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Ron Smith, 69, serves as a Director on the Board of Buckeye Ventures, Inc. in 1965 after working for another local company for three years, he founded Modern Air Conditioning. Inc. in Ft Myers, FL with a borrowed $500, no customers and no coworkers, and built it into one of the premier and most recognized and respected firms in the U.S. with $15 million in annual revenues before selling it in 1986 to a Philadelphia based mechanical contractor. Later he purchased, significantly grew, and then sold three similar air conditioning companies in the Louisiana and Florida markets. In 1985 he founded Service America, based in Atlanta, GA, the first national HVAC franchiser. In less than four years the firm had over 100 franchisees. Ron Smith & Associates (RS&A), an HVAC exclusive training and consulting company based in Roswell, GA was founded in 1991. RS&A, with its focus on operations, systems, processes, and disciplines soon became one of the industry�s leading training and consulting firms. In 1997 he joined Service Experts in Brentwood, TN, an HVAC consolidator and public company, as its Chief Operating Officer and served in that position until mid 2000 after the company was sold to Lennox Industries. Currently, Ron consults with and coaches, on a limited basis, contractors and distributors. Ron founded, co-founded, owned, or has an ownership position in fourteen businesses. They are Modern Air Conditioning in Ft. Myers, FL; Service America in Atlanta, GA; Carl�s Service America in Baton Rouge, LA; Edwards and Smith in Ft. Myers, FL; Hart�s Electric Motor Shop in Ft. Myers, Fl; R.L. Anderson in Venice, FL; Venture International (Ron Smith & Associates) in Roswell, GA; Anderson Firestone in Ft. Myers, FL; Spiro International in Fribourg, Switzerland; Service Canada in Mississauga, Canada; Energy Management and Controls in Sarasota, FL; Service Roundtable in Grapevine, TX; | 