Leonard Van Hirtum

 

 

 Len’s love of pool, woodworking and entrepreneurial business were the major influences to his opening The Total Gamester - Break and Run Billiards LLC and Van Hirtum Custom Cues - Bob Cat Cues. Len believes that his line of Bob Cat cues will soon grow to be a widely recognized solid playing pool cue which will be available in several different series, by design and price levels.

 

He has been an avid and knowledgeable pool player since his Dad introduced him to the sport at age 8. Additionally, he has been an avid and “pretty good” pool player and wood-worker for many years. Therefore, his interest in pool, pool cues and woodworking influenced his decision, a few years ago, to start up a part-time cue repair service within which he has primarily been doing tips, ferrules, shaft cleaning and occasional re-tapering, etc. and he has made and sold several cues. Len has been making custom made furniture and hand-crafted woodworking for many years; his woodworking includes varied cabinetry, custom kitches, stairways, tables, chairs, jewelry and specialty boxes, wood pool cue cases, and other custom wood products.

 

The combination of Len’s professional general management, business turnaround, financial/accounting, entrepreneurial history along with his genuine love of Pool influenced his decision to start Break and Run Billiards LLC.

Leonard Van Hirtum is a general management, financial, and accounting professional with strong skills in diagnosing business problems, recognizing solutions, and bringing positive change. He has independent, Big 5 accounting, management and technology consulting experience, with Coopers & Lybrand, ROI Systems, Inc., and PeopleSoft, Inc. His consulting includes successful assignments in accounting, Chief Financial Officer, Controller, General Management, sales and strategic planning/management program design and implementation, business valuations, profit improvement and technology consulting/project management within supply chain, manufacturing, ERP, lean manufacturing and finance. Several of his clients have achieved improved profitability of between 20 -100%.

 

He has been the President/CEO/COO of five (5) corporations. His roles as both CEO and COO have been, primarily with entrepreneurial and turn-around types of businesses including a multi-plant printing business and a Internet Retail business with revenue in excess of $20 million.

 

He held senior level positions in financial, general management and management consulting capacities and he as gained considerable accounting and financial experience while holding Chief Financial Officer, Controller and Treasury assignments. He has extensive P & L management experience, strong leadership and motivational skills. Mr. Van Hirtum has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of several businesses. In addition, he has held Chief Financial Officer and Controller positions, both on a corporate and division level, and was the Assistant Corporate Treasurer of a Fortune 500 company. His treasury background includes cash, foreign exchange management, banking activities and relations, short-term investment actions, and international subsidiary management activities. He has considerable international exposure, and has resided in the U.K. and Europe, either as a management consultant, or while serving in his Treasury capacity.

 

Len is an experienced professional who has run medium sized businesses with full profit and loss accountability. He, and the teams he developed, achieved turn-around profit successes in several companie; taking a software/technology company from near insolvency to, approximately, $30 million in revenue and $3 million in profits, and a printing company, which had not achieved a profit in its twelve-year history to a profitable position in one year. His emphasis includes operations management and improvement, accounting, financial and strategic and business planning, financial analysis, sales and production management. Len has a history of aggressive customer and sales growth. (Besides "all of this stuff....Len loves working with his hands, his lathes, wood and producting genuinely good, solid hitting and attractive pool cues). The Total Gamester - Break and Run Billiards' brick and mortar retail store, located at 50 Bridge Street, Nashua, NH 03060 is directly in front of his custom pool cue and cue repair workshop. Customer and view his equipment including cnc, large metal lathes, all of Len's lathes are set up with traditional cue maker's taper bars, wood lathes which Len uses for repairs, new cue sanding, a custom made spray booth, and various tools and woodworking equipment which is used for custom made furniture.