Richard Belenski has over 25 years of experience managing private and public small to mid-market companies in C-Level positions including CEO, President, COO and CFO. Richard has managed the buying and selling of companies in the small to mid-market tier and has experience working with private equity investors, hedge fund investors and Boards in sale transactions and other matters.
The early part of Richard’s career included positions at large “brand name” corporations and internationally known organizations (J. Crew Group, JCPenney, Country Life Vitamins, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts) but eventually he moved to the smaller/mid-size company tier, putting to work a version of his big company experience in portions that were meaningful and useful in smaller company environments.
Richard’s experience in smaller and mid-market companies led him to form Fractional Execs On Demand (FEOD), a business he believes is a unique consulting partner to the small to mid-market business community.
Richard knows that smaller and mid-size company entrepreneurs, founders, owners and families are not looking for “help” from consulting partners or outside executives. They do not want to be told what to do from jargoning administrators. Instead, they are looking for “ballast”; genuine people with ideas and systems that contribute to and enhance stability and control around what founding leadership wants to do; around their ideas and inventions; around the business concept that has made them successful.
Richard has assembled a team of Executive Partners across a wide range of functional disciplines who share his point of view and who respect and admire the courage of entrepreneurial small and mid-market ownership and leadership. These Executive Partners all have big company experience coupled with C-Level roles in small to mid-market companies. These Executive Partners understand the big company “bleeding edge” state of play in their areas of functional expertise. They have lived the journey of converting their big company experience to meaningful contributions to the tier of small and mid-market companies.
Richard likes a “flying in a plane” metaphor when he talks about the unique culture at FEOD and the energy and point of view he and his Executive Partners bring to an assignment. He says, “Given the choice, our Executive Partners will pass on flying in a jet Business Class (figuratively). That’s a boring journey where a stranger wakes you up when it’s time to land and you miss most of the trip. Our partners want to fly in the second seat (figuratively) to support the pilot in an Eddie Rickenbacker biplane; with goggles on and bugs hitting them in the face; managing the adverse journey; always awake, engaged and managing a successful landing”.
Richard holds a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from Lycoming College and an MBA in Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University.