- About Us
- Meet Our Leadership Team
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Catherine Monson, CFE
Chief Executive Officer Read BioCatherine Monson, CFE
Chief Executive OfficerCatherine became CEO of FASTSIGNS International, Inc. in 2009, bringing over 30 years of franchising and management experience.
In 2009, she received the International Franchise Association (IFA) Bonny LeVine Award in recognition of her contributions to the growth of the franchising industry and in 2010, the Dallas Business Journal named her a top Women Industry Leader in the Dallas Metroplex. In 2012, Catherine appeared on the Emmy Award-winning series Undercover Boss to learn new ways to advance the FASTSIGNS® brand. In 2015, she received the International Franchise Association’s first Franchise Action Network “FAN of the Year” award for her advocacy work in the franchising community. In 2016, she was selected as a Soderstrom Society Inductee for her contributions to the printing and graphic communications industry and was also honored with the 2016 Leadership Award from the Women That Soar organization. In 2018, she was honored by the Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) with their Ambassador of Free Enterprise Award.
Catherine has served on the Board of Directors of the IFA since 2008 and is currently in the role of Vice Chair. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Directors of Brain Balance, a franchise company with a non-drug alternative for children with behavioral challenges, and serves on the Board of Directors of the franchisor Big Blue Swim School, one of the nation’s fastest growing swim schools. She is a keynote speaker at many franchise industry events, as well at many sign and visual graphics industry events.
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Mark Jameson, CFE
Chief Development Officer Read BioMark Jameson, CFE
Chief Development OfficerMark is a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) with more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of franchising in both consumer industries (home services, food and retail) and in business-to-business (flooring; signs and graphics). His extensive franchising background includes franchisee relations, operations, training, company store operations, franchise law, intellectual property, financial management, procurement, technology, and sales and marketing.
He joined FASTSIGNS International in 2009, and today leads Franchise Support (including Training, Operations and Supply Chain) and global Franchise Development. Mark’s responsibilities cover overseeing “lead to lights on” support (through Franchise Sales, Real Estate and Development Services teams) and then continue seamlessly into providing ongoing, lifelong franchisee support (through the Training, Operations and Supply Chain teams).
Mark has been a panelist and panel leader for sessions at many International Franchise Association Conventions and at the Franchise Development Leadership Conference, and has spoken at international franchise forums in Middle East, Peru and the United Kingdom.
Since joining the company, the brand has added more than 200 locations domestically and signed international agreements to enter twelve new countries (UAE, Malta, Italy, Greece, Chile, Spain, the Caribbean, and 4 others in the Middle East).
Prior to joining FASTSIGNS, Mark was the Vice-President of Franchise Development for 8 years for multiple franchise-owned brands at CCA Global Partners including ProSource Wholesale Floor Covering.
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Shayne Mehringer, CFE
Chief Information Officer Read BioShayne Mehringer, CFE
Chief Information OfficerShayne is a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) with over 20 years of executive leadership experience. He has an extensive background in franchising, information technology, business start-ups and acquisitions.
Most recently the Chief Information Officer for Neighborly (previously The Dwyer Group) for 6 years, Shayne was responsible for the company’s global technology strategy and digital footprint. He provided business transformation oversight, improving program performance and managing risk for the Neighborly franchise brands. Shayne was also the president of ZorWare, LLC, a Neighborly company that provides technology solutions and technical support to franchisees.
Before joining Neighborly, Shayne served as Senior Vice-President for a Mark Cuban-owned data center and cloud services company in Dallas, Texas, where he focused on delivering cloud-based technology solutions to consumer and enterprise customers. Shayne also spent over a decade launching and managing a series of startups in technology consulting, e-commerce, commercial printing and manufacturing. After selling these businesses in 2008, he held a Board of Directors seat and served as President of the operating entities until 2011.
He began his career with IBM where he worked in networking, data analytics and business intelligence teams.
Shayne is a native Texan and is actively involved with the International Franchise Association.
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Jennifer Herskind
Chief Marketing Officer Read BioJennifer Herskind
Chief Marketing OfficerJennifer brings over 20 years of experience in marketing with a demonstrated capacity to solve problems with fresh, insight-driven strategic solutions and scale for growth. Her broad background includes all marketing disciplines and strong cross-functional knowledge of all business fundamentals. She has a successful track record of transforming brands and driving business results in multiple fast-paced industries with diverse environments.
A confident, goal-oriented leader with the ability to motivate others to achieve results, Jennifer most recently held the role of Chief Marketing Officer for Smoothie King. During her time there, she directed all brand, marketing and R&D strategy to build the brand and drive business results in the fulfillment of its mission to inspire people to live a healthy and active lifestyle for over 1,000 locations.
