About
Meet the Advisory Team
One point of contact. Three advisors who have owned businesses, run large operations, and closed deals from Premium Main Street to $40 million-plus. Based in Alpharetta, working across North Atlanta.
Why Three
Individual Sport or Team Sport? We Play Both.
Some business brokerages are solo practices; others take a team approach. Neither is wrong — but deal size and complexity change what’s needed. A smaller Main Street sale may be led by one of us start to finish. A larger, more complex transaction gets the breadth and depth of all three: one advisor managing the process, one on the financial model, one preparing you for the buyer on the other side.
Either way, John is your first call, and the same team stays with you from valuation to closing. And the team is bigger than three: to find buyers and drive deals we leverage the entire Murphy Business network — 150 offices and 225+ associates across North America — and the external referral partners we have built relationships with in Alpharetta and beyond.
Get to Know Each Advisor
Three Backgrounds, One Standard
Principal | Business Broker & M&A Advisor
John B. Charleston, III
MBA, CM&AP
John leads Murphy Business North Fulton County from Alpharetta. Before brokerage he spent twenty-plus years in brand management at The Walt Disney Company and Fortune 100 consumer companies, and in 2005 he acquired and ran a 200-employee commercial cleaning company — an experience that taught him, firsthand, how customer concentration changes what a business is worth.
He builds the financial models buyers underwrite and runs the competitive processes that keep them from re-trading the price.
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Acquired and operated a 200-employee company
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Eight-figure cybersecurity sale to private equity: eight letters of intent, no asking price
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MBA, University of Michigan · Licensed Georgia real estate agent
M&A Advisor | Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary
Tony Samples
CMAI, CM&AP, M&AMI
Tony spent thirty years with Walmart, finishing as Regional Vice President over 150 stores in Georgia and South Carolina with full P&L responsibility. An M&A advisor with Murphy since 2009 and a Top Producer, he has represented owners with revenues between $3M and $50M.
His rule is no surprises: the financial and operational review happens before market, so you know what private equity or a strategic buyer will ask — and how they’ll structure the offer — before they ask it.
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Represents owners with revenues from $3M to $50M
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M&AMI, CM&AP, and CMAI designations · Murphy Top Producer
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Board member, Berry College – Campbell School of Business
M&A Advisor | Certified Exit Planning Advisor
Phil Eleson
MBA, CM&AP, CBI, CEPA
Phil has owned and operated a steel brokerage and processing business and led a Louisville oil distribution company as President & CEO. He joined Murphy in 2019, has been named one of Murphy’s Top Producing Business Intermediaries four times, and now serves as Director of Corporate Brokerage Services for Murphy Business & Financial Corporation.
A Certified Exit Planning Advisor, he helps owners get ready three to five years ahead, protects confidentiality with blind teasers and NDAs, and keeps emotion out of the negotiation.
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CM&AP, CBI, and CEPA · MBA, DePaul University
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Lumber distribution, machine shops, FedEx routes, and specialty contractors
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Former owner-operator: “I’ve been in their shoes”
In Alpharetta
The Team, in Person
How We Work Together
What You Can Count on From This Team
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One point of contact — John — and a shared view of your deal across all three advisors
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A financial model and readiness review completed before your business is shown to anyone
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Confidential marketing: blind teaser, NDA, and buyer qualification before your identity is revealed
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Competing qualified buyers — from our own network, the entire Murphy Business network, and our referral partners — instead of a one-on-one negotiation
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Straight answers on fees, timing, and structure — including when we think you should wait
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