{"id":2268,"date":"2010-01-25T11:06:01","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T18:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=2268"},"modified":"2010-01-25T11:07:29","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T18:07:29","slug":"a-%e2%80%9cmaverick%e2%80%9d-businessman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=2268","title":{"rendered":"A \u201cMaverick\u201d Businessman"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"wert\"
John Wert \u201993<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After graduating from TCNJ in 1993, John Wert<\/strong> went to work for one of the leading financial print-services companies. He steadily worked his way up from a customer service representative (even working the swing shift at times so that he could take graduate classes) all the way to sales executive. But when the \u201cDot Com\u201d bubble burst, John and many of his co-workers found themselves out of work.<\/p>\n

So John went to work looking for a new job, but despite nearly a decade\u2019s worth of experience in the financial print industry, he was having no luck. Then while waiting in the unemployment line one day, he had an \u201cA-ha!\u201d moment.<\/p>\n

Financial print companies are responsible for the conversion, typesetting, distribution, Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s EDGAR filings, and the eventual printing and dissemination of all public corporation registration statements (i.e., mergers, tender offers, IPOs, compliance, etc). During his time working in the industry, John explained, he had acquired a good deal of experience\u2014but he also witnessed the industry\u2019s immoral business practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancial printers were taking incredible advantage of their clients\u2019 lack of involvement in the process, and purposely [inflating] their invoices by millions of dollars,\u201d John explained.<\/p>\n

Recalling the advice of two of his TCNJ professors\u2014Thomas Breslin <\/strong>and Daniel Hall<\/strong>, who had encouraged their student to one day start his own business and never be afraid of failure\u2014John set out to start a company that would help its clients clarify, understand, and reduce their financial print expenditures. After a great deal of deliberation, he cashed in his full 401K, liquidated all of his stocks and other investments, and launched The Maverick Group Financial Print Consultants, LLC. The firm provides financial print invoice auditing and procurement strategies for public corporations and corporate law firms, investment banks, and accounting firms.<\/p>\n

John explains: \u201cI got an office in NYC and started walking the streets, flying around the US, and knocking on doors telling my story to all who would listen. I did it all myself, from building my Web site, to designing and editing my own marketing materials, to buying books on effective cold-calling skills. I was passionate about letting these large corporations know that, for decades, they had been taken for a long and expensive ride at the expense of their shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

His dedication has led to a busy work life for John. \u201cMy day is crazy,\u201d notes John, \u201cIt starts around 5:30 a.m. and ends around 9 p.m. There are lots of phone work, sales calls, audits, and paper work. It\u2019s not a typical 9-to-5 job, but I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though he is busy running his company, John says, \u201cThe ability to help animals is what I am most proud of.\u201d He has loved animals and donated to animal organizations ever since childhood, so he is grateful for the financial and time resources his job provides in order to donate in larger ways.<\/p>\n

John has been heavily engaged for years with the Linda Blair World Heart Foundation, founded by Linda Blair, who starred in The Exorcist<\/em>. The foundation rescues primarily pit bulls that are close to being euthanized or have been left behind due to natural disasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cLinda and I are close friends and share a deep love and respect for animals of all sizes shapes and species,\u201d notes John. He often travels with her around the world to advocate for animal rescue through symposiums and autograph shows.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for John? \u201cCurrently under negotiations is the potential sale of Maverick to a large public company.\u2026 I will [even] hold an executive position within the acquiring company.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will also continue to dedicate his free time to rescuing animals and adding on to his \u201cfamily\u201d of seven animals at home.<\/p>\n

\"wert
John Wert with Linda Blair. John has been heavily engaged for years with the Linda Blair World Heart Foundation, which rescues primarily pit bulls that are close to being euthanized or have been left behind due to natural disasters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the hectic schedule he keeps as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Maverick Group, a financial print consulting company, John Wert \u201993 says he is most proud of his work rescue abused animals with the Linda Blair World Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner","category-february-2010"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}