Contributor Profiles
Richard H. Bell, II (Rick)
Rick started Harvard Business Services, Inc. in 1981 in Wilmington, Delaware in order to offer an easy and inexpensive way for individuals to go into business for themselves and fulfill their dreams. Today, the company employs over 30 people and has helped form more than 150,000 companies. Rick grew up in publishing as the son of the president of Highlights for Children magazine. After attending college in Switzerland, Italy and Ohio, Rick worked for Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco in its infancy. In 1980, he moved from California to Delaware to work for The Company Corporation, where he helped revolutionize the company formation business. Since 1981, Rick has been building Harvard Business Services, Inc. into one of the largest companies of its kind, with clients from around the world and all across the United States.
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Michael Bell
Michael has been working at Harvard Business Services, Inc. in a variety of roles, since he was a young child; he is the son of Harvard’s Chairman and CEO, Rick Bell. Michael was born and raised in Delaware yet traveled extensively while attending high school in Switzerland. He then went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Lynn University. He returned home and started to work full-time at Harvard in the summer of 2009. Mike has worked in each department in order to learn all the processes and details of Harvard Business Services, Inc. In addition, Mike has produced and directed Harvard's promotional vidoes. These videos are used as a valuable tool for our marketing efforts; they feature our employees and can be viewed on both our website and YouTube. Mike Bell possesses both the commitment and the passion to continue running his family business well into the future.
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Carleigh Lowe
Carleigh is the Managing Editor of The HBS Blog. Most recently, she worked at Dwell Magazine and Chronicle Books. While working in traditional publishing, she realized she wanted to be a part of the blogosphere, the next frontier of publishing. By sharing ideas and information on The HBS Blog, she hopes to empower people to follow their bliss. Carleigh admits she often daydreams about businesses she wants to start, but needs a little more encouragement to take the plunge. She hopes that by running this blog her entrepreneurial dreams will manifest into a reality.
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Christina Cornelius
Christina is a writer, editor, entrepreneur and educator who currently lives with her husband and child in Vermont. She was born in California, the oldest of four children, to a naturally creative, psychologist-turned-work-at-home mother and a dynamic, ambitious entrepreneur father. Christina always knew she wanted to be a writer. She crafted her first piece at only three years-old, a song entitled, "I Can’t Believe We Are Moving from California," the Ukulele version of which she took on tour…all the way across the country. Needless to say, she grew up on the East Coast and then headed south to Emory University in Atlanta, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Art degree in English. She has worked as an editor and freelance writer for CNN and the High Museum of Art, and she spent four years as a curator for an Atlanta-based art consulting firm. In 2002, Christina formed her own company, The Writing Studio, LLC, through Harvard Business Services, Inc., and in 2009, she started to think out loud in the blogosphere.
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Andrew Millman
Andrew was born and raised in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and attended Cape Henlopen High School. He then went on to graduate With Honors from York Technical Institute in 2001, with a degree in Specialized Business/Computer Science. Andrew possesses a broad spectrum of experience, ranging from sales to business management to business ownership.
He has extensive experience in both sales and customer service. Since he has owned and operated his own Delaware LLC, Andrew is well aware that the most important person in every business is the customer. He prides himself on going above and beyond for each client. Andrew started at Harvard in the spring of 2012. He is an excellent addition to the Sales/Customer Service team because he takes great pride in helping new clients form their company through Harvard Business Services, Inc.
Amy Fountain
Amy earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Delaware in 1996, and then worked at a local accounting firm for two years. She has been a member of the Harvard Business Services, Inc. team since April 1998. She began her career at Harvard Business Services, Inc. as a Franchise Tax Specialist. She used her meticulous accounting skills to ensure on-time and accurate Franchise Tax report filings for Harvard's clientele.
In 2001, her role at Harvard Business Services, Inc. grew to include the position of Office Manager, and she began managing and training a staff of more than 20 team members. Amy's capabilities and performance led to her next appointment, in 2006, as Director of Business Filings. She orchestrated a broad array of processes, including the formation and maintenance of Delaware companies for both domestic and international clients.
In 2009, she was promoted to Director of the Franchise Tax Department and assumed her initial responsibilities at Harvard Business Services, Inc. She currently assists tens of thousands of clients worldwide with the filing of annual Delaware Franchise Tax reports for both corporations and LLCs. Her 14 years of experience helped to create our user-friendly online Franchise Tax payment system, which can be found at www.delawareinc.com/payft.
Brett Melson
Brett is a graduate of Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes, Delaware. Brett's career at Harvard Business Services, Inc. began where many of our success stories through the years originated: the mail room. Brett excelled at managing and organizing what was a mail-intensive business at the time. More importantly, however, Brett connected with clients and became the person most recommended by clients to their friends.
Once Brett had the opportunity to start interacting with clients, it was clear he possessed a natural feel for the issues and concerns clients face. Brett assisted both new customers and seasoned clients with the formation process in an effortless and informative manner. In the 15+ years he has been with Harvard Business Services, Inc., Brett's knowledge of Delaware business entities has become encyclopedic. In addition to managing and training the company's sales and customer service teams, his blogs on the nuances of forming and maintaining Delaware companies have become a dependable source of important information for entrepreneurs, accountants and attorneys.
Devin Scott
Devin was born in Lewes, Delaware and attended Cape Henlopen High School. He graduated with several scholarships, and then attended Delaware State University, majoring in Business Administration. He graduated cum laude in 2001. In 1999, Devin started a cell phone business while in college and has been invovled with businesses ever since. He has promoted all types of products, from telecommunications and gift baskets to nutritional products. In fact, Devin's first introduction to Harvard Business Services, Inc. occurred while forming his own corporation for real estate purposes in 2007. He has a natural rapport with people interested in forming their own company.
Devin's grandfather, George H.P. Smith, was mayor of Lewes for five terms and, before that, a member of the Lewes City Council for 18 years. Mr. Smith is often credited as one of the people whose lifelong contributions to city government made Lewes the wonderful place that it is.
Jarrod Melson
Jarrod is the General Counsel of Harvard Business Services, recently having moved back to Lewes, Delaware after nearly twenty years in Washington, DC. As a Lewes native, he is extremely excited for the opportunity to return home and work for a company he has known and respected for his entire life.
Jarrod studied at the University of Delaware before moving to Washington, DC to attend law school at American University’s Washington College of Law, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in the top 1% of his class. For the first eight years of his practice, he worked in global “K Street” law firms counseling investment advisers and broker-dealers on federal and state regulation and structuring hedge, venture capital, and private equity funds, as well as assisting early-stage businesses in the myriad legal, regulatory and practical issues they face.
He then moved to a regional firm just outside of the District to serve as lead associate in the investment adviser and private funds practice. One private fund manager client summarized his work with Jarrod by calling him “a true partner” whose “legal expertise and counsel is second to none,” noting, however, that Jarrod’s value-add goes beyond legal counsel to include strategic and business insight.
Michael Kupfer
Michael grew up in Huntington, NY and graduated from Baruch College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY). He got started in event marketing shortly after graduating and spent five years working with a boutique marketing agency, before moving to Portsmouth, NH in 2012. After six years of hiking New Hampshire’s mountains with his wife and working as an in-house marketing manager at a market research firm, Michael moved to Lewes, DE and joined the Harvard team.
As Director of Marketing, Michael aims to make Harvard Business Services, Inc. the first choice for anyone seeking to form a Delaware company or find a Delaware Registered Agent by increasing brand awareness, making the company’s website more visible and informative, and looking for new ways to serve clients’ needs.