It’s that Time Again – Are you a Leader?
If you are looking for a rewarding, challenging way to advance your career by gaining leadership experience, theAustin chapter of the AMA wants you!
We are currently accepting applications for positions on our Board of Directors for the 2012-2013 year. Candidates should be current AMA members with previous experience serving in a volunteer leadership capacity. Those selected for leadership positions will serve a 1-year term that begins in July 2012. If you are interested, please fill out our Austin Board Nomination Form.
If you are interested in this great opportunity to make connections, gain real world marketing and leadership experience and be of service to the Austin marketing community, please submit your application to www.austinama.org/bod by December 15. If you have any questions, contact us at nominations@austinama.org.
President: Angela Brutsché
As the director of marketing and communications for the Austin Board of REALTORS® (ABoR), Angela Brutsché works to promote REALTORS® and homeownership throughout Central Texas using vehicles such as AustinHomeSearch.com. Prior to her employment at ABoR, Angela held various sales and marketing positions in the healthcare and technology fields. In addition to her commitment to AMA, Angela volunteers for Communities in Schools and Junior Achievement. Angela holds an MBA from Texas State University and a BA from St. Edward’s University.
President-Elect: Michelle Vrudhula
Michelle Vrudhula is the Vice President of Marketing for Customer Research International (CRI). CRI provides market research strategies for a variety of clients in the marketing world. As one of the founders and principals of the company, Michelle uses her 15+ years of experience to suggest the best strategies and solutions for CRI’s clients. This is her fourth term on the board, after being Treasurer, VP of Membership and Secretary. CRI is proud to be the Market Research sponsor for the Austin chapter of the AMA.
Secretary: Amanda Koellhofer
Amanda Koellhofer has more than 10 years experience in marketing, with a focus in online marketing and events at both large and small companies. She has been on the Austin AMA Board for six years and also volunteers at the Mothers Milk Bank of Austin, GENaustin and serves on the Board of the TLLC Child Development Center. When not working or volunteering, Amanda enjoys spending time with her family, being outside, and traveling as much as possible. Amanda is a graduate of The University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology.
Treasurer: Barry Raskin
Barry Raskin brings more than 25 years of experience in high-tech marketing, internet, and product development. Today Barry is the founder of Precision Marketect LLC, an interactive marketing boutique that enables organizations to prioritize and deploy new digital marketing best processes with an emphasis on performance tracking metrics and transference of knowledge to client teams.
Vice President of Communications: Gina Hollis
Gina has 10 plus years of sales & marketing experience with companies such as Seiko and Nike. Gina’s experience includes increasing brand exposure through marketing strategies, sales incentive programs, e-mail marketing campaigns and social media platforms. As the Business Development Director for TradeMark Media, Gina is plugged in to the Austin community and builds and develops relationships with potential and current clients. She also monitors the goals of the company’s growth and helps strategize business development as well as marketing opportunities that are in line with the vision of the company.
Vice President of Events: Darren Drewitz
Darren Drewitz is an 18-year veteran of marketing, advertising and corporate communications with extensive experience on both the client and corporate side of marketing. Darren’s experience includes working at some of the top advertising agencies in Texas, as well as corporate marketing departments for multi-billion, international companies. Darren’s current passion is helping companies identify and hyper-target their best customers. Darren serves as the Account Director for MindEcology, a marketing firm specializing in predictive modeling, database research & analysis and market segmentation. Darren graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of North Texas. He and his wife Melissa live in Austin, Texas with their two children. Reach Darren at darren@mindecology.com.
Vice President of Member Recruitment: Matt Lemke
Matt Lemke is a professional commercial and portrait photographer specializing in creating high-quality advertising and marketing photos for small and large businesses alike. Previously from Austin, he started pursuing photography professionally 11 years.
Vice President of Member Retention: John Simpson
John Simpson is a lifelong Austinite and has been an AMA member for 10 years serving on several AMA committees over that time. John also served on the Board of Directors for the North Austin Optimist Club, and as the head coach of his son’s youth football team brought home the State Championship. He also has a daughter and has been married for twenty-eight years. John has over three decades of experience working with ad agencies, marketers, designers and fortune 500 companies and founded Austin Integrated Marketing and AIM Printing, specializing in high quality print, mailing and digital marketing solutions that span creative services and direct marketing campaigns with internet components.
