Mr. Brooks brings over 20 years of sales, marketing, legal and entrepreneurial experience to R&M Goup. Mr. Brooks is the Chief Executive Officer of International Purchase Systems, Inc. ("IPS"), a leading national wholesale distributor of excess and closeout merchandise. Since founding IPS in 1994, IPS has procured and sold in excess of one billion dollars of brand name, retail value merchandise. IPS continues to purchase merchandise from many Fortune 1000 companies including Duracell, Energizer, Skil, Black & Decker, Sunbeam, Coleman, Rawlings, Rival, American Standard, Holmes, Delta Faucet, Peerless Faucet, Price Pfister, Kwikset, Helen Of Troy, Encore Inc., Topics Entertainment Corp., Bosch, Aero Products, Aqua Chem, Procter & Gamble, Lionsgate Entertainment and Haier America.
Mr. Brooks has appeared on CNN and Bloomberg News and has been featured in articles on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, The Sunday New York Times, The Journal News, Westchester Business Journal, Crain's New York and Entrepreneur's Business Start-Ups. Prior to founding IPS, Mr. Brooks was an associate at the law firm of Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker where he specialized in defense litigation. Mr. Brooks received a Bachelor of Accountancy from The George Washington University and received a Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law graduating with honors.
Mr. Clarke brings over 30 years of sales and marketing experience to R&M Group. He is Executive Vice President of IPS and has successfully facilitated the sourcing, marketing, sales and management of all major merchandise categories including Hardware, Housewares, Electronics, Toys, Sporting Goods, Apparel, Health & Beauty Aids etc. Prior to joining IPS, Mr. Clarke served as Director of Purchasing and Merchandising for the Pro Hardware Group, a 43 member wholesale distributor group. As Director of Merchandising, Mr. Clarke was directly responsible for overseeing programs exceeding $1 billion in revenue. Since 1994, Mr. Clarke has transacted hundreds of millions of dollars of business and has represented many Fortune 1000 companies including, Black & Decker, Skil, Sunbeam and G.E. Currently Mr. Clarke's customer base includes many of the nations largest retailers including, Home Depot, Walmart, Kmart, Lowes, Pathmark and True Value. Mr. Clarke received his Bachelor's of Science degree in Marketing from Nichols College.
Mr. Halpern brings over 15 years of product acquisition and sales experience to IPS. He has worked extensively in the closeout/cutout entertainment business. During his career, he has negotiated the purchase and sale of CD’s, VHS, DVD, CD ROM and Audio Books into alternative distribution channels with retail values exceeding $200 million. Mr. Halpern has worked with many of the major studios and publishers such as Warner Brothers, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount, Sony, Time Warner Books, Artisan Entertainment and Media Bay Publishing. Prior to joining IPS, Mr. Halpern was an Executive Vice President at Surplus Record and Tape, which at the time, was the largest secondary market distributor of audio closeouts in the United States. Mr. Halpern graduated from Syracuse University with a BS in Finance and Marketing.