Dale & Cindy Hughes
Each step of the journey gives us different skills and perspectives. Jeremiah Consulting is the company where we house the knowledge from our journey – knowledge on how to create new businesses, start and manage real estate projects, and how to face operational challenges as a community business. It comes from our prior experiences with incredible companies, universities and people. We use three decades of experience in filtering the options through a 360-degree viewpoint and process. Then we work with you to lay out options and paths. Our strength is our empathy and our sincerity. We are business owners and entrepreneurs just like you. So, this isn’t theory for us. It is life. We consult and advise from that perspective first and foremost to create prosperity for you and for your community.
Who are the team members in Jeremiah Consulting?
They are family who support one another in building their dreams and they can be your family to support you in building your dreams.
It began with the resurrection of a dream. In the fall of 2012 Dale Hughes was considering the opportunities before him when his wife, Cindy Hughes, reminded him of a dream from their college days at Emory University.
“Remember when you took that entrepreneurship class with Dr. Stephen Franklin and President Carter?”
“Remember when you modeled a historic house just off the Marietta Square and how it could be bought and used for a consulting business. Well, I found this 1857 house and . . .”
The seed that had been planted in 1981 broke through the ground and a month later Jeremiah Consulting had a home in the historic Simpson/Barfield/Blackwell house in Fullers Chase in downtown Kennesaw. But Dale had learned that great businesses were often founded as family businesses with roots in the community. And he knew that Cindy had the skills, the roots and the vision to grow the business. But now he had to convince the then CEO of the Hughes household and a former high school English teacher that she could run the finances for a real estate company, manage restaurant and roastery buildouts and coordinate marketing and logistics for women’s soccer camps.
Easy.
He reminded her that she had run a trustee’s budget for a large United Methodist Church, managed that church’s acquisition of a new facility and expansion. He reminded her that she had effectively communicated with thousands of students and their parents in one of the fastest growing high schools in Cobb County. And he reminded her she did all this while raising three incredible children and balancing the budgets and the activities in the Hughes household. Oh yeah, and she taught weekly bible studies to fill that last time gap in her schedule.
Easy.
But the Jeremiah story wasn’t finished. In 2014, Dale and Cindy knew they needed more bandwidth. Enter René Fowler. René is Cindy’s sister and a fellow Emory University Eagle who holds a degree in psychology. She brought a wealth of management and balance to Jeremiah. With a successful background as a paralegal in a large Atlanta litigation firm managing case logistics, document production and discovery while raising three incredible children (including two young men who were very good at baseball), René took on the Cartersville travelling baseball and high school baseball community. She held leadership positions as she helped her sons and the sons of others in her community fulfill their dreams of state championships, college careers and entry into adulthood.
She was and is an exceptional community and team logistics manager and an effective community fundraiser. René joined Jeremiah and jumped right into managing bakery expansions, restaurant expansions and acquisitions, managing townhome and office associations and all the other complex and often unexpected tasks.
And that is how the core team at Jeremiah Consulting came to be. It is probably not much different than your story and probably the reason you are considering us. We not only have the skillsets. We have lived the experiences and share your story.
Dale Hughes
As the primary consultant, I am grateful for a career rich with character-building moments, tremendous guidance from colleagues and leaders and even for tragedy that helped forge my unwavering commitment to integrity and excellence. Working with a great family with an exceptional legacy as Senior Vice President of Cox Enterprises afforded me a once in a lifetime opportunity for growth and knowledge. I learned at the feet of generational shareholders, seasoned executives and world-class entrepreneurs. My work teams included the family office for the shareholders, legal affairs for the holding company, real estate that spanned our country and several foreign countries, an offshore insurance company for the real estate and business holdings and fascinating energy projects across all those real estate and business holdings. They afforded me the opportunity to dine with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, but I learned the most from the young analysts who brought creativity not constrained by seeing the world through an ancient path along a well-worn road. There was a commitment there to excellence in everyone from the youngest to the oldest, from the most powerful to the least powerful.
The part of my journey as managing partner with Dow Lohnes Albertson held the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. In 1998, my managing partner had told me to get on a commercial plane for a family trip rather than join him on a private plane for a business retreat. Several of my partners died in a mid-air crash on that plane, and I learned about the spirit of men and women who want to preserve a legacy. The surviving partners and staff did not waiver from their commitment to excellence and to staying together. During my time at this firm, I served in various management positions, managed and worked on teams handling real estate, corporate, finance, litigation and family office work projects. But what I value most was learning that the human spirit is indestructible. This firm no longer exists but I know these men and women remember this time and place as a source of strength and power. I know that indestructible power and I am better for it.
My first position as an associate attorney with Scoggins, Ivy, Goodman and Weiss poured a solid foundation for me. The men and women who taught me during this phase were sticklers for detail and committed to an exceptional work product. I worked on business formations, commercial real estate developments and finance projects. I am forever indebted to Randy, Bob, Scott and Ken. They were men of character and integrity devoted to the best for their clients and they taught me not to compromise that. Ever.