Our Team

Tom Johnson – Chairman
Tom has pursued a highly successful career in multi-site funeral home and cemetery management, as well as acquisition and divestiture activity in the death care industry. After beginning his career in banking and then serving in several key positions with Batesville Casket Company, he became President and CEO of Pierce Brothers Mortuaries & Cemeteries in Los Angeles. There, he grew the company from 17 locations to a total of 64 funeral homes and 14 cemeteries, making it, at the time, the largest regional independent funeral and cemetery operation in the United States. When Pierce was sold to SCI, he left the company and founded Prime Succession, which grew from no operations to 146 funeral homes and 17 cemetery locations in only three years, becoming the largest national independent operation in the country. After Prime Succession, Mr. Johnson started Johnson Consulting Group, which has become the premier consulting company in the death care industry focusing on mergers& acquisitions, business valuations and appraisals, accounting services, management services and training, and businesses financing. Mr. Johnson’s expertise in funeral home and cemetery management, combined with his strong background in banking and finance, gives him a unique understanding of operational and financial matters relating to the death care profession.

Jake Johnson – President
Jake obtained his education at Xavier University in Cincinnati where he majored in Management with an emphasis in Finance and Accounting. Starting his career as an Associate Director of Corporate Development at Keystone Group Holdings, Inc., he improved business systems and led programs that aided the company in acquisitions, budget analysis, and business value determination. Jake then went on to work for Palm Mortuaries and Cemeteries in Las Vegas, Nevada where he managed one of their large volume funeral homes. He also served as Vice President of Cemetery Operations at Palm where he managed all cemetery locations and designed a company-wide customer service database. Mr. Johnson’s keen sense of systems analysis has proven invaluable to clients of Johnson Consulting Group.

Dave Hirt
Dave Hirt spent 33 years with Batesville Casket Company serving in various positions in sales and marketing departments and was President/CEO for his last 13 years before retirement. He was instrumental in achieving double digit revenue and earnings growth annually resulting in market leadership in both market share and customer satisfaction. He led the corporate development effort with several major acquisitions. His capabilities are well known for his understanding of sound fiscal policy, development of aggressive strategic and marketing initiatives and thorough financial planning. Dave graduated from Ball State University with Marketing degree and although retired from Batesville Casket Company, Dave is making his experience and business expertise available to clients of the Johnson Consulting Group.

Bill Cutter
Bill graduated from Ball State University in 1976. He spent eleven years in various sales management positions with Batesville Casket Company and then spent several years as Vice President of Corporate development with Service Corporation International. This experience helped grow his expertise in all aspects of the death care industry, and ultimately teamed him with Tom Johnson as Vice President of Corporate Development at Pierce Brothers Mortuaries and Cemeteries and Prime Succession Inc. before going on to serve as Director of Corporate Development at Equity Corporation International. Bill has over 32 years of funeral service experience and has been instrumental in the successful acquisition and divestiture of hundreds of funeral homes and cemeteries.

Al Asta
Al graduating from Cypress College of Mortuary Science in January of 1982. A Summa Cum Laude graduate, he was also Valedictorian of his class. He began his career with Whitney & Murphy Funeral Home, a large volume funeral home in Phoenix, AZ. In 1984 Al was involved in a Forethought Life Insurance pilot program as a sales agent. In this role he developed sales materials, phone scripts, training materials and product development. After approximately one year in working on that project, Al was named Manager of Whitney & Murphy. After a successful tenure at the funeral home, Al was promoted to General Manager of Prime Succession Inc’s Phoenix, Arizona operations, which soon grew to include the company’s operations in Texas, Iowa, Nebraska and Arkansas. In 2000, Al was promoted to Regional Vice-President, with diverse and varied corporate responsibilities. Al’s experience leading businesses through rapid growth and transition as well as difficult financial times will allow him to relate to our client’s challenges, regardless of their nature. Even during the toughest financial periods, Al’s region maintained morale, quality of service and profitability. Al’s experience managing multiple locations and supervising location managers, along with his practical experience as a licensed funeral director make him a very productive operational consultant to both large and small volume single and multiple location firms.

Mike Bischoff
Mike joined JCG after a successful 10 year career with Aurora Casket Company. During his tenure with Aurora, he earned the highest achievements as a sales representative. His skills in business planning and revenue enhancing programs were well accepted and assisted in significantly growing his customers’ revenues. His knowledge of Pre-Need sales and marketing programs resulted in high Pre-Need to At-Need sales ratios with his customers. Mike served as Director of Special Markets where he developed and coordinated the sales and marketing activities for the Company’s high growth markets. Since joining JCG, Mike has coordinated and directed all of the Company’s Merger and Acquisition transactions. He is considered an expert in his field. He holds a B.S.B.A. degree from Xavier University’s College of Business Administration in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a M.B.A. from the Thomas More College of Business in northern Kentucky.

