Our Team

Ralph Martin, Co-Founder

Ralph Martin, a veteran of the US Coast Guard (where he served as a rescue C-130 flight engineer), is the Co-Founder of Fresh Coat. A graduate of Xavier University’s MBA program, he became the brand’s first franchisee in 2004, and during the company’s first 6 years in operation he also held the title of President. Under his leadership, and ever since, Fresh Coat has been consistently recognized both nationally and globally as a top performing franchising system. Before founding Fresh Coat, Ralph spent nearly 20 years as Vice President of Maintenance and Engineering for Delta Connection, the nation’s largest regional airline serving multiple destinations throughout the US and Canada. While there, he was responsible for the first technical introduction of the Canadair Regional Jet certified for commercial service in the United States. The engineering disciplines developed in the airline industry and Coast Guard engineer were instrumental to his successful build of the Fresh Coat system.

Steve Kwon, Senior VP of Franchising

Before joining Fresh Coat as the Senior VP of Franchising, Steve Kwon already had a successful history in franchising, taking emerging companies and turning them into national powerhouses. For more than 20 years, his boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm has catapulted the franchises he has touched into unprecedented new heights – such as Mathnasium, which became a premier afterschool supplemental education franchise under his leadership as VP of Franchising. Mr. Kwon brings his high-octane leadership style to Fresh Coat Painters as the Senior VP of Franchising.. Bringing all of his previous experience and pairing it with his seemingly endless energy and drive, Mr. Kwon and his team are helping hundreds navigate their path to business ownership through the Fresh Coat franchise.

Tom Tucker, VP of Operations

Tom is a seasoned servant leader, a US Army veteran and prior small business owner who comes to FreshCoat with over 30 years of executive management experience in both franchising and operations with global brands such as Pizza Hut, Yum! Brands, and Realty Executives International. Tom is committed to the FreshCoat growth vision, and also to leading and guiding a team dedicated to providing each FreshCoat franchise partner with World Class Support to help them either build a solid business base or grow and scale their business into a larger operation.

Brian Santos, Director of Education

Known around the world was “The Wall Wizard”, Brian Santos was an entrepreneur and extremely accomplished as a home improvement contractor before joining the Fresh Coat team as the Director of Education. Brian has written many books on home improvement, and painting specifically, including his most recent one, Painting and Wallpapering Secrets. Brian teaches our new franchisees all they need to know about the industry, and is always quick to respond to any technical questions or how best to overcome the unique challenges you may encounter when working within people’s homes.

Darrell Mobley, Director of Field Operations

Darrell is a US Navy veteran, spent 22 years with the McDonald’s corporation as a Franchise Business Consultant and was part of the design team for McCafe which rolled nationally in 2008 and for the past 11 years he has been helping the franchisees at Sport Clips scale and grow their business as a Regional Franchise Director. As Director of Field Operations, Darrell delivers high impact coaching and support to each franchisee in the Fresh Coat system.