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Guest Bloggers
Amanda Fraga
Consultant, Idea Group
As a Consultant in the Idea Group, Amanda builds on her past experience as a Communispace Community Manager to help clients and internal teams develop strategy and leverage best practices to deliver actionable insights.
With more than five years of experience within the advertising industry, Amanda has had the great fortune of working within a number of industries and media channels. Most recently, Amanda worked as an Account Supervisor at Arnold Worldwide, where she built strong client partnerships with Volvo Car Corporation and Carnival Cruise Lines. During this time, Amanda was able to practice ‘big picture’ thinking by translating business opportunities and strong consumer insights into strategic, integrated marketing campaigns. Simultaneously, Amanda managed multiple campaign production timelines including television, print, outdoor, design, collateral, experiential events, online advertising, email, and social media.
Nick Iuliano
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Nick is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. He manages day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect and share their ideas and experiences, he simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Steve Lawrence
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Steve is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. He manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect share their ideas and experiences, he simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Bill Alberti
Vice President of Business Strategy
As the Vice President of Business Strategy, Bill helps our client services and sales teams align community activities to our clients’ business priorities. In this capacity, Bill is focused on the implications of what consumers are saying in our communities and how clients can translate these consumer insights into business growth.
Chris Wilcox
Marketing Associate
As a Marketing Associate, Chris plays an active role in helping the Marketing team to execute marketing strategy, including a focus on public relations, lead generation, conferences and messaging. Having been part of our Client Services team, Chris’ experience managing and facilitating our highly engaged communities is essential in helping our clients and other organizations understand the value of private, online communities as a powerful insight generator.
Diane Hessan
President & CEO
Diane Hessan is President and CEO of Communispace, one of the fastest growing social networking companies in the country, “with a Blue Chip client list that would make a Madison Avenue giant jealous," according to Advertising Age. A pioneer in creating online communities to help marketers generate consumer insights, Diane helped found Communispace in 1999 and hasn’t looked back.
A summa cum laude graduate of Tufts University, Diane received an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is the mother of two college-age daughters and co-founder of The Sound Bytes, an a cappella group that writes lyrics about business and performs at major conferences.
Julie Wittes Schlack
Senior Vice President, Innovation & Design
One of the founding members of Communispace Corporation, Julie has been instrumental in designing and continually evolving Communispace's online community offering. She leads an Innovation and Research Group with a dual mission of uncovering new patterns and trends in online community behavior and testing new techniques and technologies for engaging people in online communities and social networks. Her group's work has been widely published and it has transformed Communispace's ability to help companies hardwire the voice of the customer into their businesses. Recently published research includes 21st Century Market Research, Why Size Matters, Who Are These People and The Sandwich Situation.
Julie is simply not your average marketing industry executive. She has an Ed.M. in Interactive Technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a BA in Creative Writing and Psychology from the University of Michigan. She is a recipient of the Hopwood Award for creative writing, writes book reviews monthly for The Boston Globe, and has had essays and short fiction widely published in obscure literary journals.
Kristen Fleury
Consultant, Idea Group
As a Consultant in the Idea Group, Kristen works with clients and internal teams to develop strategy and leverage best practices to deliver actionable insights.
Manila Austin
Vice President, Research
As Vice President of Research at Communispace Corporation, Manila leads the Research Team, where she is focused on conducting systematic research to understand and describe the ways in which Communispace-facilitated communities potentially add value for their sponsoring companies, and in identifying and incorporating emerging best practices into Communispace’s offering. She works closely with various client groups to formulate and explore those questions that will help Communispace and its clients maximize the value of community membership and activity. Manila holds a BA in studio art from Smith College and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Suffolk University.
Rebecca Mackenzie
Innovation Associate
As the Innovation Associate, Rebecca works within the Futures Team providing support to the Research and Innovation, Product Management, and Strategy and Partnerships sections.
Elisa Chiniara
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Elisa is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. She manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect, share their ideas and experiences, she simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Nora Tickell
Associate Community Manager
Nora is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, and by leveraging our best practices, assists teams in creating and facilitating highly engaged communities. She maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
Aaron Strout
Chief Marketing Officer
Powered, Inc.
Aaron Strout is the CMO of "social marketing" company, Powered Inc. You can find Aaron on Twitter and read more about his observations at his Citizen Marketer 2.1 blog.
Adnelly Reyes-Colberg
Adnelly is a Senior Community Manager at Communispace, focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities. She ensures that client teams strive to exceed clients’ expectations and consistently deliver actionable insights.
Andrew Davis
Founder
Tippingpoint Labs
In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he’s spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.
Anne Massey
Managing Director, Asia Pacific
As Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Anne is responsible for developing an international expansion strategy for that region and is based in Sydney. Anne has more than 20 years of extensive experience as a senior Sales & Marketing and Change Management professional with proven success in a range of different roles in high-profile, global companies.
April M
An LA Single Parenting Examiner, contributor to LA Moms, and mother of two girls (ages 8 and 11).
Arjun Chawla
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Arjun is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. He manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect, share their ideas and experiences, he simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Outside of work, Arjun is a passionate golfer with over ten years of experience in competitive golf, including captaining his high school team, being a member of the Varsity team at Tufts, and winning several tournaments including a large match play championship. He is also an automobile enthusiast and artist, who often tries to merge the two hobbies by sketching concept cars.
