Sales Focus Inc
Founder & CEO
Details
Tony Horwath is the Founder, President and CEO of Sales Focus Inc. Tony pioneered the Sales Outsourcing industry in 1997 and officially launched Sales Focus Inc. (SFI) in 1998.
SFI was developed on a simple outsourcing model of building dedicated sales teams that are focused on generating immediate revenue for our clients. Tony has held executive sales and management positions for over 25 years, and is an expert in building Intelligent Sales Solutions with a focus process improvement and performance across multiple industries in the US and abroad. His background includes launching startup organizations, transitioning existing sales organizations into a focused productive unit and improving process management of successful sales organizations in stand-alone, Fortune 500, and privately held companies.
Tony has extensive knowledge regarding the process of developing sales & marketing organizations into a productive entity, as well as transitioning from a government revenue base into a commercial revenue sales model. As an EVP for several IT based organizations, Tony led the building and management of several professional services organization through organic growth and acquisition.
He has drafted strategic corporate business plans, raised capital for startup organizations, defined new services portfolios, developed associated infrastructure requirements, and handled the redesign and redirection of sales efforts away from “commodity” sales towards value-based service sales. He has also led executive team discussions to prioritize build vs. buy competencies, and identify strategic alliance and acquisition candidates.
Recognized as a creative and motivational leader with a clear focus on results attainment, Tony brings a legacy of helping companies increase sales capabilities and capture greater shares of their clients’ budget. He has been a featured speaker regarding selling process and procedures, interviewed as the key contributor to major magazines about sales techniques as well as published several articles and white papers centered on the development and management of success sales teams.
Director of Operations
Jay previously worked with Comcast NBC Universal for the 22 years, working in multiple aspects of the business. He started in direct sales selling high speed Internet to the residential consumer. Jay worked at their headquarters in Philadelphia for 5 years, focusing on building a national kiosk program in malls across the United States. Moving back to Maryland, his new focus was on regional growth of indirect sales programs with retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy, Target, etc. His most recent role was Senior Manager of Operations for 26 Xfinity retail stores in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia. Jay launched the Xfinity Mobile Service in the large territory, consistently ranking as a top 5 producing region for Comcast Nationally.
Jay lives in Timonium, MD with his high school sweetheart and wife of 26 years and has two daughters, Tori, 26, and Michaela, 24. Jay and his wife enjoy their time as empty nesters with their two chocolate labs, Tootsie and Kona.
Director of Finance
Roxy Butiuc, Finance Manager has been with Sales Focus since 2014. Roxy plays an integral role in ensuring client operations are managed to budget and in accordance with program requirements. Roxy is responsible for providing financial services in order to ensure effective, efficient and accurate financial operations; from performing day to day processing of financial transactions, to managing the accounts receivable and payable, preparing, verifying and processing invoices. Roxy has over five years of experience in finance and for the past eight years has worked in different facets of Business Operations including finance, sales, marketing and payroll.
Roxy grew up in Romania where she developed a love for travel from a very young age. She enjoys visiting her family overseas and exploring new places.
Director of Sales & Marketing
Zach Horwath joined Sales Focus in the fall of 2021 after completing his law degree from Charleston School of Law. He started as a Business Development Manager and quickly proved himself as an amazing salesman closing several large programs during his short time in that position. As Director of Sales and Marketing, he brings innovative ideas and an incredible work ethic to this vital role.
Zach is from Maryland and graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a degree in business. He moved to Charleston after college to take a job as a pharmaceutical sales representative. Today, he enjoys golfing and spending time with his dog, Dexter.c
Director of Human Resources
Florence joined Sales Focus May of 2022. Florence comes to us with a wealth of Human Resources experience. She has acquired extensive professional experience in a variety of fields including automotive, production, distribution, and legal. She has 25+ years of experience managing all facets of human resources to include design and implementation of policies and procedures, employee handbooks, job descriptions, and benefit management.
Florence grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and moved to Columbia where she raised her two sons. Ultimately, she moved to Charleston 17 years ago where she lives with her husband. Florence enjoys dancing, beaching, and time with family and friends.
