Tom Newkirk, Chairman

As a founder of Direct Tech, a graduate of M.I.T. and a significant contributor to the direct marketing industry, it goes without saying that Tom Newkirk is an icon to many and a visionary in all that he does. Tom is credited with inventing products that have solved substantial business problems and for over 30 years, has helped major companies succeed. Upon the sale of Direct Tech to Experian, Tom served as Chairman with a seat on the Global Board of Experian. Tom's business experience as a board member, investor, and senior executive gives Web Decisions depth in solving diverse business problems and delivering solutions to our clients.

R. Scot Thomas, CMO

Scot's career has been firmly planted in the CRM/database marketing arena since 1975.  He was one of the founders of Direct Marketing Technology, which became one of the premier companies in direct mail.  Scot was elected CEO of the company in 1986 and held that position until the group sold the company to Experian in 1997.  At that point, Scot became CEO of Experian Marketing Solutions and helped develop Experian into one of the main players in the database marketing sector, with over 450 employees working for the company.  Scot left Experian in 2001 and currently is CEO for Verascape, a start up technology company located in Schaumburg, IL.  He is also active in various real estate companies which specialize in the development and management of vacation properties in the Caribbean and other locations.  He has a degree in Biology from O.C.C. in Chicago, IL.

 

Kim Addington, CEO

Kim Addington, a Business and Computer Science graduate of UVA, has 25+ years of experience in providing marketing database applications for retail, mail order, and ecommerce businesses. He was a former shareholder and VP of Operations for Brigar Computer Services, a sister company of Direct Tech, that was sold to Experian. Kim served as Chief Technology Officer at Experian Marketing Solutions and upon his departure has since founded Web Decisions along with Scot Thomas, former CEO of Experian, and Tom Newkirk, former Chairman of Experian. Over the years, he has had the pleasure to work with most of the major consumer brand companies everyone has come to recognize.

Tom Gaillard, COO

A direct marketing professional since 1984, Tom has led the development of cutting edge direct marketing programs serving several industry segments including Retail, Automotive, Gaming, Consumer Package Goods and Insurance. These highly relevant data driven solutions have delivered improved acquisition and retention, increased loyalty, while enhancing cross sell and up sell. Tom works with clients to identify where consumers engage with their brand, develop contact strategy and connect the touch points with timely rules based communications. A pioneer in variable data communications, he leverages data and technology to affect communication output while delivering improved marketing performance.

 

Jim Calhoun, VP Sales

Jim Calhoun founded Daystar Data Group in 1990, along with Phil Jewison, and he leads our Chicago-based team as we combine the two companies in 2012.  Jim has built and maintained strong relationships throughout the direct marketing industry during his career.  Jim's clients have included Amazon.com, J Crew, E*Trade and hundreds of others.  As Direct Tech's first salesperson in 1982, Jim was part of a team that revolutionized the database marketing industry.  Jim is thrilled to be reunited with Kim Addington, Scot Thomas and Tom Newkirk.  Jim holds a BS BA from Marquette University and stubbornly identifies himself as a Warrior. 

 

Dan Koehler, CTO

Dan Koehler graduated with a BSE in Computer Science/Electricial Engineering from the University of Nebraska with Honors.  Dan holds certifications in System Engineering from Purdue University, Oracle Programming, RDBMS, C, C++, and Java.  He specializes in distributed high-performance fault-tolerant systems.  He has completed 30 hours of graduate-level computer science classes to keep up with industry changes.  Dan has spent 7 years in the defense industry and another 13 years in the direct marketing industry.  Dan's focus at Web Decisions is C# .NET development of direct marketing applications integrated with databases in Microsoft SQL Server.