Randy Best Email & Phone Number

Dallas, Texas, Us

Dallas, Tx, Us

Academic Partnerships' (AP) mission is to help universities globally increase access to top quality and affordable higher education through online delivery of instruction. AP is a leading higher ed service provider based in Dallas with service hubs in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, the UK, Spain and South Africa. To learn more, please visit www.academicpartnerships.com

Miami, Florida, Us

Ilumno owns and operates top universities across Latin America in an effort to expand access to top quality education in the region. Through its network of partner institutions in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Argentina, Costa Rica and Paraguay, Ilumno serves over 250,000 college students of all socioeconomic classes. To learn more, please visit http://ilumno.com/en

The Art Conglomerate founded and acquired companies that published limited edition prints, greeting cards and art books. It also acquired and operated a group of fine art galleries in Texas, Arizona, Wyoming and California. It owned and operated a bronze foundry for casting sculptures in Houston, Texas and two art magazines, Southwest Art and Art West. The group grew into an integrated art marketing company that was the largest of its kind.

Dallas, Texas, Us

Voyager provides reading programs to America’s elementary schools, primarily in large urban school districts. The company became the fastest growing education companies of its type in the U.S. and today helps over 4 million students annually learn to read. Voyager was sold in January 2005 to a New York Stock Exchange company.

United Meridian was founded in 1987 and grew into one of the five largest independent oil and gas companies in the US. UMC engaged in the exploration, development, production, and acquisition of natural gas and crude oil across North America and in the Gulf of Mexico. It also had major exploration and development activities in West Africa's Cote d'Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea, Pakistan and Bangladesh. United Meridian was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and eventually merged with Devon Energy Corporation in a transaction valued at $5.6 billion.

Co-founded Westmark Systems, a defense and aerospace conglomerate. Westmark acquired Tracor, the first Austin, Texas-based company to go public on a New York Stock Exchange. Subsequent to the acquisition, the company operated under the name of Tracor. Tracor designed and manufactured integrated weapons systems and was a major contractor to the U.S. Navy focused on anti-submarine warfare systems. The company provided drones for the Air Force and advanced electronics for Apache helicopters and fighter planes. It also made re-entry vehicles for nuclear weapons and designed guidance systems for missiles. Tracor was eventually acquired by Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), a subsidiary of General Electric Company. Following the purchase of MES by British Aerospace in November 1999, Tracor became BAE Systems Integrated Defense Solutions.

Founded in 1985, Wyndham Foods became nation’s third largest cookie maker and supplier of confectionaries. Among its many acquisitions, Wyndham acquired Murray Bakery Products, the largest producer of Girl Scout cookies; Zatarain's, a hundred year old New Orleans-based food and spice company; Plantation Foods and Roush Products Company, a leading specialty breads company under the brand name Country Hearth. Wyndham Foods was sold in 1992 to President Enterprises Corp., Taiwan's largest integrated food company.

The agricultural conglomerate consisted of an Agrow Credit Corporation (agricultural bank), Southwest Feedyard and BarG Feeders (cattle feed yards), Agrow Swine (swine production facilities), Emery Grain Corporation (a grain trading company), Best Brangus (pure-bred cattle breeding operations) and ranches and farm land operations across Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. By integrating these components, this conglomerate became very successful with sales topping $200 million by the early 1980s.

A merchant banking firm, which established industry-specific holding companies that served as acquisition vehicles in large, integrated conglomerates such as specialty foods, aerospace & defense, oil & gas exploration, re-insurance and real estate.

Founded in 1982, Surgicare was a pioneer of outpatient surgery. Through a merger, the company became Medical Care International, the largest operator of outpatient surgery centers in the United States. At the time, outpatient surgery was a disruptive innovation, reducing the cost of many surgical procedures traditionally performed in acute care hospitals by 40 to 60%. The company became one of the top performing public healthcare companies on the New York Stock Exchange. It later entered into a landmark joint venture with Richard Rainwater’s Columbia Healthcare Corporation and was eventually absorbed by Hospital Corporation of America, which owns and operates over 200 hospitals and other healthcare facilities in 24 states, England and Switzerland. Medical Care Internationals’ innovations in patient care and approach to ambulatory surgery became industry standards.

Founded in college, Gold Lance Corporation manufactured high school and college class rings. Through a disruptive marketing concept the company sold its rings through retail jewelry stores, overturning the traditional distribution model. Gold Lance shortened the delivery time from 6 months to 6 weeks and offered an unprecedented variety of stones, types of gold and choices in design. The company became one of the fastest growing jewelry companies in the US and was sold to Beatrice Foods a few years after I graduated from college. Later, the company re-gained its independence and is flourishing today after more than 50 years.

This first company was founded with two friends while in college. CDA marketed engagement rings on college campuses across Texas and Louisiana with offices at University of Texas at Austin and LSU in Baton Rouge. The business flourished as large numbers of students bought diamond rings from over 50 student representatives. Soon parents and relatives of students were buying rings and other diamond jewelry at discounted prices from CDA as the network of student reps expanded.