Who We Are.
Chuck Champion and Gary Sproule are C-Level executives with a proven history of success in turnaround situations, corporate restructuring, and strategic scaling of organizations.
We focus on creating sustainable, long-term shareholder value across diverse sectors, including public and private businesses, for-profit and non-profit organizations, and multiple industries and functions.
Our combined experience and expertise enable us to deliver significant value-added results, offering unique perspectives and approaches to help clients address their most pressing challenges and capitalize on valuable opportunities.
Chuck Champion
C-Level executive, Managing Partner
Career Highlights:
ProElite Inc. (Entertainment):
Chairman / Chief Executive Officer
Restructured / Repositioned, sold unprofitable units and eliminated litigation.
Youbet.Com Inc (Technology):
Chairman / Chief Executive Officer / President
Restructured / Recapitalized increasing “Enterprise Value” from $6 million to $185 million.
Access Media Inc (Start-up):
President / Publisher
Launch a weekly magazine with over 12 million circulation distributed in over 100 newspapers in the United States.
Chicago Sun-Times Co (Media Company):
Executive Vice President
Restructured 180 million dollars in senior debt, reduced FTE’s by a third (600+) and sold the company for a significant profit.
Chicago Sun-Times Charitable Trust (Charity):
President
Increased funding by 250% and gift giving by a like number.
Orange County Register (Newspaper)
Los Angeles Daily News (Newspaper)
Senior Executive Positions in Advertising / Circulation / Marketing
Worked to secure the designation as the fastest growing newspapers in the country at both newspapers during my tenure.
Gary Sproule
C-Level Managing Partner
Career Highlights.
Mobile Messenger (Mobile Products):
Chief Financial Officer
Increased EBITDA from $6 million to $18 million over 15-month period.
Youbet.Com Inc (Technology):
Chief Financial Officer
Developed and implemented a turnaround strategy resulting in a 20% increase in annual EBITDA.
Disney Interactive (Entertainment):
President / Publisher
Launch a weekly magazine with over 12 million circulation distributed in over 100 newspapers in the United States.
WhatsHotNow.com (E-commerce):
Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer
Commercially scaled and sold the startup for over $40 million.
76 Products (Global Retail):
Chief Operating Officer
Increased market value by $1.2 billion over 3-year period.
UNOCAL (Energy):
Senior Vice President, Corporate Administration
and Strategic Planning
Completed over $10 billion in financings and $5 billion in M&A transactions.
Guiding Principles.
Based on our experience, we believe there are a set of guiding business principles that transcend all projects that we engage in.
- You cannot cost reduce your way to success; profitable revenue growth is the driver to success.
- Leadership can make or break your success.
- Leadership is built on trust.
- You cannot make things up as you go; you need a plan.
- Sooner or later, something fundamental to your business world will change (Andrew Grove).
- Fix things before they break; anticipate that inflection point.
- Bad management decisions can be as devastating to a business as disruptive external change factors can be
- Business failure is frequently linked to management’s inability to anticipate, learn, and adapt.
- Management must continually innovate and market new products and services to grow.
- Businesses that survive are the businesses most adaptable to change.
- Successful business strategies are built on operational efficiencies or strategic repositioning.
- Successful businesses install a corporate culture of accountability and performance-based results creating a meritocracy.
- Business models must demonstrate superior customer value proposition, superior value chain economics, and superior execution to maintain a competitive advantage.
- We work for the client.
- Value creation is our ultimate “report card” when evaluating our performance across all engagements.
- The Managing Partners at Paladin360 are in for the entire game; they don’t bring in minor leaguers to play in the majors at their Client’s expense.
