MEET THE MENTORS

Carl likes solving problems and questioning the status quo to innovate and create value. He believes that work matters, that companies should be a force for good in their communities, and that everyone should have a job which provides fulfillment beyond a paycheck. As the founder of Atomic Object, he was able to develop these ideas and put them into practice. In retirement, Carl serves on various boards and mentors young founders. He takes particular joy in helping Black and women entrepreneurs build their businesses.

Atomic Object designs and develops custom web, mobile, and embedded software products for clients around the world. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, Atomic Object crafts world-class software products for clients in diverse markets including automotive, healthcare, financial services, education, distribution, and entertainment.

Prior to founding Atomic Object, Carl was a professor of Computer Science and also served as Vice President of Development for Deltamode, a former Austin-based tech startup company. Carl is a two-time finalist for the Small Giants Hall of Fame.

To learn more about Carl, check out his personal blog: greatnotbig.com.

Brad Herrmann is the founder and president of Text-Em-All, a mass texting company that provides solutions to over 15,000 clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small churches.

Founded in 2005 and employee owned since 2023, Text-Em-All is Certified Evergreen and has been recognized on Forbes’ 25 Best Small Companies, the Inc. 500 list as well as local and national Best Places to Work lists.

Brad is a Texas A&M graduate with a passion for healthy company culture, employee ownership, gardening, playing sports, travel, learning and generally just having fun.

Brad is a two-time finalist for the Small Giants Hall of Fame.

As a husband, father, and president of the 75 person, two-office company Choice One Engineering, Matt gets to live his vision daily of "being a positive impact for others so that we are enjoying life together.” Matt has grown up in the company since 2004 holding positions of summer intern, engineer, project manager, business development, starting a new office, and now president (since 2016). The one thing that has remained constant in all of his roles has been the need to continue learning and becoming a better version of himself. He is a continuous learner and believes there is something to learn from everyone; he learns as much from conversations with his young kids and seeing how they process the world, as he does from business leaders and friends. Choice One’s focus on culture and intentionality around everything supporting their purpose, vision, mission, and core values has led to a self-created employee ownership plan and employee engagement model that has led to them being a perennial national best firm to work for and a Forbes Small Giant.

Matt lives in Ohio with his wife and five children. He enjoys talking about baseball and fishing. His original plan was to be a math teacher, until his high school math teacher told him he wouldn’t be good at the job. Matt admits that his teacher was right, and we sure are glad that we get to benefit from this career switch!

Best selling and award winning author, Mackey McNeill, is the CPA rebel that turned the accounting industry upside down with Prosper for Business, a CFO coaching system designed to help business owners achieve Mind, Time and Money Freedom.

In her books, The Prosperity Playbook and The Intersection of Joy and Money, she shares her journey, the stories, challenges and the wisdom that she uncovered as she built the Prosper system. The result is a step by step roadmap useable by entrepreneurs to power exponential bottom line growth, the single most important first step in achieving the three freedoms

When not working, find her on her 35 acre perma-culture homestead, playing with her grandchildren or preparing a truly local food meal from her gardens.

Learn more about her at www.MackeyMcNeill.com. 

Jean joined ACE Metal Crafts Company in 1983 as a sales representative and advanced through leadership roles before becoming CEO in 2003. Over more than four decades, she helped shape ACE into a company defined by trust, accountability, and care for its people and customers.

As CEO, Jean focused on building a culture where strong customer relationships begin with respect and care inside the organization. Under her leadership, ACE earned recognition for both workplace culture and business excellence, including the APA Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award and The Fabricator magazine’s Fab 40.

Now serving as Chairman of the Board, Jean remains closely connected to the business, supporting its leaders and helping reinforce the values and culture that have long defined ACE. She also serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards and holds degrees from UW–Platteville and Northern Illinois University.

Tom Walter is a serial entrepreneur, speaker and author.

Tom founded or co-founded 44 companies in his career. Some of his employees have co-founded, with Tom, 9 of those companies. Tasty Catering has twice been named the Psychologically Healthiest Workplace in the United States by the American Psychological Association. (An honor that has also been won by fellow Small Giant Company Ace Metal Works led by Jean and Angela Pitzo). Tasty has also been recognized as a top USA company by Inc. Magazine, Forbes Magazine and Wall Street Journal among others.

He has addressed both business and academic institutions during his speaking career. One of his favorite audiences is the Academy of Management which is a global group consisting of 12,000 + professors of business. They have named him a “Practitioner-Scientist” in the fields of employee engagement and organizational culture.

Tasty Catering has been the subject of six doctoral dissertations. Tom has co-authored four academic journals on culture and engagement. In addition, he coauthored the award- winning book on employee engagement, It’s My Company Too!

Tom is a 2025 Small Giants Hall of Fame Inductee.

Britt grew up on a horse / tobacco farm in Kentucky. He had a host of jobs ranging from an Edward Jones stockbroker, Outward Bound instructor, bartender/ski bum, co-owner of construction company, English teacher in Korea, and a General Manager of different restaurants. He eventually became a franchisee of Noodles & Company with 8 stores across 3 states.

Today, Britt is the co-owner of Forage Kitchen, a salad/ancient grains fast casual concept that also produces kombucha. The restaurant has 6 locations, and the kombucha is sold in over 800 locations. Britt is also the co-owner of True Coffee Roasters, a small artisan roaster with one flagship cafe location and sold at many small indie coffee houses and grocers.

In Britt’s words, he’s the luckiest guy on the planet as his success has been the result of falling upward.