Our Founding Partners

Tim Barrett (Principal Consultant and President) is no stranger to success as a business owner, corporate executive, consultant and scholar.

With over 30 years of business experience, Tim?s time in corporate America includes a tenure as a Vice President with CitiCapital, a division of Citigroup, where he and his 25-member team managed the business technology sector with national account responsibility for Cisco Systems, Oracle, and other technology companies. The technology sector for CitiCapital generated over $200 million in sales volume for Citigroup.

Tim joined CitiCapital after 16 years as a successful entrepreneur. He created, built and managed a successful commercial banking firm that catered to vendors and manufacturers using equipment financing as a catalyst for driving incremental sales. The business was acquired in 1996 and went through multiple mergers and acquisitions to bring Tim to CitiCapital. His clients included Ericsson, Lucent, Corning Optics, Herman Miller, Haworth and Steelcase.

As a business consultant and executive coach, Tim served some 200 companies in more than 60 industries in 15 states over 10 years. Tim specialized in three-fold, start-ups, emerging growth and turnaround and workouts.

He retired from corporate America at the end of 2003 and returned to his beloved North Carolina and to consulting. Tim focuses two-thirds of his time on regional and national accounts and one-third of his time on assisting local companies on a pro bono or reduced-fee basis.

History and theology are Tim's scholarly passions. He is Executive Director of "New Song Mission Nicaragua", a Christian Mission in Nicaragua and sits on the board of several non-profit and educational institutions.

Before relocating to North Carolina, Tim was a favorite speaker and instructor throughout Northern California, speaking on 16th Century history and religion. He has an extensive library, which includes many one-of-a-kind books and documents.

Karen J. Townsend, MA, MA, (Vice President) Organizational Psychologist and Executive Coach, brings 30 years of business experience to her consulting and coaching work. She held the position of vice president of marketing and sales for a multi-million dollar project management and facility design firm in the San Francisco Bay area for eight years before entering the world of business ownership.

Karen's entrepreneurial spirit, ambition, and sound business practices helped her create a multi-million-dollar contract furniture, facility design and project management business serving Fortune 1000 clients throughout the United States. She held the position of President and CEO for 14 years until selling her business. Her corporate clients included DHL Airways, Mitsubishi Electronics, Octel Communications, Novellus Systems, Ecosys/ATMI and Diamond Multimedia. As a woman-owned business, she was a contractor for the United States Air Force in Northern California for 15 years, mastering the processes for achieving woman and minority status for city, state and federal contracts.

After 24 years as an executive and business owner, Karen transformed her passion for business and people to consulting and coaching, specializing in helping women succeed as entrepreneurs and corporate managers. She has had a successful practice for the past six years. She holds a Master's degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and a Master's degree in Organizational Psychology from John F. Kennedy University, Pleasant Hill, CA.

Her advanced degree in Counseling has trained her to design a consulting and coaching method that is unique to each individual. Her advanced degree in Organizational Psychology has trained her to understand all the elements of a business's dynamics and to design and implement long-term, sustainable goals and objectives where each individual within the culture is encouraged to achieve personally and professionally. Karen is also a Certified Mediator and facilitates conflict resolution procedures for organizations.

Karen believes human beings are the most valuable asset of any organization, and successful organizations enable people to participate in a culture based on teamwork, respect, integrity and shared values with emotional intelligence.

Mike Burk (Chief Financial Officer and Senior Financial Analysis) is a veteran business professional with more than 36 years experience as a corporate executive, business entrepreneur, consultant and mentor. 

After receiving his formal education in business administration and accounting, in 1973, Mike started his career as an accountant and later joined a CPA firm in Rochester, NY.  Mike later returned to college and completed degree programs in sales and marketing.  At the age of 25, he became the Director of Sales and Marketing for a large electrical/electronics manufacturing and distribution firm and moved his career forward.

In 1985, Mike was appointed Senior Product Manger and Manufacturing Financial Analysis for Laser Precision Corporation, a leader in telecommunication and industrial fiber optic test equipment.  Six months later became Vice-President Of Product Development and Sales and was responsible for all domestic and international business.  Under his direction negotiated one of the largest test equipment orders with AT&T and raised sales, in 16 months, from $300,000 a month to $1,200,000 per month.  Following a hostile takeover of LPC, Mike returned to his roots and launched his career as an entrepreneur.

As a family man some 20 years later, he founded BIC, Inc. a consulting firm specialized in business development and financial management.

Over the next 14 years, as a business owner and consultant, Mike counseled more than 250 companies in 15 industries and 7 countries over 3 continents.  In 2002 he semi-retired and moved to Asheville North Carolina re-naming the business MCB Consulting Services, LTD and focused mainly on accounting and finance. 

MCB merged with Blueprints For Business in 2009.  Mike's responsibilities include running the financial side of BFB and as Senior Financial Analyst, specializes in business turnarounds, workouts and strategic planning.  In addition, he is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor and conducts seminars in bookkeeping, budgets and forecasting and business and personal financial planning.

Outside of his business vocation, Mike's passions include golf, cooking, music, and staying in physical shape.  He is married to Susan and has a daughter Jeanette and a Grandson Dylan. 

Our Strategic Partners

We draw upon the expertise and skills of highly successful professionals who can bring the resources you need to develop and implement your strategic plan. Our professionals are actively engaged in:

• Finance and Accounting
• Human Resources
• Management Information Systems
• Law
• Sales
• Marketing
• Operations