Our Leadership
Jon Schepke President and Founder
Jon is an Internet marketing industry veteran who has been in the space for over a decade. Since the mid-90′s, Jon’s passion for technology and marketing have driven innovative marketing strategies that focused on achieving significant ROI for multiple Fortune 1000 companies. Jon’s broad understanding of the space include: all facets of Internet marketing, technology, web analytics, web video, research and tracking tools. continue reading…As Co-CEO of Proceed Interactive (1997-2005), Jon built the firm from start-up to an early search marketing leader. While at Proceed, Jon’s business acumen resulted in an impressive portfolio of more than 50 customers, including General Motors, Wells Fargo, Omni Hotels, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Kaplan (Score! Educational Centers), and Great Expectations.
In 2005, Jon joined industry leader iCrossing as the Director of Client Services for the Central Region. While at iCrossing, Jon managed a team responsible for a roster of blue chip, Fortune 1000 clients. Jon started Strategic Internet Marketing Partners in January 2006. As President, Jon manages all day-to-day operations, helps drive the company’s business and product development, sales and marketing, partnerships and strategic direction. Jon earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Indiana University in 1993. Jon is a frequent speaker at industry shows and conferences and an active member of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), where he is the Co-Chair of the SEMPO Institute Committee, click hereto view video. Jon is also an active participant for these non-profit organizations:
- i.c. stars provides an opportunity for change-driven, future leaders to develop skills in business and technology.
- Santa For The Very Poor – for 50 years Santa for the Very Poor (SVP) has been inviting friends to help us bring the spirit of the holidays to Chicagoans who would feel precious little of it without us.
Outside of work Jon likes to travel, run, play racquetball and tries to keep up with his wife and three kids.
Adam Dorfman Partner
Adam Dorfman is an interactive marketing professional with over 12 years experience in all facets of online marketing including organic search, pay per click, paid inclusion, local search, email, RSS/XML driven advertising, ad networks, social networking, blogging, website analytics, usability and offline integration as well as web development, hosting, networking and project management. continue reading… Upon graduating college in 1998, Adam became the first full time employee for a group of Chicago house and techno record labels where he ran all day to day operations as the company grew 500% over the course of two years. By the time he left, the office had grown to seven and Adam had launched a number of websites for the record labels. Getting these sites ranked in AltaVista, Infoseek, Yahoo, Lycos and HotBot had become somewhat of an obsession and Adam was pleasantly surprised to discover a niche industry existed that focused entirely on search engine marketing.
In 2000 Adam accepted an offer from Jay Hawkinson to become a member of one of the premier online marketing firms at the time, Proceed Interactive (then Meandaur, Inc). While at Proceed Interactive, Adam was responsible for defining and implementing the online marketing strategy for dozens of clients including Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Milwaukee Tool, and SCORE! Educational Centers. One of many highlights during his tenure was conceiving and executing a network of microsites for Wyndham.com that generated over 75,000 group RFPs in two years – entirely from organic search engine listings. In 2005 Adam accepted a position at Orbitz Worldwide where he managed all of the SEO, Paid Inclusion, and dynamic advertising for Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com. He was also responsible for growing and developing many of the metasearch accounts including Kayak and Farechase as well as working with M&A to identify potential partnerships with a variety of well known websites. Some highlights while at Orbitz include increasing natural search transaction revenue by 103%, increasing total transactions for accounts managed by 140%, conceptualizing and driving the launch of the RSS program, writing the SEO business requirements for future platforms, and receiving the Cendant Power of Many award. After a year at Orbitz, Adam regrouped with Jon Schepke and Jay Hawkinson to accept an equity position at Strategic Internet Marketing Partners where he now divides his time between driving online revenue for clients in the hospitality industry, building out vertical specific web applications and ecommerce solutions, and running a number of blogs and sites to test the latest online marketing tactics first-hand. Excited to be back in an entrepreneurial environment Adam spends most of his non-working hours at his home in Chicago with his amazing wife, old German shepherd, bossy corgi and super-fat cat.
