FoxFire Marketing enables businesses to more strategically and creatively market their goods and services to other businesses. In a cluttered market, FoxFire delivers marketing solutions that have the highest impact for our clients. We believe in your business and are with you every step of the way, providing personal service, attention and speed.

Karen K. Fox - President, CEO and Founder
Karen K. Fox, founder of FoxFire Marketing, brings innovative insight to marketing by incorporating strategy, consumer marketing principles, and creativity to develop unique and effective marketing solutions for businesses. Prior to founding FoxFire, Fox led the marketing efforts at Global Food Exchange, a business-to-business internet solution for the perishable food trade. While there she grew brand awareness to 80% and increased customer acquisition by 20% per week. Additionally, Fox guided innovative branding solutions for Cap'n Crunch at Quaker Oats, and developed global marketing strategies as well as new products at The Minute Maid Company, a subsidiary of  The Coca-Cola Company. Prior to entering marketing, she worked as a strategy consultant for The Boston Consulting Group in the U.S., Mexico and Indonesia.

Fox holds a M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in economics from Stanford University.
kfox@foxfiremarketing.com

Keith W. Laakko - Consultant
Keith Laakko is a managing partner and founder of activated_insights, a brand development and strategic marketing consulting group. Through activated_insights' innovative and straightforward approach to the marketing discipline, Laakko has help many organizations achieve a clear focus of what their brand really is, what it can be, where it can go and how it can best establish a relationship with consumers. His list of clients includes Kodak, Sysco and CMA, the largest brand presence and design firm in the southwestern United States. Prior to forming activated_insights, Laakko accumulated over 12 years of marketing and general management experience across corporate America. He led global brand development for the Hi-C brand for the Minute Maid division of The Coca-Cola Company. While at Minute Maid, he was integral in the new positioning and re-launch of the Hi-C brand, growing the business over 10% in one year. Prior to Minute Maid, Laakko served as Global Marketing Director for Hasbro Toys, managing all aspects of design, engineering and marketing to drive the Batman and Transformer brands to new revenue and profit records. His marketing career began at Mattel Toys on the Hot Wheels brand where he was responsible for driving the business forward both domestically and internationally. He has also worked in the commercial lending and banking industry prior to beginning his marketing career.

Laakko holds a M.B.A. from the University of Michigan in Marketing and Finance. He completed his undergraduate at Michigan with BA in Economics. Keith and his wife Betsy are the proud parents of two tikes under the age of 3.

Sally Highducheck - Consultant
Sally Highducheck experience includes strategic client counsel, development and implementation of public relations programs, media and analyst relations, and development of press collateral.

Her through her agency experience at Middleberg Euro RCSG and PepperCom, Inc, Sally has advised clients such as PaineWebber (NYSE: PWJ), Charles River Ventures, Global Food Exchange, Steelcase (NYSE: SCS), OnMoney.com and ProLogis (NYSE: PLD). Her account experience also includes CapitalKey Advisors, ProCure, FrontLine Capital Group (NASDAQ: FLCG), Quepasa.com (NASDAQ: PASA), Crosslinks, IntraLinks, and TIS. Sally has also acted as PepperCom's resident Investor Relation Specialist, and consulted on various accounts on the financial impacts to their communications strategy, such as during their IPO period and road shows.

Previously, Sally was the finance manager for MTV Networks Online, a Viacom Company (NYSE: VIA). There she oversaw the budgeting, estimating, and forecasting for MTV's e-commerce business, the Nickelodeon URLs, the MTV URLs, and the Kid's Portal Nozzle. She also helped facilitate the SonicNet / MTVi merger. Prior to MTV, Sally was a Senior Accountant at Ernst and Young LLP, specializing in consumer products and technology companies.

Sally has a bachelor's of business administration from the University of Notre Dame, with a major in accounting and a minor in German. She is a Certified Public Accountant and member of the AICPA.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Gerald Zaltman - Professor, Harvard Business School
Dr. Gerald Zaltman is a senior partner in Olson Zaltman Associates, a market research and consulting firm specializing in developing deep understandings of consumers for use in developing marketing and corporate strategy. Dr. Zaltman holds two patents related to this work, one being the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET). ZMET is currently being used for or under license by such companies as Citibank, Coca-Cola, General Mills, General Motors, Hallmark, Hill Holliday, InnerViews, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Thomson Marketing Resources, The World Bank, and many other large and small firms. Last year ZMET projects were conducted in over 14 countries. The technique has been written up in Fortune, Fast Company, and Market Research magazines and described as one of the most important developments in marketing in recent years.

Gerald Zaltman is also the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and co-director of the Mind of the Market Laboratory. He has received the American Marketing Association's Richard D. Irwin Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, The Association for Consumer Research Distinguished Fellow Award the Knowledge Utilization Society's Thomas J. Kiresuk Award for Excellence in Scientific Research, and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Society for Marketing Advances.

Charles E. Mendez Jr. - Airtizen
Mendez is a born entrepreneur with extensive experience in financial management, strategic planning and multiple facets of field and business operations. Mendez has a background in the transportation, field services, real estate, construction and restaurant industries. In addition to his current responsibilities with Airtizen, he also serves as president and co-founder of MCF Systems Atlanta Inc.. He is also the president of the C.E. Mendez Foundation, an operating foundation that specializes in school based prevention education programs, currently used by more than 2,000 school systems in the United States.

Mendez has served on the board of directors of Teco Energy Inc. (NYSE: TE) and Midstate Federal Savings & Loan; the Tampa Downtown Development Authority; and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center; and was appointed to the Florida High Speed Rail Commission by the governor of the state of Florida. Mendez received a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of South Florida.

Deborah Spicer Tompkins - GCI Group
Deborah Spicer Tompkins is a Senior Vice President at GCI Group, Atlanta.  Formerly, she was the Managing Director of Media Relations and Technology with Hill Knowlton Inc, Atlanta. Spicer brings extensive knowledge in the specialties of media relations, corporate reputation, crisis communication, labor negotiations, emerging technologies, telecommunications, advertising/ branding, healthcare and sports sponsorship marketing. Prior to Hill and Knowlton, Spicer was Assistant Media Director at BellSouth Corporation, where she developed and executed strategic media, served as, and implemented strategic activities in the areas of diversity, legal issues and corporate philanthropy. Additionally, she strategically and creatively announced new lines of business and emerging technology offerings. Spicer graduated with a bachelor's of science in health communications from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., and holds a master's degree in health care policy and public administration from Mercer University in Atlanta. She is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators, the Business Marketing Association, the Atlanta Press Club, Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and has served on several non-profit board of directors.