Program Manager
Colin joined SFI in September of 2020 as an outside sales representative. Colin excelled from day one growing his territory at a record-setting pace. He continued to perform as an outside rep bringing his territory into the top 10 nationally. In January 2021, Colin was promoted to Team Lead for the Midwest Region before being promoted to Regional Manager in April of 2021. He didn’t stop there is now a National Program Manager.
Colin is from Michigan and graduated from Grand Valley State University with a Biomedical Science degree. He remains in Grand Rapids, MI where he met his wife, Sara. He enjoys staying active with golf, mountain biking, disc golf, skiing, and curling (yes, the Olympic sport)!
Operations Administrator Manager
MacKenzie (Mac) Fox joined us as the Operations Administrator Manager in the Columbia office in June of 2022. Mac has a long history of leading customer service, sales, and logistics initiatives for non-profits, retail, and most recently in B2B/wholesale environments. She has spent time preserving artifacts for the Tlingit Tribe in Southeast Alaska, running merchandising, and loss prevention for Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Most recently, she spearheaded the design of a global service and telesales department for an Australian-based equestrian manufacturing company. Mac is an avid horseback rider and archer and enjoys fangirling her dog, Nefertiti, whenever possible.
Business Development Manager
Erik Nance joined us in January of 2023 and brings decades of sales and business experience with him. He spent most of his career in radio and television advertising and was most recently the branch manager of a mortgage company in Charleston, South Carolina.
Erik is from Detroit, Michigan and moved to Charleston more than a decade ago where he lives with his wife, Rose, and their Jack Russell/Beagle mix, Darby. He is a lover of all things food and wine (which is why he loves Charleston) and is also a travel enthusiast.
Marketing Manager
Angelica joined Sales Focus in June 2022 to take over our marketing efforts across social media, SEO, lead generation, and recruiting. Starting her career in journalism, Angelica honed her communication skills and learned several complex software. She then transitioned into marketing with a focus on SEO and content that converts and ranks highly on search engines. She is excited to take everything she’s learned so far to help SFI meet and exceed its marketing goals.
Angelica grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2019. She now lives in Charleston with her wife and dog. She enjoys being outside, concerts, and spending time by the water.
Training Manager
Jon Higley was previously Director of Operations for Sales Focus Inc. After retiring, he realized he wasn’t quite ready to put it all down for good and returned as our Training Manager. Jon has extensive professional experience in sales and business development, operations management, corporate planning, team building, customer relations, executive account management, product development, business operations, and administration. With a proven track record in planning, organizing and mobilizing, he has helped to create new businesses and penetrate new markets to increase sales and profit margins while building an efficient operations and administrative infrastructure to meet the demands of new growth and new business ventures. Jon designed and implemented policies and procedures with respect to sales and business development initiatives, team building, operations and planning, infrastructure development, new business ventures, and business operations.
European Program Manager
Charles Smee has a 30 year strategic multicultural MNE and start up experience in EMEA and APAC markets. Charles has lived and worked for 15 years in France, Romania, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam managing business development teams of 50 + persons servicing multinational clients such as BAT, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, Nabisco and Hilti.
He is currently based outside London, overseeing research, training, transformation and contact strategy for Sales Focus’ EMEA and APAC programs, as Founder of Transaction Focus.
Charles is a creative trusted brand custodian who has delivered impressive sustainable ROI for clients such as ABC, Cassini, Coca-Cola, EUGBA, HappyorNot and Kimberly-Clark while working in senior roles at Saatchi & Saatchi, WPP and Transaction Focus.
He has been a guest speaker at IIOM China and European M&A Forums, an accredited British Business Growth Service coach and IBD small business mentor and has an Institute of Sales Promotion (ISP) diploma and a BA Honors degree in Economics and History and a Diplome from the Universite de la Sorbonne in Paris.
He is also a bilingual French speaker, a keen golfer, skier, cricketer, tennis player and cycles around Europe for charity.