Jay Hawkinson Partner
Jay Hawkinson is an interactive marketing professional with 19 years of sales, marketing and merchandising experience including over 12 years of online marketing specializing in organic search optimization and paid search advertising. Prior to joining the search engine optimization space, Jay honed his people skills first as a Sales Rep and one year later promoted to Regional Sales Manager for the largest baseball card continue reading…and trading card distributor in North America. During his 4 years as a manager, Jay directed over 40 reps across 18 states and 4 provinces from the Midwest to the Northeast relocating 4 times in process to take on new opportunities and territories as they became available. That stint took him from Milwaukee to New York then back to his home in Chicago (by way of Cleveland).
After 5.5 years of cutting his teeth in the brick & mortar retail space (and 200,000+ road miles later), Jay sought a more stationary yet exciting occupation; search engine optimization. He joined Jon Schepke in 1998 accepting the role of “search marketer” and tasked with building the search marketing practice at Proceed Interactive (then known as Meandaur Internet). Initial clients included Chicago Hilton & Towers, Komatsu, Kohl’s Department Store, and Hanes. Over the next 7 years, Jay crafted his search marketing expertise by developing new techniques and strategies in common practice today. He also established a leading search optimization and marketing department directly overseeing such clients as General Motors, Choice Hotels, Wells Fargo, and Firestone. Jay had an active role working with the biz dev team in deciding the right search initiatives for prospective clients. However, his best decision was hiring Adam Dorfman. At the end of summer 2005, Jay accepted the Media Sales Strategist position for iCrossing, the largest privately-owned search marketing company with over 500 employees. Operating out of the Chicago office, Jay served in this new role to grow the Paid Search division of iCrossing by improving campaigns and working in tandem with business development on new initiatives. In addition to expanding the Media department in the Chicago office, Jay joined the Client Services team to foster new business within existing accounts and provide hands-on campaign management. Clients included Coca-Cola, Betty Crocker, Disney, Purina, and Sprint/EMBARQ. After thriving for one year in the corporate grind, Jay left iCrossing to join Jon Schepke and Adam Dorfman at Strategic Internet Marketing Partners as an equity partner developing ecommerce solutions and products for the travel and hospitality vertical. This new environment has allowed him to excel in his areas of expertise by growing his accounts’ year-over-year online revenue as well as take long-desired vacations abroad. If Jay’s not working out of the Evanston office, look for him working remotely from some far-off distant land and enjoying every second of it.
Neil Mahoney Partner
Neil Mahoney graduated college with a Finance major and held three Finance positions within Cardinal Health, a Fortune 20 Company as part of a financial development program. After two and a half years and various roles at Cardinal Neil made the decision to enter a more competitive and challenging industry which led him to the Online Travel company, Orbitz Worldwide in 2004. continue reading…Neil joined the Finance team at Orbitz Worldwide where he managed forecasts for the eMarketing departments of both Orbitz.com and Cheaptickets.com, and also assisted with the acquisition of the company and a public offering. While Neil saw the value of having a well rounded financial background he was very excited to take what he had learned and join a group in which he could impact business performance on a daily basis. Orbitz and Cheaptickets combined have one of the largest annual eMarketing budgets in the online travel space, and it was imperative that these marketing dollars were being spent wisely. As Neil was already familiar with the financial side of eMarketing it was a natural progression for him to join the team and bring a financial mindset to the group.
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Noah Weiner Director of Client Services
Noah Weiner applies a holistic approach in helping SIM Partners reach its goals. Built on a long history of success in the local Internet marketing arena, he delivers a wide spectrum of strategic leadership which is mindful of the deeply woven inter-dependencies between all areas of continue reading… company operations and client management.
A successful sales career led Noah to being asked to help build an Internet start up, LocalLaunch, in late 2003. As director of sales and advertiser relations, Noah was responsible for taking visionary products to the marketplace and participated in the earliest days of “local search marketing” defining products, crafting sales messages and establishing fulfillment processes.