C0-Vice President of Special Interest Groups: Priscilla Brave
Priscilla Brave is an events manager for Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc. – a company that connects communities with knowledge through two distinct, yet complementary offerings: GLG Research and G+. Her specialties include project management, strategic marketing communications, event planning, consumer market research focused on women, and fostering relationships, among others. This native Texan is also a proud community advocate and volunteers with organizations including Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Central Texas. She is an active volunteer with the American Marketing Association, serving on the board of directors since 2009 in various capacities including vice president of communications and vice president of special interest groups for the Austin chapter. During the 2011-2012 board year, she will collaborate with Susan Andrus as co-vice president of special interest groups.
C0-Vice President of Special Interest Groups: Susan Andrus
Susan Andrus is Marketing Manager of McElroy Translation. She directs customer relationship strategies, online marketing initiatives, and brand management for the company. With 12 years in the translation and localization industry, Susan’s experience includes holding a senior level position on the production side of the company, enabling her to bridge the gap between clients and internal workflow solutions. In addition to working for McElroy Translation, Susan serves on the board of Austin’s American Marketing Association (AMA), as well volunteers for the Young Women’s Roundtable (YWR).
Co-Vice President of Sponsorships: Jonathan Gessinger
Jonathan oversees the sales and business development efforts for Emma, Inc. at its satellite offices in Portland, Denver and Austin. Additionally, he currently heads up the newest Emma outpost in Austin, TX, helping build the brand in the community and introduce Emma’s email marketing and communications service to businesses, agencies and other stylish potential customers throughout Central Texas. Jonathan has more than 15 years of marketing, advertising and branding experience, with the Seattle Mariners Baseball Club, Danone Waters of North America and Twin Engine Creative, a branding/design agency he founded and ran from 2001-2009. You can find Jonathan here on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Co-Vice President of Sponsorships: Jon Landua
Jon is a Sales Executive with EarthColor, one of the largest commercial printers in the U.S., but most importantly the “greenest”. He has experience with a broad range of production capabilities, development and implementation of marketing technology solutions, and works to develop client partnerships throughout the country. Jon has worked in the industry in Austin for the last 8 years upon graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in marketing. Jon served as Networking Chair in 2010 and he is excited to continue that role in 2011 as well as add Co-VP of Sponsorships to his responsibilities.
VP of Collegiate Relations: Prabhakar Gopalan
Prabhakar Gopalan is Founder & Principal at Whole Mind Consulting, a strategy consulting firm advising business and technology leaders on growth strategies.
Prabhakar’s professional career spans consulting, product management and product marketing roles in technology firms small and big including Dell, CA, Red Hat, Novell and IBM. Prabhakar is actively engaged in the Austin entreprenuer, product management and product marketing community and blogs at the popular product management blog On Product Management.
Prabhakar has an MBA from The University of Texas, Austin and a graduate degree in MIS from Texas A&M University, College Station. Follow his tweets on Twitter @PGopalan and connect with him on LinkedIn.
VP of Community Outreach: Melanie Brenemman
Over the past 12 years, Melanie Brenneman has developed a strategic focus on results in marketing, social media, public relations and employee and crisis communications. Her experience draws from B2B communications roles in organizations varying from entrepreneurial ventures to Fortune 500 corporations. Her roots in the industry stem from editing and sales duties for an international wire distribution service, where on average she advised on 1,000 press releases each year for public and private corporations. Currently, she serves as senior account manager and social media strategist for Edge Legal Marketing.
Melanie is an avid volunteer and a former board member of the Houston chapters of the American Marketing Association and the Public Relations Society of America. You can reach her via Twitter or LinkedIn.
Immediate Past President: Robyn Milder
Robyn Milder is the Account Director for Aquent, the global marketing and creative staffing firm. Prior to Aquent Robyn had a long career with American City Business Journals as Advertising Director and Business Development Manager in Tampa, FL and Houston, TX respectively.
