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The Emma shop, or at least the outside portion thereof. Inside are things like chairs. Oh, and tables.
Emma's people
-> Want to work with these fine people? Click here to see current opportunities at Emma.
If you're an Emma customer, it's very likely you've gotten to know one or more of the people pictured here. Perhaps you've met several of them. Perhaps you know one person quite well but have only spoken briefly with two others. Here's your chance to put a face with a name, or two names with two faces, and so on and so forth.
-> Want to work with these fine people? Click here to see current opportunities at Emma.
If you're an Emma customer, it's very likely you've gotten to know one or more of the people pictured here. Perhaps you've met several of them. Perhaps you know one person quite well but have only spoken briefly with two others. Here's your chance to put a face with a name, or two names with two faces, and so on and so forth.
Will WeaverWill Weaver is one of the co-founders here at Emma. He sets the design direction and coordinates all things technological. He is also very tall. It was Will who proposed one afternoon in late 2001, over assorted coffee drinks, that a company be started, one that might create a Web-based service to help businesses of all shapes and sizes. Being the tallest person at the table, others felt inclined to listen and, during pauses in conversation, to nod vigorously. Before helping start Emma, Will served as the Web Director for Nashville-based custom-publisher Hammock Publishing and as a founding member of Smallbusiness.com. Will is a graduate of The University of The South, known in more casual circles as Sewanee.
Sara McManigalSara is our small businesses sales manager, guiding our efforts to help small-business people who've expressed interest in using Emma. "We're interested," they may have said, sometimes adding an exclamation point on the end for emphasis. And so Sara gives them a tour, often regaling them with tales of Nebraska along the way. Did you know they have a replica of Stonehenge made out of cars? Carhenge. Kid you not. Sara wields a degree in Music Business and Marketing from Belmont University, where she was a member of the (nationally ranked) Belmont Speech and Debate Team and the Belmont Service Corp and the Student Advisory Board and president of her student council in high school. It really is amazing what you can learn about people when you actually read all the way to bottom of their resumes.
Kim HatcherKim is our director of product development, leading our fabulous team of developers and helping us enhance Emma's performance, features and service. She may also be one of the fastest typists we know, which is not an invitation for you to challenge Kim to a type-off, if such a thing even exists. Prior to joining us, Kim worked as a part-time senior developer for such organizations as Franklin American Mortgage, 1-800-Vehicles and Surfari.com while she finished her undergraduate studies at Middle Tennessee State University. Kim is a computer science major who graduated summa cum laude. Summa cum laude is French for with feathers.
Jake CableRaised in a Boston tenement, Jake made his Hollywood debut at 20, playing a ballplayer in the obscure film Rhubarb. Two years later, after a stint in the army, he landed the part of Narab the friendly Martian in the corny serial Zombies of the Stratosphere - a role that somewhat foreshadowed the one that, a decade later, would make Jake a household name - Mr. Spock, the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer of...hold on, this is Leonard Nimoy's bio. Whoops. Nevermind. Jake is on the community relations team and serves as Emma's delivery manager and, just to be clear, never appeared on a single episode of Sea Hunt.
Rachael KahneRachael is on the small business sales team. She hails from Oklahoma, where she once achieved near almost sort of notoriety by hosting a portion of the PBS fund drive, the video of which we've promised not to post here. Or here. Rachael has been featured as an MTV VJ for the Choose or Lose campaign, and she's a former White House Intern but claims "like zero" responsibility for the Iraq War or any of the other wars, battles, invasions or skirmishes initiated during her tenure. Incidentally, Kahne is pronounced kahn, as in "Genghis" or "Chaka" or "Wrath of" or "James." It's just too bad we can't think up any nicknames for Rachael.
Cliff Corr Cliff is our marketing operations associate, charged with supporting the Emma marketing efforts through his work with calendars, ad buys, brochures, sticky label thingies, envelopes onto which the sticky label thingies go, special sealer tools for the envelopes, and landscaping. A University of Georgia graduate, Cliff was born too late to really appreciate much of Jeff Lynne's work (think ELO, or think Tom Petty, or, if you must, think Grease soundtrack), yet, with the proper wig and glasses, Cliff is Jeff Lynne – a fact which will come in quite handy should Emma's ELO tribute band ever get off the ground. Incidentally, launching an ELO tribute band isn't nearly as easy as one might think. Stupid drummers.
