Jim DiRugeris in Franchise Sales: Success Story of a CFE

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Jim DiRugeris is the Senior Vice President of Franchise Sales for the Lightbridge Academy situated in Iselin, New Jersey. Jim has expertise in various facets of franchise development. With a rich background in sales, real estate, construction, and digital marketing, Jim has exemplary records in pre and post-sales processes. He has understood the various challenges associated with the opening of a franchise and hence strives to educate potential business owners on the value of franchise offerings.

Jim responded to his franchise calling through Maaco Franchising, Inc. where he was appointed as the Director of Operations for AMACAR. Further, after spending five years with Maaco Franchising, Inc. Jim served in various roles. For the initial two years, Jim was the construction manager. Thereafter he was the Assistant Director of Real Estate and Construction and Director of Real Estate and Construction. As the Director of Real Estate, Jim managed the sales, developed strategic plans, and managed and evaluated, and developed required teams with much efficiency. In conjunction with the sales, Jim drove consensus between Sales, Operations, Finance, and Development market expansion and asset management strategies.

Maaco Franching Inc or Maaco is an industry leader with strong brand recognition around North America. Maaco falls under the umbrella of Roark Capital Group. Driven Brands™ is the parent company of some of North America’s leading automotive service businesses including Take 5 Oil Change®, Meineke Car Care Centers®, Maaco®, 1-800-Radiator & A/C®, and CARSTAR®. Maaco has set records as America’s number-one auto paint and collision repair provider.

Furthermore, along with a long association with Maaco Franchising Inc., Jim was appointed as the Vice president of Development for the Driven Brands. In the seven long years of association with Driven Brands, Jim was responsible for overseeing the group’s financial budget ensuring business development, building a national team, identifying future industry trends, and defining worldwide growth sales targets.

Post Driven Brands, Jim DiRugeris was appointed as the Vice President of Franchise Development with Goddard Systems, Inc. He was associated with this position for a term of five years where he was heading a seasoned team of twenty-five in franchise development.

Jim moved from Goddard Systems Inc to Celebree School in Lutherville, MD where he was appointed as the Chief Development Officer. He served in this position for about two years.

Janet Miller, the franchise Sales director at Celebree School has appraised Jim by saying, “Jim DiRugeris is an amazing manager and mentor who has unlimited knowledge in franchising. Combining his knowledge of Franchise Sales, Real Estate and Construction, Jim shows strong interpersonal skills and a unique capacity for empathy. He truly cares about the company he works for and those who report directly to him, which translates in his ability to motivate a team to care about its project and be invested in the overall success. Because of his passion and mentoring skills, Jim enabled our department to consistently exceed goals that we thought were impossible.”

Since 2021, Jim is the Senior Vice President of Franchise Sales for the Lightbridge Academy and a Certified Franchise Executive.

Lightbridge Academy provides Child Care and early education. It provides a solid curriculum for children ages six weeks old to Pre-School and offers extended hours, optional meal plans, and summer camp programs. Innovative technology helps parents stay connected to their child throughout the day through their ParentView® Internet monitoring system, allowing parents access to view their child’s classroom at any point in the day via an encrypted, web-based system, and the parent communication app, which tracks a child’s daily achievements and allows teachers to send parent’s daily reports, reminders, photos and even video clips.