Travel & Tourism Managing Director
Kevin Hichour’s International Travel and Tourism professional background in the North American & European markets, along with over 25 years’ experience in travel & hospitality sales management, sales representation services, destination marketing, travel trade strategic partnerships negotiations, offers tourism destinations and travel suppliers (Tourism Boards, CVB’s, Hotels/Resorts, DMC’s, Airlines, Cruise Lines) a tremendous wealth of sales & marketing solutions with US travel market expertise and industry network to help position their brand and expand their travel trade strategic partners base.
Kevin’s extensive experience dealing with major Leisure & MICE Travel trade partners, major US Tour Operators (USTOA members), Meeting Planners, Travel Agents Consortiums (Leisure & Corporate), Airlines, Online Travel companies, DMC’s, International Tourism Boards, CVB’s, PR agencies and travel trade publications allowed him to negotiate and finalize successful strategic partnerships agreements on behalf of our clients, increasing their US travel market share and generating higher revenues.
Kevin has serviced destinations such as USA, UK, Bermuda, Singapore, France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco just to name a few. Kevin Hichour’s exceptional communication and interpersonal skills have contributed to his overall success. Kevin maintains a close relationship with key US travel trade industry partners, including the travel press.
A passionate and enthusiastic Sr. Managing Consultant, Kevin applies his principals of hard work, dedication and determination to his daily work with a focus on the client’s success.
South American Program Manager
Fernando Medeiros is a business leader with an extensive experience in process improvement, document management and business growth. He has over 30 years of experience in business management, sales management, business development, mergers and acquisitions, foreign country management and new market development. His 25-year senior executive career includes management roles with mid and large sized world-class companies such as: Warner Bros, Gehr Industries, Sperry Marine (Northrop Grumman), Recall Information Management (Iron Mountain), TractManager and Vizzia Technologies.
Over the past 15 years Fernando has had extensive experience in sales outsourcing nationally and internationally, helping small and mid-size corporations acquire market shares in the USA and foreign countries. For the last 6 years, he is re-established in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil working actively in sales outsourcing.
In Brazil, Fernando has in depth knowledge and has focused on the health care (hospitals), offshore (oil rigs), military, information management, and shipyards.
Fernando holds a Bachelor in Science and is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish. His international business experience and breadth of knowledge regarding sales management has effectively helped many corporations from USA gain market share abroad.
Middle Eastern & North African Program Manager
Youssef Hichour is an accomplished entrepreneur and CEO with a distinguished history of founding and managing successful businesses across various industries, including digital communication, e-commerce, IT/Tech consulting, SaaS services, automotive services, and the food industry. As a serial entrepreneur, Youssef has started several thriving ventures and invested in and co-founded multiple successful startups across Europe and the MENA Region.
Youssef’s experience in practically every aspect of running a business, from fundraising to B2B sales to finance to hiring to manufacturing to product development to and marketing, makes him an invaluable asset to any organization. He has a strong network of partners, colleagues, and business associates who have settled into successful careers after working with him for over two decades.
In addition to his extensive knowledge and experience, Youssef has a deep passion for entrepreneurship and a desire to help others enter and thrive in the markets where he operates. He is committed to developing new businesses and supporting other entrepreneurs in building successful ventures.
Mouad Layachi has 13 years of experience in digital marketing and lead generation across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. After spending 8 years as the Global Acquisition Director at the world’s leading online market research firm, Mouad successfully led cross-functional projects targeting multiple countries while optimizing costs for large corporations such as McDonald’s, Hilton, Givaudan, and Airbus.
An entrepreneur at heart, Mouad founded his own performance marketing agency where he helps clients across different industries master and succeed in their lead acquisition strategy and optimize the customer lifecycle and lifespan.
In addition to his digital marketing expertise, Mouad has a strong business acumen and has held various leadership positions throughout his career. He has managed international teams, developed and implemented business strategies, and grown revenue growth.
Mouad speaks Arabic, French, and English. He holds an MBA degree from ESG Paris and regularly attends and participates in industry conferences to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies in digital marketing and business.