Legacy Sugarloaf Owners
Tammie & Tim Paulus and Mark Gifford - Owners
Tammie Paulus
Tammie grew up on a dairy farm in Iowa. She left her farm life for the big city during her final year of education when she spent one semester as an unpaid teaching assistant in the San Antonio, Texas school district. Now a certified teacher, she first began her career at a childcare center and then as a long-term substitute teacher in Austin, Texas. She moved to Atlanta in 1996 and worked at a childcare center as a pre-kindergarten teacher.
She is an active member of Georgia Association on Young Children (GAYC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). She and her husband, Tim, began exploring opportunities for a franchise in childcare in 2000.
Tammie graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelors of Arts degree in education.
Mark Gifford
Mark was born and raised in Michigan. He first took an interest in childcare when Tim Paulus suggested an opportunity in Georgia. At the time, Mark was working for a mobile laser eye surgery company in Monroe, Michigan, where he was responsible for setting pricing policies and keeping costs inline. Prior to that, Mark worked at a scrap metal company in Toledo, Ohio where he developed a process-costing model.
Mark has six years of experience as a financial analyst in a small business environment. He is a graduate of Walsh College in Troy, Michigan, and earned his MBA from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tim Paulus
Tim was also born and raised in Michigan. He and Mark are good high school buddies. Tim first took an interest in childcare investment opportunities in October 2000. His interest was based on his wife's experience as a pre-kindergarten teacher, as well as a friend's experience in small business. Tim and Tammie investigated many operations in the Atlanta area prior to choosing a Legacy Academy franchise in February 2001.
Currently, Tim is an independent software consultant. A veteran in the software industry, he began his career with Motorola as a network analyst. He moved to Atlanta in 1996 and worked with NCR in Duluth as a software engineer. While there, he alone started an Internet Service Provider that grew rapidly and established a worldwide customer base. This venture quickly became too big to manage while working full-time and it was sold to a larger ISP.
Tim then pursued a career as an independent software consultant, with BellSouth as his first client. As a consultant, he has also worked with Thoughtmill Corporation, Synthis Corporation, Pathfire, Inc. and Manheim Auctions. Tim received his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science at the University of Michigan.
