2012 Awards for Excellence Winners Shine in Their Success

>>>NJBIA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
The 2012 Winners:
BUSINESS EXPANSION AWARD
The Business Expansion Award is presented to companies that have contributed to the state’s economic growth
through the expansion of their businesses.
International Vitamin Corporation
President & CEO: Steven Dai
NJ Location: Freehold
Founded: 2010
Full-time NJ Employees: 360
Business: Global Manufacturer
2012 Awards for
Excellence Winners
Shine in Their Success
On October 16, New Jersey Business & Industry Association President Philip Kirschner will present the Association’s
2012 Awards for Excellence to 11 companies that have done
outstanding work in several areas of business operations.
The awards will be presented during a dinner ceremony
at the Pines Manor in Edison. Every year, NJBIA honors a
select group of employers from among its more than 21,000
members for their outstanding achievements in four categories: business expansion, environmental quality, human
resources and public service.
All NJBIA members in good standing are eligible to be
nominated for this annual award. The winners are selected
by an independent panel of judges who volunteer their time
to select the winners. This year’s judging panel was comprised of representatives of SCORE - Counselors to America’s Small Business, and selected NJBIA members.
Mercadien P.C. verified the information supplied by the
winning applicants.
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In just two years, International Vitamin Corporation, a global manufacturer of vitamins and nutritional supplements, has improved its position
within the private-label vitamin industry to number two from number five.
Within this period, the company
has hired another 80 employees, a 25
percent increase, bringing its total employment in New Jersey to more than
360 employees. It has also doubled its sales revenue.
International Vitamin Corporation, also called IVC,
owes its success to a number of factors, all of which flow
from its reincarnation under its current name following the
purchase of the vitamin, OTC and RX-related assets of Inverness Medical by the Aland Holding Ltd. private-equity
group in January 2010.
IVC’s predecessor company was founded in 1955. Under
its new ownership, the company has rapidly expanded its
business. The keys to this expansion include:
• Vertically integrating access to the raw materials needed to make its products, 90 percent of which come from China, giving the company total control over its supply chain.
• Hiring a new CEO and President, Steven Dai, in addition to hiring a new sales team, key executives and extra staff
in most departments.
• Investing in an Oracle E-Business solution, giving it the
ability to produce products, ship them and bill customers
continuously without interruptions.
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>>>NJBIA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
Investing in a new warehouse facility less than a mile
from its Freehold headquarters for shipping, receiving, inventory control and quality assurance.
The company sells brand and custom products to the nation’s largest retailers, including Walmart, Walgreens, Wegmans, ShopRite, RiteAid and similar retailers. Of course, it
doesn’t hurt that the company has affiliated itself with the
popular SpongeBob SquarePantsTM. IVC’s SpongeBob multivitamin gummies are a popular item with its young viewers.
Pro Computer Service
President: Anthony Mongeluzo
NJ Location: Marlton
Founded: 2002
Full-time NJ Employees: 30
Business: Services
Not every small business has the resources to invest in
an in-house IT staff, but in our computer-driven society
where new things go wrong with the machines we trust to
run our companies every day, it’s essential nonetheless.
That’s where Pro Computer Service (PCS) comes in.
The company is a full-service, nationally award-winning, IT support company that employs 30 full-time professionals who provide onsite and remote IT support. For
a fixed monthly fee, PCS will become an extension of a client company’s team, offering the company a virtual Chief
Information Officer, 24/7 helpdesk support, virus scanning,
as well as many other services most companies believe are
impossible to outsource. Because their services are offered
at a fixed fee, businesses can feel confident in their financial
planning, and their budget plans can give even the smallest
companies the same peace of mind.
In recent years, PCS has improved its performance
through the implementation of software that has significantly streamlined their processes. Using new monitoring
software, the company has been able to more easily communicate with clients and offer faster helpdesk support
through remote desktop management.
Although the upgrades did not come cheap, costing well
over six figures, the investment has paid off big time for the
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company. Revenues, which totaled just over $2 million in
2009, have grown to $5.9 million in 2011; a 186 percent increase in only two years!
