Michael Imbesi’s journey to Middle Tennessee traversed two continents, at least seven countries, four states and too many cities, towns and municipalities to list here.
Imbesi grew up in a quaint Long Island equestrian village, about an hour east of New York City. After graduating from a private college prep school in Locust Valley, he enrolled at Rollins College in Orlando, Florida where he says, “Going water skiing for gym class was fun, but the casual atmosphere of the campus, as beautiful as it was, was not conducive to the business climate that I was seeking.”
After two years, that experience prompted a transfer to American University in Washington, D.C. where he had an established network of friends, “So at least I wouldn’t be a ‘freshman’ socially,” he says. But as would play out again later in his life, the extreme move from rural Florida to the concrete enclave of the nation’s capital, was a pendulum shift too far.
While waiting tables at Filomena’s restaurant in Georgetown, Imbesi met up with a returning college classmate who had moved to San Diego six months prior and was extolling the virtues of Southern California. On a whim, he packed all he owned and moved to La Jolla (San Diego) where he instantly felt at home. Subsequent moves took him north to Orange County and Newport Beach.
Imbesi worked for a variety of venture capital and investment banking firms in Orange County before starting his own company where, from 1990 to 2008, he worked diligently, investing in both commercial and residential real estate. In his spare time he pursued his favorite recreational activities–like mountain biking, motorcycle riding and snow skiing–that appealed to his love of adventure and the outdoors. For ski trips he bypassed posh resorts in favor of remote backcountry environs. The pristine nature of the remote winter wilderness in places like British Columbia provided an unmatched solitude and an excellent escape from the competitive workplace.
Imbesi’s hard work paid off and in 2008, at 46 years of age, he retired and relocated across the country to a remote 14-acre ranch not far from Asheville in the equestrian community of Tryon, North Carolina. There, restoring an old farmhouse became his full-time work. His newfound freedom afforded him opportunities to travel, particularly in Europe.
He landed and lived in Villefranche-sur-Mer, a small resort town in the Provence-Alpes Cote d’Azur region on the French Riviera near Nice, just west of the Italian border. There he enrolled for a summer of classes at the renowned language school, Institut de Francais.
Imbesi returned to North Carolina and his home on Rondo Ridge, a dirt road servicing six homes on six hundred acres. While it was a beautiful place to live, this time the pendulum swung too far in the other direction as the remote location proved to be just as extreme as he found Washington, D.C. decades earlier.
By 2010, with his search for the perfect place to live ongoing, Imbesi made a random road trip to nearby Nashville. “Asheville was special, but I found myself looking for a place with more cultural activities and business opportunities,” he says. He checked-in to the Hermitage Hotel, not really knowing much at all about the area. Soon he went for a drive south where he found, “What was then the sleepy town of Franklin,” he says. It was a drive that, once again, would change his address and his career trajectory.
After selling his Tryon ranch and leasing a townhouse in Franklin, Imbesi attended a business networking event in Nashville where he met Fred Weis, a highly regarded structural engineer with licenses spanning 47 states, with whom he had much in common.
The timing was right and in 2012, they formed WiSEngineers, Inc. with Imbesi providing all the necessary incorporating, finance and banking components to the firm and Weis handling all facets of structural engineering and design. “I liked to say I was the little ‘i’ in the company,” Imbesi says, referencing his experience in starting and operating businesses, but with a lack of an engineering pedigree.
Weis immediately suggested recruiting Jarrod Finger, a top-level design executive from a local architecture firm, to be a key member in the new company, and the three quickly landed their first client, Oxford Architecture, which held the contract with Brentwood-based Tractor Supply Company (TSC). Weis had a pre-existing relationship with the firm, and they were all too happy to continue to work with him at his new company.
As WiSEngineers’ reputation grew, so did its client roster. Eventually they added well-known commercial entities including Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt Health, Belle Meade Country Club and Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, to name a few. WiSEngineers also provided residential services to some of the biggest country music stars in the world. One of their close structural engineering associates worked on FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin as well.
Between WiSEngineers and his newly adopted hometown, Imbesi began experiencing the type of work-life balance he had always sought. Especially when it came to music. He was then, and continues to be, a frequent patron of the area’s iconic venues, including The Franklin Theatre, the CMA Theater at The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Ryman Auditorium, and his new favorite, the Mulehouse in Columbia. By his own estimation he attends over 70 shows a year. “Music has always been an integral part of my life and enjoyment,” he says. “And in my spare time I’ve even managed to learn how to play the guitar, but not by Nashville standards.”
After successfully operating WiSE for over a decade, and with Weis celebrating his 70th birthday, the partners were approached by a much larger structural engineering company, Bennett & Pless, Inc. of Nashville. And in 2023 Weis, Imbesi and Finger agreed to sell the company.
While many might be content to call it a day, Imbesi knew all-too-well from his North Carolina experience that a full-time retirement lifestyle of swimming pool rafts and playing with his 140-pound Great Pyrenees puppy, Bella, could hold his interest for only so long. So he reached out to a longstanding contact from the world of finance, PFD Capital Partners, Inc., a firm that just happened to represent one of the best performing assets in his personal portfolio.
“I have been a personal investor and client of PFD (Profits For Doctors) for many years, and I am a firm believer in the integrity of its people and business model, which includes passive, quarterly checks that arrive like clockwork,” says Imbesi. The company immediately agreed to hire him as a senior portfolio administrator, allowing him to share the incredible success of PFD’s private banking funds with other high net-worth individuals seeking strong yields, but with mitigated risk and full diversification from the broader markets.
“PFD Capital Partners, Inc. is a specialty finance, origination and investment platform that serves the banking needs of the $53 billion-a-year personal injury market,” says Imbesi. “It’s a highly profitable 70-year-old industry that has typically been reserved for institutional-level investors.”
According to Imbesi, medical account receivables generated by the personal injury market are vast, and sometimes can take months, if not years to collect. “Most people don’t realize that when there is an injury as a result of an auto accident, the treating physician does not get paid until the case settles, which is typically six months to four years,” says Imbesi. PFD buys/finances those receivables, giving the medical providers immediate access to their cash. In return, PFD depositors receive a high yield that’s paid quarterly and fully collateralized by a bankable asset: the medical receivable itself. The fund is structured so the depositors can
liquidate after only one year, but they can remain in the fund for up to five years if desired.
“PFD is a one-year obligation but a five-year opportunity,” says Imbesi. “It’s a proven company with a decade of never missing a payment and it’s fully audited by a top-tier CPA firm,” says Imbesi. “We serve more than 1,000 depositors nationwide and I look forward to sharing the company’s story with prospective clients throughout Middle Tennessee." PFDFamilyOfCompanies.com