Lifetime Achievement Awards for the call center industry.

Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine, in the spirit of celebrating our 25th Anniversary, has been proud to designate a special group of individuals and companies as recipients of our "Lifetime Achievement Award." Most of these individuals and companies have ties to the call center industry going back decades. They were judged to have made some of the most substantial innovations dedicated to advancing the success and reputation of today's call center industry. Without these special people and companies, the industry would not be half as successful as it is today. In this issue, we bring you Part Two of the tributes to those individuals and companies to whom we presented Lifetime Achievement Awards at our gala celebration in New York City on May 4, 2006.

Edward Blank

Edward Blank Associates, Inc.

Edward Blank is a pioneer in outbound telemarketing. His company, Edward Blank Associates, Inc., was founded in New York in 1970. It became a Top 10 firm, selling products and services from 13 call centers in the U.S. and Canada. Clients included Weekly Reader children's books, AT & T and FirstUSA. His firm was noted for stringent quality control standards, cutting-edge technology and innovative sales techniques. He began his career in survey research after graduating from City College of New York (CCNY). He also did graduate work at the New York University Graduate School of Business. He subsequently worked for leading marketing research organizations and Litton Industries. He is a past member of both the American Teleservices Association (ATA) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and is currently a member of the board of Authtel. He is the UN representative for the Jewish National Fund. He is also active in various American and Israeli philanthropic organizations.

Charles Judd

CEO 

NTS Marketing, Inc.

Charles Judd is CEO of NTS Marketing, Inc., a full-service call center agency offering inbound and fulfillment. Before starting NTS in 1989 with his son Christopher, Judd designed and implemented direct response fund raising strategies for a number of national member/donor organizations. He was Deputy Director of the Republican National Finance Committee from 1979 to 1980. He teaches fund raising techniques for political candidates, the RNC Campaign Management Workshops, the Campaign Management College, the Concord Conference, the Campaigns & Elections Magazine Training Seminars, and GOPAC. During his previous political career, Judd served as the Executive Director of the Ohio Republican Party; City Council Member and Vice-Mayor of Fairfield, Ohio; and Republican candidate for Congress from the 6th District of Virginia.

Kathleen Kelly

President and Chief Executive Officer

TeleDirect International Inc.

Kathleen Kelly is a 20-year veteran of the communications industry and one of the earliest proponents of Open Communications Systems. She has grown TeleDirect from a small, local Iowa operation to an internationally recognized company and an award-winning leader in Open Communications Systems. She is a member of the American Teleservices Association (ATA) Technology Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of the Arizona chapter of the ATA and a member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Teleservices Council.

Debbie May

President, General Manager

IEX Corp.

Debbie May is one of the founders of IEX. As President and General Manager, she is responsible for all aspects of the contact center business. Prior to joining IEX, she developed data communications software at Texas Instruments. She has developed and managed PBX and ACD call processing and management information systems as well as workforce management and call routing systems. Under May's leadership, IEX has experienced rapid growth and has been profitable every quarter since inception. May and her team earned the Pacific Bell Quality Partner award for six consecutive years.

Joe Porfeli

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer

Spencer Trask Software and Information Technology Group

Joe Porfeli brings more than 30 years of executive experience in the high-tech sector to the DesignAdvance board. He has led TechRx's evolution from a high-volume pharmacy software provider into an industry leader in retail pharmacy management technology. Porfeli served as President and Executive VP of Sales and Marketing of TechRx until he orchestrated the purchase to NDCHealth in 2002. Prior to TechRx, Porfeli served as Chairman, President and CEO of REVIVE Technologies Inc., a provider of legacy database and software system conversion services and automated tools. He served in the same capacity with EIS International, a telecommunications hardware and software company, which grew to more than $90 million in annual revenue under his leadership.

Robin D. Richards

The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI)

Robin Richards leads The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI) as an entrepreneur and visionary strategist, fueling the company's meteoric rise to prominence as the number-one provider of hosted, time-based mass notification services focused upon assisting government leaders to communicate quickly and efficiently with their constituents. Prior to forming NTI, Richards served as CEO of Vivendi Universal Net USA, an entity created in the fall of 2001 to oversee the U.S. Internet-related companies owned by Vivendi Universal. In this role, Richards oversaw all aspects of six interrelated entities. He was the founding President and Chief Operating Officer of MP3.com, Inc., the Internet's first and preeminent digital music provider. Previous to MP3.com, Richards served as Managing Director of Tickets.com, Inc., an Internet ticketing service company. As the Founder, President and CEO of Lexi International, Richards brought the company to its ranking as the largest teleservices and database management company in the U.S. by 1991. Lexi International earned the rare distinction of appearing on two consecutive Inc. "500 Fastest Growing Companies" listings, and he successfully sold Lexi to Thayer Capital.