The company’s staggering growth has earned it a mountain of state- and national-level awards, including ranks on
the CRN “Top 100 Fastest Growing US IT Firms” list for the
past three years, a ranking of 1,567 on the Inc. 5000 list of
fastest growing companies in the United States and a spot
on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s “Philly 100 FastestGrowing Companies” list for the past five years (with both
the company and CEO Anthony Mongeluzo earning inductions to its Hall of Fame).
Voltaix, LLC
CEO: Peter Smith
NJ Location: Branchburg
Founded: 1986
Full-time NJ Employees: 136
Business: Specialty Chemicals Manufacturer
Tucked in a corner of Branchburg, Somerset County, you
will find a fast-growing manufacturing company that makes
the logic chips in your computers, smart phones, tablets and
other devices run faster.
That company is Voltaix, LLC, the world’s leading producer of specialty chemicals that enhance the performance
not only of semiconductor chips, but also of photovoltaic
cells.
The company’s main products are germane, diborane,
trisilane and trimethyl boron. These materials enable chips
to compute more quickly and solar cells to absorb a broader
portion of the solar spectrum.
Lately, Voltaix has been on a tear, expanding its business
at a high rate of speed. Over the past five years, from 2007
through 2011, the company boosted its sales by 117 percent
and expanded its New Jersey workforce by more than 200
percent, from about 40 employees to 136.
The company’s impressive growth has been noted. In
2009, Deloitte ranked Voltaix 276 on its ranking of the nation’s fastest growing technology companies. The “Fast 500”
recognizes companies that have “defied the odds with their
remarkable five-year revenue growth.”
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>>>NJBIA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
Among the keys to the company’s recent success:
• An influx of new dollars from investors, including Novus Energy, MissionPoint Capital and Intel Capital.
• Implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) system to reduce paperwork and increase work flow.
• Automation of processes, enabling one operator to remotely monitor and control multiple production plans.
• Providing extensive training programs to employees.
• A strict and continuing focus on plant safety, resulting
in many awards, including the Governor’s safety awards.
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AWARD
The Environmental Quality Award is presented to companies
that have done outstanding work to preserve or enhance the
quality of the environment in New Jersey.
General Mills, Progresso
Plant Manager: Jeff Williamson
NJ Location: Vineland
Founded: 1905
Full-time NJ Employees: 400
Business: Manufacturing
General Mills/Progresso Quality Foods manufactures
roughly 28 million cases of soup annually, filling, cooking,
labeling and packaging cans for retail sale. However, when
you make that much soup, you unfortunately can’t help but
waste a lot of water.
So General Mills took a closer look at its manufacturing
process and found an opportunity for improvement. The
water used to cool cans before they are sent to labeling was
simply being drained, resulting in about 94 million gallons
of water wasted per year.
In December, the company put into place a system that
would distribute the used water to a heat exchange system,
allowing it to reclaim the heat and indirectly transfer it to
potable water for process use, requiring less steam to heat
and thus reducing the load on the natural gas boilers. In
addition, once the heat extraction occurs, the water is then
sent back to another holding tank where it is recycled and
returned to the cooling vessel, reducing the amount of new
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water added to the system.
General Mills’ initiative will result in a significant reduction in its carbon footprint. The company has seen a 15
percent reduction in plant water usage, which will result in
56 million less gallons of water used annually, as well as a
16 percent energy reduction and a 12 percent decrease in
greenhouse gas emissions.
Munich Reinsurance America, Inc.
President & CEO: Anthony J. Kuczinski
NJ Location: Princeton
Founded: 1917
Full-time NJ Employees: 894
Business: Reinsurance
Munich Reinsurance America, with its home office in
Princeton, is one of the largest reinsurers in the US. Like
many well-established businesses, the company recently
had to confront a hard reality. Its aging home-office buildings were a study in the inefficient and wasteful use of water
and electricity.Such inefficiencies are very costly, especially
when modern technology provides plenty of tools to reduce
a company’s environmental impact.