Leigh BernsteinLeigh is part of our stellar graphic design team. The youngest of seven - that's right, seven - siblings, Leigh hails from Memphis and once spent a summer working as a lunchlady in an Alaskan resort, serving up the cafeteria specials (mostly caribou) prepared in the style du jour (mostly caribou burgers). In addition to having sampled Alaska, and odd-sounding burgers, Leigh also tasted life as an intern at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and continues to explore her performance-art interests as a member of Winslow Family Productions, a troupe that combines visual arts and live performance on stage. Leigh graduated from MTSU (with feathers, no less) with a degree in graphic design and asks that we point out that no caribou were harmed in the making of this bio. Nor, for that matter, were any burgers.
Matt GeorgeMatt is a member of Emma's software development team. An avid whitewater kayaker, Matt also enjoys snowboarding, climbing and cycling and rides a motorcycle to work most days. Matt's bike of choice is a Harley Davidson Nightster that looks like this and, according to sources that may or may not be Matt, is much more powerful and manly than the Buell Matt's colleague Kendall rides. Tickets to the Nightster-Buell Motorcycle Ride-Off and/or Pinky Wrestling Showdown will go on sale shortly. At the ripe old age of 29, Matt has already counted 20 different residences home, in the states of Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina, where he attended Furman University and majored in computer science. Prior to joining Emma, Matt was a tech samurai (nice title) for a company called Noogieware (nice company name) and, before that, a software developer with Manheim Auctions in Nashville.
Grey GarnerGrey is our design relations manager, overseeing our efforts to create stylish custom-designed stationery for our clients. "Thanks for your help, Grey," they might say. "Thanks for your help, Gray," is also acceptable. "Thanks for your help, Jerome," really isn't, and you're likely to upset Grey and/or Gray with that kind of rudeness. Before joining Emma, Jerome helped manage a post-production studio that handled a variety of editing projects for music-industry clients. He's been an engineer, a producer, and a recording artist. With a name like Grey Garner, you pretty much have to be a rock star at some point, don't you? Let's ask Jerome.
Theresa McLoughlinTheresa is part of our agency sales squad, having joined Emma from Mohawk, where she was part of a slightly more carpet-oriented sales squad. Hence her extensive knowledge of plush, shag, sisal, saxony, berber, and shard. Incidentally, and the Mohawk scientists will tell you this, you shouldn't try making carpet out of shards of things. A devout Buckeyes fan, Theresa has a fiancé named Bobby, a dog named Annie, two cats named Allie and Foxy, and 57 cousins named, well, um, how about we just tell you about cousin Tata Young, a singer billed as Thailand's very own pop sensation, and whose song "Temperature Rising" claims: "You've got my temperature rising like El Nino." Sorry, other Theresa cousins – you've just been out-cousined. Theresa holds a Bachelor of Science in Communications from Ohio University in Athens. Not *that* Athens.
Brooks AlfordBrooks is part of our sales team, having joined Emma from the laboratories of Vanderbilt University, where his work as a biophysics research assistant had him planning and performing fluorescence imaging experiments with a confocal microscope. If there's one thing we've found, it's that most of your talented sales folks are somewhere out there performing fluorescence imaging experiments with confocal microscopes. Seriously, go get them. Brooks has a working knowledge of written and spoken German, and we're not sure if that's somehow related or not, but rumor (or perhaps rumour) has it that Brooks will occasionally take on the accent of the person with whom he's speaking on the phone. If, by luck, you sound exactly like Murray from Flight of the Conchords, please call now.
Jimmy ThornJimmy is a graphic designer with Emma. A graduate of Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, Jimmy actually started school at the tender age of four. He would eventually be named a McDonald's All American – not as an elite high school basketball player, but rather as a dude who can make Big Macs really, really fast. Jimmy also plays the guitar really fast, and he currently performs as part of a band called Totally Snake. It's a classical group. Prior to joining Emma, Jimmy worked for The Bomb Shelter Studio in Nashville and Marian Records in nearby Goodlettsville and spent nearly five years working with the mentally handicapped through the Cardinal Center in Indiana and the Rochelle Center in Nashville. In his spare time, Jimmy enjoys looking a little bit like Neve Campbell and not being anywhere near the three things that freak him the bleep out: namely, balloons, horses and clowns. We're with you on the clowns, Neve.
