TAMPA, Fla., Nov 01, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Foundation Partners Group, LLC, a leading owner and operator of funeral homes and cemeteries in the U.S., today appointed Brad Rex, an 18-year veteran of the hospitality industry, as president and CEO.
In other management-related announcements, Foundation Partners named:
— Robert Bukala, chief financial and administrative officer for Geomentum Inc., an Interpublic Group agency, as chief financial officer.
— Amy Elliot, a talent leader for OneBlood Inc., a large blood bank, and who also held senior operations and human resources roles at Hilton Grand Vacations and Walt Disney Company, as vice president, human resources and organizational effectiveness.
Founded in 2010, Foundation Partners has grown rapidly and now operates 34 funeral homes and six cemeteries across 13 states. It provides burial, cremation and cemetery services primarily in suburban and non-urban areas. It is a portfolio company of Sterling Partners, a Chicago-based investment firm.
Several months ago, Foundation Partners Group management, in conjunction with its board of directors and Sterling Partners, decided to seek executive leadership from outside the funeral home and cemetery industry, specifically targeting the hospitality industry.
For the past three years, Rex has been CEO of the Brad Rex Group, a hospitality consulting company with expertise in business turnaround and growth, guest service enhancement and other hospitality issues. Previously, he served as executive vice president and chief customer officer for Hilton Grand Vacations and also spent 12 years at Walt Disney Company, where he led the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World for more than five years. He also held various positions at British Petroleum Company for six years.
“We’re excited about Brad Rex’s arrival. He shares our vision for growing great companies through partnering with great management teams,” said Alan Macksey, a managing director at Sterling Partners.
Rex, a 1981 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy as well as Harvard Business School (’88), is the author of “The Surpassing! Life: 52 Practical Ways to Achieve Personal Excellence,” and a public speaker on leadership and guest service.
“I’m very excited to join Foundation Partners and bring my experience in world class service to the funeral industry,” Rex said. “I look forward to working with our current and future funeral home partners to create a new level of service and personalization for our customers.”
“I am thrilled to have such a talented team come together to help carry on the vision we have for Foundation Partners,” said Rex. “Together with founders Jim Price and Steve Shaffer, we possess the best of experiences from both inside and outside the funeral industry.”
About Foundation Partners Group
Foundation Partners Group (FPG), founded in 2010, is a portfolio company of Chicago-based investment firm, Sterling Partners. FPG is a leading provider of end-of-life transition services, owning and operating 34 funeral homes and six cemeteries in 13 states, and is actively seeking to acquire premier funeral homes throughout the U.S. For more information, please visit the Foundation Partners Group website at www.foundationpartners.com .
About Sterling Partners
Sterling Partners is an investment firm with a distinct point of view on how to build great companies. Founded in 1983, Sterling has invested billions of dollars, guided by the company’s stated purpose: INSPIRED GROWTH(TM), which describes Sterling’s approach to buying differentiated businesses and growing them in inspired ways. Sterling provides valuable support to the management teams of the companies in which the firm invests through a deep and dedicated team of operations and functional experts based in the firm’s offices in Chicago, Baltimore and Miami.
SOURCE: Foundation Partners Group
I think the question we have to ask is whether the focus on super-service and experienced-based funerals is besides the point for the industry as a whole. The model is chasing fewer and fewer consumers with more and more stuff. At some point, no matter how hard you try, you stop making money because the consumers are not willing to pay for the extras.
Here’s one example from the airline industry:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/11/01/virgin_america_the_best_airline_in_america_is_failing_and_it_s_all_your.html
And look at the news about traditional (take note of that word) desktop PC makers who have all these fancy products–loads of bells and whistles–but no one makes money. Instead the iPad has taken over the marketplace, and Apple now makes all the money.
Businesses and whole industries get displaced all the time and in the switch to cremation, consumers seem to be creating a similar set of circumstances for our industry.
Which is not to say that there won’t be any mega-service facilities out there. There’s always going to be a “disney” here and there. But keep in mind that even the “Disney Magic” could not sustain local retail outlets (remember them?). What might work for a few outlier funeral businesses operating in the perfect environment may not say a thing about how most of us will need to tailor and run our businesses in the years ahead.