In a few short years, Munich Re has not only fixed the
problem, but also become an industry leader in environmental sustainability. Already carbon neutral in its Munich
headquarters in Germany, the company expects to be carbon-neutral in 2012 throughout its global operations and in
Princeton.
Through a contract with SunPower Corp., a leading solar energy provider, Munich Re has installed a 2.5 megawatt
solar generation system at its Princeton offices. The solar
panels are installed in canopy fashion over the office parking lots.
The reduction in the company’s carbon footprint is
equivalent to removing 400 cars from the road. The solar
power array is also expected to cut its electric bill by nearly
half-a-million dollars a year.
The company has also retrofitted all general-office lighting, installed a campus-wide lighting control system and
now uses a highly complex automation program to make its
heating and air conditioning systems far more efficient.
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>>>NJBIA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
The company has also dramatically reduced its water usage and participates in the Middlesex County and Delaware
Raritan Canal water conservation program by installing retention basins and greatly reducing storm runoff.
Since 2007, when these sustainability projects got underway, Munich Re has cut its water use in half, reduced
its carbon emissions by almost as much, and moved from
exclusive use of fossil fuels to 50 percent renewable energy.
The company anticipates that it will be relying 100 percent on renewable energy certificates by the end of 2012.
New Jersey American Water Company
President: David Baker
NJ Location: Voorhees
Founded: 1886
Full-time NJ Employees: 869
Business: Regulated Utility
No one likes a bully, and plants are no exception.
For example, the invasive plants surrounding the New
Jersey American Water (NJAW) facility in Tewksbury Township were harming the environment and making it impossible for native species in the Lamington River watershed to
grow by choking out the helpful plants in the area and shading the soil to keep seeds from sprouting.
Fresh off its last environmental protection project where
the company spent millions rebuilding the Pottersville Sewage Plant to reduce pollution, NJAW, the largest water utility
in the state, turned its sights closer to home and voluntarily
removed the invasive Japanese barberry, multiflora rose,
and bittersweet vine plants that were destroying the ecosystem in the area surrounding the plant site.
The utility, with the aid of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, planted several hundred native bare root sock plants,
shrubs and trees in their place throughout the 2.5-acre
property to enhance the habitat for wildlife, particularly migratory birds, as well as wood and bog turtles.
Although NJAW has committed to maintaining the restoration work for at least the next 10 years, the utility is hoping
the project will take on a life of its own. The migratory birds
and pollinators that feed on the fruit plants will naturally
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disperse their seeds in the surrounding watershed, allowing
the benefits of the project to extend beyond the property’s
boundaries.
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
President: Andrè Wyss
NJ Location: East Hanover
Founded: 1968
Full-time NJ Employees: 5,000+
Business: Pharmaceutical R&D
The environmentally-sound principle of recycling has
been adopted by virtually every large company in the US,
not only because it cuts waste and saves large sums of money, but also because it is required under state and federal
law.
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, with more than
5,000 New Jersey employees in Hanover and Florham Park,
has taken this principle to the next level by aggressively reusing most of the electronic “waste” generated at its two facilities.
In 2010, before this new program was implemented, Novartis sent over 154,000 pounds of LCD monitors, notebook
computers and cell phones to be recycled. This was an important part of the company’s long-standing recycling practices.
But company officials recognized that they could do
better. The federal EPA had done studies showing that the
environmental benefit of reusing electronic devices (i.e. extending their useful life) was 25 times greater than recycling
them. This is because 75 percent of the energy required to
make and use electronic devices occurs in their original
production, before they are even switched on. Also, many
thousands of pounds of raw materials are used to make
computer notebooks weighing just a few pounds. It stands
to reason that extending the useful life of these devices by
two to three years or more, will dramatically reduce their environmental impact.
In 2011, Novartis implemented its new “reuse” program
by contracting with a third-party broker to refurbish and
then reuse 62 percent of the 105,000 pounds of electronic
equipment, all of which in the past would have been sent to
recycling facilities.