Annie KinnairdAnnie Kinnaird is our director of business development, leading our sales team and forging relationships with partners around the globe. Annie was Emma's very first employee, beating Allison by mere hours in the same way twins can be born at virtually the same time and yet one of them, to use Annie's terminology, is the total supreme ruler by virtue of having arrived first. If you're a large organization working with Emma, no doubt you've met Annie. If you're a musical theater graduate from St. Louis's Webster University Conservatory of Theater Arts (known in more casual circles as Webster Conservatory of Theater Arts), you too have probably met Annie. Prior to joining Emma, Annie was a sales and marketing coordinator of special projects for BMG Entertainment in New York.
Greg ThorntonGreg is a senior developer. He works closely with Kim, Alex and Erik to create shiny new features for the Emma community. Incidentally, attaining the shine is often the most difficult part of any web development project. At the time we hired Greg, we were on a global search for an open-source programmer and had pretty much given up hope. But hope, as they say, springs eternal, because at the height of our giving-up-ness (or is it give-up-hood?) we found Greg working in a bakery two blocks from our office. We like to think we rescued the poor lad from a life of pastries and cakes and breads and those tasty little single-serving pies everybody loves. You can't imagine the horror. Greg is a Nashville native and - oh, right - sometimes he wears eyeliner. (Look, he's bakery people. What do you expect?)
Suzanne NormanSuzanne is Emma's director of community relations, overseeing our efforts to take care of pretty much anyone who emails or calls us, assuming they didn't dial the wrong number and want to know what our dry-cleaning rates are. They are $5 per shirt, $2 per sock. As an undergrad at Baylor University, Suzanne was a member of Phi Beta Kappa (some kind of pot-luck supper club, we're told) and worked as an editor of student papers for a teacher who was once kidnapped by gypsies. It's a long story. Suzanne writes most of Emma's APBs and Ask Emma newsletters and is an avid fan of all things McSweeneys. Then again, who isn't?
Dave DelaneyDave is from Canada, which, to be frank, explains a lot. About how awesome he is, that is! Emma's specialist in all things New Media, Dave is the kid who's been blogging since he was 11, podcasting since he was 16, and Twittering long before anyone else realized that's something other than an uncontrollable nervous tick. Before joining Emma, Dave led the online marketing and promotions for Global Television in Toronto and, before that, was a promotions executive with The Toronto Star. He was also, at one point, the marketing manager for the Toronto production of Hairspray, a musical about the painful collapse of a down-on-his-luck salesman and the relationships he has with the rest of the Loman family. It won some awards.
Heather DixonHeather is an upstanding member of our Agency Relations team, taking good care of our growing number of agency partners. She also has an unusually high ratio of Tupperware to Not Tupperware containers. We know that because Heather is an avid baker and often satisfies the office sweet tooth with scrumptious treats like brownies, cookies, cupcakes made with root beer Schnapps, and root beer Schnapps. Heather's just really generous in that way, particularly when it comes to Schnapps. In addition to an affinity for dessert concoctioneering (it's a culinary term, look it up), Heather may or may not also have an affinity for Tom Brady, the Patriots QB, who, after a couple of schnapps cupcakes is even hotter, if you can believe that. Heather holds a corporate communications degree from Marietta College in Ohio and will deny all of what we just said about Tom Brady should she ever find herself in the same room as Tony Romo.
Bo SpessardBo is our director of operations. He's also our attorney. Let's just say he wears a couple of different hats here, but let's also be clear that the aforementioned hats are not hats in the literal sense and that neither party may claim damages arising from this or any other reference to, um, hats. (See earlier note about Bo being an attorney.) Before joining Emma, Bo was an associate with the firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell and Berkowitz - Baker Donelson in more casual circles - where he specialized in intellectual property and software licenses for Fortune 500 clients. Emma was one of his clients, albeit one just a smidge outside the Fortune 500 roster. Bo graduated from Hampden-Sydney College and received his JD from Franklin Pierce Law Center.
Allison DavisAllison is our director of design, overseeing Emma's own brand identity work and design. She created the original Emma face (arms and chin to follow) and creates all of our advertising and marketing collateral. A graduate of Miami (OH) University's fine arts program, Allison studied graphic design and painting, which explains her awfully impressive eye for color and composition. While at Miami, she also dabbled in metalsmithing, which explains her eye for, well, metal and stuff. When she's not designing Emma customers' templates, Allison enjoys spending time with her cats, watching Japanese Anime and explaining the meaning of Japanese Anime to the cats.
