Masters of Business Online

Chris Baggott

CEO/Co-Founder, Compendium Blogware

Co-founder Chris Baggott was a religious blogger, but a frustrated one. Sure, his email marketing best practices blog had won some notable awards, but the road there was long and painful due to serious usability issues. From his own personal experiences, Chris saw the opportunity to create a user-friendly blogging tool. And better yet, to create it in the mindset of an organization that wants to use blogs in order to accomplish real goals such as higher lead generation and revenues.

Prior to co-founding Compendium Blogware, Chris was co-founder and CMO of ExactTarget, a leading on-demand email marketing company.

Ron Brumbarger

President/CEO, BitWise Solutions, Inc.

Ron Brumbarger is one of Indiana’s most recognized technology entrepreneurs and visionaries. He has spent his entire professional career leveraging an entrepreneurial mindset applied via technology to enhance business practices, improve operational performance, and facilitate organizational growth. He co-founded BitWise Solutions in 1992 and has served as the company’s president and chief executive officer ever since. Brumbarger has grown the company from a start-up into one of this state’s most accomplished and well-respected technology consultancies. As a serial entrepreneur, Brumbarger has started half-dozen companies and assisted dozens in their startup and planning phases. 

Today, BitWise employs 25 professionals, has an impressive roster of nearly 1,000+ satisfied clients, and has successfully implemented more than 3,100 engagements. The company has been awarded the Indiana Growth 100 award for 5 consecutive years. He is frequently called upon to speak on topics such as entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and various technology-related topics. 

Tim Altom

Consultant, Coremetrics

Tim Altom is a consultant in the Strategic Services division of Coremetrics, a premier Web analytics firm headquartered in San Mateo, CA. In this capacity, he has worked with clients such as Macy’s, Nordstrom, Lenox Group, Oodle.com, Dun and Bradstreet, and Office Depot, helping them optimize their tagging, reporting and data mining.

Tim holds a master’s degree in human-computer interaction from the School of Informatics, Indiana University, and teaches both statistics and human-computer interaction at IUPUI.

Jim Brown

President, EverEffect

Jim is an expert in business development. Founder and President of the marketing firm Accent Creative Group, Jim developed and implemented marketing initiatives that enabled the firm to double its revenues during each of its first three years in business. Jim's insightful and innovative approach to marketing led to his listing in The 2006 Who's Who of Small Business Marketing. An award-winning Graphic Designer and Creative Director, he led the team that worked with Cummins Inc. to provide art and graphics in support of the 2006 Six Sigma Quality Chairman Awards.

In 2007, Jim founded the Online Marketing Firm - EverEffect. The notion that creative development had to be mixed with strategic planning in order to produce measurable results was at the core of the online start-up. Always an advocate for education, Jim organized the Masters of Business Online to help marketers maintain a competitive advantage online.

Jim sits on the advisory board for the Rainmakers Marketing Group, and is active in the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. Jim is also a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

Douglas Karr

President, DK New Media

Douglas Karr has been in the Advertising and Marketing Technology space for over two decades. The clients that he's worked with directly are an impressive and diverse collection of international companies. Douglas has worked for and with ExactTarget, Wild Birds Unlimited, The Home Depot, Icelandair, United Airlines, Hotels.com, The Indianapolis Colts, The Toronto Globe and Mail, The New York Times, Gannett and dozens of other corporations to assist in acquisition, retention strategies using direct marketing, database marketing, search, social media and email marketing.

Douglas is a founder of SmallerIndiana.com, owner of NavyVets.com, a member of the 2012 Super Bowl Bid Committee, and the Director of Technology for a young startup in Indianapolis, Patronpath. Patronpath is a premier marketing and ecommerce company within the Restaurant Industry and 2008 Mira Award winner. You can find his blog, The Marketing Technology Blog at www.marketingtechblog.com

Jonathan Arnold

President, Tuitive

Jonathan Arnold is founder and president of Tuitive, an Indianapolis-based team of designers and developers committed to improving how technology interacts with human beings. Tuitive is noted for its focus on user-centered design, making websites and software more user-friendly. One high-profile client is Flixter, whose latest Tuitive-designed project has been installed by more than four million MySpace users.

While guiding Tuitive through an aggressive expansion of capabilities and bricks-and-mortar facilities, Jon Arnold continues to monitor trends, expose lame and lazy engineering, and advocate for humans in our ongoing struggle with technology. It’s a rare moment when both sides of his brain aren’t firing at once.