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IT’S
NOT HOW MUCH YOU PAY
IN TAXES , IT ’ S HOW MUCH YOU
HAVE LEFT AFTER PAYING TAXES .
Mercadien, P.C.’s expert Tax Consulting Group knows the
intricacies of federal and state tax laws and how they relate to
businesses and individuals. Most importantly, we understand
the importance of long-range tax planning to minimize your tax
burden and maximize your after-tax profitability.
Tax services available include:
ƒ Preparation of all federal, state and local tax returns
ƒ Personal financial planning
ƒ Estate and retirements planning
ƒ Valuation for estate, marital and probate matters
The company estimates that these
efforts to extend the life of this equipment, 66,000 pounds in all, saved the
equivalent of 1.9 million metric tons of
carbon emissions in a single year.
OUTSTANDING EMPLOYER AWARD
The Outstanding Employer Award is
presented to companies that demonstrate a creative and forward looking
approach to managing their human
resources.
Riverview Estates
Executive Director: Janice Doughman
NJ Location: Riverton
Founded: 1954
Full-time NJ Employees: 92
Business: Long-term Care
CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS ‡ CONSULTANTS ‡ TECHNOLOGY
WEALTH MANAGEMENT ‡ MERCADIEN.COM ‡ 609-689-9700
Lowenstein Sandler congratulates
our client and friend of the firm,
STORIS, Inc
Outstanding Employer Award Recipient
And all the other
“AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE” Honorees
New York
Palo Alto
Roseland
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w ww.lowenstein.com
Sometimes in life and work, it’s the
little things that count the most, especially if you can’t afford the big things.
And that is how Riverview Estates,
a 58-year-old, long-term-care facility in Riverton, Burlington County, has
boosted the morale of employees and
the quality of their care-giving over the
years - by focusing on the many little
things that collectively add up to a big
effect.
As a small non-profit healthcare
corporation with about 160 employees,
Riverview cannot provide the higher
salaries and wages offered by some of
its bigger competitors. However, by being creative and continuously improving its employee benefits program in
small ways, Riverview has achieved a
low staff-turnover rate that is the envy
of many of its competitors.
As Executive Director Janice
Doughman explains, “It is the array
of benefits that makes the program
unique.”
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Riverview’s list of employee benefits is impressive. Like
all good employers, the facility offers health coverage, prescription reimbursement, paid time off, and a 401K. But
that’s where the comparison ends.
Riverview offers tuition reimbursement (up to $3,500
annually) to employees on a degree track that will benefit
both the employee and the organization. It also offers two
$500 scholarships annually for any employee seeking an
advanced degree.
The company also provides regular on-site webinars for
employees who must take continuing education courses
to maintain licenses or certifications, and it reimburses all
professional staff, nurses and aides for their re-licensing
fees.
Employees with excellent attendance records can receive an additional $20 per paycheck, and if their perfect
attendance extends to an entire year, their additional pay
for that year would be $970.
Time and budgets are tight for many employees, and so
Riverview offers all employees a free daily hot meal, which
could be lunch or dinner. And all full-timers, most of whom
work on their feet, receive an annual shoe allowance.
There are also a food pantry, employee recognition
days, quarterly let-your-hair-down meetings with Riverview executives and trustees, employee appreciation days,
a years-of-service banquet and more.
The impact of all these little things? It’s big. Since initiating these staff programs, Riverview has seen fewer workers’
comp claims, fewer call-outs and higher morale. It’s also
able to handle its entire workload without outside help saving the facility an average of $400,000 per year in agency
fees.
STORIS, Inc.
President & CEO: Donald J. Surdoval
NJ Location: Mount Arlington
Founded: 1989
Full-time NJ Employees: 81
Business: Services
www.centerpoint.com
We proudly announce acquisitions in New Jersey...
