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, President
• Jim Kilmetis, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing
• Richard Kern, Editorial Director
• Nick Gazivoda, Vice President of Sales
• Andrea Lightman, Vice President of Customer Operations
• Anne-Sophie Pruvost-Zetina, Marketing Manager
• Edward W. Franklin, chief technology consultant

Bruce Bolger, President: An early proponent of integrated, targeted communications, marketing and sales programs to better engage customers and employees, Bruce helped found Selling Communications Inc. in 1996 and is considered an expert in the field of engagement 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.)

In 2002, Bruce helped to found the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The Forum is the nation’s leading source of research on motivation in business. In 2008, Bruce was among the founders of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance, a group of leading organizations dedicated to research and outreach as it relates to the emerging field of Enterprise Engagement. Bruce is also a former President of the Society of Incentive and Travel Executives (SITE) 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.

Jim Kilmetis, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing: Jim, a co-founder of Selling Communications, has nearly 24 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, hospitality and meetings industries, as well as in various areas of the engagement marketplace. His focus nowadays also extends to identifying organizations that would benefit from Selling Communications’ targeted approach.

Every business decision Jim makes is guided by the principle that success depends on true integration between the marketing “story," the sales effort, and product and service delivery. Jim’s ongoing service to his clients includes adding and customizing new products, ideas and concepts to help build their businesses.

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Richard Kern, Editorial Director: Richard has more than 25 years of experience in business publishing, specifically in the areas of sales, marketing, benefits, compensation, rewards and recognition.

Richard joined Selling Communications in January of 2007, following a stint as Managing Editor of Executive Compensation Strategies and Total Reward Strategies at Thompson Publishing in Washington, DC. Prior to that Richard was the Editorial Director for the Advertising Specialty Institute in Trevose, PA, publisher of Counselor magazine, Strategic Promotional Advantages and other magazines serving the promotional products industry. From 1993 to 1999 he was the Editor of three B2B newsletters published by Progressive Business Publications, The Marketing Report, What’s New in Benefits & Compensation and Selling Advantage.

Richard began his editorial career at Bill Communications in New York City, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Sales & Marketing Management magazine from 1989 to 1993. He holds a BFA degree in Graphics & Photography and a Masters degree in International Affairs from Ohio University.

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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 progressed 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 engagement media services of SCI, as well as for The Motivation Show.and Enterprise Engagement Expo.

These days, Nick handles high level sales and support accross 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.

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Andrea Lightman, Vice President of Customer Operations: Andrea joined SCI in 2008, bringing with her over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing and operations, including nearly 10 years in corporate sales.

As Vice President of Special  Markets  for Lillian Vernon Corp., Andrea was responsible for all sales, marketing, and operations, helping expand the division tenfold 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.

Andrea holds an MBA from Columbia University  in  finance and marketing, and a BS in economics/ systems science from UCLA.

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Anne-Sophie Pruvost-Zetina, Marketing Manager: Anne-Sophie joined SCI in 2003 and now manages the company's target marketing and relationship-building strategies, including e-mail and print newsletters, websites, presentations, and other activities.

Anne-Sophie is an accomplished marketing supervisor with hands-on experience managing almost every type of marketing touch point, from trade shows and websites to seminars and PowerPoint presentations.

Anne-Sophie will help support SCI’s international expansion, aided by the fact that she is a French citizen and travels frequently throughout Europe. She graduated with highest honors from the ESCIP - Saint-Omer, France -, an international business school, where she majored in Marketing, Management and English.

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Edward W. Franklin, Chief Technology Consultant: Ed has a strong background in corporate identity solutions, website design, content management strategies/implementation and web application development. As the founder of Applied Elements, he brings together a varied yet deep experience in the creative and technology worlds. Ed was a founder and 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. He developed 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.

Ed was previously the Director of Internet Media for NexusGroup, where he created and launched the company’s Studio division. Clients included AT&T, Primedia and Deutsche Bank. Earlier, he was a Principal, Director of Corporate Internet Services for Bankers Trust Company in New York, where 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).

Ed is  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.

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