Thomas M. Rocca

President

KPI Group, LLC 

Tom Rocca is president of KPI Group, headquartered in Atlanta. Tom has over 25 years in customer service and sales technology re-engineering for call centers. He keeps a continual focus on "staying compliant" on all federal and state call center rulings. Rocca, with KPI Group, provides outsource partner selection; RFP development and management; technology selection and contract negotiation; call center auditing, best practices and sales process flow analysis; sales and service performance enhancement (KPIs); and federal, state and insurance compliance management. Rocca has been an active member of the American Teleservices Association (ATA) since 1987 and currently serves as a past chairman and sits on the national board of directors.

Hayley J. Savage

Senior Vice President, Sales And Marketing Influent, Inc.

Hayley has been a leader in the direct marketing industry for over 24 years, having begun her career as Production Supervisor for American Family Publishers, a division of Time, Inc. She went on to a position with CBS/Columbia House, where she was responsible for the domestic and Canadian production requirements associated with membership acquisition for their various continuity music clubs. Recruited by what was then the nation's sixth largest direct marketing agency, The Direct Marketing Group, Hayley became the company's youngest-ever Vice President. In 1991, Hayley joined APAC Customer Services as VP of Sales, where she had responsibility for identifying, developing and generating new client opportunities as well as existing client growth. She delivered multimillion dollar contracts for customer acquisition, customer care, e-commerce and ASP applications.

Theodore G. Schwartz

Founder and Chairman

APAC Customer Services, Inc.

In 1973, Ted Schwartz founded APAC, a company he built from a one-person operation to a company with a leadership position in the customer services outsourcing arena and employing over 7,000 people. Schwartz, one of the founders of the industry, has received the prestigious Pioneer Award and has been inducted into the ATA Hall of Fame, as well as the Call Center Solutions Hall of Fame. He has received the University of Illinois Entrepreneur Hall of Fame Award and the Illinois High Tech Entrepreneur Award. As an active industry voice, his opinions have been sought by numerous national publications and industry journals.

Tim Searcy

CEO

American Teleservices Association (ATA)

Tim Searcy has had the privilege of serving as a senior executive in the largest and fastest-growing direct marketing companies in the world, including West Teleservices, APAC Teleservices, Transcom Worldwide and Rapp Collins. With sales and CEO responsibilities combined, Tim has been responsible for development of over $2 billion in outsourced teleservices and direct marketing solutions worldwide. Currently, Searcy serves as the CEO of the American Teleservices Association (ATA). As legislators turn their focus from the outbound sales component of our business, Searcy fights to preserve the operational freedom of inbound practices from over-regulation.

Douglas W. Smith

Senior Vice President, Sales And Marketing

SER Solutions, Inc.

Doug Smith brings over 35 years of operational and sales management experience to his position of Senior VP, Sales And Marketing, at SER Solutions, Inc. Smith is responsible for setting the company's direct and indirect sales and growth strategy, and ensuring revenue attainment across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Additionally, Smith oversees SER's corporate marketing programs to ensure the company's position as a leader within the marketplace. Previously, Smith served as a management consultant specializing in strategic sales and go-to-market initiatives within the contact center marketplace. Prior to his work as a consultant, Smith held executive positions at Davox Corporation, where he oversaw both direct and indirect sales channels worldwide.

Joseph A. Staples

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing Interactive Intelligence

Joseph A. Staples serves as senior VP of worldwide marketing for Interactive Intelligence. He oversees the global marketing efforts of the company's contact center and communication product lines. Staples brings 24 years of experience in technology and marketing to Interactive Intelligence, including specific assignments in the areas of computer telephony, unified messaging, mobile wireless, computer networking and computer-based education. Prior to joining Interactive Intelligence, Staples was the principal of FirstLight Marketing, a successful marketing services company. For the six preceding years, he was Executive VP of Corporate Marketing at Captaris, Inc., a provider of business communication solutions. Previously, Staples was the VP of marketing for Callware Technologies, Inc., a provider of unified messaging software. Prior to his employment at CallWare, Staples spent five years with networking leader Novell Inc. in several management positions. While at Novell, he was credited with playing a central role in developing the early stages of the computer telephony industry, including the launch and evangelism of TSAPI, a broadly adopted CTI development platform.

Albert Subbloie

President and CEO, Founder

Tangoe Inc.

