User:Chapman Ducote/sandbox

Overview

Chapman Ducote is a professional race car driver, entrepreneur, and athlete. Chapman is the President and CEO of Merchant Services LTD, a full scale, vertically integrated credit card processing company. He is also co-owner of Merchant Services Racing, and American Le Mans Seriesracing team.

Early and Personal life

Chapman was born in 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the 3rd of three children to Wayne Ducote and Diane. Hard work at an early age led him to graduate from the University of Miami in just three years with a degree in business. Chapman married Kristin Ducote, an attorney, in June of 2012.

Career

After graduating from the University of Miami in 1996, Ducote went on to work for Jefferies & Company in New York City as an equity analyst where he also worked in corporate finance, Mergers and Acquisitions. After a one year stint, he went on to money management and equity trading for CIBC Oppenheimer. In 1998, Ducote left the money management profession and got into real estate investment and development. A few of his notable real estate projects have been the Brooklyn Hotel, the Pelican Garage, Iguana Point, and Coral Cay – a private island in the Bahamas. As a visionary, his first development deal was the purchase of the Brooklyn Hotel. This proved to be his most difficult deal because it involved purchasing a building in an undeveloped neighborhood and turning it around. Chapman later sold the hotel for a profit. Chapman did a large number of real estate deals and development between 1999-2005. Chapman later moved on to building and maintaining several of his own companies. In 2005, he founded Merchant Services LTD, a full scale, vertically integrated credit card processing company headquartered in Miami Beach. Merchant Services LTD was named #18 fastest growing private company in 2012 by INC Magazine’s INC-500. Merchant Services LTD has grown to over 500 employees and is a tier one merchant service processor that is certified by Visa/MasterCard. It is a leading provider of merchant processing solutions and products nationwide. Merchant Services LTD is one of a handful of certified financial institutions that are actually able to process a credit card transaction from start to finish on behalf of a merchant. While Chapman now focuses the vast majority of his time and energy on building Merchant Services LTD, as well as its sister company, Starboard Funding which runs a merchant lending program, Ducote has still managed to scrape together enough time to stay competitive in the professional racing circuit.

Racing Career

Ducote started his racing career in 1994 by racing karts with Skip Barber, open wheel formula cars. He later moved on to SCCA racing and finally Gand-Am and Le Mans. Chapman has raced karts, formula cars, IMSA Lites, GT cars in several series, Daytona Prototypes, and Le Mans prototypes. He already has 14 American Le Mans series podiums to his name, as he embraces his 7th season in the ALMS and extends his career to the European and Asian circuits for Intercontinental Le Mans Cup races. In 2007, Chapman made his Le Mans debut in GT2 where he made two top ten finishes. 2008 proved to be a good year for Ducote when he won a total of five ALMS podiums driving for Aston Martin. He made the transition to GT1 to claim his first ALMS podium at the 12 hours of Sebring, where he won third place. A few weeks later, he earned his second ALMS podium by finishing third place at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. Ducote continued with 3 more ALMS podium wins, 2 Mosport, and finally 3 Making his LMP1 debut in 2009, Chapman won three podium finishes. At the St. Petersburg Grand Prix, only his second LMP1 appearance, he claimed 2 place at the Long Beach Grand Prix and finally 3 with 3rd place in championship points. In 2010, Chapman suffered a broken leg and could not participate in the first half of the season, but still managed to garner several top five finishes. He later closed out the 2010 ALMS season with a second place podium finish at Petit Le Mans in Atlanta, Georgia.In 2011, Chapman set his sights on both the American and European races, taking home four podiums. In making his European Motorsports debut at the 6 Hours of Imola, Chapman also earned his first win in Europe. Chapman later garnered podiums at Silverstone [UK], Mazda Laguna Seca [US], and Petite Le Mans [US]. With a total of 14 podiums under his belt, Chapman accepted a challenge of building a new American Le Mans racing team in 2012. He made the transition from driver to team co-owner by building Merchant Services Racing with Brian Alder of Bar1 Motorsports. With experience in the racing world, taking on the role of team owner allows Chapman to maximize veteran assets and mentor star drivers. As a team in 2012, Merchant Services Racing has already garnered 3 podiums, with Ducote himself at the helm for the Road America Podium, and with Merchant Services Racing placing 2 team points.

=Media Appearances

Ducote has had several media appearances including:

1. ESPN
2. ABC
3. CBS Sports
4. Speed Channel
5. Numbered list item

Chapman was a cast member of the 2013 season of Kim and Kourtney Take Miami, a Kardashian Reality Show. He appeared in multiple episodes as a friend.