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Gregory J. Carafello

Resides – New Jersey

College – Springfield College, Massachusetts

Graduated – Upsala College, NJ September 1981

Double Major: Human Resources Management & Business Administration

Completed a four year degree with 2 Majors in three years from September 1978 to September 1981

Completed 3 years Certified Franchise Executive accreditation to be one of 1048 Certified Franchise Executives out of 44,000 in industry to hold.

Married 33 years with 4 kids.

September 1981 – three days after last course – started with Canon as a Copier Sales Trainee. He rose through the ranks to be their youngest Branch Director at age 26 – Greg was responsible for Sales/Service/Administration/Warehouse – approximately a $12,000,000 business with his own profit and loss responsibility.

October 1989 – Founded AbraCadabra Color Copy Center with wife Christine out of their home. Used home equity to buy used machines from leasing company – we had no dining room set, so that was Headquarters with four color copiers going to support trade only.

January 1991- Resigned from Canon to aggressively pursue his dream of Entrepreneurship. They opened the first store on Route 10 in Parsippany with a niche as the only company 100% dedicated to color copying and the very new color output from a computer disc. We were one of the first in the Northeast to connect color copiers to computers via a Fiery unit. This is commonplace today, but people would drive hours to use our services. Our business plan set a course of growth which grew and evolved into 4 highly visible locations on New Jersey’s busiest highways and the opening of a headquarters in Two World Trade Center on the 18^th floor.

They sold Abra Cadabra Color Copy Centers in August 2004 to concentrate solely on his new business – Cartridge World – New Jersey.

Cartridge World- July 30, 2003:

Gregory J. Carafello bought the license rights to New Jersey from Cartridge World in Australia. They are the world’s largest retailer of remanufactured Inkjet/LaserToners.

The expansion timeline of Executive Franchise Group, LLC with Cartridge World is:

July, 2003                    Purchased initial rights to New Jersey.  Today there are 29 stores.

January, 2008              Purchased Master Franchise license rights to Manhattan.  3 stores.

September, 2010         Purchased balance of NY State rights. 10 stores are open today. 

December, 2012          Purchased Master Franchise license to VA, MD, DC. 11 stores.      

June, 2016                   Purchased Master Franchise license to Ohio, Michigan.  29 stores.

Liberty Tax Service:

January 2011: Liberty Tax Area Developer; purchased the Area development rights to Eastern Upstate NY for Liberty Tax Service.  The territory came with 21 offices open and now there are an additional 18 to open in 2012 tax season of over 4,000 offices nationwide.  A total of 42 offices.

He then sold the territory December, 2014 after growing it to nearly $2,500,000 in revenue in 3 years from $1,200,000 in 2011.

January 2015: Liberty Tax Area Developer; purchased the License for Manhattan south of 72^nd Street, NY, NY.  2 stores presently with 20 more to be opened.

April, 2017: Liberty Tax Area Developer; purchased the balance of Manhattan (upper) with 9 offices with 16 more to be opened within 5 years.

Fast Signs International:

December 1, 2017:  Fast Signs International; EFG has agreed with Fast Signs to be the1st Area Developer in the United States by purchasing the development license for NY City (all five Boroughs).  There are 2 long term Fast Signs Centers in NYC with a plan to award 22 more over the next 3 years.

Additional Information:

2017: Smart CEO Top 50 Fastest Growing firms Award.  Gregory received this honor

to be one of 50 Entrepreneurs out of hundreds to win this award in New York Region.

His business now has over $15,000,000 in annual sales in 2016 from $9,800,000 in 2015.

September 2016:  CNBC – Ground Zero Rising- Freedom vs Fear with Jim Kramer.

This one hour documentary on the Old and New World Trade Center highlights me being the “only” business tenant from the old building into the new building out of 407 tenants in the old Trade Centers.

GJC has 8 minutes on this documentary at around 40 minutes into the show.

2016:  Certified Franchise Executive (CFE).  This is highest ranking certificate an executive in the franchise industry can attain.  3 years of study, financial investment and travel to learn to the highest level of all aspects of the franchising industry.

There are 1048 CFE’s out of 40,000 franchise executives worldwide.

2014 – Present:  9-11 Museum Docent.  Thoroughly trained for 5 months to be a Volunteer Docent for the new 9-11 Museum.  He was part of the first ever Docent team providing education and tours of the artifacts of the 9-11 Museum since the 1^st day it ever opened.  He volunteers 20 hours per month at the Museum with over 1,000 hours to date.

2012- Present:  9-11 Memorial Volunteer Service Member.  He volunteers 20 hours per month to help do tours to individuals, groups or where needed.

2009- Master Franchisee of the year for Cartridge World Globally.  Annual nomination as the Best Master Worldwide for day to day practices and system support and growth.

2008 –present-  Nominated to Cartridge World’s Master Advisory Committee for North America, today known as the MAC- Master Advisory Committee.  They work closely as a Board of Advisors with Executives at CW corporate for the betterment of all aspects of CW and the crucial business development decisions.

2016 – present: Chair of Cartridge World Master advisory Committee for the Americas.

2008 – Completed certification as a Business Financial Consultant

2005 – Present:  Chair of the Master Marketing Fund and Sales Committee for Cartridge World Masters and corporate.  They work closely with CW corporate to develop strategies and execute those strategies.

1994-1998 – Entered and completed a 4 year program known as the “Birthing of Giants.”

This was 60 Entrepreneurs per class held for 7 days and nights at MIT in Massachusetts

in conjunction with INC Magazine, Success Magazine, YEO and MIT in case studies.

1994 – Who’s Who Worldwide

1994 – Became member of Chief Executives Club – NYC

1993 – Became member of Young Entrepreneurs Organization – must be under 35 years old and have over $1,000,000 in sales.

9-11 Survivor of the World Trade Centers until 09-11-01 where the Headquarters of Abra Cadabra Color Copy Centers.   Greg and staff got out of building safely, but lost 70% of his business.  He is a Survivor of 9-11.

Greg has regrouped successfully growing Cartridge World in New Jersey and New York, Maryland, Virginia and DC via coaching, supporting, and driving Franchisees to success; which has always been a goal of Greg’s.  He has full intentions of reentering the World Trade Centers as a tenant again as his new headquarters for the Cartridge World and Liberty Tax Service systems he owns.

Member Associations:

2014 to present:          9-11 Museum Docent Volunteer.

2012 to present:          9-11 Memorial Volunteer Service Member

1996 to present:          Member of Board of Directors Independent College Fund.

2006 to 2013:              Member of Board of Directors Caldwell College.

2005 to present:          Chairperson of CW Master Franchise Development Committee.

2011 to present:          Chair/Member of Master Advisory Committee to Cartridge World.

2014 to present:          Member of Cartridge World National Advertising Committee.