Before joining Smoothie King, Jennifer held senior leadership positions in a wide variety of franchise and company brands including Gold’s Gym, Dave & Buster’s, Nestle Waters North America and Pizza Hut. Jennifer began her career with The UPS Store where she worked in several roles as the primary driver of new product development and customer services in support of over 2,000 franchisees.
In December 2018, she was named one of Dallas’ Rising Brand Stars by AdWeek. Herskind is a Dallas native and belongs to a family of business entrepreneurs she enjoys assisting in her spare time.
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Jason White
Chief Financial Officer Read BioJason White
Chief Financial OfficerJason White brings an extensive financial background to his role as Chief Financial Officer of Propelled Brands. Prior to this role, he served as the Chief Operations Officer of the Americas Region for Pentax Medical, a medical device subsidiary of HOYA. He joined Pentax in October 2021 as a Financial Business Consultant before transitioning to COO.
Before coming to Pentax, Jason spent 14 years with HOYA Vision Care, where he began his career as the Corporate Controller helping to establish a solid accounting foundation before moving into finance and administration working with IT partners to build scalable systems as the VP of Finance and Administration. He later became the Interim CEO, and during his final six years there, Jason served as the CFO of the Americas Region for HOYA Vision Care, where he developed a successful mergers and acquisitions strategy for the company.
Jason received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting as well as a Master of Science in Finance from Texas A&M University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
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Russell Kruse
General Counsel Read BioRussell Kruse
General CounselAs the General Counsel at Propelled Brands, Russell Kruse brings over 13 years experience in legal and franchising, where he has provided strategic business solutions, efficient and timely legal support and management services.
In his most recent role as Chief Legal Officer and a member of the Board of Managers at Premium Service Brands, Russell demonstrated success defining legal strategies and business leadership supporting core business objectives and scaling the business up and down to meet growth or downsizing needs. He has successfully managed and supported fast paced and large volume mergers and acquisitions transactions, litigation, employment, & risk management as well as franchise development and regulatory compliance.
Before joining Premium Service Brands, he worked at several law firms including Royer Caramanis PLC, Tucker Griffin Barnes P.C., and Paullin Law. His legal resume extends to the nonprofit world as he has served as the Direct of Legal Affairs for All Blessings Flow, LLC, as well as a Board Member for Camp Albemarle, Inc., and a Philanthropy Committee - Member for the Center at Belvedere.
Russell is known as providing clear and responsive counsel regarding complex legal and business matters, while being respected for communicating effectively with all levels of the organization. His business acumen and ability to develop relationships with strategic alliances has proven beneficial in the negotiation and drafting of major vendor contracts and significant business transactions of various enterprises. His strategic approach for corporate legal services is to exceed company business objectives with effective and efficient balance of in-house speed and responsiveness with exceptional outsourced expertise, measured by key metrics of business performance and risk mitigation.
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Andrea Hohermuth
President of FASTSIGNS Read BioAndrea Hohermuth
President of FASTSIGNSAndrea Hohermuth is a growth-focused, innovative executive with over 20 years of experience in business operations, technology, franchising, support, and strategy management. She has successfully optimized and built systems, departments and teams from the ground up and scaled them for growth.
Laser-focused on operational excellence and digital transformation, Andrea has been integral to the modernization of multiple companies by utilizing strategic vision to design and deliver on large-scale initiatives. She has a proven track record of overseeing departments and leading teams through transition and growth within the technology, franchising, e-commerce, healthcare, payments and financial services industries.
Most recently, Andrea held the role of Chief Operating Officer of Threshold Brands, a multi-brand franchisor in the home services industry, for which she was instrumental in structuring. While there, she led the integration of new acquisitions, and what began as three brands grew to nine under her direction. As COO, while overseeing all shared franchise operations and services, Andrea also operated as the company’s chief technology leader, developing and delivering on the technical strategy across the entire Threshold Brands organization.
Prior to that, Andrea served as the Senior Vice President of Technology & Operations and later the Chief Operating Officer at MaidPro, the inaugural brand of Threshold Brands and one of the top 10 franchise companies ranked by Forbes. While at MaidPro, Andrea fully revamped the software development and technical support departments. Under her leadership, the team delivered several in-house software systems from concept to completion. She later optimized the MaidPro call center and took responsibility for all facets of franchise support. During this time, she also led the launch of a new brand from inception and helped gain an acquisition. She managed all aspects of operations for the three brands, and later assisted with the divestiture of the company.
Andrea holds a degree in Mathematics & Actuarial Science from the University of Connecticut. Using the strong foundation that Catherine Monson, CEO of Propelled Brands has laid, Andrea plans to leverage the momentum along with her expertise to take the FASTSIGNS brand to the next level. The strong culture, commitment to people and visible company values exhibited through employees and franchisees were what drew her to the brand. Andrea believes strongly that all roads lead back to technology and that leaders should be valued no matter their gender or background. She finds great reward in mentoring those around her by offering valuable career insight.