9 Empire Boulevard, South Hackensack, NJ
30 Commerce Road, Carlstadt, NJ
Thank you to Andrew Houston and Alex Previdi of Cassidy Turley
Jim Clewlow
Chief Investment Officer
[email protected]
Brian Townsend
Senior Vice President, Investments
[email protected]
Jim Linn
Chad Vande Zande
Senior Vice President, Investments Senior Vice President, Investments
[email protected]
[email protected]
Todd Vezza
Senior Vice President, Investments
[email protected]
Chris Tecu
Vice President, Investments
[email protected]
Eric Ruehle
Vice President, Investments
[email protected]
Jed Degnan
Vice President, Investments
[email protected]
New Jersey Business
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New Jersey American Water
2012 NJBIA Environmental Quality Award Winner
Providing high-quality, reliable water service to our customers every day
Congratulations, to this year’s
Award of Excellence winners. You
are a shining inspiration. Like you,
we too are committed to improving
the environment, economy and
quality of life in New Jersey. At New
Jersey American Water, we have a
proven record of investing in our
V\VWHPV2YHUWKHODVWÀYH\HDUVZH
invested approximately $750 million
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in our facilities statewide. This level
of investment supports or creates
thousands of jobs in construction
DQGRWKHUÀHOGV$WWKHVDPHWLPH
a gallon of our tap water costs less
than a penny. That’s an exceptional
value. To learn more, visit us at
www.newjerseyamwater.com or
like us at www.facebook.com/
NewJerseyAmericanWater.
In the fast and ever-changing technology sector, knowledgeable, ambitious and well-trained employees are
a must for staying ahead of the curve.
Recognizing this, STORIS, the leading provider of fully integrated, cross
channel software solutions for the big
ticket retail market, has implemented a
number of programs that are outstanding and reduce employee turnover almost to zero.
Because technology advances at
breakneck speeds these days, at STORIS, learning new skills is not optional for employees, it’s a requirement.
However, STORIS employees decide
when it’s time for a promotion and
raise based on what they learn and
when. Management places skill requirement goals for different job levels
and employees are encouraged to obtain them at their own pace.
When an employee shows they
qualify to advance in the company,
they do so and are encouraged to pursue the next level after that. Regardless of advancement, raises are given
annually, but salary levels are nonetheless reviewed regularly using the
Culpepper Compensation Survey, the
top salary survey for the IT industry. If
salaries fall below competitive levels,
they’re adjusted accordingly.
One might imagine that all that
climbing up the corporate ladder
might lead to a stressful working environment, but not at STORIS. The company regularly recognizes employees
who go above and beyond their normal
job responsibilities through its ROBOTS (Reward Our Best on the Spot)
recognition program, offering flexible
working hours and telecommuting opportunities for those who would prefer
not to add additional wear and tear to
their cars or risk an accident during inclement weather, and holding annual
“Summer Olympics” barbecue team
building competitions where employees can participate in a variety of in-
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door and outdoor events. It even offers complimentary chair
massages during work hours each spring.
And it works! In the last three years, STORIS has enjoyed
an overall employee-retention rate of 98 percent, an unheard
of figure for its industry, with average tenure for all employees
at 9.6 years (and an extra 6.5 years for those in management
positions).
PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD
The Public Service Award is presented to companies for outstanding service to their communities.
Wakefern Food Corp.
President and COO: Joseph Sheridan
NJ Location: Edison
Founded: 1946
Full-time NJ Employees: 2,564
Business: Wholesale/Retail Trade
As the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United
States, whose members independently operate nearly 250
ShopRite supermarkets in six states, Wakefern Food Corporation knows a lot about feeding people. However, the company
has taken feeding the communities of its stores beyond just its
customers and sets an example in feeding the hungry as well.
As the recession continues, the USDA reports that the
number of households in New Jersey experiencing food hardship has increased from 7.7 percent in 2004-2006 to 11.5 percent in 2007-2009. As a food organization, Wakefern found
that helping the cause felt like the right fit.
