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Who We Are
Delivering Performance Through Our People Selling Communications Inc. has over 30 full- and “prime-time” employees in editorial, design, marketing, sales, technology, production and administration, and the company prides itself on an almost nonexistent turnover rate. Most employees who came on board at its inception in 1996 remain today, and most of those who joined the team after that continue to grow with the company. This low turnover helps create a level of continuity and commitment rarely seen at larger companies. Here is a brief introduction to the top management team with whom customers are most likely to have direct and regular contact.
Bruce Bolger, founder and president: An early proponent of integrated, targeted communications, marketing and sales programs, Bruce helped to found Selling Communications Inc. in 1996 and is considered an expert in the field of motivation in business. He has over 25 years of experience in general management, editorial, sales and marketing at leading publishing and marketing companies, including Fairchild Publications, The Village Voice, Bill Communications Inc. and Miller Freeman (both absorbed by VNU Business Media.) Bruce helped direct the repositioning of Incentive magazine in 1986 to cover the use of incentive programs not only in sales and marketing, but also in the employee sector to ensure organizations deliver on their marketing promises. In 2002, Bruce helped to found the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement at the Integrated Marketing Communications department of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The Forum is the nation’s leading source of research on motivation in business. Bruce is also a former president of the Society of Incentive and Travel Executives Research Foundation. Bruce is the author of two textbooks available on incentive program design, Strategic Incentive Program Design: Critical Steps to Ensure an Effective Performance Improvement System (the Advertising Specialty Institute, 1998) and Principles of Incentive Program Design (the Incentive Marketing Association, 2004). He has written and spoken extensively on target marketing, as well as incentive and people performance management, for associations and publications throughout the world. He has received the Certified Professional of Incentive Management (CPIM) designation from the Incentive Marketing Association. Today, at the helm of Selling Communications, Bruce continues to help clients identify and build relationships with the people most likely to buy their products or services. His goal is to give the best possible service at the lowest possible cost and to keep a watch on the horizon for new ways Selling Communications can steer future business development. ^^ Return to Top ^^ Jim Kilmetis, co-founder, senior vice president, sales and marketing: As director of the Selling Communications sales team, Jim has gained a reputation within the industry as a hands-on leader who “cuts to the chase,” ensuring his team and his clients stay on track and deliver with integrity. Jim, the co-founder of Selling Communications, has nearly 20 years of sales and sales management experience in business publishing. He held management positions at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and Bill Communications (absorbed by VNU Business Media), where he more than tripled sales in his territory, and was associate publisher of Incentive magazine during its most successful years, the mid-1990s. A passionate salesperson, Jim has developed and implemented sales and marketing programs throughout his career for hundreds of clients in the airline, food and meetings industries, among many others, as well as in the incentive marketplace. His passion nowadays, understandably, extends to identifying organizations that would benefit from Selling Communications’ no-nonsense approach. Every business decision Jim makes is guided by the principle that, for ultimate success, there must be true integration between the marketing “story” and the sales effort. He is adept at conveying this concept to companies as it may apply to their own weak marketing-sales links. Once the weaknesses are recognized, Selling Communications can help clients align strategies via a carefully calibrated mix of vehicles over a specified period, for ultimate sales success and business growth. Jim’s ongoing service to his clients is to add and customize new products, ideas and concepts to help build their businesses. Nick Gazivoda, vice president of sales: Nick joined the company in 1997 as a telephone sales database developer with an eye toward moving into sales. Within months, he took his first crack at telephone sales with a major account in telecommunications. He went on from there to set early company records for number of calls per day, as well as the number of calls with positive results. After a few highly productive years of steady development, Nick graduated into sales, specializing in the incentive and promotional product areas for the company, as well as for The Motivation Show. Now, Nick handles high level sales and support over the full spectrum of SCI's media, target marketing, and technology services. He has extensive experience helping clients develop target marketing and technology solutions to achieve their business development goals. ^^ Return to Top ^^ Andrea Lightman, vice president of customer operations: Andrea joined SCI in 2008 as vice president of customer operations , bringing with her over 25 years experience in sales, marketing and operations, including nearly 10 years in corporate sales. As vice president of special markets for Lillian Vernon Corp., she oversaw all sales, marketing, and operations and helped expand the division 10-fold in a five-year period. Other top jobs included vice president of operations for Farcountries.com, an e-commerce site for the wholesale gift market, and chief operating officer of Corporate Visions, a promotional products and marketing services firm focusing on Fortune 500 companies. She holds an MBA from Columbia University in finance and marketing, and a BS in economics -systems science from University of California at Los Angeles. ^^ Return to Top ^^ Anne-Sophie Pruvost, marketing manager: Anne-Sophie manages our own target marketing and relationship building strategies, including e-mail and print newsletters, our Web site, presentations, and other activities. She is an accomplished marketing supervisor with hands-on experience managing almost every type of marketing touch point, from trade show and Web site to seminar and PowerPoint presentation. Anne-Sophie will help support Solata’s international expansion, aided by the fact that she is a French citizen and travels frequently to Europe. She graduated with highest honors from the ESCIP - Saint-Omer, France -, an international business school and majored in Marketing, Management and English. ^^ Return to Top ^^ Edward W. Franklin, chief technology consultant: Ed has a strong background in corporate identity solutions, web site design, content management strategies/implementation and web application development. As the founder of Applied Elements, he brings his varied yet deep experience in the creative and technology worlds together. Edward was a founder and the VP of Product Development for iClips, the leading provider of personal streaming video tools on the Internet. He served as VP of Technology and acting CTO for the first nine months of the company’s existence. In these roles he was originally responsible for identifying and implementing key technologies from RealNetworks, Akamai and Microsoft to build this scalable video IP-based application. He defined the creative and product strategy for the iClips suite of tools and their implementation as well as defining the integration strategy with companies such as Yahoo, NBCi and Homestead. Previously he was the Director of Internet Media for NexusGroup, where he created and launched the company’s Studio division, it’s fastest growing services group in 1999. Clients included AT&T, Primedia and Deutsche Bank. Earlier, Ed was a Principal, Director of Corporate Internet Services for Bankers Trust Company in New York, responsible for creating the comprehensive Internet standards, content management systems, policies and procedures used by the bank today. He successfully managed large-scale Internet and intranet projects such as bankerstrust.com and home.btco.com (the company’s 20,000+ page intranet with 8,000+ daily visitors) which included the oversight of both the infrastructure and content creation teams. Supervising a staff of 25+ personnel, he was directly responsible for creating and governing the policies and procedures for web development bank-wide. At BT, as a member of the New World of Banking Team, he worked on ground breaking streaming media projects for BT Alex.Brown helping to define new uses for this emerging technology. Edward is a on the Board of Trustees of the Wooster School, where he has served as the Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee and the Community Arts Center of Danbury, Connecticut. ^^ Return to Top ^^ |
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