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CHICAGO, IL, Aug. 11 — Competitive Sales training giant Holden International has often looked afield for leaders who bring unique insights on competitive strategy. This time, it looked to the battlefield-with the appointment of former Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel David Gurfein (Ret.) as Senior Vice President and management team member.

Col. Gurfein certainly comes prepared for even the most competitive of selling situations, with a resume that ranges from earning a Harvard MBA and working at Goldman Sachs to helping drive a Latin American dictator from power and strategically planning parts of the Global War On Terror, to serving as a CEO in private industry. Holden International President Ryan Kubacki celebrated the hire as a coup for Holden's clients around the world.

"To succeed in today's hypercompetitive market, enterprise sellers must engage and defeat their competition and who better to instruct them than Col. Gurfein, who has competed on a scale few will ever experience.

"David's mixture of competitive strategy expertise, business acumen, and sales leadership, make him uniquely qualified to provide advanced competitive deal coaching to highly developed enterprise sales teams working on large, competitive deals, all in a way that shows compete sales strategy is a management science that can be understood and replicated across large organizations. I will also add, that I met David as classmates at Harvard Business School where he was elected President of our class, and we've been friends ever since, so to work with him is exciting for me."

In his new role, Col. Gurfein is charged with adding yet another source of field-proven insights to Holden International's competition-based methodology, Power Base® Compete selling. His extensive contacts, which span both the United States military and the business world, are also seen as an asset to Holden International's aggressive growth plans for its industry-pioneering competitive sales training and consulting services.

Col. Gurfein, known to his comrades as "Bull", began his military career as an enlisted man driving tanks. After graduating from Syracuse University, he received his commission to be a Marine Corps Infantry Officer. Col. Gurfein has planned operations and led people in a number of extremely complex and challenging environments in support of U.S. interests around the world—including the removal of Panamanian military dictator Manuel Noriega and the liberation of Kuwait during the first Gulf War.

He left active duty to pursue his MBA at the Harvard School of Business, where he was elected Co-President of his class before beginning his business career with Goldman, Sachs & Co. In response to the events of September 11^th, Col. Gurfein abandoned his business interests and returned to active duty, where he promptly put all his skills to use as one of the Commanding Generals' Future Operations Planners in Afghanistan. His exceptional performance in this role earned him the honor of leading a Special Operations Task Force responsible for facilitating the initial "Shock and Awe" campaign into Iraq.

Prior to his military retirement, Col. Gurfein was chosen to serve as the first Marine to represent the Special Operations Command on Capitol Hill. In that capacity, he regularly met with Senators, Congressmen, and Key Congressional Staffers to secure critical political and financial support for various global military efforts.

Recently, Col. Gurfein has held a number of positions of increasing importance in the business world, taking responsibility for both P&L and sales growth across a number of industries. His unique mix of military experience, business insight, and leadership aptitude have positioned him well to succeed various distinct positions, including Vice President of Casino Marketing for The Venetian and The Palazzo resorts in Las Vegas, National Sales Manager for MV Sport/Weatherproof, and CEO of a defense technology company competing for multi-hundred million dollar contracts to supply protective body armor.

Col. Gurfein holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in speech communication and political science from Syracuse University. He and his family reside in the greater Chicago area.

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About Holden International
Recognized as the pioneer of the sales methodology industry with the introduction of Power Base® Selling in 1979, Holden invented the category of "Compete Sales Strategy" and is uniquely able to provide insight into competitive deals with a coachable and sustainable approach that makes how you sell - rather than what you sell - a nontraditional competitive advantage. Holden has continued to innovate and today offers B2B organizations and sellers its new Power Base® Compete Strategy model that makes compete selling a management science that can be understood and replicated via an integrated platform of "competitive must win deal" coaching, advanced compete sales training, sales manager coaching, and software and e-learning reinforcement. Holden's approach helps clients defeat competitors to "take market share" in a way that not only improves customer loyalty but also drives higher revenue growth, increased profit margins, and shorter sales cycles. To learn how you can outsell your competition, go to www.holdenintl.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Jenae Meader
Holden International
P: 312.476.8796