About Mark
Mark Kreuz, CEPA®, PMP
He spent ten years in ALDI's national IT organization during its largest U.S. expansion, when the company grew from about 1,300 stores to more than 2,400. He was cutover lead for the first seven divisions of a national technology transformation, and he ran the technology launch for more than 1,200 new, remodeled, and replacement stores and training centers. Every system had to work on opening day, and every team and vendor with a piece of it answered to his team until it did.
Credentials: Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®), 2026 · Project Management Professional (PMP) · ITIL
How I work
I started at ALDI at 21 and spent ten years in its national IT organization. For the first seven I owned the process that put the low-voltage cabling and technology into new, remodeled, and replacement stores and training centers, and that made IT, real estate, and operations work together so each store opened on its date with all IT equipment and systems working. Once an opening date was published, it was locked. Stores opened with construction still finishing around them, and the exceptions were rare. I ran the work mostly from the office and went to the field when something changed and needed to be seen, tested, and documented, and on regular check-in visits to see how things were really going. The last three years were enterprise software, rolling out new platforms across seven divisions, which taught me the other half of the job: how a system goes into a running business without breaking it. Change management, communication, a plan, a cutover, and someone staying on it until it holds.
A few things from those years shape every engagement.
Say it early. At 22 I stood in a store with a general contractor and an electrician and told them that the work on the backup power had just taken out a good share of the checkout equipment, that the job still had to be finished, and that from here on a technician or a store employee would safely power down and unplug everything before anyone touched it. I got some of the equipment back online with the help desk over the next four hours; the rest had to be replaced. Nobody enjoys that conversation, but the store opened on its date. You will hear what a buyer will see while there is still time to do something about it.
Write it down. Everything we did was decided as a team, documented so someone else could do it and fix it, trained to the people it touched, and kept current when it changed. That is the habit I bring to your processes: the goal is a business that runs on its people and its paper, not on one person's memory.
Check the details. I reviewed and gave first-line approval on vendor invoices and built the review and reporting process that cut the errors and made the spend easy to see and analyze. Most months something was off. Your numbers get the same line-by-line read a lender gives them.
I studied Operations and Information Management at Northern Illinois University, on the information systems side, and hold the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) and Project Management Professional (PMP) credentials.
If you want to see what the work looks like before you call, read the sample Exit Baseline or the sample Relisting Readiness Plan.
Why I do this
I grew up in my family's automotive manufacturing business. It started in a small rented warehouse and grew, over decades, into a real manufacturer, making parts for Detroit's automakers and for people who loved their cars and trucks. It was being handed down to the next generation when overseas competition and the 2008 collapse of the auto industry took it, and by 2011 it was gone. If anything could have saved it, it would have taken preparation years earlier. I started Dont Shut Down to help owners get ready, so when it's time to step away, they get to choose how.
Mark Kreuz, CEPA®
What "CEPA" means for you
Mark is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®), a credential from the Exit Planning Institute. It means he's trained to look at three things together: your business, your personal finances, and your life after the business. He works alongside your CPA, attorney, and financial advisor, not around them.
One thing you should know
A separate company Mark owns buys businesses in a few specific industries: septic, grease trap, waste hauling, and excavation. Dont Shut Down never advises businesses in those industries and never buys a business it advises. It's written into every agreement.
Where we work
Based in the Chicago area. We meet in person across the metro and by video anywhere.