Barry Silverstein
Director, Agency Solutions
As Director of Agency Solutions based in New York, Barry will be leading the charge in the agency world, helping to bring Communispace to agencies who want to improve their ability to understand their client’s consumers.
Having grown up in the Boston area, Barry remains a devoted fan of all Boston sports teams. He and his wife Heidi are trying to get used to the idea that their daughter Natalie will be entering college and son Lucas will be entering high school. Their dog Sandy, having finished obedience school will now be the stable one in the family.
Brad Mampe
Sales Operations & Business Applications Associate
In his role as Sales Operations & Business Applications Associate, Brad Mampe is responsible for helping standardize and streamline the way data is entered, reported, and analyzed in the company’s sales database. This also includes helping to automate the entire lead generation process through the CRM, from data importing and exporting, to creating forecasts and dashboards for the sales operations team.
When not saving the world with his spreadsheets, Brad enjoys soaking in as much sports as humanly possible, going to movies, and playing bridge.
Carol Jones
Director of Insights & Intelligence
National Car Rental
Carol Jones is the Director of Insights & Intelligence at National Car Rental.
Carolyne M
I am 41 years old or young depending on how I am feeling when I get up in the morning! I am married to George, have been married for 15 years. I have 1 daughter, Rachel aged 10 – soon to be 11 and one rabbit called Toffee who is 5 and very nosy. I love reading, going to the cinema when possible, and watching American dramas like Lie To Me, The Mentalist, Bones etc and UK crime dramas. I enjoy sweets and wine a bit too much as my waistline is ever expanding. I exercise because I have to and not because I want to (Wii Fit, My Fitness Coach on Wii and EA Sports Active Personal Trainer on Wii).
Catherine D'Amato
President & CEO
The Greater Boston Food Bank
As President and CEO of The Greater Boston Food Bank, Catherine D’Amato runs New England’s largest hunger-relief organization as an extremely efficient and effective nonprofit food distribution business. She has relentless compassion for those she serves and galvanizes others in
Catie Schadlick
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Catie is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. She manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect, share their ideas and experiences, she simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Chadd Hippensteel
Associate Community Manager
Chadd is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, and by leveraging our best practices, assists teams in creating and facilitating highly-engaged communities. He maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
Charles Hageman
KLM
Charles Hageman is responsible for developing KLMinTouch, KLM’s online research community. He is in charge for the daily management of this tool. Next to KLMinTouch, Charles also works on other research projects within KLM. He is working on several quantitative, qualitative, continuous and ad hoc studies, amongst others a joint Air France - KLM Brand Image Monitor.
Before starting working for KLM, Charles worked at several agencies as a quantitative and qualitative researcher. Charles studied and completed his Masters at the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and at the Leeds Business School in the UK.
Charlotte Birkner
Charlotte Birkner is currently pursuing her MBA at Babson College, concentrating in marketing and brand management. Prior to grad school Charlotte worked in advertising at The Atlantic Media Company in Washington DC as an Account Director for two of their media properties. A Bostonian since birth Charlotte is happy to be back in her native city. In her free time she likes to bake dairy free desserts, read, watch too much TV, tweet (@lottieeb), and write posts for her own blog.
Charlotte Daher
Senior Marketing Associate
As a Senior Marketing Associate, Charlotte is instrumental in keeping marketing running smoothly and efficiently at Communispace. Her laser sharp focus, combined with her strategic thinking contributes to the successful execution of conferences, client events, and lead-gen campaigns.
Chris Abraham
President & COO
Abraham Harrison
Chris Abraham, President and COO of Abraham Harrison, is a leading expert in online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet reputation management. A pioneer in online social networks and publishing, with a natural facility for anticipating the next big thing, Chris is an Internet analyst, web strategy consultant and advisor to the industries’ leading firms. He specializes in web2.0 technologies, including content syndication, online collaboration, blogging, and consumer generated media.
Christina Belsito
Associate Community Manager
Christina is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, and by leveraging our best practices, she assists teams in creating and facilitating highly engaged communities. She also maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
In her free time, Christina enjoys listening to her eclectic mix of indie and alternative music, spending time with her friends and family, going for long walks and making people laugh.
Cindy M
I am the mother of two, step mother of two, and Nana to three grandsons. My husband and I love remodeling our home and spend many of our weekends up to our elbows in paint, sawdust, etc. I work part time as a Newborn Hearing Screener. I am known on the floor as the baby whisperer. I am a coupon queen and rarely pay full price for anything I buy. I enjoy cooking and especially coming up with new soups for us to try.
Cindy Trish
VP, Client Services, Europe
As Vice President of Client Services, Europe, Cindy manages our London office and oversees the team of community consulting professionals who help our UK and European based clients connect with their customers in a new and meaningful way through private online communities. She provides thought leadership and account stewardship, setting a strategic framework to align client communities with their business priorities. In her role as Director, Cindy has overall responsibility on her client accounts for all aspects of client relationships, and for optimizing the strategic value of their investment. She also works closely with the Sales Team on business development opportunities.