His role quickly expanded as aligning goals and vision throughout all areas of a near 200 person company became critical to client retention and sustained growth and profitability. Of this time, Noah recalls, “Doing a lot of things well was the easy part. Doing them well at tremendous scale was the true challenge.”
Leading up to joining SIM Partners after leaving LocalLaunch, Noah founded WebNewPoint0, a web strategy consultancy assisting companies and individual clients improve and refine interactive practice and execution across social media, website redesign, product development and marketing strategy.
Noah lives in Highland Park, IL, and when not steeped in all things work related enjoys life with his wife, Paula, and two sons, Zach and Gabe. He also pursues creative outlets in photography, music, blogging, and podcasting.
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Tara Thomas Director of Client Strategy
Tara Thomas is an interactive marketing professional with over 10 years of agency experience in client services, sales and marketing. Tara joined the SIM Partners team in the spring of 2011, and graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Journalism. Tara started her career as a mobile marketing representative at Marketing Werks in Chicago. She was assigned the Hershey Foods continue reading…account, and toured the United States promoting Twizzler Twist and Fill Candy. Tara later went on to work at TMP Directional Marketing in Chicago, where she started in an entry level position, and eventually became the VPGM of the Chicago office, and was awarded office of the year in her first year as GM. In 2009, TMP launched its sister company, 15miles (one of the largest local search agencies). Tara was soon asked to join the 15miles team, and was the Vice President of the local sales channel that specialized in franchise and field driven business.
Tara is passionate about staying in front of the fast paced media environment and truly loves bridging the gap for national brands that need to dominate the local space within their network of locations, through online lead generation, as well as compliment their national brand marketing efforts. Tara’s portfolio consists of Local Search, Web Development, Reputation Management, Social Media, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Mobile Development, Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), Print Yellow Pages (PYP), Email Marketing, Video Optimization and Distribution. Tara enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, going to Cubs games, traveling and riding bikes outdoors.
Steve King Director of Local Search Platforms
After graduating from Kalamazoo College, Steve spent four years working with the National Certification Corporation, a non-profit organization devoted to certifying nursing and medical personnel. While working for NCC, Steve focused on developing medical certification exams, study materials, and continuing education programs. In addition to working on a variety of medical products, he also built continue reading…new databases to accommodate and track the increasing number of products, certificants, and state level certification requirements. With a growing interest in technology, Steve spent the next few years as a program manager with Promissor, an online exam development company, servicing Fortune 500 clients. While at Promissor, he developed his knowledge of analytics, online product development, and account management.
Eventually, Steve had the opportunity to merge his growing skill set with an ongoing interest in advertising. As a product analyst at LocalLaunch, Steve was immersed in the world of local search and developed a passion for keyword research, industry trending, and performance analysis. After LocalLaunch was acquired by RHDonnelly/Dex, Steve moved into the role of product manager for the search marketing business intelligence division, where he had the opportunity to work closely with many departments to develop systems that could be used to enhance their performance. In 2008, Steve met Jon Schepke and Adam Dorfman and learned about the progressive products and ideas that SIM Partners was developing for the local search marketing space. At SIM Partners, Steve works on the Local Search Marketing team, enhancing client and product performance. When not working, Steve likes spending time with his family, reading, and catching up on movies.
Tammy Rechtin Director of Business Development
With 9 years of online and offline advertising experience, Tammy has developed an intuitive understanding of what makes effective advertising. After getting her business degree at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, Tammy accepted a position in business development at Dex (formerly R.H. Donnelley). Within three months, Tammy was promoted continue reading…to an outside sales position where she achieved top ranking for 4 consecutive years. While doing so, she developed an understanding of how great advertising campaigns depend on an integrated mix of marketing sources.
In 2006, she moved to a position at LocalLaunch (a division of Dex Online). She focused on working with agencies and business owners to transition their advertising from print to a multi-platform online experience.Tammy joined SIM Partners in 2009 as the Sales and Marketing Manager. Tammy is the point person for establishing and managing Fortune 1000 new business relationships and overseeing PR and marketing.During the summer, you may see Tammy biking to work, running along the lake path or watching local bands at outdoor street festivals. She ran her first half marathon in 2009, her second in August, 2010 and her third will be in October of 2011.