Alex EzellAlex is part of our software development group. Born and raised in Albany, Georgia (much like a certain Emma co-founder, which explains why Albany, Georgia will now be mentioned a second time for no discernable reason), Alex was the last of five kids and attended boarding school (Darlington) en route to college (University of Georgia). Prior to joining Emma, Alex taught high school English and worked as a software developer for the company Fylmz. Also, it's possible Alex is an actual, real-life fan of Hootie & the Blowfish. Says Alex, "You make one concession for Darius Rucker and the next thing you know, a youthful dalliance becomes Google fodder." Albany, Georgia, has no comment on the matter.
Kris WetzelKris is part of our sales team. An English major from Atlanta, Kris reads cookbooks as if they were novels (note to Kris: they are not) and is a self-described food snob. She also loves dogs, although she's been known to refer to her own dogs as "jerks" pretty much, well, all the time. Kris's eclectic vocabulary has been described as Margaret Mitchell meets Larry King, which, incidentally, is surely the first time those names have appeared together in the same sentence. Before joining Emma, Kris was a studio manager for 12South Yoga in Nashville before deciding to sally forth (who's got the eclectic vocabulary now?) and find a new, possibly less stretchy career.
Steve TurneySteve helps lead our agency sales efforts, working closely with marketing and creative firms interested in using Emma on behalf of their clients through a program we've ingeniously dubbed Emma Agency. The last name Turney, you might be thinking, is not entirely dissimilar (or un-similar, if you like) to the word turkey. In fact, it is just one letter off. In another fact, Steve was born on Thanksgiving Day. Weird, no? Before joining Emma, Steve was an editor and account executive with Business Wire based out of Newport Beach, California. You could say we gobbled him up from Business Wire, or that we stuck our neck out for him, or perhaps even that we served a plate of him with a side of dressing and rice at a large holiday gathering. We went too literal with that last one, didn't we.
Gina LaMarGina is a senior member of our small business team. A 2005 Belmont graduate, Gina is one of those instantly likeable people who makes the rest of us perhaps-likeable-in-time people green with envy. It's really quite obnoxious, except for the fact that she's on our team, and the likeable part is why we hired her in the first place. Sorry for the whole "green with envy" bit earlier. We meant to say "green with happiness." Before joining Emma, Gina interned at DreamWorks Records, the Tennessee General Assembly, St. Jude and the law firm of Stewart, Estes & Donnell, where she no doubt also made people happy and green.
Jason DuMarsJason is our director of information systems, overseeing many of the under-the-hood elements that make the Emma service go. Jason is also an accomplished musician and one of the world's foremost engravers of saxophones, which places him in rare company within the saxophone engraver community. It's a community of three, if you must know, and currently two of them - Jimmy Tubes and Frenchie LaGrue - are in a bit of a spat over whose Dancing Swan motif rules supreme. (Stay strong, French-ster.) Prior to joining Emma, Jason designed and implemented IT Operations Architecture for Standard Insurance Company in Portland, Oregon. He attended Western Oregon State College.
Anne RochfordAnne is Emma's office coordinator. A graduate of Miami University in Ohio (she studied Sociology and Pre-Physical Therapy), Anne enjoys baking, trying new recipes, talking about recipes, swapping recipes, adding prank ingredients to so-called-friends' recipes, and puzzles. In fact, her childhood love of puzzle solvery (it's a word) had young Anne dreaming of becoming a famous detective, like Sherlock Holmes without the pipe, or Magnum, P.I. without the mustache and reclusive landlord. Alas, that dream was squashed a long time ago (thanks for nothing, Robin Masters), but Anne's appreciation of puzzles lives on, as does her enthusiasm for new products (her current fave: The Turbo Cooker, as seen on TV), fine linens and monogrammed stationery. Anne is a member of the Junior League of Nashville and asks that you please not tell the Junior League about the Magnum P.I. thing. Thanks.
Chris NelsonChris Nelson is a systems administrator with Emma. Among his many skills are risk assessment and vulnerability management, though in the case of the latter, he's quick to point out that his skills stop just beyond actual systems and network vulnerability and just short of tearful co-worker confessions of unfulfilled dreams over turkey sandwiches in the lounge area. (Side note to Jesse: You'll get there, bro. Sometimes dreams are like wily salmon, or catfish.) Prior to Emma, Chris pulled senior stints at such fine places as Caterpillar Financial, Everest Technologies and Asurion. His rather dubious claim to fame? That he has personally experienced all of the following natural disasters: hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires, floods, tornadoes, and a Kenny Rogers concert. In the case of that last one, remember to seek refuge in a basement, stairwell or interior bathroom. You can never be too careful with The Gambler.