Dan I
I just turned 25 today and am from Logan, Queensland (30km south of Brisbane) Australia. I am a town planner who works for an engineering company, tutors at the Queensland University of Technology part time as well as completing my final year of my graduate diploma.
Dana Bonkowski
VP, Media Director
Tapestry
A veteran media expert, Dana Bonkowski has been part of the Starcom MediaVest Group family for 15 years. An instrumental member of Tapestry, the country’s first and leading multicultural media agency, Dana is currently charged with developing, negotiating and implementing culturally relevant Hispanic and African American communication plans for Bank of America and Sara Lee. She's worked on a wide variety of clients including Allstate Insurance, Walt Disney World, ESPN Deportes, Kellogg's, Miller Brewing and Beam Global Spirits to name a few.
Dana began her career in the General Market with sister agency Starcom, creating strategic contact plans for brands such as Minute Maid, Pillsbury and Hallmark. It was Dana’s knack for tapping into multicultural insights that led her to join Tapestry in 2001, and contributed significantly to the growth of SMG's then newly-branded multicultural communications arm.
Her work at Tapestry is highly esteemed in the industry, and shows no signs of slowing down. Over the years her team has brought home a bevy of accolades; most recently a Gold MIXX award and a Gold CIMA award for provocative digital work on the Allstate account. Most recently AdAge highlighted Allstate’s Premios Novelas game-changing campaign – and it’s poised to take some awards in the upcoming months.
A graduate of Ohio University (Go Bobcats!), Dana graduated cum laude with a BSJ in Broadcast Journalism. Outside the office, she serves on the Board for the Kristin Linnea Skvarla Foundation, which celebrates and supports individuals who strive to discover, explore and positively change our world through service to others. She adores learning to hone her culinary and baking skills through the Food Network, The Cooking Channel, and Top Chef on Bravo. Guilty pleasures? The over-the-top exuberance of “Glee”, the twisty darkness of “Dexter”, and increasing her Twitter followers.
Dana is a mentor, an avid supporter of the performing arts, and a Multiple Sclerosis activist.
Dave Savage
Vice President, Community Consulting
As one of the founding members of the Communispace Corporation, David is deeply involved in the design and implementation of Communispace. From the initial prototype of the software in 1999 to the present and upcoming releases of the product, David has been listening to our growing number of customers and exploring web-based technologies.
Outside of work, David spends most of his free time with his wife and five children. David enjoys travel, competing in road races, and has been known to shoot a decent round of golf from time to time, though he admits his best rounds were played when he was about seventeen years old.
David Franke
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, David is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly-engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. He manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect and share their ideas and experiences, David simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Denis Pombriant
Founder & Managing Principal
Beagle Research Group, LLC
Denis Pombriant is the founder and managing principal of Beagle Research Group, LLC. He researches and writes about topics related to customer relationship management (CRM) and his work is widely published on the Internet. He is working on a book about the future of CRM.
Don Chanfrau
Director, Client Services
As a Director of Client Services at Communispace, Don is focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities, during the launch process and throughout the life of the community. He oversees client team management and provides strategic direction for clients on how to get the most out of their communities.
Don enjoys anything that is well-written, baseball, good food and drink, weekend-warrior fitness, and being on the Cape with his wife, Marybeth, and world-class golden retriever, Teddy.
Ed Chao
Director, Client Services
As a Director of Client Services at Communispace, Ed is focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities, during the launch process and throughout the life of the community. He oversees client team management and provides strategic direction for clients on how to get the most out of their communities. He also works with Communispace’s innovation team to develop advanced methodologies for uncovering new eye-opening insights for clients.
Elizabeth Paul
Senior Strategic Planner
The Martin Agency
Elizabeth is a Senior Strategic Planner at The Martin Agency
Federico Trovato
VP, Consumer Lifestyle
Philips
Federico Trovato, Vice President, Consumer Lifestyle, leads the Consumer Marketing Intelligence group at Philips. This group spearheads efforts to bring consumer insight and ideas into the innovation process early on and to keep that process close to consumers through every phase. As such, Federico has led the charge to ensure that Philips acts upon its mission to be truly consumer-centric. Before joining Philips, Federico built significant international experience in the areas of marketing, market research and sales, working for leading companies such as P&G and Benckiser in highly competitive markets. Federico also has extensive experience in emerging markets, an area he continues to focus on for Philips and has included in his community-based strategy.
Graceann Bennett
Managing Partner & Head of Strategic Planning
Ogilvy & Mather Chicago
Graceann Bennett is Managing Partner and head of Strategic Planning for Ogilvy & Mather Chicago. Most recently she published a paper, “Women in their Digital Domain: Digital paths to seeking, sharing, and shopping.” View the PDF here: http://tiny.cc/BOGhc
Graham Cannon
Director, Client Services
As a Director of Client Services at Communispace, Graham is focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities, during the launch process and throughout the life of the community. He oversees client team management and provides strategic direction for clients on how to get the most out of their communities.
Halley Suitt
Chief Editor
As Chief Editor, Halley drives editorial excellence across all departments at Communispace, making sure client documents are well-written, proofread and free of errors. Her responsibilities include setting editorial standards, establishing report style guidelines and training new hires and existing Communispace team members in writing, grammar and style.
Outside of work, Halley likes to spend time with her teenaged son hiking in the White Mountains, fishing, riding bikes, cooking and playing Scrabble. She loves reading long fiction, including Vikram Seth’s Suitable Boy, Trollope’s Can You Forgive Her? and Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend. She’s also a NASM certified personal trainer and loves working out and swimming.
Heather King
Human Resources Intern
Heather is a Business Management major and Communications minor about to enter her senior year at Bryant University in Rhode Island. She spent her freshman year at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, but soon opted for a school with a stronger business focus. She is originally from Brockton, Massachusetts, where she attended a high school of over 4,000 students. The first in her family to earn a college degree, she is working hard while exploring her varied interests in a multitude of different areas, especially Human Resources.
Outside of school, her interests include reading, going to concerts, yoga, walking her pug, and expanding her music collection. She recently had the opportunity to spend two weeks abroad in Germany, Austria, and Greece, and hopes to continue traveling in the future.
Jack Cahill
Manager, Corporate Support
As Manager of Corporate Support, Jack supervises the corporate technical support process for Communispace employees and contractors.
In his spare time Jack enjoys reading, exercise, anything done on Cape Cod, movies, politics, eating meals prepared by great chefs and teaching his African Grey Parrot new things to say to unsuspecting visitors to his house.
James Bailey
Marketing Manager
James Bailey is a Marketing Manager at Communispace. He is a highly experienced marketing professional with 14 years' experience in the high-tech and publishing industries in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston.
These days, James’ spare time is devoted to enjoying his vast and growing library, writing, cooking, running, and relaxing with his partner on their “urban farm” in Boston, where they live with their three rescued cats—Simon, Elsie, and Quigley, and an overly rambunctious Vizsla named Hugo.
Jay Williams
Throughout his career, Jay’s work has moved a lot of facial parts - not to mention moving perceptions, brands and sales. Clients like Royal Caribbean, RadioShack, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Fidelity, FootJoy, Coors, NOVA and others have all benefited from his strategic thinking and creative abilities.
Besides consumer audiences, he has also won praise and admiration from his industry peers. Considered a writer’s writer and a master of the brand “voice”, Jay has won virtually every advertising award there is to win – The One Show, Communication Arts, Kelly Awards, ANDY’S, D&AD, Clio, Webbys, Mercury. Even an emmy. (Plus 4 EFFIES, for those results-oriented folks out there.)
He lives with his wife Margaret, who is also a writer.
Their four children Maddie, Nick, Tom and Peter currently can’t figure out why anyone would ever want to sit down and write anything.
Jaycob Burns
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Jaycob deftly leverages our best practices, assisting teams in creating and facilitating highly engaged communities. He maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, strengthening the social glue that brings members together.
Jeff Ledellaytner
Spot Editorial
Jeff likes activities. If Jeff finds an activity particularly enjoyable or challenging, he will practice that activity until he has it mastered. During his youth, Jeff had so many hobbies that he had to de-prioritize certain ones because of hobby-overflow. Jeff learned to narrow his focus, concentrating on DJing, snowboarding, and video editing. Being his newest, most powerful hobby-child, video editing opened new doors of creativity for Jeff, but, to him, the idea of transforming raw footage into a polished final product was nothing new. This was something he had been doing for years with his turntables, melodiously splicing the sounds of two LP’s, and on his snowboard, carving his own creative flavor into a mountainous snowscape. At Spot, Jeff cuts video as fervently as he snowboards, harnessing his absurd imagination for use in a controlled office environment. Also, he can spin his pen around his thumb, which is the sickest.
Jen Maltby
Director, Idea Group
Jennifer Maltby is a Director in the Idea Group. She works with clients and team members to plan, design, and implement communities and deliver insightful and actionable reports.
In her past life, Jen was a brand planner for such advertising agencies as Mullen and most recently, Arnold Worldwide as an Associate Director of Brand Planning. She has worked on brands like ESPN, Eddie Bauer, Citizens Bank, Pergo, Tyson Foods, Vonage, Dunlop, and many others. Jen is all about learning what makes consumers tick. Job success means helping her clients identify ways to build a more meaningful and profitable relationship with their core target audience.
In her free time, Jen can be found at home with her daughters or in Florida visiting her family. She also enjoys cooking, watching the Food Network, reading mystery novels, and general tomfoolery. She hopes to one day find the time to sleep again and to go back to her role as a part-time professor at Boston University.
Jen Reddy
VP, Global Marketing
As the VP of Global Marketing at Communispace, Jen’s primary role is to expand our global reach while continuing to build upon our existing US presence. Some of her responsibilities include brand building, lead generation, thought leadership and product marketing.
Jennifer Adams
Director, Client Services
As a Director of Client Services at Communispace, Jennifer is focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities, during the launch process and throughout the life of the community. She oversees client team management and provides strategic direction for clients on how to get the most out of their communities.
Jeremy Epstein
Never Stop Marketing
Jeremy Epstein runs Never Stop Marketing, a firm that specializes in “cutting-edge Community Driven Marketing” for such clients as Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Yes To Carrots, and best-selling author Dan Pink. He blogs religiously at Igniting the Revolution and can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo, & FriendFeed.
Jessica Salpietro
Associate Community Manager
Jessica is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, and by leveraging our best practices, assists teams in creating and facilitating highly engaged communities. She maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
Jill D
I am a newlywed with an amazing husband, and almost as amazing beagle, named McGee. Right now, I work from home full time in the arena of global assignments. I help to relocate people (expatriates) all over the world, get their families settled, then help manage their payroll and taxes, and one day bring them back home. It is a very rewarding job and I could not see myself doing anything else. We three are originally from New Jersey, and we will be moving back to NJ this summer. After several years in Missouri, it will be a big change to our lifestyles, including me having to go back to an office and live the cubicle life (gasp!).
Jimmy Zimmerman
Jimmy is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, and by leveraging our best practices, assists teams in creating and facilitating highly engaged communities. He maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
Jimmy received his BA in Chinese and Spanish from Arizona State University. Born and raised in sizzling Arizona, Jimmy has traded in sand dunes for snow banks with his relocation to beautiful Boston. His leisure activities include cooking, blogging, going to concerts, chorus, piano, and singing jazz songs written well before your parents were born.
Joel Rubinson
Chief Research Officer
The ARF
Joel Rubinson is Chief Research Officer at The ARF, where he directs the organization’s research priorities and initiatives on behalf of more than 400 advertisers, advertising agencies, associations, research firms, and media companies. The ARF is the only organization that brings all members of the industry to the same table for strategic collaboration.
Jordan Vadnais
Planner
TBWA\Media Arts Lab
Jordan Vadnais is a Planner at TBWA\Media Arts Lab in Los Angeles. He now gets paid for doing the things that got him beat up in elementary school.
Josué Jansen
Associate Community Manager
Josué is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, and by leveraging our best practices, he assists teams in creating and facilitating highly-engaged communities. He maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
Julie Ruiz
Associate Community Manager
Julie is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, and, by leveraging our best practices, assists teams in creating and facilitating highly engaged communities. She maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
For fun Julie takes spinning classes, goes to the theatre and eats anything with Nutella on it.
Kaitlin McCafferty
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Kaitlin is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. She manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect, share their ideas and experiences, she simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Karen Barone
Director, Idea Group
As a Director in the Idea Group, Karen works with clients and team members to plan, design, and implement communities and deliver insightful and actionable reports.
Karen loves playing trivia games (much to her husband’s dismay) and cooking traditional Italian cuisine (not to her husband’s dismay), and she’s slowly adjusting to life after the series finale of the television show “The Wire.”
Karen Seiger
Karen Seiger, is the the author of the blog, Markets of New York City, and the guidebook, Markets of New York City: A Guide to the Best Artisan, Farmer, Food, and Flea Markets (Little Bookroom, 2010).
Because of her extraordinary experiences in markets all over the world, from the Hippie Fair in Rio de Janeiro, the Merced Market in Mexico City, and the food and craft markets in Mozambique to the Flea Barn off I-70 outside of Columbus, Ohio, she would rather shop in a market than any other kind of establishment. She knows all the farmers who come to her West Village farmers market every weekend from April to November. The markets are where she has found most of her best treasures – and recently her new favorite foods too.
Kassandra Duane
Director, Client Services
As a Director of Client Services at Communispace, Kassandra is focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities, during the launch process and throughout the life of the community. She oversees client team management and provides strategic direction for clients on how to get the most out of their communities.
Kat Lerman
Researcher & Corporate Videographer
As a Researcher at Communispace, Katrina conducts in-depth studies that explore participation trends and social dynamics within private online communities, shed fresh light on current trends and engage consumers in real conversations about their lives. Her work serves both internal and external clients, helping to provide thought leadership, support Communispace's value proposition and inform our best practices. Recent “hits” include “The Sandwich Situation: A layered look at the complex lives of multi-generational caregivers” and “Local Eyes: The newly focused consumer lens.”
Kathryn Korostoff
Founder
Research Rockstar
Kathryn Korostoff is a 20+ year veteran of the ever-evolving market research industry. She is the former CEO of Sage Research and founder of Research Rockstar, the only independent firm dedicated to online market research training. She welcomes any questions or comments here or via email, at KKorostoff@ResearchRockstar.com.
Katie Adams
Senior Consultant, Idea Group
As a Senior Consultant in the Idea Group, Katie works closely with her team and with the Community Managers to develop deep, meaningful insights that support the strategic initiatives of our clients.
Prior to AMP, Katie worked in public relations for the entertainment industry. After receiving a BA in Communication from Villanova University, she happily delayed entry into the “real world” to take part in a yearlong volunteer program, which landed her in Red Sox country. Outside of work, Katie enjoys dining out, diving into her Netflix and DVR queues, "cracking wise," and (when she’s feeling particularly vivacious) watching loud rock music on the weekends.
Keith S
A forty-four year old ELCA Lutheran pastor and father of three. Married for the past 20 years to the woman of my dreams. U.S. Naval Academy graduate and early career on a navy frigate and the Island of Guam as a navy lieutenant. Currently a Doctor of Ministry serving Trinity Lutheran Church in Pembroke Pines, Florida, as her pastor. Love bread baking and teaching others the same. Love butterfly gardening and tend my own and the churches extensive gardens. Love cooking, particularly Italian. My wife has signed us both up to run the Disney marathon this winter, so I better learn to run soon.
Kendra Metzger
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Kendra is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. She manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect, share their ideas and experiences, she simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Kevin Link
VP, Marketing
Hughes Telematics, Inc.
Kevin Link is VP of Marketing of Hughes Telematics Inc., a telematics service company, and currently serves as Vice President. In this position, he is responsible for product research and development, branding, marketing, public relations and assists with defining overall corporate strategy.
Koby M
Im an aspiring visual artist that loves music and food. I like to hang out as well as read and watch movies and documentaries and stuff.
Kristin Bassett
Associate Community Manager
Kristin is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, and by leveraging our best practices, she assists teams in creating and facilitating highly-engaged communities. She maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
Outside of work, Kristin enjoys spending time with her “Little Sister” from Big Brothers Big Sisters, watching movies on her endless Netflix queue and aimlessly adventuring around the city. She is also notorious for changing her nail polish color at least once a week.
Kristina Cantelli
Brand Planner
Mechanica
As a Brand Planner at Mechanica (a next-generation branding firm) Kristina works with a blend of traditional and contemporary research methodologies to uncover deep consumer and brand insights. She has worked with a number of reputable brands helping them rethink and sharpen their strategy and become smarter marketers. While at Mechanica she has helped guide strategy for BookingBuddy, Nutrisystem, Trulia, Symantec Health, Integrity, Boston Beer, Disney, Weight Watchers, Inc. magazine and American Heritage Dictionary.
Laura Naylor
Vice President of Member Services
Laura Naylor joined Communispace in April 2008 as VP, Member Services to champion our efforts of continually innovating the delivery of recruitment and incentive benefits for our communities to ensure their vibrancy and success.
Laura received her BA from St. Lawrence University, her MBA from Columbia Business School and has been an adjunct professor at New York University for their Masters in Direct Marketing.
In her personal time, Laura enjoys spending time with her husband and two young children at soccer games, swim lessons, ski areas, and any other outdoor adventure that tires them out. Laura also enjoys anything culinary with a particular focus on sharing her kitchen creations with friends and family.
Libby Russell
CORE Associate
Libby is a CORE Associate at Communispace. She spends her time and energy programming activities and helping colleagues with various administrative tasks.
Libby is originally from southern Maine and therefore loves all things outdoors, New England and ocean-oriented. She can be found exploring the Casco Bay islands by boat in the summer or skiing Sunday River in the winter. In her free time she loves to run outside, cook, overindulge in reality TV, do arts and crafts, go on spontaneous adventures and watch any and all Boston sports teams.
Lou Tamposi
Lou Tamposi is a rising junior at Tufts University. He is studying English with a minor in the Entrepreneurial Leadership program. He also served as a Marketing Intern at Citrus Hills Investment Properties, where he worked to enhance the company's social media presence. Prior to that, he was a counselor at Pinemere Camp where he was the Swim and Stay Fit coordinator, as well as full-time counselor for eight campers ages 9 through 11.
Maria Rapp
Managing Director, Europe
Maria Rapp spearheads Communispace’s European Operations—including offices in the UK and Italy—and she is a critical cog in the company’s growth strategy as it expands its international footprint. Maria has been a key member of the Communispace team since its inception. In addition to launching the company’s European presence and securing its foothold as a global player, she has also driven Communispace’s entrée into important segments such as African-American families and Spanish-speaking consumers. In her tenure at Communispace, Maria has helped to secure and cultivate long-term, successful relationships with marquee clients, such as Philips, KLM, Reckitt Benckiser, Kraft, Unilever, Best Buy, ConAgra Foods and CDW. She now oversees the implementation team that provides Communispace’s local European clients with world-class infrastructure support.
Mark Cohen
Senior Community Manager
Mark is a Senior Community Manager at Communispace, focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities. He ensures that client teams strive to exceed clients’ expectations and consistently deliver actionable insights.
Outside of work, Mark enjoys alpine and cross-country skiing, cycling, hiking, cinema, theater, attending concerts, and reading. Travel and food are his personal passions and he takes pleasure in cooking international foods.
Matt Lindley
Founder
OneZero Media
Matt Lindley knows Jay Williams, which is cool. Matt is a former ECD at Arnold, managing director at Modernista, founder of OneZero Media, a CMGi and ZDNet geek and one-time restaurant owner. He's currently at LocaModa, a technology distribution platform for out-of-home digital media.
Melanie Buck
Senior Marketing Manager
Microsoft
Melanie Buck is a Senior Marketing Manager at Microsoft. Her professional background also includes strategic communications, competitive positioning, and public relations. She currently specializes in turning consumer research into actionable insights and targeting the right customers with the right messages.
Merrily McGugan
Associate Community Manager
Merrily comes to Communispace after living and working in Sydney, Australia for three years. Following a dream role in 2006 as a researcher/writer for the Let’s Go international travel guidebook series, Merrily returned to more familiar shores to work at Boston-based Arnold Worldwide advertising agency.
After receiving a BA with honors from Harvard University, Merrily relocated to Sydney in 2010 to continue her career at Accenture as a Creative Services Account Manager, leading a team of digital and print designers and working with an array of international clients.
Outside of the office, Merrily enjoys traveling (23 countries visited so far), blogging for Boston-based fitness site RateYourBurn.com, and snowboarding.
Micah Donahue
Principal, Contact Strategy Director
Mechanica
As Contact Strategy Director at Mechanica (a next-generation branding firm), Micah is responsible for developing integrated media and channel approaches. Unlike traditional media "integration," Contact Strategists are charged with taking a completely solutions-agnostic approach to reach client goals. The contact strategies Micah and his team construct recognize a 360-degree view of the customer, optimizing a wide range of touchpoints including internal communications, social media, advertising, web sites, direct marketing, call centers, and viral programs. Micah’s experience includes 15 years of building brands and businesses with passion, industry expertise, and innovative solutions. Currently, Micah leads Mechanica’s Contact Strategy discipline, and initiatives for Communispace, Fallon Community Health Plan, Kronos, PTC, and Saucony.
Mike Dumbroski
Vice President, Community Consulting
As Vice President of Community Consulting at Communispace, Mike leads teams of consulting professionals who help clients connect with their customers in new and insightful ways. He is focused on aligning community efforts to clients’ business priorities, and provides strategic direction for clients on how to get the most out of their private online communities. Mike has worked with a host of Communispace clients across a range of industries—including consumer packaged goods, financial services, hospitality, media and entertainment and technology.
A rabid film buff, Mike can often be found at the movies or watching the latest Netflix offering with friends. He also enjoys exploring new restaurants, discovering new bands, cooking, running and spending time outdoors with his partner and their 90-pound "puppy," Gladys.
Mike Jennings
Senior Researcher
As a Senior Researcher on the Research and Innovation team, Michael studies online communication within our communities in order to understand how members interact with each other as well as with our clients. He is also responsible for monitoring the social media landscape, integrating new methodologies into our offering, managing cross-community research initiatives, and designing R&D activities in our proprietary communities.
Michael earned his MA in Sociology from California State University, where he ethnographically studied tourism within Redwood National Park. He received a BA in Anthropology from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and is currently teaching sociology courses at Bay State College. In his spare time he enjoys surfing, snowboarding, and freelance journalism.
Mollie Garberg
Director, Client Services
As a Director of Client Services at Communispace, Mollie is focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities, during the launch process and throughout the life of the community. She oversees client team management and provides strategic direction for clients on how to get the most out of their communities.
She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University and obtained her MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Aside from spending time with her family, Mollie also actively works on local political and educational issues.
Nate Franklin
Consultant, Idea Group
As a Consultant in the Idea Group, Nate builds on his past experience as a Communispace Community Manager to help clients and internal teams develop strategy and leverage best practices to deliver actionable insights. Previously, Nate worked at Cool Dog Inc., a small start-up ice cream manufacturing company in Boston. While employed there he was directly involved in developing the company’s national marketing campaign, as well as leading a multi-state in-store demo and sampling program for the entire New England region. He also worked closely with the sales team to launch the new product into convenience stores across Massachusetts.
Patrick Griffin
Chairman
Griffin York & Krause
Patrick Griffin is a longtime New England ad man. He has won numerous awards for creative advertising in print and broadcast. He is also the premiere political consultant for the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire presidential primary. He is chairman of Griffin York & Krause a marketing innovation company and also the author of Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain http://thatmanbehindthecurtain.com/.
Peter Kim
Managing Director, North America
Dachis Group
Peter Kim is Managing Director, North America at Dachis Group. He blogs at "Being Peter Kim" (http://www.beingpeterkim.com/) and tweets as @peterkim (http://twitter.com/peterkim).
Raela Ripaldi
Director, Client Services
As a Director of Client Services at Communispace, Raela is focused on aligning communities to clients’ business objectives and priorities, during the launch process and throughout the life of the community. She oversees client team management and provides strategic direction for clients on how to get the most out of their communities.
Renee Piazza
Director, Idea Group
As a Director in the Idea Group, Renee works with clients and team members to plan, design, and implement communities and deliver insightful and actionable reports.
Passionate about travel, Renee dreams one day of having a home in Italy where she can spend lots of time eating great food and drinking great wine with family and friends. She loves the outdoors, especially hiking, running, skiing, and scuba diving. At home, she unwinds by reading, watching movies, going to museums, eating her husband's great cooking, and playing with her daughter and cat.
Richard Weiss
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Rich is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. He manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect, share their ideas and experiences, he simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Rindy & Jimmy
Jimmy is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace, where he assists teams in gathering insights from online communities of global consumers. Previously, Jimmy spent three years in China and Taiwan, where he mastered the Mandarin Chinese language. In China, he worked as a freelance interpreter, co-hosted an educational TV show, and took third place in Beijing TV’s “Foreigners with Chinese Talent Competition." In addition, he loves P.F. Chang’s, even though it’s not “real” Chinese food.
Rita Reznikova
Associate Community Manager
Rita is an Associate Community Manager at Communispace and by leveraging our best practices, assists teams in creating and facilitating highly-engaged communities. She maintains overall community functionality and vibrancy, building upon the social glue that brings members together.
Rocky Prozeller
Rocky is passionate about his family and his dog, Izzy McQueen, dubbed for her uncanny ability to make great escapes from anywhere, Rocky expends his abundant energy by running, weight training, reading, and rooting for another Red Sox World Series ring.
Roy Dykes
Product Lead for Design Services
Network Solutions
Roy Dykes is a Product Lead for Design Services at Network Solutions. He has a tremendous amount of Product Management experience in telecommunications, hardware, manufacturing and Internet industries. Roy is very interested in hearing what you have to say about all aspects of website design and development and design services.
Sarah Jamali
Sarah is currently pursuing her MBA at Boston University, specializing in Strategy and Business Analysis. Prior to her return to school, Sarah most recently worked as a Sales Analyst at l’Oreal Canada within their Luxury Products division. Originally from Montreal, Sarah has spent her summer discovering all that Boston has to offer! In her spare time, she enjoys dining with friends, attending virtually any concert and watching really bad reality TV.
Scott Schulman
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Scott is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. He manages the day-to-day community operations. By encouraging people to connect, share their ideas and experiences, he simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Shashi Bellamkonda
Network Solutions
Shashi Bellamkonda works at the heart of Web hosting company, Network Solutions, as their first-ever 'Social Media Swami'. In this leadership role he has helped Network Solutions aggressively move into the online space to actively listen to and interact with its customers. This push paid off when Network Solutions won the 2008 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Award for Online Reputation Management and the 2009 a Gold Quill Award of Excellence in Social Media from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
Shruti Saini
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Shruti is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. She manages day-to-day community operations, and through encouraging people to connect and share their ideas and experiences, she simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Silvia Vianello
Silvia Vianello, PhD in Economics and Organization, is currently an Assistant Professor of marketing at SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan, Italy. In the past, Visiting Scholar at Jones Graduate Business School of Management, Rice University, Houston, Texas and Visiting Professor at the European School Of Economics, New Your. Her consulting, teaching and researching interests include digital marketing, marketing management, and pricing.
Siobhan Dullea
Chief Client Officer
Siobhan is a Communispace veteran, having built and expanded the business since 2000. She is responsible for everything that touches the customer. As a member of the Executive Leadership team and head of Client Services, she is obsessed with supporting brilliant Client Services teams to do groundbreaking and business-changing work for clients, as well as making Communispace a strong company and fantastic place to work.
Stephanie Bakkum
Community Manager
As a Community Manager at Communispace, Stephanie is focused on utilizing our best practices to create highly engaged communities that yield actionable insights for our clients. By encouraging people to connect and share their ideas and experiences, Stephanie simultaneously empowers consumers and offers clients creative business solutions.
Tammie H
A little about yourself: I'm a young adult librarian and a bit of a nerd, so of course I love to read. I love fantasy and science fiction, and I hope to finish my young adult novel one day. I should mention my Bachelor's degree is in creative writing. I met my husband in creative writing class, actually. We have two cats and no kids. I'm always dabbling in arts and crafts, from pressing flowers to painting to making wire and bead jewelry. I love the surreal and fantastic, and the preposterous and hilarious goings-ons in the world. I play Dungeons & Dragons with a group of library employees once a week. That's me in a nutshell.
Ted Morris
SVP, Global Alliances
Ted is a veteran of the Social Media space, WOMMA pioneer and thought leader. Most recently Ted was SVP, global alliances, for a startup social media monitoring company. Prior to that, he was an IBM CRM strategy & process consultant and session leader at IBM's Advanced Business Institute in New York. Ted frequently speaks out on business issues related to brands and social media and has done so for Advertising Age, The Advertising Research Foundation, The Advertiser, ForbesAuto.com, CNN Money, ESOMAR and the American Marketing Association. He is currently a lead contributor to the development of 4ScreenMedia, a think tank devoted to managing online brand initiatives. In his spare time Ted insists on golfing and is somewhat successful in training Freddy, his black standard poodle. www.twitter.com/morristed
Ted Nelson
CEO
Mechanica
Ted is a very hands-on CEO, and one of four founding partners who conceived and launched Mechanica. His responsibilities include contributing to the building and management of a next-generation business model and organization, as well as general strategic oversight across Mechanica’s clients and their businesses.
Tom Brailsford
Manager, Advancing Capabilities
Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Thomas W. Brailsford is Manager of Advancing Capabilities in the Consumer Understanding & Insights Division at Hallmark Cards, Inc., in Kansas City, Missouri. The Advancing Capabilities Team focuses on creating new capabilities to better understand people, society, and the marketplace. These new capabilities involve applications of technology, leverage of other disciplines and knowledge domains, and understanding the latest learnings in how the brain works in an effort to better understand people. The intent is to keep Hallmark’s Consumer Understanding & Insights group on the leading edge of consumer understanding and empathy.
Yukun Harsono
VP, Marketing
A&G Products
As Vice President of Marketing for A&G Products, Yukun leads the marketing direction for Elsevier’s flagship online research database products including Scopus, ScienceDirect and Scirus.
