Gina-Lynne Scharoun was about the same age as her 3-year-old daughter Mia when she started hanging around her mother's apartment development-management business in Stillwater, Okla.

"If OSHA had had hardhat regulations then, I would have been the little kid on the job site wearing the hardhat," she says.

As she got older, Scharoun listened to her mother explain the legalities of an apartment lease to prospective tenants.

"Our spring break was not spent at Disneyland. It was spent cleaning apartments," she says. "Our Christmas break, the same thing."

The experience prepared her for explaining the intricacies and legalities of franchise agreements to potential investors as president of Value Place Franchise Services LLC, the company charged with developing franchise agreements for the extended-stay apartment-hotel chain Value Place LLC, created by Wichita entrepreneur Jack DeBoer.

She has completed more than 350 franchise agreements for Value Place since taking the job in spring 2004.

Career detour
Scharoun initially studied accounting at Oklahoma State University knowing she'd be able to find a job after graduation. Her career plans took a detour after taking a business marketing class and falling in love with the subject.

"Gina-Lynne was the best student I've ever had," says Lee Manzer, professor of marketing at OSU, who has taught around 20,000 students in 30 years. "Not just because she was a good student in class. I've had tons of those. But she was extremely organized. ... She was extremely goal-driven, but a good person."

While at OSU, the then Gina-Lynne Smith was named Miss Oklahoma 1991. But "she was just Gina-Lynne" on campus, he says.

Her mother asked Scharoun to enter her first pageant at the age of 12 as a way of helping the shy, studious girl gain confidence. Winning the state title taught her how to achieve a goal. It also brought her out of her shell, she says.

Straight from college, Scharoun put her organizational skills to use creating the manuals and forms used by newly acquired banks to understand the policies and procedures of the Fourth Financial Corp.

"She did the near impossible -- she made me look good," quipped Gary Sherrer, then senior vice president at Fourth Financial Corp., now senior vice president of the Bank of Blue Valley. "Because of all of her efforts, we were given an 'outstanding' rating as a banking system on the Community Reinvestment Act by the federal examiners. At that time, not very many banks were getting 'outstandings.' "

Multi-family to hotels
A bank board member arranged an introduction with DeBoer, who at the time was creating Candlewood Suites. He hired Scharoun even though he wasn't sure where she would fit in the company.

At Candlewood, Scharoun immersed herself into learning hotel development and operations while becoming vice president of franchise services. Her efforts earned recognition as member of the Wichita Business Journal's 40 Under 40 class of 2001.

Memories of her mother's apartment business helped Scharoun understand the extended-stay concepts of Candlewood and Value Place.

"I make it a point to hire people who are better at what they do than I could ever be," she says. "You have to give them the latitude to get their jobs done. You can't micromanage. You've got to have that trust."

Scharoun and her husband, Robert, invested in Value Place, buying the rights to build in Tulsa. Yet she's careful to keep the two businesses separate, with Robert running the franchise while she concentrates on her corporate duties with Value Place.

If anything, DeBoer says, Scharoun works too hard. He says it's not unusual for him to receive an e-mail response with a 4 a.m. time stamp.

"She's a superstar," DeBoer says. "Very bright. She is very good at what she does. She's driven. ... She's just truly one of the outstanding people that I've been lucky to work with over the last 100 years."

REACH KEN VANDRUFF
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