Leadership Team

David Binns serves as President/Chief Operating Officer at Macfadden. An experienced organizational leader with more than 20 years providing corporations with strategic direction, Mr. Binns is a member of Macfadden's Board of Directors and was a key advisor during the company's move to employee ownership in 2007. He is responsible for managing Macfadden's day-to-day internal operations and executive authorities.

Prior to joining Macfadden, Mr. Binns served as Associate Director of the Beyster Institute, where he provided strategic advice to numerous U.S. companies on the use of equity compensation plans and managed many of the Institute's international economic development programs. Earlier in his career, he served as Executive Director of The ESOP Association, the national trade association representing the interests of companies with Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and professionals providing advisory services to ESOP companies. In this capacity, he directed the Association's overall programs including government and public relations, publications, conferences and membership services.

Mr. Binns' career includes many years providing expert guidance to numerous domestic and international companies regarding the legal, financial and human resource implications of the structure of employee ownership plans. He has also been an active promoter of using employee ownership to facilitate privatization, defense conversion and economic development in several foreign countries. He has extensive experience implementing international economic development strategies. Mr. Binns serves on the Board of Directors of Pro Finishes PLUS and as a trustee of the Foundation for Enterprise Development.

Ronald W. Torrence has served more than 40 years in the financial arena. His experience includes designing a new system of analyzing and evaluating corporate loans for a large commercial bank, conceiving, developing and implementing the first formal financial planning system for a major railroad company, and helping businesses obtain more than $150 million of venture capital and bank financing. For more than 35 years, Mr. Torrence has mentored hundreds of small to mid-sized businesses in a wide range of industries as a general management, financial and marketing advisor. Reporting directly to the President and CEO, Mr. Torrence currently supports Macfadden in development of marketing strategies, financial plans and management controls, and has worked with the Executive Leadership Team to design new organizational structures to facilitate growth. Mr. Torrence served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army after graduating with distinction from Pennsylvania State University. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Gloria Allen serves as the project manager on a support contract for the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/DCHA), the company's largest contract. In this role Ms. Allen manages the USAID contract while helping to identify opportunities to expand the company's international operations. She has supported Macfadden's diverse customer portfolio for more than 15 years. In addition to serving as project manager on Macfadden's prior contract with USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), she previously served Macfadden on numerous other government contracts, including the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, Health Care Financing Administration, National Council on Disability, Federal Emergency Management Administration, and Internal Revenue Service. Ms. Allen studied Philosophy at the University of Hawaii, Business Education at the University of California at Los Angeles, and English at Santa Monica City College.

Mr. Hishmeh provides executive and operational leadership and oversight across information technology programs supporting Macfadden’s Federal client base, including the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Department of Treasury.  He is responsible for leading and continually strengthening Macfadden’s information technology capabilities in areas such as software engineering, enterprise integration, financial management systems, records management, and IT security compliance.  As part of Macfadden’s executive leadership team Mr. Hishmeh helps oversee expansion and growth initiatives, process improvement, and opportunity development.

With nearly 20 years of professional experience, Mr. Hishmeh possesses a wide-range of business experience that demonstrates extensive information technology, program / project management, business administration, operational management, and international business experience.  Prior to joining Macfadden, he served for a number of years as Director of IT Services, and previously served as Managing Partner of a small-market software development company.  He has past professional experience in environmental sciences and engineering.  Mr. Hishmeh received a B.S. in Bioresources Engineering from the College of Engineering at the University of Maryland.