Berny Gaarsoe
Berny brings extensive experience to Johnson Consulting’s financial services. He graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelors Degree in Accounting. Having served as chief financial officer for several large corporate companies, his areas of expertise are Corporate Finance, Accounting Systems – Implementation and Financial Statement Preparation, Tax Planning, Risk Management, Human Resource Responsibilities, and Governmental Regulation Compliance. Berny also has extensive death care industry experience having created the financial management systems for two large funeral home and cemetery companies, including Prime Succession where he was responsible for finance, accounting, budgeting, reporting, auditing, human resource and risk management functions. Under Mr. Gaarsoe’s direction, Johnson Consulting has created a web based bookkeeping system, employing proprietary death care industry software that will allow independent funeral homes to control cash flow, create accounting reports, and maintain budgets.

Bob Horn
Bob Horn began his career in the funeral industry more than 44 years ago with a small family-owned mortuary. During the mid-1960s, he was involved in organizing International Funeral Service (IFS), and served as Vice President of the pioneer “multi-unit” funeral cemetery company that operated over 120 locations nationwide. Prior to co-founding Keystone Group Holdings, a multi-state funeral acquisition and operating firm, Bob was Chief Operating Officer and Partner of Prime Succession, Inc., following 10 years as Executive Vice President of Pierce Brothers. A strong proponent of the team concept, Bob believes his role is to provide the goals and the momentum that keep the company working together and moving forward. Bob provides the leadership, the strategic thinking, and the clear vision that fosters this environment of success and growth.

Greg Hilgendorf
Has a record of proven success in business growth and development in the death care profession. As the owner of a successful multi-location funeral home business, his firms dominated market share and were renowned for their unparalleled customer service. In 1992, his business was the first acquisition by Tom Johnson and Prime Succession. Following progressive advancement within Prime Succession, Mr. Hilgendorf became Senior Vice President of Operations and Officer of the then fifth largest funeral home and cemetery company in the country, operating 150 funeral homes and cemeteries in 19 states. After Prime Succession, he joined The Alderwoods Group where, in his first eighteen months, he led his market to an 18% increase in operating margin and as Regional General Manager was responsible for the operating performance of 33 funeral home and cemetery locations in three states. From practicing funeral director to funeral home owner to corporate executive, Mr. Hilgendorf’s ability to deliver exceptional customer service and maximum business performance is a valuable asset to the clients of Johnson Consulting Group.

Rich Sells
Rich has spent thirty extremely productive years in the funeral and cemetery industry where he held several senior level executive positions. He is well known and respected for his many accomplishments during those years. Twenty seven of those years were with Service Corporation International (SCI), the world’s largest owner and operator of funeral homes, cemeteries and crematories. There he held senior level executive positions in operations and is renowned for his accomplishments in the Pre-Need sales arena. As part of his responsibilities, Rich devised and led the construction of the traveling replica of the Vietnam Wall Memorial. He also headed up several other initiatives to honor and care for the Homeless Veterans. In addition to his many accomplishments while at SCI, he also served as President of the International Cemetery and Funeral Association (ICCFA), a 6,000 member trade association. Rich earned a BSBA degree from Washington University in St. Louis and is a CPA. He is considered an expert in all facets of funeral home and cemetery operations.

Kelly Herdt
After spending four years in the Unites States Marine Corps, Kelly Herdt graduated in 1993 from the Kansas City Kansas School of Mortuary Arts. He began his career as a trade embalmer serving the greater Kansas City area for four years. After learning the trade industry, he then when on to work for several funeral homes and later owning two funeral homes and a crematory in Western Kansas. As Kelly’s funeral experiences increased, he was given the opportunity to start a lending program for a large national insurance company. In this role, Kelly developed and managed the funeral lending program to become one of the largest direct funeral business lenders in the industry with more than 100 million dollars originated in funeral home and cemetery loans. Mr. Herdt’s strong background in funeral operations, banking and finance gives him a great understanding of how to help funeral business borrowers achieve success in the financing arena. Kelly Herdt is a Kansas State, licensed Funeral Director and Embalmer.

Alan Creedy
Alan Creedy has a degree in Psychology and is a Certified Public Accountant who began his career as a “trouble-shooter” for a diversified holding company with interests in banking, equipment leasing, light manufacturing, insurance, business-to-business and business-to-government enterprises. He learned to quickly analyze core problems, develop and prioritize solutions and implement strategies for quick turnaround. He began his career in DeathCare thirty years ago as President of the financially distressed OGR Service Corporation, the for-profit arm of The Order of The Golden Rule. After five years and the successful rebirth of the company he became President of Brown-Wynne Funeral homes and cemeteries. There he built upon the already successful legacy of a highly respected company; ultimately orchestrating the sale of the company for the highest multiple paid at that time. During this period he and Mr. Wynne acquired J.J. Fallon Company, the 28th largest retail florist in the FTD network. He reoriented the company strategy and created new growth and value, and, at the same time, he developed an innovative method of controlling cost-of-goods sold that enabled the company to significantly increase profitability. After the sale of Brown-Wynne, Mr. Creedy became president of Trust 100, a company he helped found in 1985. As president he built the company to one of the largest Pre-Need marketing companies in the nation. He is a frequent contributor to industry trade journals and convention speaker and a Director of the Funeral Service Foundation. His Islands of Excellence© Leadership Development Programs have helped independent funeral professionals all over the country make positive and profitable change to their business.

