Mark Olson

Current

• Principal at LTO Ventures

Past

• Chief Operating Officer/Director of Marketing at USA Commercial Mortgage Company
• Director of Marketing & Sales at VegasHotSpots.com LLC
• President at Olson|Ballard Communications

• Vice President of Marketing & Sales at iMonitoring.com, Inc.
• Vice President of Marketing at Constellar Corporation
• Vice President of Marketing at Red Brick Systems, Inc.
• Senior Vice President at GCI Jennings/Jennings & Company
• Account Director at Miller Communications
• Senior Account Supervisor at Manning Selvage and Lee

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Education

• University of Kansas

Recommended

8 people have recommended Mark

Connections

290 connections

Industry

Marketing and Advertising

Mark Olson’s Summary

I take organizations experiencing change and make them leaders. I can do the same for you.

Examples include:
• New startup ready for strategic marketing, branding and communications.
• An established player with unrealized potential.
• A company trying to stay ahead of a rapidly-changing marketplace or a new generation of competition.

I am interested in organizations in one or both of the following categories:
• Startup or early-stage company in tech, education, professional services, media
• Higher education institution

FOUR REASONS TO HIRE ME
Results-driven Leader – 15+ years of multi-national experience and proven expertise in strategic planning, branding, positioning, media relations, sales, advertising, business development, internal communications, websites, online marketing, social media, community affairs, events, crisis communications, competitive analysis, and CRM systems.

Visionary Challenge-solver – Track record of developing and implementing comprehensive, integrated marketing, communications and business development solutions for startups as well as Fortune 500 leaders including branding and reputation management across diverse organizations and geographies. Considerable work experience in Europe, Japan, Australia, and Canada.

Award-winning Communicator – Exceptional writer, creative director, and public speaker who is cool under fire in front of media, board members, and diverse constituencies. Achieved cover stories in Fortune, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Well-rounded background as journalist, agency executive and corporate executive.

Experienced, Respected Manager and Mentor – Built teams of 35 professionals across multiple U.S. locations and eight countries. Managed agencies and contractors. Overseen budgets of $10+ million. Outstanding interpersonal skills. Hands-on self-starter adept at multi-tasking and managing parallel projects under tight deadlines in dynamic entrepreneurial environments.

Mark Olson’s Specialties:

Strategic marketing, comprehensive planning, branding, positioning, media relations, sales, advertising, business development, publications, marketing communications, websites, online marketing, direct marketing, publications, collateral, social media, social networking, tactical implementation, guerrilla marketing, strategic partnerships, channel marketing, events, crisis communications, competitive analysis, measurement, benchmarks, data mining, customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Mark Olson’s Experience

• Principal

  LTO Ventures

  (Marketing and Advertising industry)

  July 2007 — Present (2 years 6 months)

  LTO Ventures is a strategic marketing, communications and branding consultancy. Recent projects include:
  -- Website design, development for Arizona nightclub
  -- Fundraising website, media relations for paralyzed entrepreneur
  -- Online education company marketing, communications plan
  -- Online vacation rental property management marketing plan
  -- Online data collaboration marketing plan

• Chief Operating Officer/Director of Marketing

  USA Commercial Mortgage Company

  (Financial Services industry)

  June 2004 — July 2007 (3 years 2 months)

  One of the largest private lenders to commerical real estate developers. USA Capital made short-term high-interest loans of $5-50 million secured by real estate. Capital came from individuals and organizations who took fractional positions in loans in exchange for above-market returns. I joined the company to rebuild its broken marketing function and drive loan origination deal flow and correspondingly grow inbound private capital investment. My work resulted in the growth of assets under management from $275 million to $962 million in just 21 months while reducing marketing budget by more than one-third, and achieving a marketing ROI of 650:1. I was elected to the board of directors in April 2006 to manage the restructuring of the company, including hiring Mesirow Financial. As COO, I oversaw the reorganization of the company under protection of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, including sourcing of equity capital partners, managing disposition of existing loan portfolio, interfacing with state and federal regulatory agencies, serving as the company spokesperson, and managing the 32-person staff and operations.

• Director of Marketing & Sales

  VegasHotSpots.com LLC

  (Entertainment industry)

  December 2002 — December 2005 (3 years 1 month)

  VegasHotSpots.com was a subsidiary of USA Commercial Mortgage Company (see above). VegasHotSpots.com pioneered the packaging and Internet-based marketing and sales of VIP nightlife entertainment in Las Vegas to visitors before they arrived. Grew annual revenues from zero to $2+ million in three years, and reached profitability. Developed branding and built database of 30,000+ prospects and customers. Doubled revenues and inventory by acquiring main competitor. Built 8-person sales team. Created 7 websites.

