Two students in the Titus Center for Franchising forged connections to accelerate their careers, fueled by the generosity of two Titus Center Advisory Board members who paid the students’ way to a conference.
Titus Center Advisory Board members Brad Fishman, CEO of Fishman PR, and Lane Fisher, partner at Fisher Zucker, founded Springboard, a conference for emerging franchisors to grow their brands. The conference usually draws more than 400 franchise executives. Fishman and Fisher covered all costs for Titus Center students Hogan McFadden and Mitchell Nolan. McFadden is a senior from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, studying finance with a concentration in franchising. Nolan is a senior from Clearwater, Florida, studying international business with a concentration in franchising.
The format of the conference allowed participants to have intimate, in-depth conversations with presenters in their area of interest, said McFadden. Attorneys and CEOs elaborated on franchisors’ startup process.
“It was a lot more like small roundtable talks instead of a tradeshow floor,” McFadden said.
Job opportunities were abundant, he said. But McFadden has bigger plans: He and a classmate, Micah Droescher, intend to open a franchise of The Patch Boys, a drywall repair company. McFadden previously served as a franchise development intern for Ray Titus’ United Franchise Group.
For his part, Nolan said he connected with numerous people in the home service brands — the target clientele for OperandiFi, a consumer-financing solution company for which Nolan serves as vice president of sales. Nolan said he hopes to establish relationships with mentors from the conference and eventually become a franchisor in the dental and healthcare industries. Currently, he works as an intern in franchise development for Sloan’s Ice Cream.
Of franchising, Nolan said, “It’s such a good, tight-knit community.”