Since 1999, the company has made it a core focus of its
charitable efforts to fight hunger, donating more than $1.5
Congratulations to our client
International Vitamin Corporation
on your well-deserved
Business Expansion Award
John Pennet CPA
Partner, Life Sciences
www.eisneramper.com
John Genz CPA
Partner, Tax Services
New Jersey Business
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>>>NJBIA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
million annually to food banks in New Jersey, an amount
that has ballooned to more than $19 million since 1999. In
addition, its in-kind donations to food banks has included
an annual donation of 50 tons of turkeys.
Wakefern has also helped to raise hunger awareness
through its annual “Help Bag Hunger” program during
Hunger Action Month, where local dignitaries bag groceries
and encourage shoppers to buy donation cards, as well as
its “Create a T-Shirt Depicting Hunger” consumer contest.
And its efforts have not gone unnoticed; for three years
running, the Governor of New Jersey has issued a proclamation declaring the third Wednesday in September as ShopRite Partners in Caring Day for its significant efforts in the
fight against hunger.
WithumSmith+Brown, PC
Managing Partner/CEO: William R. Hagaman, Jr.
NJ Location: Princeton
Founded: 1974
Full-time NJ Employees: 312
Business: CPA and Consulting Services
of people living in shelters. The Week of Caring was such a
great success, it is now an annual company event.
WithumSmith+Brown felt a particular urgency in creating the program. The need for charitable services is always
there, but the recession and a weak economic recovery had
left the state’s most vulnerable populations more vulnerable
than ever. And with the corresponding drop in government
and private donations, social service organizations had less
money and fewer hands to do their work.
The social service and community organizations that
were helped by WithumSmith+Brown employees in turn
helped the most disadvantaged people meet their most basic needs, like food and shelter.
The handwritten letters of thanks received by
WithumSmith+Brown volunteers said everything about the
value of The Week of Caring.
Wrote 10-year-old Javier Puentes: “Thank you for taking
the time you took to cook for us. You are really nice people
for doing that for us.” NJB
Verification of AFE Information
Provided by Mercadien, P.C., CPAs.
Mercadien, P.C. performed the agreed-upon procedures to verify
the information supplied by the award-winning finalists. As entrepreneurs serving entrepreneurs, the principals and staff of Mercadien, P.C.
are uniquely suited to provide creative solutions to a variety of business
challenges.
Mercadien, P.C. is a single-source solution offering a full spectrum
of accounting and consulting services, including traditional audit and
financial report services, tax compliance and consulting services, Section
What’s the best way to let folks in your communities
know that you really care about them?
It’s simple. WithumSmith+Brown, the CPA and consulting firm based in Princeton, gave its employees the entire
week of Thanksgiving off in 2011 to help the charities of their
choice.
They called it: “The Week of Caring.”
In fact, the innovative program wasn’t so simple to organize and implement. The charitable activities of more than
400 professional staff in 12 offices had to be planned, carried
out and documented. These individuals assisted a total of 30
non-profit organizations of their choice in Morristown, New
Brunswick, Red Bank, Paramus, Philadelphia, Princeton,
Silver Spring, Somerville and Toms River.
All WithumSmith+Brown employees were given the
three days before the holiday to volunteer their time, but the
activities of many carried right into Thanksgiving Day itself.
A number of employees, for example, purchased and
cooked Thanksgiving dinner for families and entire groups
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404 internal control reviews, Federal, multi-state tax compliance and
planning, and international taxation.
Mercadien works with a diverse group of professionals and industries to develop strategic and financial plans designed to maximize
wealth and profitability, minimize taxes and risk, and evaluate systems
and processes, while increasing efficiencies.
Mercadien has a strong background in providing services to financial institutions, nonprofit organizations, professional trade associations, colleges and universities, government agencies, authorities, and
municipalities and other public entities.
Mercadien, P.C., Certified Public Accountants has been in the Princeton area for 50 years and has a staff of 100 professionals, including 14
principals.
Mercadien, P.C., CPAs is a Mercadien Group Company.
The Mercadien Group is a family of distinct companies created to
serve the diverse and sophisticated needs of clients in a capacity far greater than any single organization can offer. The Mercadien Group provides
accounting and tax, consulting, technology, asset management and outsourcing services.
October 2012
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