• President

  Olson|Ballard Communications

  (Public Relations and Communications industry)

  September 2001 — September 2002 (1 year 1 month)

  One of the largest public relations firm in Nevada. I repositioned the firm to be a Southwest U.S. regional provider of strategic marketing, communications, and capital acquisition services, not just a local Las Vegas public relations/political affairs agency. Landed the agency’s single largest account. Co-founded the Vegas Valley Angels venture capital consortium with the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada.

• Vice President of Marketing & Sales

  iMonitoring.com, Inc.

  (Security and Investigations industry)

  September 1999 — August 2001 (2 years )

  Pre-sales Internet startup targeting online distribution of closed-circuit television (CCTV) security video. The company's primary channel was through security systems dealers, and direct to security divisions of large organizations. Joined as employee #5. Researched market, competition and potential partners; wrote Functional Specification for product; created demo, corporate web site and documentation; developed brand and company image; developed marketing and sales strategy; launched company in March 2000. Generated 4,000+ business leads and signed 300+ resellers at trade show for company launch based on a presentation and pre-beta product demo only. Other achievements included recognition by industry analysts and media as a leading influencer for the emerging closed-circuit television (CCTV) via the Internet market and p.1 press coverage in The Wall Street Journal. Brokered acquisition of company.

• Vice President of Marketing

  Constellar Corporation

  (Computer Software industry)

  September 1997 — August 1999 (2 years )

  Private company that developed, sold and maintained an enterprise application networking software product called Constellar Hub. The primary markets for the product were F1000 organizations in the U.S. and Europe. I managed US and European Marketing, Product Management & Marketing, Independent Software Vendor Marketing, Public Relations and Marketing Communications. Achievements included:
  • Earned Constellar buy recommendations from the industry’s leading market analysts, resulting in more than $2 million in sales in fiscal 1997 alone.
  • Re-focused the company on two business areas – Oracle Applications and Oracle database high-end data warehousing – built marketing programs and teams to support them.
  • Created and led campaigns that produced marketable Company awareness in the Oracle Applications and Oracle database data warehousing business areas and 14,000 leads which yielded selling opportunities greater than $10 million.
  • Member of the Executive Team that prepared and marketed a private equity placement that raised $18 million in March 1998.
  • Hired and/or managed eight professionals, four in the US and four in London.

• Vice President of Marketing

  Red Brick Systems, Inc.

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; REDB; Computer Software industry)

  June 1995 — August 1997 (2 years 3 months)

  Involved in all aspects of corporate communications and marketing for Red Brick (NASDAQ: REDB) for more than five years as employee and consultant. I had a role in achievements for the company including:
  • Recognition as the company that created the market for data warehousing software and leading innovator of relational databases for data warehousing
  • Positioning as a leading authority on the data warehousing market
  • Successful initial public offering in January 1996 and rise to $36 million in revenues and 100 percent growth rate by year-end 1996
  • Responsible for department of nine people, including Product Marketing, Channel Marketing, and Marketing Communications

• Senior Vice President

  GCI Jennings/Jennings & Company

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  October 1991 — June 1995 (3 years 9 months)

  Managed the market development and communications agency’s Red Brick Systems, Prism Solutions, Andyne Computing, Knight-Ridder Information, Datasonix Corp., GVO Inc., StarPress Multimedia, Visioneer, Verity, Advanced Micro Devices and Asymetrix Corp. accounts. Responsible for agency marketing and business development programs. Achievements included:
  • Senior manager of the agency’s business with IBM, the firm’s only multi-million dollar account. We developed strategy for and led the hugely-successful launch of the IBM PC Company in 1992 and the 1993 re-launch of the OS/2 operating system for the IBM Personal Software Products Division.
  • Founded the agency’s Purchase, NY office to service the IBM accounts and grew it to 30 people and a $6 million annual run rate in six months.

• Account Director

  Miller Communications

  (Marketing and Advertising industry)

  1989 — 1991 (2 years )

• Senior Account Supervisor

  Manning Selvage and Lee

  (Public Company; Public Relations and Communications industry)

  1985 — 1989 (4 years )

Mark Olson’s Education

• University of Kansas

  Bachelor of Science , Journalism

Additional Information

Mark Olson’s Honors:

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Silver Anvil Awards — Finalist, Marketing Communications, New Products (Datasonix)
PRSA Northern California Award of Merit — Overall Public Relations Program, For Profit (Datasonix)
Business Marketing 4th Annual MarComm Awards — First Place, New Product Launch, Hardware (Visioneer)
Financial World Annual Report Competition — First Place, Bronze Level Award (Conner)
PRSA Northern California Compass Award — Press Kit (Conner)
SF/IABC — Peninsula/IABC Bay Area Bests — “Best ‘90” Award, Annual Report (Conner)
Peninsula Press Club Achievement Awards — First Place, Annual Report (Conner)
Peninsula Press Club Achievement Awards — Second Place, Annual Report (RasterOps)
International Advertising Festival of New York — Finalist Award, Annual Report (Conner)
National Media Conference & PR Forum Mercury Awards — Audio Program (Visa U.S.A.)

Mark Olson’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch