Congratulations to the Volunteers of 2007!

It takes a team of people develop and manage the great events that the Cincinnati AMA offers. Each member below received special recognition for going above and beyond to serve the chapter and its members.  We thank all of our volunteers for their outstanding efforts.

November, 2007 – Ben Baker

Ben Baker serves on the YP committee and has been responsible for orchestrating many Young Professionals  events including event ideas, event planning, event marketing, and more. Ben also serves on the Sponsorship Committee as well as the Technology Committee.  His company, Profitability.Net allows the YP group to utilize SendIt, one of the many services that Profitability.Net has to offer.

Formed in 2002, Profitability.Net is a local technology firm of experienced professionals specializing in shared hosting, email management, collocation, and data center services.  The Cincinnati AMA would like to thank Profitability.Net for hosting our website cincinnatiama.org.

October, 2007 – Gayle Gerhardt

Gayle is an independent consultant and President of Gerhardt Marketing Research, a firm specializing in quantitative research, questionnaire design and report writing.  After beginning her career on the supplier side of marketing research, she moved to the corporate side, working in soft drinks, supermarkets and financial services.  Four years ago she returned to the supplier side.

Three years ago, Gayle followed her passion of knowledge transfer and began teaching.  Currently, she is a Faculty Practitioner for The University of Phoenix teaching marketing, public relations and critical thinking.  She teaches at the West Chester, OH campus and online.

Gayle first became actively involved in the Cincinnati AMA as a Marketing Communications Committee (MCC) member in 2000.  In the spring of 2001, Gayle conducted the Chapter’s Year-End Annual Member Survey, incorporating questions that the MCC wanted to ask the membership.

Seeing the need for a more formalized marketing research function within the Chapter, Gayle volunteered to chair the committee and became the first Vice President of Marketing Research (MR) for the 2001-2002 fiscal year.  That winter, Gayle and the committee initiated and directed a series of focus groups among Chapter members in order to lay the ground work for understanding member expectations, wants and needs.  During that time, Gayle and the MR Committee revised the monthly luncheon/seminar survey.  That questionnaire, which is still used today, tracks satisfaction with our programming.

Gayle has been a contributing member and historian of the MR Committee ever since it’s beginning.  We appreciate Gayle’s taking on additional responsibilities in our new season and her continuing dedication to the AMA!

September, 2007 – Ann Flynn

Ann co-founded Beyond Data, Inc. in 1996 as a full-service research & strategic planning firm, specializing in custom strategic and product-focused studies.  We provide business-to-business and consumer research and we are a Certified Women-Owned Business.  Our projects tend to be built around decisions to be made, with our goal to help manage the risk of moving forward.
Ann has served on the membership committee since 2000 as well as serving as VP Membership two different terms.  We appreciate Ann’s continuing dedication to the AMA.

August, 2007 – Tom Sullivan

Tom is President of Thomas J. Sullivan & Associates, a marketing consulting firm. Prior to forming TJS&A, he was President of Porter & Associates, a Des Moines, Iowa advertising agency. Previously he held executive management positions with Ketchum Communications in Pittsburgh and Chicago, and marketing management positions with Litton Industries, Tappan Appliances and Chrysler Corporation. A graduate of the University of Dayton, he also has  Continuous Quality Improvement Facilitator certification from the Center for Continuous Quality Improvement at Iowa State University, with continuing education including Executive Programs at Northwestern University and Harbridge House Business Management Program.

Tom served as President of the Cincinnati Chapter of the AMA for two years (2004-2006). He also served as VP Professional Development in 2003. We would like to thank him for his leadership and dedication to the AMA.

July, 2007 – Matt Massey

Matt has served on the board as the Chair of the Market Research Committee for the past two years.  The committee’s most recent accomplishment was the launch of an MR SIG for the chapter.

Matt currently works for TNS NFO, a large full-service market research firm in downtown Cincinnati.  He is an analyst for the laundry and fabric-enhancers division.

When Matt is not researching, he enjoys playing tennis and volunteering.

June, 2007 – Maureen O’Brien

Maureen O’Brien, Ph.D. is Vice President of Analytical for SRBI’s Market Insight Division and has been with SRBI for 3 years.  She is an established research professional with 15 years of research expertise.  She has conducted and managed research in restaurants and retail, technology, health care, consumer packaged goods, retail and financial services.  Maureen holds a Ph.D. in Applied Social Psychology from Loyola University-Chicago.

Over the past year, Maureen has served on the AMA-Cincinnati Chapter Board of Director’s as the VP of Professional Development.  She and her hard working committee did an outstanding job getting top-notch speakers for our 2006-07 program year bringing in some of our highest attendance at meetings in recent years. We would like to thank her for her service to our chapter this past year.

