Marvin L Storm is a nationally recognized entrepreneur and franchise expert, with more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of entrepreneurship and franchising. His career began after he earned his B.S. in accounting and began his career with a national accounting firm.
Developing a growing interest in entrepreneurship, he founded a medical equipment leasing company and through his leasing affiliations became familiar with the benefits of the franchising business model.
After several years of research, he became a unit franchisee for The Packaging Store, a specialty packaging and shipping franchise. Marvin parlayed his successful management methods into a multi-unit franchisee position, expanding that position to become a regional franchisee.
More recently, Marvin founded a franchise management and marketing company, Blackstone Hathaway Corporation, which serves as an area and regional franchise marketing and management firm for multiple franchise concepts. Blackstone Hathaway has awarded and managed more than 100 franchise areas in four different franchise concepts in California and Nevada.
In 2000, as the largest and most successful regional franchisee in the franchise system, Marvin was recruited by The Packaging Store’s Board of Directors to reposition the company for growth. In his new role as CEO, Marvin committed to a substantial investment in the company, becoming one of two shareholders in the company.
In his repositioning efforts, Marvin recruited a new management team, explored new markets, assisted under-performing franchisees to exit the system, and changed the strategic direction of the company from a retail-based model to that of a Business-to-Business-centric franchise brand, Navis, was officially launched, and to date nearly 70 new franchises have been awarded.
In 2007, The Packaging Store franchise system was sold. Marvin continues as a member of the Board of Directors. He also serves on the Boards of Directors of other franchise companies, and is an adviser to multiple franchise companies.
Marvin has recently acquired the regional franchise rights for California and Nevada of AccuDiagnostics, the only nationally branded drug, alcohol, steroid, DNA and background screening franchise. He continues as the founder and director of Blackstone Hathaway, supporting marketing and management for regional franchise agreements of emerging franchise concepts.
Currently, Marvin is the author of a recently published book,Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur and articles for Franchise Update Magazine. He is a frequent speaker with the International Franchise Association, Franchise Update and Area Developer Conferences and is a seminar facilitator with Management 2000, a franchise management consulting firm based in Houston, Texas.
Marvin L. Storm is married with five children and lives in Moraga, CA.