Taylor SchenaTaylor is an Emma graphic designer who arrived here after having lived or worked in seemingly every town in Pennsylvania. There's Bloomsburg, and Hazleton, and Gettysburg, and Easton, and Wyomissing, and even Kutztown. Bloomsburg, incidentally, boasts one of the largest fairs east of the Mississippi, and kids take the entire week off from school. It's just how they roll in the PA. Taylor is a self-proclaimed font junkie (if you're going to be a junkie, fonts are preferable to, say, smack) and loves the movie The Princess Bride. And when she decided at her desk in Hazleton that there was a better job out there somewhere, she gave herself 90 days to find it. Exactly 90 days later - to the day - she signed on with Emma. For dramatic effect, it's best if that last sentence is read in the voice of Robert Goulet. Or perhaps Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet.
Erik JonesErik is our database administrator and a member of Emma's development squad. Like Greg, we found him working in the most unusual of places - tending bar at the Hard Rock Café, if you must know (must you?). Apparently this is how it works: If you want to find a .Net developer, you go to developer job boards. If you want to find an open-source developer or database guru, you go to a bar. Which works out well since most job boards don't have beer on tap. Erik graduated from the University of Memphis in 2002 and enjoys good books, problem solving, and experimenting with Ruby on Rails.
Christina GriffithChristina is a member of our community relations team, welcoming new Emma customers as they arrive and taking great care of them along the way. Christina sits next to Jake (not to be confused with Leonard Nimoy) and once hit him in the head with a pen. In the fast-paced world of customer service, these things sometimes happen. A recent Belmont graduate, Christina is also a tennis player and coach and was an accomplished doubles player at Belmont University. There's a story about Christina's college tennis career in which a bird once fell to the court - dead - in the middle of a volley. If that's the kind of stuff birds do in front of a stadium crowd, imagine what they're up to when we're not watching. Think about it.
Patrick BlockPatrick Block is Emma's in-house financial analyst, crunching the all-important numbers and dropping in-the-know phrases like "How's that P&L?" and, "We'll see what the balance sheet has to say about that" on unsuspecting colleagues and office passersby. He honed those financial analystisizing chops at several fine companies pre-Emma, including Nashville-based Healthways, Health Net, and Tommy Hilfiger. Which might explain his penchant for wearing virtually nothing but Hilfiger clothing. (Note to Victoria's Secret: Thanks for not hiring Patrick Block.) An avid bike rider - ahem, cyclist - Patrick is also a three-time bocce champion (take that, you two-trophy pretenders), skier and rock climber. He holds a degree in Arts, Business and Chinese (in that order) from Trinity University in San Antonio and speaks conversational Mandarin. And he reportedly fashions his own notebooks out of large binder clips and paper. It's more freakish than it sounds.
Dean ShortlandDean is from Australia, a country famous for kangaroos, koala bears, and shrimp that all too often wind up on something called a barbie. Dean brings an international flare to Emma's community relations and to the pronunciation of his own name (Dane), peppering his conversations with adorable Aussie nuggets like G'day and Cheers and It's Three O'Clock and Why Aren't We Drinking Yet. Dane has served as the managing director of the Australian Festival in Nashville, worked as a brand and communications manager for GAPbuster Worldwide, and once hosted his own current events and pop culture television show in Melbourne. He holds an MBA from Australia's Swinburne University.
Rami PerryRami is part of our sales team and may be one of the most devout Alabama Crimson Tide fans around (let's just say she owns pom-poms). Which is not an invitation for all of you super-devout Alabama fans to write in and question Rami's precise level of devotion, though if you must, Rami can be reached here. Prior to joining Emma, Rami handled sales and account management for Live Nation (and worked at least one Bonnaroo festival) and, before that, was the development director for Girls Incorporated of Central Alabama. She's a graduate of – wait for it – the University of Alabama, where she majored in public relations, minored in Spanish, and somewhere along the way found herself some crimson-and-white pom-poms. Roll Tide, indeed.
Daniel BrownDaniel is part of our wonderfully talented graphic design group. Before joining Emma, Daniel worked on an organic farm and lived in a tent near the Rio Grande where, in his words, he and his girlfriend/tent-mate dreamed of saving up enough to eat at Applebee's. Not long after realizing the dream of Rip Roarin' Ribs and Xtreme Cheddar Poppers, Daniel packed up and moved to Nashville, where new, less Applebee-centric dreams would take hold. In addition to his talents at surviving the traditional post-college-tent-and-organic-farming-and-cheddar-popper adventure, Daniel's also a skilled carpenter and lives with his wife/former tent-mate and daughter Stella in their first house. Occasionally, they eat at Applebee's.
