Bruce Erts brings to the MMI Board over forty years experience as a systems & business practices consultant, senior level executive management with special emphasis in the construction, engineering and travel industries. His areas of specialization include project management, information systems management, complex business systems analysis, reservations/order entry/inventory management systems and application software systems design and development.
After spending three years in the US Marine Corps he obtained a B.S. in Mathematics
from Ohio University and an MBA from Wayne State University. He then spent
5 years with General Electric and Ford Motor Company as a Field Engineer
and Operations Research Analyst prior to founding and building one of the
leading Construction/Engineering Project Management Consulting firms in the
US in the mid-1960s. The firm’s specialty area was in providing computerized
methods analysis, scheduling and cost management methodologies which were
very new to the industry in the 1960’s. Over a 15 year period he and
his firm provided consulting services on over $3 billion of major construction
projects across the US. Their clients included major corporations, leading
construction-engineering firms, major universities, state and federal government
agencies. Since “packaged software” was unheard of at the time,
Bruce also became a designer/developer for innovative large scale scheduling
and cost management systems which were used by the consulting practice as
well as being sold to construction/engineering company clients.
In 1981 he returned to the corporate world as Vice President of Information Systems for Dillingham Corporation, a fortune 500 construction/engineering firm. Following his desire to “design and be creative” he returned to systems consulting after 3 years while also changing his target industry of interest from construction to leisure travel. Over the subsequent 15 years he formed a new business and designed/developed a family of travel reservation systems whose capabilities continually expanded, closely tracking the continued growth - expansion of networking, PC technology and subsequently the Internet. In 1999, he and his sons, who had joined him in 1995, sold the company and its' software products to a large international
travel industry software company.
Since 1999, Bruce has been “semi-retired”, lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon while continuing to provide business analysis and systems consulting services with his sons via their consulting firm Fifth Generation Consulting LLC.
Ellen Konar
Dr. Konar currently manages the Global Customer Insights Program at Google. She is a former Intel Marketing Director and Intel Fellow. Her appointment as the first Marketing Fellow at Intel recognized her achievements in developing a comprehensive, state of the art market intelligence function without parallel in the industry, as well as her contributions to Intel's branding and marketing programs critical to Intel's emergence as a marketing and technology powerhouse widely showcased as the fifth most powerful global consumer brand. Dr Konar managed worldwide market research, consumer and business campaigns, brand strategy, and corporate marketing strategy and was the marketing director for Intel's Software and Solutions Division for its first year. Dr. Konar, a frequent presenter to financial and industry analysts, partners and press, was identified as one of six Intel executives who "have made Intel not only a world leader in the industry, but also a driver of technology trends throughout the computer world" (NASDAQ, 1997)
Dr. Konar has also held a range of management and research positions in firms such as IBM, as well as teaching and research appointments at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and the University of Western Ontario, where she taught and published academic and applied research. She is currently on the board of several non-profit organizations and a global market research firm developing a next generation market research paradigm.
John Schmitt
Mr. John Schmitt is the founder and President of OakTree Digital, an Internet design and development agency.
OakTree Digital is one of Portland, Oregon’s most established online marketing and business application firms. Their client list includes stellar companies such as Intel, FEI, OHSU, FLIR, Pacific Crest, Cadence Management Corporation and many others.
Since 1993, OakTree Digital’s services have helped companies increase revenue, create efficiencies, and utilize high profile vehicles for building brand recognition.
Prior to starting OakTree, John gained experience at Intel, in marketing and technical sales for fourteen years and for three years was the vice-president and managing editor of a software industry directory publication.
Besides MMI, John is on the board of the Internet Professionals Northwest (IPN) and the Oregon Chapter of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS). John earned a BA in Economics and a MBA in MIS from the University of Minnesota.
Richard Meeker
Richard H. Meeker is president of City of Roses Newspaper Company, which publishes Willamette Week in Portland OR and the Reporter in Santa Fe NM. Both are alternative newsweeklies. Meeker is also president of MusicfestNW, a private nonprofit that produces a major music event each November to benefit music programs in Portland's public schools. He is also active on the board of The Northwest Academy, a local school that emphasizes the arts in conjunction with a rigorous core curriculum for students in the sixth through the twelfth grades. Prior to becoming president of City of Roses and Publisher of Willamette Week, Meeker was, first, a reporter at Willamette Week at the time of its founding in 1974.
He became the paper's editor in 1977. From 1980 to 1983, he researched and wrote Newspaperman: SI Newhouse and the Business of News. He also helped edit an earlier book, The Voter's Guide to Environmental Politics (1971), was a school teacher on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and is a graduate of the University of Oregon's School of Law (Order of the Coif, 1974). Meeker grew up in Washington, D.C., where he got his start in newspapers as a heeler for Donnie Graham. He became acquainted with Mike Malone in the mid-1980's when Willamette Week engaged Malone's firm to perform research in the Portland market. Meeker is married (to Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Ellen F. Rosenblum) and has two children - Cate (a senior at Tufts University) and Will (a senior in high school).