Mark Herchek Director of Business Development, Hospitality
Mark has overall 20 years of experience in sales & marketing, including 10+ years in the hospitality industry related to interactive marketing products and services. Joining SIM Partners in November of 2008 as Director, Business Development, Mark brings expertise as an account manager working with hotel companies, hotel management companies and individual hotels to help continue reading… them achieve many of their Internet marketing goals. Prior to SIM Partners Mark held similar positions at GTP Travel Group, Rosetta (formerly Brulant), Cleveland Convention & Visitors Bureau, and OnVantage (formerly PlanSoft). While at OnVantage from 1999 – 2007 Mark learned the hospitality industry as well as Internet marketing and managed accounts such as Omni Hotels, Sol Meliá Hotels & Resorts, Destination Hotels & Resorts, and Felcor Lodging Trust. Then after two fun and fulfilling years with the Cleveland CVB and learning a completely different side of the hospitality industry Mark had to an opportunity to work at Rosseta (the largest independent digital agency in the United States) with many of the most highly skilled interactive marketing people you will find anywhere.
Mark has been married since 1989 to Desiree, outside of work, Mark spends time with friends and family, traveling and with many sports activities including both playing and watching a lot of golf and basketball. Mark is also a huge fanatic of The Ohio State University, particularly Buckeyes football.
Francois Toubol Director of Technology
With 13 years of experience as a software engineer, Francois Toubol has developed his technical expertise around OOAD, OOP, RDBMS, software development processes implementation, and team management/mentoring. He began programming as a child in 1985, after discovering the joy of solving problems with the help of a computer. He graduated from ISEP in France with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science in 1999 and in 2002 opened his first software engineering shop, Epsilon Force. Highlights from that time include growing his team to 12 engineers and building cutting edge technology for clients like Delta, Air France, Air Canada, Amadeus, MasterCard and Citibank while achieving PCI compliance. continue reading…
Francois joined SIM Partners in 2010 to build out the software development team as well as to contribute to the entire technical background of the company.
Francois has been married to Maria Loreto for 11 years and have 3 beautiful children and a little angel: Eduardo, Camille, Chloe and Emilie. Their mix of culture and languages Chilean, English and French, is both a daily challenge and infinite source of wealth for the whole family. During his spare time, you might find Francois riding down steep lines in wild Alaskan mountains on a snowboard.
Karin Kovitvongsa Sales Manager
With 3 years of on and offline marketing experience and 5 years of management experience, Karin brings her expertise of managing large-scale accounts and sales teams to SIM Partners. Her ability to perform thorough Local Search consultation for large corporate brands as well as individual franchise locations showcases the landscape’s demand on digital optimization at a local level. continue reading…
After graduating from Knox College with a degree in Political Science & Business Management, Karin began her involvement with client relations as an Office Manager in the Insurance Vertical. After a year of hands on experience working with multiple agents, she entered into the on and offline marketing realm at TMP Directional Marketing | 15miles. Throughout her time at the agency, Karin was promoted from an entry-level position to eventual Sales Manager of Existing Franchise Business. Her knowledge of cutting edge Local Search Strategy involves Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search, Online Distribution, Internet Yellow Pages, Social Media, Web Writing, Distribution, Mobile Marketing, Online Video and Print Yellow Pages.After TMP Directional Marketing | 15miles closed their doors in the Spring of 2011, Karin joined SIM Partners as a Sales Manager of Existing Business. In her role with SIM Partners, she focuses on expanding existing accounts of Fortune 500 clients with multiple brick and mortar locations. Karin also leads the Online Video Channel; helping SMB’s engage with their target consumers while taking advantage of today’s viral environment through YouTube, Social Media, and other content-sharing sites. She helps businesses gain online presence at a cost-efficient rate with a heavy focus on local optimization.In her free time, you can find Karin playing with Remy, her Boston terrier in Grant Park, running along the lakefront, or indulging in Chicago’s culinary pleasures with friends.
