield, Ohio. I spent my childhood there years before moving to Scotland where I studied finance and worked in international banking in the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London. I have lived in beautiful Ventura County, California for the last 15 years, first in Westlake Village and now in Moorpark. My husband and I have been business owners since 2006 in the employment and franchise consulting sectors.