Tom Davey
Tom obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio and has extensive experience in accounting and financial responsibilities, along with hiring and training personnel in the hotel and service industry. For Johnson Consulting, Tom conducts financial analysis of funeral homes and cemeteries and prepares and reconciles financial statements for the existing accounting clients. He brings over ten years experience in corporate accounting. Prior to Johnson Consulting, Tom worked as Senior Internal Auditor at Columbia Sussex Corporation. Tom also worked as Project Accountant for Cavan Management Service in Scottsdale, AZ.

Brooks Cowles
Brooks is recognized in the death care industry as an authority in acquisitions and divestitures with over 20 years of experience representing funeral home and cemetery owners in their succession planning. Mr. Cowles is a graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Law and began his career as a practicing attorney. From 1987 through 1990 he was the Director of Corporate Development for Arlington Corporation, a funeral home and cemetery acquisition company, and then served as Eastern Regional Vice President of Thomas-Pierce & Company until 2002, when he formed his own firm. Brooks has worked with over 250 family-owned funeral homes and cemeteries, developing succession plans and representing them in the acquisition or sale of their businesses. Since joining Johnson Consulting Group, Brooks operates from our office in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dale Espich
Dale Espich began his funeral service career as a field rep for Batesville (top 15%) in Washington/Baltimore and Michigan 1965-1977. He co-founded Professional Funeral Management and was President/CEO (1977 -1981). From 1981 to present he has consulted with over 500 funeral service companies of all sizes. A graduate of DePauw University with a double major in Economics and Psychology, he has presented countless workshops on communication and profitable pricing to funeral director groups throughout the USA. Dale has worked with funeral business’s ranging from 40 to 5,000 calls annually in virtually all areas of Management, including Financial Analysis, Cost Analysis, Business Evaluations, Profit and Pricing Planning, Accounts Receivable Control, Arranger Training and Motivation, and Casket Merchandising. His precise evaluations have been invaluable to funeral home owners during his successful negotiation of over $200 million for sales and transfers to public companies, employees, competitors and family members. He has also published countless articles on business valuations, management analysis, and casket merchandising. Dale has been happily associated with his friends at Johnson Consulting Group since 2004.

Todd Van Beck
Todd W. Van Beck is one of the funeral profession’s most prolific authors and presenters. From simple staff development at the smallest funeral home to clergy seminars to keynote addresses at the largest of gatherings, Mr. Van Beck tailors each presentation to suit any occasion. Todd W. Van Beck has written over 200 articles and 65 books and manuals covering every possible topic of interest to funeral directors, cemeterians and clergy. His extensive training and experience spans over 35 years at every level of the funeral and cemetery profession and the church. Mr. Van Beck has studied the theory of quality control under Dr. W. Edwards Deming and has applied those principals to the funeral and cemetery profession. Todd’s extensive experience in the funeral profession allows for training modules in every facet of the business.

Bob Pierce
Bob is an experienced executive of the funeral industry previously holding the position of Marketing Vice President for FMAC Funeral Finance Group where he arranged loans and financing packages for funeral homes throughout America. After obtaining a Bachelor degree in Science from California State University in Long Beach, he developed his expertise while working with his family’s prestigiously known funeral home and cemetery company, Pierce Brothers Mortuaries and Cemeteries in the greater Los Angeles area. As Johnson Consulting Group expands their scope in all aspects of the funeral business, Bob will further elevate the level of service with the well rounded experience that he brings.

Frank Puccio
Frank’s education and work experience has focused on business and finance. Through his finance background in banking, Frank brings a background that serves our clients well, with a full-time focus on project management of valuation and marketing packages, as well as accounting and special projects.

Brenda Halligan
Brenda’s background is in business administration and general ledger accounting having graduated from Kaplan University in Des Moines, Iowa with a Bachelor of Science in Management. Her ability to learn quickly and organize new projects makes her invaluable to Johnson Consulting. Her role includes accounting for Johnson Consulting’s ever-growing client list, office management, customer survey and contract analysis support, and special projects.

Katie Johnson
Katie’s experience comes from professional office administration and paralegal work. With our growing management services, her functions include customer survey and sales contract analysis support as well as special projects and office management.