Hilary SmithHilary is on our Community Relations team and is finishing up school at Belmont University, where she's putting the finishing touches on a marketing degree. Describing herself as "100% Dutch by heritage and by heart," Hilary grew up surrounded by Dutch costumes, shoes and dancing in a town called - wait for it - Holland, Michigan. To this day, she enjoys cleaning for fun (it's a Dutch thing), cheering for the Michigan Wolverines (it's a Big Blue thing) and listening to Christmas music starting around October every year (no idea on this one). Hilary has been an Emma intern for the past two years and looks forward to a long and fruitful career not being in charge of the Emma jukebox each fall.
Reggie Murray Reggie is our internal IT support person, taking good care of things like computers, and phones, and networks, and networked computer phones, and possibly even phones that have computer networks built right into the espresso machine connector flange. What will they think of next? In addition to his work with office machinery, Reggie also works with several musical instruments, chief among them the saxophone – he's opened for jazz great Larry Carlton and played with Bonnie Raitt. Between Reggie and Jason, our other sax player extraordinaire, we've pretty much got the makings for the greatest sax duo alive. Watch out, you other great and alive sax duos (you know who you are), because here comes the Jason Reggie Experience, or perhaps the Jason Reggie Love Train, or how about just Jason and Reggie. Reggie received his Bachelors of Music Education from Loyola University (New Orleans) and his Masters of Music from the University of New Orleans.
Erin SheaErin is part of our Community Relations team and will often refer to customers as "dear" and "sweetie," which we think is quite nice. But don't let her friendly demeanor fool you, as word on the street is that little Erin can beat up pretty much anyone. Just ask her. But don't ask her about olives, as she hates olives and offering them to her may or may not be a good idea given the earlier bit about her *beating people up.* Erin's a former gymnast, a former sales rep with Grace Medical out of Memphis, and a former psychology major (having completed an independent study involving something called Neuroscience) at Auburn University. If you happen to be an Alabama fan, maybe it's best not to bring that up either, sweetie.
Chris WoodChris is a software developer for Emma and *may* be the Black Crowes' #1 Fan. Note to other Black Crowes #1 Fans: You're on notice, friends. In addition to catching the Crowes whenever he can, Chris doesn't just do something, he does "the fire out of" something. It's really his way of giving 110% to the things he likes. Here are the things he likes: Slash, the Opera, Nashville Ballet, Olean Chips Before They Realized that Olean Chips Might Be a Really Bad Idea, Not Changing a Planet's Status Without Counting the Number of Textbooks and Childhood Rhymes You're About to Really Muck Up, and Candles. He makes his own - candles, that is, and once worked for a company developing a frequency quadrupled module for specific infrared lasers (the 266nm model). We prefer to think of Chris as the dude who makes candles. It's simpler that way. Chris graduated from MTSU with a B.S. in Physics and a minor in math, a subject which he studied the fire out of, to be sure.
Jairo RuizJairo is a senior graphic and user interface designer. He's also taking a class in combat training, so if you're at all questioning his talents as a senior graphic and user interface designer, we'd recommend you stop pronto. Jairo (pronounced Bill, incidentally) creates custom account branding for agencies, oversees much of our interface design work, and assists in all things html. Prior to joining Emma, Jairo worked in New York as part of the design team at Bluefly (a leading online apparel and accessories store) and prior to that as a freelance web designer. He's a graduate of Brooklyn College and his html skills are superfly. Yes, superfly.
Casey McCormickCasey is a member of Emma's small business sales team. A graduate of Beloit (pronounced "bell-wahh") College in Wisconsin, Casey studied environmental geology as a result, we're told, of having gone through the course book and circled everything she didn't think she could teach herself. Oddly enough, she hates rocks. But she loves camping and drinking beer outside, so it worked out just fine in the end. In addition to her outdoor pursuits, Casey loves travel and food, particularly in combination. Her favorite treat from the road? Trout from Lake Titicaca. Her least favorite? Inca Cola, which looks like Mountain Dew but tastes like bubble gum. Casey also enjoys being part of a wine club and a book club, though she admits the two sometimes get mixed up, and before you know it everyone's halfway through chapter nine of a Chalone 2003 Pinot Noir. It's a wonderful read. Before joining Emma, Casey was with Aspect Software as a customer support consultant and a technical support manager. She was named an Aspect Top Performer of 2006, which she no doubt celebrated over a bottle of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Jim HitchJim works with Emma's agency partners to make sure they have everything they need to help their clients. "Do you have everything you need to help your clients?" he might ask, because Jim's the kind of guy who likes to get right to the point. He's also the kind of guy who likes to roast his own coffee beans and play a mean game of racquetball. Not at the same time, mind you. Before joining Emma, Jim served as a partner in an insurance and financial services firm, and he continues to serve on the board of his family's business, Wampler's Farm Sausage. Like most sausage people (or is it sausage folk?), Jim graduated with a degree in finance from Belmont University.
