Marcia Allen

Ms. Allen is the CEO and founder of Allen & Associates. For the past twenty years she has been devoted to venture capital and corporate finance representing both investors and companies, primarily in the small to mid-cap arena. Her focus has been on building asset value through acquisition and internal growth funded by institutional investment groups. In this capacity, Ms. Allen was a Managing Director of Elite Capital, Inc., a Southern California Venture Capital Firm. She has also served as principal at Allen/Brenner, Inc., an Orange County based money and cash management firm. Ms. Allen was responsible for building its portfolio under management to approximately $1.0 billion at which time she divested the client base to a major Wall Street investment banking firm. During these years Ms. Allen was a founder and served as CFO and Director of The Movie Group, (AMX) the originating company which is today Lionsgate Entertainment (NYSE). She has more than 25 years with mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and CFO and CEO experience. Ms. Allen was a Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Development Officer for W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE) and was part of the founding group of Ruby Tuesday, Inc., (NYSE) a national restaurant chain. She relocated to join Taco Bell, Inc. as the Company's Chief Financial Officer where she structured and facilitated the acquisition of Taco Bell, Inc. by PepsiCo, Inc. Her expertise in the corporate world comes from both the operational sector and investment arena, which gives her unique insight and advantage. Ms. Allen received a Bachelors, Finance and Accounting from Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee in finance and accounting. She has been a speaker for Strategic Research Institute, Inc. magazine, the National Restaurant Association, the California Restaurant Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA). She is active in numerous civic and political organizations and sits on the Board of Directors of several public and private companies and philanthropic organizations. She currently serves as the chairperson of the Audit Committee and as an independent director of Ark Restaurants Corp. (NASDAQ), an owner and operator of 20 restaurants and bars, 21 fast food concepts, and catering operations primarily in New York City; Florida; Washington, DC; and Las Vegas, NV.