> our people

Chris Oechsel,
President

Tim Ward,
Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer

Brian Becksvoort, Research and Development

Chipper Farley, Customer Service / Implementation Manager

Robert Van Zandt, Product Development

Sally Winchell,
Client Support Manager

Todd Wiegand,
Business Development

> our advisory board members:

Tom Caprel
Breakthrough Consulting

Dennis Malley
Position 2 Process

Pat Palmer
Marketplace Partners

Pat Palmer , Marketplace Partners

As founder and Managing Partner of Marketplace Partners, LLC, Pat Palmer leads a dynamic consulting organization dedicated to accelerating profitable growth for its clients. Specializing in services designed specifically for IT Services firms and Software Development companies, Marketplace Partners has achieved considerable success in helping its clients bring new ideas, products and services to market to achieve their strategic objectives. Pat enjoys helping business owners and executive teams achieve critical profitable growth goals while successfully competing against their often larger competitors.

Pat has led Marketplace Partners, LLC to become a recognized leader in best practices and fast-start approaches that address the internal and external obstacles to profitable growth that challenge her mid-market clients. Her knowledge comes from hands-on practical experience in leadership roles with start-up ventures, mid-sized companies, and large multi-national enterprises. In addition to serving her mid-sized clients, she has also provided management consulting services to Fortune 1000 companies such as Microsoft, Anixter International, and Sprint.

Pat is the originator and publisher of the Chicago IT Services Report, and other highly regarded research initiatives. Most recently she spearheaded research with C-level executives responsible for significant purchasing of IT-related products and services, which provides significant intellectual capital for her firm’s consulting practice.

Pat has held senior executive positions at James Martin & Co (now Headstrong), Exec-u-com Systems, and Comdisco where she served as VP of Sales & Marketing. She has developed new businesses from inception to market leadership and raised significant rounds of venture capital to launch Optima, Inc. and Enterprise Solutions Inc., serving both companies as CEO, before founding Marketplace Partners, LLC in 1998. She graduated with a BA from the University of Tulsa (her hometown) and took graduate courses in International Studies at the University of Oklahoma.  Pat is active in local civic and charitable organizations in her community such a Habitat for Humanity and As Good As Gold: Golden Retriever rescue for Northern Illinois.