Emily HendersonEmily is a member of Emma's Community Relations team. It's said she could be Emma's sister (it's the haircut and glasses), though the same has been said about a number of people, like Allison, and Annie, but not so much about Steve. Emily studied Latin and Greek literature at Agnes Scott College (show-off) but now has to settle for reading books in plain old English as a member of a local book club (still a bit show-offy). Speaking of literature, she is an Anne of Green Gables fan, having watched the film version of AOGG whenever she had the flu as a child. By the time Emily had recovered from the illness, Anne would invariably be all grown up, having transcended her humble beginnings. It's the Cliffs Notes version of the story, but you get the idea. Emily is also a fan of Ben Folds and all things Beatles, even, dare we say it, Yoko. Turns out that by the time Emily had recovered from the illness, Yoko would have transcended her humble beginnings to break up the greatest band of all time. It's a much sadder story than AOGG.
Kendall JosephKendall is Emma's QA Coordinator, overseeing the process of taking features and projects from not-quite-ready-for-prime-time to, well, prime time. Kendall joined us from the Nashville firm digiChart, where he spent seven years working his QA magic, which is only *technically* magical if you believe spreadsheets possess the same supernatural abilities as unicorns. Which they do. In addition to his appreciation of the art of quality assurance, Kendall also appreciates the art of Hayseed Dixie, a bluegrass AC/DC cover band (of course!), and of The Worsties, a band fronted by Emma's own Jesse Worstell and Jairo Ruiz, who have asked that we take this opportunity to remind Kendall that shouting "Freebird!" after every song doesn't increase the odds that it will be played next. It's a popular misconception. Kendall is currently pursuing his MBA at MTSU and holds a Master of Science from the same school. Show-off.
Laura KeyLaura is a member of our agency sales team and the unofficial director of the Emma Bike Team, comprised of Emma staffers who bike to work. So far the EBT has just two members, which makes for very quick board meetings but slightly awkward bike team picnics. In addition to biking around the neighborhood, Laura also enjoys hiking with her husband (Garrett) and dog (Ninja), skateboarding, and brewing her own beer. Laura's also an avid concertgoer - so much so that in spite of not even really liking Jimmy Buffet, she's seen him perform no less than six times. Laura is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and has a degree in philosophy. Philosophically speaking, is a cheeseburger in paradise really better than a cheeseburger in, say, Ohio?
Kendrick WattsKendrick is part of our small business sales team. He's also from Baton Rouge, where he was lovingly reared on Bengal Tiger football and "coffee-milk" (though he says he no longer takes Half & Half and twelve tablespoons of sugar in his coffee). He attended LSU as an undergrad and Vanderbilt for his Masters in International Education Management and Policy, and he spent time post-school as Peterson Tool Company's director of international business development. A self-described Hemingway protégé, Kendrick nevertheless isn't afraid to balance his high-brow literary leanings with an appreciation of campy pop culture. His favorite movie? Back to the Future, about which he poses the rather philosophical question, "Who knew love was just a flux capacitor away?" 1.21 gigawatts indeed.
Jessica SalingJessica is a graphic designer. In France, we would say she's a concepteur. In France we would also say she is tres doue, which means either "very talented" or possibly "eleven feet tall" - our French is a bit rusty. Like Allison, Jessica graduated from Miami University in Ohio, a school known for its school of education and for confusing people who are headed for Florida but not so good with maps. Jessica is what we like to call athletic. She played field hockey (a game played with ropes and crossbows) in college, she walks to work, and on a recent visit to Chicago she signed up to run a 5k as "something to do." In France, we'd say that's weird.
