Bud Hilton
President & CEO

Bud Hilton's career has a rich background encompassing over 40 years in foodservice. Bud spent 10 years with Greyhound Corporation. At Greyhound's Armour Meats Division, Bud worked in and later managed various beef and pork operations and piloted Armour's original entry into the boxed beef and prepared entrée businesses.

After leaving Armour/Greyhound, Bud spent 11 years with Beatrice Foods, working for Eckrich Foodservice as a Region, Division, and National Sales and Marketing Manager. Bud moved to Chicago and was promoted to Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Beatrice Refrigerated Foods Company, which consisted of 5 Beatrice Center-of-the-Plate, protein companies.

After the 1985 leverage buy-out of Beatrice Foods, Bud left corporate life, moved to Florida and in 1986 founded Answers Systems Inc. Answers Systems is a Florida based, full service contract management and marketing services company dedicated to working with manufacturers, operators and distributors serving foodservice and other Away-From-Home food channels. Employing over 100 full-time personnel, Answers Systems processes payments of multi-unit allowances, operator rebates, bids, POS, warehousing and fulfillment and other various services and has become the recognized authority in data services for the industry.

Bud is very visible on the speaker circuit for organizations such as IFMA (International Foodservice Manufacturers Association), COEX (Chain Operator Exchange) the NRA (National Restaurant Association), and many other industry groups.

Bud graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Business Technology. He has been a long time IFMA member, serves on its Education Committee, assisted in developing and implementing the initial IFMA Marketing course and the IFMA National Account Education and Training program . . . having then spent 8 years instructing these programs at the Notre Dame campus. Bud is a past recipient of the IFMA Sparkplug Award and the 2000 William J. Tobin Industry Award for Excellence in Education Training.

Bud resides in Tampa, Florida and since the company’s inception in 1986, Bud has been President/CEO of Answers Systems Inc.

Roth Block
Sr. Vice President & COO

Roth Block serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Answers Systems Inc. He has been with Answers Systems since April of 1994. Roth has a strong financial background including several years in the banking industry working for such companies as Fortune Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Equitable Life (mortgage division). Roth's prior banking experience included heavy involvement in financial analysis, audit, IS, database management, reporting and accounting. Roth has been part of several teams involved with the valuation and analysis of acquisitions.

In his position as Answers Systems Senior Vice President and COO, Roth oversees the Accounting, Human Resources, Warehouse Operations, Information Technology and Processing Departments. Roth's teams within the departments have concentrated efforts in further automating all functions at Answers Systems.

Roth holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance from the University of Texas at El Paso.

Tom Tipps
Vice President - Sales & Marketing

After graduating from the University of North Texas in 1973, Tom started his Foodservice career with Anderson Clayton Foods where held a number of senior level sales and marketing management positions.

Joining Heublein Food Group in 1978, Tom supported the successful startup of the Foodservice Business Unit and held the positions of Marketing Director and National Sales Director over his five year tenure with Heublein. His brand responsibility included A.1 Steak Sauce, Grey Poupon and Ortega.

After the RJR acquisition of Heublein in 1982, Tom joined the Simplot Food Division where he held the position of Vice President Sales & Marketing. In this position, he was responsible for worldwide sales and marketing of the various Simplot food businesses.

In early 1987 Tom was recruited by Bongrain, S.A. as General Manager of Colombo Frozen Products Division. During his 5 years with Colombo, Tom led the division from a small New England business to the leading frozen yogurt brand with national distribution in foodservice and retail grocery channels.

When Colombo was sold to General Mills in 1992, Tom joined TCBY Enterprises where he led two operating divisions as President/CEO.

After a very successful five years with TCBY, Tom joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1997, Tom held a number of senior level sales, marketing and operations positions with Coke’s Minute Maid and Coke Fountain Divisions.

In 2000 Tom was recruited as President/COO of Vitality Foodservice Division, Tampa, FL to lead the restructuring and turnaround of this recently acquired beverage business.

Upon completion of his contract with Vitality, Tom started his own consulting company, Fulcrum Development Group, and pursued management consulting contracts with Catalina Marketing, Inc. Ecolab Inc and Answers Systems Inc. in 2003. He currently operates under contract with Answers System as Vice President Business – Sales, Marketing and Client Services.

Greg Hilton

Chief Information Officer

Greg Hilton serves as the Chief Information Office for Answers Systems Inc. He has been with Answers Systems since April of 1995. Greg has a strong IT background and served in several information and financial roles in the Mortgage Servicing Industry including ERA/Chase Manhattan Bank, Amsouth Bank, and Carteret Mortgage.

In his role as CIO, Greg leads the product development and technology division for Answers Systems. All architectural, distributed deployment, and network-related solutions are under his leadership. Greg’s teams focus on developing new distributed and internal software solutions for our customers.

Greg holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from the University of Tampa.

Brian Maloney

Vice President, Business Development

Brian Maloney serves as the Vice President of Business Development at Answers Systems Inc. He has been with Answers Systems since October 1993 and is known as a jack-of-all-trades within the company.
Brian has held various positions, including Customer Implementation Manager where he worked with both manufacturer and operator clients to integrate them into the Total Trade Management (TTM) tools and services.
Now, as Vice President of Business Development, Brian manages for four key departments within the company: data acquisition, client integration, new business development, and company efficiency.
Brian holds a Bachelor of Science, Public Policy Degree from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater.