Paula Charles
- Founder and CEO of Abraxas Business Services; Owner
and officer of
Suzuki Learning Center
Paula Charles is the President of two companies:
Abraxas Business Services, a firm specializing in
M&A and business brokerage for privately held
businesses, and The Suzuki School, a private preparatory
preschool. Paula and her husband, along with the School
Director and a small group of investors, acquired
Suzuki in 2005.
Paula has worked in a wide variety of capacities
and industries during her career. Between undergraduate
and graduate school she worked in the Netherlands
for Peat Marwick & Mitchell as an auditor. After
receiving her Masters degree from the University of
Texas, she joined Deloitte & Touche, where she
spent 11 years in management consulting working closely
with clients in service, retail, distribution and
manufacturing in a wide variety of strategy, operations
improvement and systems implementation projects.
When Paula left Deloitte & Touche she went into
industry where she held several executive positions.
She spent five years as a Vice President at National
Data Corporation, first as the VP of Product Management,
and later as a VP in the M&A group. While at NDC,
Paula worked in the payment processing industry and
the health care industry developing expansion strategies
and leading M&A efforts. After NDC she was the
SVP of Finance of a publicly
traded franchising company,
and then worked in a small internet retail startup
as the CFO. She was also the SVP of Finance at a national
janitorial service company with over 35,000 employees.
Paula launched Abraxas Business Services in March
2003. The focus of the company is to provide a hybrid
of investment banking services and business brokerage
services to the lower middle market.
Paula splits her time between Abraxas and Suzuki.
Much of her time at Suzuki is focused on building
better hiring, training, and retention practices for
the teachers, and is raising the academic programming
of the school.
Paula holds a masters degree in accountancy from
the University of Texas, and B.S. in business administration
from the University of Washington. She is a CPA (inactive),
a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified
in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM). Until
recently, she served as the Treasurer and board member
of The Board of Directors Network, and the Board Chair
of The Samaritan House. While at Deloitte & Touche,
Ms. Charles co-authored a book entitled “Financing
Wholesale-Distribution in the 1990’s”.
Ms. Charles chairs the Valuation Section for the Georgia
Society of CPA’s.
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