Recognized as a telecommunications technology and Internet pioneer, Al Subbloie brings a visionary approach to Tangoe. In 1984, after leaving Andersen Consulting, Subbloie co-founded and served as CEO of Information Management Associates (IMA). He was among the first to develop and market both call center voice and data solutions for integrated sales, marketing, telemarketing and customer service activities. In 1997, Al co-founded Buyersedge.com, an Internet company in the field of reverse auction. Al is credited with one of the patents for reverse auction theory, the Internet paradigm in most shopping sites today. Subbloie also founded Freefire, a Web-enabled eCRM customer interaction software supporting e-mail response, chat and remote telephony in an ASP model involving complex data distribution requirements. Subbloie served on the board for Acsis, Inc., a provider of RFID device management technology solutions and currently serves on the Board of NYC-based Operative Inc. He has also served as Chairman of the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) and now serves as a Board member for the CTC.

Aleksander Szlam

Chairman & CEO

Szlam Enterprises, Inc.

Aleksander Szlam is the Chairman and CEO of Szlam Enterprises, Inc., an information technology and contact center services company. Previously, as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Melita International, Inc. (which he founded and renamed eshare Communications, Inc. in 2000), Szlam took his company from a one-employee business operating out of his garage and evolved it into a publicly traded, profitable and debt-free global leader of intelligent customer interaction management (CIM) solutions. The company's first products, built in Szlam's garage, were an auto dialer and an inbound/outbound call management and notification system. As Szlam completed the "Expedialer" in the summer of 1979, the automated call center industry was born. Szlam was named Inc. Magazine's 1991 Entrepreneur of the Year, Southern Region, while Melita/eshare repeatedly made Atlanta's prestigious "Fast Tech 50" list of growing technology companies. Additionally, in 1996 he co-authored "Predictive Dialing Fundamentals," the definitive guide to the industry's technologies, their applications and usage.

Gary L. Taylor

Chairman of the Board

InfoCision Management Corp.

Gary Taylor received his bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Akron in 1975. He served as a Graduate Research Assistant in the marketing department while earning his MBA from the University in 1977. He has more than 29 years of experience in direct marketing, fundraising, advertising and the teleservices industry. In 1982, working out of his home, Gary started InfoCision Management Corporation (IMC). Today InfoCision has grown into the third-largest privately held teleservices company in the world. InfoCision's hallmark is its unequalled reputation for quality. IMC won the inaugural MVP Quality Award in 1993 and has been recognized by Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine as the single highest quality teleservices company. InfoCision is the only teleservices company to win an MVP Quality Award every year since 1993, and has won the MVP Gold Award for highest quality the last seven consecutive years. In 2003, Taylor received the Pioneers Lifetime Achievement Award for the positive impact he has had on the teleservices industry. The University of Akron awarded him the prestigious Simonetti Distinguished Business Alumni Award in recognition of his outstanding business career. In 2005, the ATA bestowed their Pioneer Award on him, and the DMA gave him the Teleservices Excellence Award. Also in 2005, Ernst and Young recognized Gary as an Entrepreneur of the Year award winner, and inducted him into the Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame

Brent Welch

Chief Operating Officer, Worldwide Operations

Teleperformance USA

Brent Welch has 25 years of contact center industry experience. He currently serves as the COO, World Wide Operations, for Teleperformance USA, and leads the operational teams within the company's centers. Welch's extensive experience includes leadership of many of the country's leading contact center service agencies. Welch also founded TeleServices Partners in 1996, one of the premier contact center consulting groups in the country. Prior to that, Welch was President and CEO of ITI Marketing Services (now APAC), and COO of Matrixx Marketing.

West Corporation

Founded in January 1986, West Corporation has evolved from an inbound telemarketing service bureau to one of the nation's leading providers of customized contact solutions. Today, many of the nation's Fortune 1000 companies rely on West to help them grow their business through superior inbound, outbound, interactive, Internet, collections and conferencing services. From the beginning, West's inbound solutions have utilized sophisticated call processing centers, which combine the skills of well-trained agents with state-of-the-art call processing technology. In 1989, West moved into the emerging IVR processing industry and established itself as the recognized leader in the industry. Soon afterwards, West began offering live-operator, outbound teleservices for large-volume sales campaigns. During the late 1990s, West began offering integrated customer care support and full account management to help clients acquire, maintain and grow their customer relationships. In recent years, the company has added advanced speech recognition solutions to its IVR platform and now offers a full range of Internet services, including e-mail management, chat, callback and form-sharing.

Witness Systems

Witness Systems is a global provider of workforce optimization software and services that provide enterprises with unprecedented visibility into customer service processes, workforce performance and customer intelligence. Through its Impact 360 workforce optimization solution, Witness Systems brings together workforce management, quality monitoring, full-time recording, e-learning and performance management under a flexible, scalable framework that provides a single user interface and centralized access to data and reports.

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