Jon Arnold’s journey has taken him from software specialist and trainer to designer and, since 1998, president of Tuitive (formerly Descom). A continual student of human behavior, Jon has dedicated his career and company to making web-based products and services more intuitive and enjoyable to use.

Troy Burk

President/Founder, Right On Interactive

Troy is a marketing technology veteran having spent the past 13 years helping clients more effectively utilize customer data and technology to solve business challenges. Troy has worked in the CRM, email marketing, and e-procurement industries and is regarded as a strategic database marketer and an e-mail marketing subject matter expert. Troy has helped hundreds of clients with their email marketing and CRM initiatives by effectively leveraging software solutions to drive measurable business results.

Troy is a frequent speaker on the topics of marketing automation, database marketing, and customer lifecycle management. Prior to starting Right On Interactive, Troy worked for ExactTarget for five years as Central Director of Sales.

Pat East

President, Hanapin Marketing

Pat East founded Hanapin Marketing in 2004, after having implemented and managed the pay per click advertising and email marketing campaigns for AuthorHouse, helping them become the world’s largest book publisher just six years after their founding. During his tenure as Director of Marketing, Pat helped grow AuthorHouse’s annual revenue from $6MM to $20MM. AuthorHouse became Hanapin Marketing’s first client, speaking volumes to Mr. East’s unique knowledge in this space as well as the partnership approach he takes with clients.

With a staff of search engine and web development specialists, Hanapin Marketing has worked with 50+ clients, 20 of which are currently on a monthly retainer. These include four Indiana Growth 100 winners, two Inc 500 winners and two Fortune 500 companies. Hanapin Marketing has developed an expertise in understanding the idiosyncrasies of doing business online and looking at each program from the business owner’s perspective. Whether your website sells products or generates sales leads, Hanapin Marketing understands how search engines and the Internet can generate high-yield results.

Jason Falls

Social Media Explorer, Doe Anderson

Jason Falls has quickly risen to prominence as one of the most well-respected social media strategists and presenters in the U.S. As the Director of Social Media at Doe-Anderson, a Louisville, Ky.-based brand-building agency, he oversees social media and Internet marketing strategies for iconic brands such as Maker's Mark and Knob Creek bourbons. Falls's aggressive approach to social media has produced innovative programs such as the Jim Beam Baja Twitter Tracker, a micro-blogging effort following Robby Gordon's progress in the 2007 Baja 1000 in Mexico and Jim Beam's Here's To The Stuff Inside campaign (www.stuffinside.com) which has been noted as the first major social media-based effort of any spirits company. Falls also spearheaded "Bill's Blog," the first known brand blog in the spirits industry authored by Bill Samuels Jr., and staff at Maker's Mark.

Falls is the cofounder of the Social Media Club Louisville. His blog, SocialMediaExplorer.com, is one of the most widely read and rated in the social media, marketing and public relations category and can be found on the Advertising Age Power 150 and Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs lists. With a mix of wit and candor, Falls both informs and entertains as he explores and discusses issues of the day in the on-line marketing world. Falls also provides content and commentary for FoodVu.com and DailyIdea.tv as a video blogger.

Amy Zucker

President, Synergy Marketing Group

As president and founder of Synergy Marketing Group, Amy Zucker is a marketing, branding and public relations veteran with 15 years of industry expertise. She started the company 5 years ago to serve the business-to-business community, and today Synergy is one of Indianapolis’ top 20 agencies with an impressive roster of B2B and B2C clients. In an effort to help her clients generate awareness in the global marketplace, build credibility, create demand and quantify their marketing investment, Amy leverages new interactive public relations strategies. These include blogging, forum posting, Internet monitoring, search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting, e-zine media relations, e-newsletter publishing, online social networking, Web wires and more.

In 2007 Amy secured a Woman-owned Business Enterprise (WBE) certification to bring added value to Synergy’s clients and vendor partners who want to meet corporate supplier diversity program goals and qualify for new business opportunities in government and regulated industries.

Jim Cockrum

Consultant, Web Geek Marketing

Jim Cockrum has inspired tens of thousands of people with his creative yet down to earth style. He's sold millions of dollars of products and services online and has helped others start successful eBay and online businesses since 2000. He earns his living from the Internet and he works full-time educating others how to run successful Internet and eBay businesses. Jim's newsletter is read by over 100,000 subscribers.

He has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, eBay radio, Online Marketing Monthly magazine and countless other publications.