Patrick CopelandPatrick supports our sales team by coordinating schedules, managing our administrative tools, and, well, being generally supportive. "You can do this," he might say to someone who needs a bit of encouragement. If that doesn't do the trick, he might follow his words with action, in the form of the High Five, the Low Five, or the sure-fire Knuckle Five. Need a pat on the back or a hug that fits within the scope of acceptable co-worker hugs as outlined quite clearly on page 123 of the company handbook? Patrick's your man. Before joining Emma, Patrick worked as an account executive with the Nashville Speakers Bureau after stints at Stewart, Estes & Donnell and Universal Music Group. He is a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham.
Jenn RossJenn is our design coordinator, working with customers to make sure their custom-designed email stationery is, to use a bit of industry parlance, totally kick ass. When not working, Jenn likes to belly dance. She also enjoys Irish folk music and vegetables on plain spaghetti noodles. The vegetables are on the noodles, not the folk music. Before joining Emma, Jenn was a tour press coordinator with Compass Records and founded GypsyGirl Productions, an artist management and publicity company. Jenn graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in mass communications, which is all well and good but can we please get back to the belly dancing for just a minute? Yes, thought so.
Matt ThackstonMatt is part of our community relations squad. Before joining Emma, he worked as a special projects coordinator at CMT, and later as an A&R coordinator for Word Entertainment. He also (allegedly) once sported long, rock-star hair, though to date no photographic evidence of such has been produced. Oh wait, maybe it has. A graduate of Appalachian State in Boone, NC - magna cum laude we might add - Matt is an avid blogger (see musenashville.org), an avid watcher of the show 24 (see again musenashville.com) and an avid Nintendo Wii player (see Matt's virtual tennis elbow). What can we say - the man's got a mean virtual backhand. Watch out, Virtual Serena Williams - you're next.
Kathleen CotterKathleen is our People Resources Manager, which is our attempt to avoid saying "HR" at all costs. Other things we try to avoid saying: "That's wack," "This sandwich is dope," "Fill-in-the-blank fashizzle," and "root canal." Prior to joining Emma, Kathleen spent seven years as a human resources recruiter and rep for UPS, where she was responsible for staffing a facility with 850 employees, or just a smidge – where a smidge equals 800 – more than work at Emma. She also has done non-military tours of duty at E-Squared Records and Spongebath Records (great name) and can be heard clapping on the Steve Earle song "Telephone Road." It's truly some of her finest work. Kathleen has a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt and is on the board of directors for the wonderful organization Second Harvest Food Bank.
David WeintraubDavid is a member of our sales staff and is a rival of Kris's for the title of Biggest Mets Fan in the Office. (Incidentally, the title of Biggest Maroon 5 Fan remains completely wide open.) A Brooklyn native and NYU grad, David may or may not wear mostly blue-and-orange clothing in honor of the aforementioned Mets, and he may or may not know the pitching staff's combined ERA for each of the past seven seasons. David also wields a most impressive CD collection from his years managing a Virgin Megastore and Sam Goody store in Greenwich Village, though not so impressive may be the presence of Poison's Greatest Hits in said collection. What can we say - every rose has its thorn. We've been instructed to insert the phrase "Go Mets!" here to avoid having a certain band's greatest hits disc thrown at us any moment now.
Jesse WorstellJesse helps people. Not so much people who are injured or in some sort of danger, because he's not a doctor, he suffers from vertigo and the sight of saliva makes him squeamish. But if you're an Emma customer and need help that's not medical in nature, Jesse's your man. Prior to joining us, Jesse worked in the circulation department of a newspaper, fronted and managed a band called Blue Star Highway, worked as a barista and served as a substitute teacher. At one point he was also something called a 'Technogym Trainer.' You would think it'd be a lot easier to think up something funny to say about a Technogym Trainer. Sadly, it is not. Jesse is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University.
Marcus WhitneyMarcus is part of the Emma Emeritus team, having joined us early and stayed to help shape the Emma product and culture in ways we can't count. Which is more a testament to the scope of Marcus's contribution than it is a reflection on our counting skills, which are quite strong. Marcus is a frequent contributor to fine publications and a speaker at noteworthy events (he's popular, okay?) and will remain a part of the Emma family forever. Which is like 12 years, if our math is correct.
Clint SmithClint is the other half of our co-founding duo. He directs the brand, preaches about voice and writes paragraphs of text not unlike this one. Clint is a former editor with TicketMaster/CitySearch who joined Will at Smallbusiness.com to further refine his online community-building skills. What his other skills are, we're not quite certain, though we're told they may include air hockey and bowling, in that order. Clint is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he majored in history.