We like what we do!
Andy Sernovitz, CEO
Whenever there’s been an innovation in marketing, Andy Sernovitz has been there. An 18-year veteran of the interactive marketing business, Andy has spent years helping companies learn how to do better marketing.
Andy teaches Word of Mouth Marketing at Northwestern, taught Entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of Business, ran a business incubator, and started half a dozen companies. GasPedal, his consulting company, advises great brands like TiVo, Dell, Ralph Lauren, Sprint, and Kimberly-Clark.
He created the Word of Mouth Marketing Association around the latest revolutions in blogs, buzz, and word of mouth. Before that, in the dot-com days, he ran the Association for Interactive Marketing.
Andy writes an amazing newsletter and blog called “Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That!” and is author of the hit book, “Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking.”
Andy holds degrees in Marketing from the Wharton School of Business and in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
You can follow Andy on Twitter at @sernovitz.
Bergen Anderson, Director of Client Services
As Director of Client Services, Bergen makes sure that things get done and people are taken care of. As an oldest child and a perfectionist, she’s quite skilled in her role. Bergen has a theater degree from Gustavus Adolphus College and actively participates in Chicago’s theater scene. This background, plus her previous work experience in real estate and finance, has prepared her to be flexible and creative in any situation.
Bergen lives in Andersonville, on the north side of Chicago, and will speak Swedish with you if you ask her.
Preston Firestone, Director, Human Resources
Preston has led human resources and recruiting operations for GasPedal and its clients since 1999. He has served in similar positions with a variety of new media companies as well as traditional consulting enterprises. Preston spent five years on the road with The Vanilla Fudge and raises pet mudsharks. Preston isn’t real, but most job applicants don’t read this far.
Adele Hazan, Event Manager
Whether BlogWell, Supergenius, or a spontaneous employee outing, Adele makes sure all goes according to plan. She also manages the office, making sure everyone stays happy and well fed (which is a piece of cake — pun intended). She enjoys contributing to GasPedal’s publications when she can, and loves planning new and creative events.
Adele is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in Political Science. Glad to be back in Chicago, Adele is looking forward to further integration into the local music scene (despite her lack of any tangible musical talent) — and is most famous for her amazing job application. You can find her teaching spinning classes on the side and also on twitter at @adelelaurie.
Cale Johnson, Editor
As Editor at GasPedal, Cale’s job is to translate all of the ideas we create and discover into fancy blog posts and newsletter articles. It’s his responsibility to make sure our natural cleverness comes through in our publications and that there are no typos or typos and that. Cale got his start writing multi-million dollar sales proposals and covering sports for The Des Moines Register, but is enjoying his true calling of applying his passion for smart marketing by writing about how the best companies in the world win the love and respect of their customers.
Cale comes from Iowa, which he keeps telling us is “actually pretty cool.” He has a degree in Journalism from Drake University and now lives in the Old Town area of Chicago with an orange cat named Bella. Follow him on Twitter at @calejohnson.
Anita Niedermeier, Director of Research
Anita’s job is to provide high-quality interaction with members of the telemarketing, spam, and salesperson community. She receives their requests, responds politely, and deletes them. She has led this operation for GasPedal and its clients since 2000. Prior to GasPedal, she sold used doormats and empty toilet paper rolls on eBay. Anita may be a fictional character.
Evette Tan, Marketing Administrator
Evette was an accounting major before she discovered marketing, and after earning a degree in Business Administration she flew halfway across the world to pursue a master’s in Marketing Communications at IIT Stuart School of Business. In between degrees she’s taught English and worked as a student assistant at the International Center of IIT. She is GasPedal’s Marketing Administrator, where she works daily to apply what she knows to what she does in organizing GasPedal’s word of mouth marketing efforts.
When she isn’t online she enjoys traveling, reading and watching magical realism, and keeping things to a hundred words. Watch Evette keep things to 140 characters on Twitter at @evyish.
Kurt Vanderah, Vice President, Operations
In addition to helping GasPedal keep its organizational focus, Kurt coordinates GasPedal and Social Media Business Council events. A University of Illinois graduate, Kurt’s first career path was in radio. He worked for a number of radio stations, most notably WGN Radio in Chicago, where he spent 12+ years as either Assistant Program Director or Executive Producer of The Kathy & Judy Show. Kurt brought his skills to GasPedal in 2008, encouraged by the company’s firm belief that doing good business can be fun.
As detail-oriented as he is, Kurt so much wants everything to work out right, he sometimes repeats himself to make sure things get done properly. Which is curious, because as detail-oriented as he is, he sometimes repeats himself to make sure things get done properly. Kurt invites you to see the detail-orientation in action by following him on Twitter at @kurtvan or by becoming his friend on Facebook.
Peter Waldheim, Social Media Business Council Senior Strategist
Peter Waldheim serves as Senior Strategist to the Social Media Business Council, focusing on the social media needs of top global brands operating within large-scale corporate environments. An expert in framing messages, communicating content, and engaging the public, Waldheim had previously served as Interim CEO and Senior Strategist for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Senior Strategist for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Online Operations, and CEO for the Association of Interactive Media.
Waldheim first became interested in how you can influence public opinion during his involvement in the American civil rights movement during the late 60’s. Since then he has served as a consultant to more than 80 nonprofit organizations, more than two dozen Democratic senators, congressmen, and national political organizations, as well as working with senior marketing executives from many of the world’s most distinguished brands and marketing agencies.
