Principles

Mark V. Eberhard
CEO & President, American Marksman Group

 

Mr. Eberhard is the Chief Executive Officer and President of American Marksman Group; an operating-holding company for American Marksman Indoor Shooting Sports Centers. He has a twenty-year background in management, sales & marketing, management consulting, advisory & intermediary services, and equity & debt financing. Mr. Eberhard is accountable for maintaining positive cash flow, protecting assets, and building shareholder value. In addition, he formulates and executes major policies, programs, and objectives to promote and ensure the company's continued success and growth. Mr. Eberhard's leadership and organizational abilities enables him to direct and coordinate activities to achieve profit and return on capital. He subscribes to the Fact Based Decision-Making Model. This process encompasses gathering information, weighing costs and benefits, and assessing risk, culminating with decisive actions.

Relevant Experience

Mr. Eberhard has been involved in commercial firearms and range development since 1997 and since 1985 with the United States Marine Corps. He completed the U.S. Marine Corps High-Risk Personnel (HRP) Course for Defensive Pistol Concealed Carry (Nov-2003) and the National Rifle Association Range Development and Operations Seminar (Aug-2001). Mr. Eberhard has performed advisory and financial transactions with Fortune 500 corporations, international firms, small commercial clients, municipal agencies, and the Department of Defense. He has general knowledge of all aspects of corporate finance to include Class A, B, and C categorized monies as well as valuation and capitalization processing. Mr. Eberhard has in-depth experience with business process improvement (BPI) methodologies, Total Quality Management (TQM), and budgeting-planning-forecasting. In addition, Mr. Eberhard has skill sets in contract review and negotiation, and personnel and project management.

Professional Background

Mr. Eberhard is a regular guest on Your Turn on WEBY Northwest Florida Talk Radio, where he speaks professionally on the firearms, 2nd Amendment, and geo-political issues. He is a co-sponsor for the NRA's Range Development & Operations Conferences. Mr. Eberhard is the President of the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce High Growth Business Club. He has spoken on small business development topics at NASA's Training and Development of Small Businesses in Advanced Technologies (TADSBAT) Seminars. Prior to establishing the American Marksman Group, Mr. Eberhard was a Senior Advisor of the consulting division for the southeastern U.S. for International Profit Associates (IPA-IBA) located in Chicago. He also worked for KPMG LLC as a Consultant in the Public/Federal Services Practice.

Mr. Eberhard's commercial shooting and firearms background originated in the late 1990's when he was hired as a member of the founding staff for Advanced Interactive Systems (AIS). In this position, he developed all lines of business within the Southeastern U.S. AIS was the first company of its kind to integrate interactive recreational software into live fire commercial indoor shooting ranges. Mr. Eberhard worked closely with range owners to create effective marketing campaigns that improved range utilization, therefore increasing ammunition consumption, firearms sales, and other value added services to the customer. Simultaneously, Mr. Eberhard introduced and retailed AIS's PRISim line (Professional Range Instruction Simulator). This venue of Use-of-Force/Judgmental live and non-live fire training simulators is still marketed today to law enforcement and military markets.

Mr. Eberhard was the Founder and President of American Leasing Services, a national equipment finance company from 1995 to 1998. He developed and implemented marketing, advertising, administration, and delivery of all facets of commercial technology, industrial, and transportation equipment leases from $100,000 to $10,000,000+. American Leasing Services structured over $120,000,000 in commercial leases during this period.

Mr. Eberhard is from a commercial construction family, Eberhard Construction Co., Inc. and worked as field labor, finishing as a project manager in 1985. His tasks included coordinating proposals, bidding, estimating, purchasing, plans, and specifications among architects, engineers, owners, and field superintendents on multiple multi-million dollar US Government, commercial, & industrial contracts. Multiple projects involved the US Army & Navy Acquisition process with government & military personnel. In May 2005, Mr. Eberhard transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps Retired Reserve after obtaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel with over 20 years of service as a heavy lift helicopter pilot, forward air controller, and military parachutist. He served in air-wing, division, air-naval-gunfire, reconnaissance, and staff positions.

Mr. Eberhard holds a Masters in Business Administration (3.94 GPA, summa cum laude) from Regis University. (2002). He is a graduate of the Marine Corps University's Command & Staff College (2002). Mr. Eberhard holds a Bachelors degree in Construction Management (Business Administration) from Utica College of the Syracuse University (1987) and an Associates degree in Business Administration from Dutchess Community College (1985). Mr. Eberhard is a professing Christian and attends Concord Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Gulf Breeze, FL. He as also served as the Diaconate Chairman in the PCA Church. He is married and has four children.

Published Articles

The Purpose of a Business, No Different for Ranges
May 27, 2005

Leadership & Management Theory Defined
September 16, 2004


Edward G. Martenfeld
Vice President of Range Development, American Marksman Group

Mr. Martenfeld is the Vice President of Range Development for American Marksman Group and is also currently functioning as the interim General Manager for the recently acquired Santee, California facility.  He has a forty year background in management and entrepreneurial ventures. He is responsible for the development of American Marksman systems, controls, and procedures and their implementation into new store operations.

Relevant Experience

In 1998 Mr. Martenfeld moved from Toronto, Canada to the United States and settled in the Tampa Bay, Florida area to avoid the winter snow and ice. As an avid sport shooter and firearms enthusiast he frequented some of the local firearms stores and ranges and was disenchanted with what he saw. Recognizing the need and looking to invest in a business, Mr. Martenfeld purchased land, engaged the services of an architect and proceeded to develop Knight Shooting Sports. This facility is noted by many in the industry as one of the top ten indoor shooting sports facilities in the U.S.

He was directly involved in the design and construction of the 16 thousand square foot building along with the design fabrication and installation of the bullet trap capable of stopping .50 caliber BMG rounds. Mr. Martenfeld sourced and installed the target retrieval system, range ventilation system, and the entire infrastructure to include systems, controls, and management operations of this state of the art upscale store and indoor range facility. Knight’s retail store design was unlike any other in the industry. The store was large, bright, airy with high ceilings, wide aisles displaying an array of inventory, firearms, accessories, and associated merchandise not seen in the typical “gun store.”

In seven years through innovative management philosophy and addressing market and customer needs Mr. Martenfeld generated annual sales from zero to $2.5 million. He is committed to influence and improve quality range development nationally by using his past performance and operational success.

Professional Background

In addition to Mr. Martenfeld’s range experience he spent many years working in steel and tube manufacturing, heavy machine design, fabrication for steel manufacturing, and fabricating industry. Specifically Mr. Martenfeld worked with tube and mill pipe, steel slitting, blanking and packaging lines, and continuous steel tube electroplating lines He operated and managed a variety of successful steel fabricating and manufacturing companies in Canada.

Mr. Martenfeld was involved in land development and construction and owned/managed numerous commercial, industrial, and residential properties.