CFE’s Steering Committee

Benjamin Calkins

Chair of the Steering Program/Planning Committee

Ben Calkins is the founder of the Center for Free Enterprise as well as a seasoned business attorney who has assisted a wide array of both publicly held and privately held business clients in connection with countless business transactions, including but not limited to acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, debt and equity financing, and other matters including general business counseling and planning and real estate matters, for over 30 years.

Joshua C. Feldman

CPA | Forensic Accounting

Joshua C. Feldman, CPA, is dedicated to providing first class accounting and financial service to his clients in the areas of business valuation, financial administration, forensic accounting and financial analysis.

Mr. Feldman graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Economics concentrating in finance and political science. His experience includes 14 years of experience within the property/casualty insurance industry and served in the roles of VP Finance and CFO. He has extensive knowledge of statutory accounting, reinsurance, and loss reserve analysis.

His industry background also includes public accounting, consulting and the service industry. His clients have included law firms, manufacturers, real estate companies, and construction contractors. He has served those companies with business valuation, fraud examination, litigation support, tax preparation and planning and attestation services.

Mr. Feldman’s practice is focused on serving smaller businesses. He is licensed to practice accounting in Ohio and New Jersey.

Carrie Malotte

VP Commercial Lender | Westfield Bank

Carrie Malotte has a passion for small business, and she hates the stuffy banker label. As a commercial banker with over 20 years’ experience, she has been able to secure financial solutions and provide sound advice for her clients through a thoughtful, highly service-oriented approach. And we get to have some fun sometimes too.

Carrie knows that trust, honesty, loyalty, and compassion are part of community banking, and she approaches all business and personal interactions using those values. Being a part of a team at Westfield allows her to pledge valuable service and a comprehensive product line to all her clients. Carrie has been a part of the Westfield Commercial Banking team for over seven years. In addition to her traditional lending role, she currently serves as the banks SBA resource and assists the commercial team on sourcing and closing SBA loans, serves on the Inclusivity Counsel and is Lead of the Women’s Network ERG. Carrie lives in Stow and has two daughters, Keeley and Sienna. She is a 17+ year Rotarian and serves on several Boards.

Thomas Roulston

TrustNavigator

Tom’s drive for founding and transforming companies into alternative thinking and technology leaders has been his unwavering passion.

Here are a few highlights. For 20 years Mr. Roulston was in the Investment Research and Wealth Management industry. Trained at Merril Lynch he then spent 15 years working at Roulston & Company in sales, management and equity research. Starting Thomas Roulston Investment Partners’ investment manager platforms were celebrated for their unique research screening of independent managers. ManagerLink, a sister company started in 1997, used the platform for its notable reporting and managing of assets before its acquisition by Advent in 2001. A few years later Roulston Research provided an alternative research network partnering with over hundreds of industry experienced consultants to support institutional investors in their research due diligence. Hosting over 100 annual proprietary roundtables around the country to discuss industry trends and future forecasting provided institutional investors with access to former Fortune 55 executives and thought leaders in an extensive network to gain insight for better investment decisions.

In 2014, Tom transitioned to working in the not-for-profit and consulting space specifically to address students and career advisory through proprietary training, virtual internships and executive mentoring. Working with both applicants and businesses, innovative platforms connected career paths to companies seeking to hire and retain better prepared candidates for employment. Consulting in sales, employee training and retention has resulted in proprietary dashboard services and consulting at Dashboard Adherence LLC. Dashboard was a uniquely structured visual dashboard platform tailored to individual businesses to monitor, measure and key performance indicators (KPI’s) of profitability and growth to successful outcomes.

Today The TrustNavigator Alliance has leveraged the sales and management experience of Tom’s career to maximize business and sales growth to a distinctive group of high performing B2B service providers. The Alliance is by invitation only for distinguished non-competing professionals in their industry.

Tom is active in the Cleveland community having served on the boards of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Recovery Resources, The Cleveland Lumberjacks Hockey Team and multiple private companies and organizations. He is an avid hunter, skier and cyclist and still enjoys playing baseball. Oh, and he loves playing fetch with Brandy, too.

Windom Ratchford

Proprietor & Creative Director | Creative Gold Media

I am a video production professional who enjoys the challenge of taking great ideas from the mind and turning them into amazing videos that entertain and inform! I began working in video and media production in 2004. I have worked in corporate, government, and small business capacities over my career. I have enjoyed the pleasure of serving first class organizations including Swagelok Company and The National Park Service. As a small business owner I have had the opportunity to service industry leaders such as Vitamix and Tooling University SME.

Jon Dittrich

CPA, MBA | Cohen & Co

Jon is first and foremost an active listener, which helps him develop genuine relationships with clients and colleagues and a better understanding of their needs. His ability to learn about and dig deep into clients’ businesses also helps him provide high quality services across varied industries.

Beginning his career in public accounting in 2007, Jon primarily works with private companies on tax compliance and planning strategies, including partnership capital account maintenance, federal and state R&D tax credits, capital cost recovery and accounting methods. He also has deep experience with ASC 740 review and preparation. Jon’s background has included working with clients in a variety of industries, including private equity, professional services, aerospace, agriculture, automotive, medical, consumer products, beverage processing, steel distribution and manufacturing, industrial products, software, transportation, utility and technology.

• Milestones Autism Resources (Board of Directors)
• Ohio Society of CPAs
• American Institute of CPAs

A life-long Cleveland area resident, Jon currently lives in Newbury, Ohio, with his wife and four sons. He enjoys running, camping and fishing, especially when he can do any of those activities with his family.