May, 2007 – Stacy Stufft

As the Consumer Practice Group lead for Dan Pinger Public Relations, Stacy manages the agency’s work for consumer product and service clients. Representing national brand leaders in the retail, hospitality and entertainment and building products industries. Stacy’s strategic direction helps strengthen brand equity and bring new products and services to market. Stacy is a member of the Public Relations Soceity of America, was recently chair of holiday events for the City of Madeira Parks and Recreation Board and also served on the promotions committee for the YWCA Career Women of Achievement award.

Stacy has been an AMA member for 5 years and currently volunteers on the AMA’s Marketing Communications Committee. She has been involved with the Marcom Committee for the last 3 years, serving as the Committee Chairperson in 2004-05. She has assisted the Committee in developing a variety of marketing materials for the membership and sponsorship committees and has also helped with the public relations for our monthly luncheons. Stacy is a great volunteer who always attends the luncheons and special events as well as volunteers for many other committee projects. We greatly appreciate all Stacy has done for the AMA.

April, 2007 – Pat Frew

Pat Frew has dedicated a great deal of time to our Chapter by serving both on committees and on the Board in various positions (VP Professional Development, President Elect, and next year President).  The chapter is very lucky to have Pat as he expends an enormous amount of time and enthusiasm  helping AMA committees on an ad-hoc basis and this year has spear-headed the development of a CMO Roundtable advisory group for the chapter.  In addition to all of these activities, Pat has a soft heart for unemployed members who he meets with regularly assisting them with networking, job referrals, etc…

Pat has had a long career in PR and Marketing.  He began his career as a broadcast news journalist for WLW nearly 20 years ago.  Since then he has served as a public relations consultant, marketing director for Northwestern Mutual Life and leading law firm Frost Brown Todd and has even served in a fund-raising capacity for CET Public Television.  He is very involved in the Northern Kentucky business community serving as a member of the Chamber of Commerce Public Relations Committee and Chairing the Southbank Partners Marketing Committee.  He is also an alumni of the Leadership Northern Kentucky program.

Pat currently works for the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau as Communications Director where he helps to promote and advance the merits of visiting Northern Kentucky, whether you are a conventioneer or a leisure traveler.

March, 2007 – Jesy Herron

In addition to helping her DocuStar customers and making prospect calls for AMA, Jesy has discovered a new activity – race car driving!

Jesy is a contestant on Reality Racing Rookie Challenge Season 1, scheduled to air on Spike TV this May through August.  She is one of 15 contestants competing and learning how to drive a race car (see www.realityracingtv.com). Tune in this summer to watch Jesy behind the wheel.

AMA members may have met Jesy through her enthusiastic efforts on the membership committee. She frequently helps at the luncheon registration table and most recently at the YP event at Know Theatre. Jesy also eagerly offers to make follow up calls to prospects after they have attended an AMA event.

Jesy Herron is a sales representative for DocuStar Digital Printing and Communications Company located in Woodlawn. She has been serving DocuStar clients for almost five years. Through consultation and creativity, Jesy helps her clients find a solution that fits their needs.

Cincinnati AMA is fortunate to have active, enthusiastic volunteers such as Jesy!

February, 2007 – Jennifer Panepinto

Jennifer Panepinto is the Principal and Owner of Market Write – The THINK in the INK.   Through extensive and enthusiastic analysis, she creates clever marketing communications and messaging that complement each client’s situation and objectives.  Jennifer is also an experienced market researcher, performing both qualitative and quantitative research studies.

Jennifer serves on the AMA’s Cincinnati Chapter Marketing Communication Committee and was the champion of the website subcommittee. She was responsible for coordinating the development and copywriting of the new AMA website which was just recently launched in January.  In addition to serving on the Marcom Committee, she also lent her expertise and knowledge as a panel speaker at the Small Business Marketing Seminar in April 2006.  Jennifer is a great volunteer who always attends the luncheons and special events as well as volunteers for many other committee projects.  We greatly appreciate all Jennifer has done for the AMA.

January, 2007 – Scott Jacobs

Scott Jacobs, Marketing Strategist, is the Founder of Harvest Consulting LLC. He has over 25 years success in sales, management, branding and marketing and has provided competitive analysis, direct marketing, positioning, logo development, copy/promotional strategies, and strategic marketing plan development for clients including P & G, Luxottica Retail, Kendle International, Cognis Corporation, Cincinnati Zoo, and AraMark Services. Scott provides probono marketing services for Beech Acres Parenting Center and has cofounded a networking group to help colleagues make connections for new employment and potential business opportunities. Scott enjoys camping with his two sons.

Scott has been a great asset to the program committee. He secured all the speakers and presentations for the November Word-of-Mouth luncheon that was one of our highest attended meetings in recent history with over 180 people in attendance. Scott was solely responsible for getting about 30 people to attend the event through his own word-of-mouth efforts. Scott will be missed on the program committee as he has recently been elected to fill the VP Sponsorship position. We are sure that his commitment and leadership skills will flourish as he serves on the Board in the coming year.