Alan Rimm-Kaufman

Current

Founder at Rimm-Kaufman Group

Past

VP Marketing at Crutchfield
AVP Marketing at Signet Financial Services

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management
Yale University

Recommended

13 people have recommended Alan

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Marketing and Advertising

Alan Rimm-Kaufman’s Summary

Hello!

In 2003, I founded a marketing services firm, The Rimm-Kaufman Group, focusing on paid search for online retailers. Thanks to our great clients, RKG has enjoyed robust growth, reaching the Inc500 in 2008. Our website is at www.rimmkaufman.com.

My professional interests are a mashup of direct marketing, PR, databases, internet, technology, algorithms, and analytics.

I speak at the marketing trade shows and write for the marketing trade mags.

I'm a Visiting Professor at UVA's Darden School of Business, where I teach marketing at the MBA and Exec Ed levels.

I blog at www.rkgblog.com.

Away from work, I spend my time with my wife and kids and enjoy doing projects.

Alan Rimm-Kaufman’s Specialties:

online marketing, biz dev, sales, paid search, marketing analytics, campaign economics, negotiation, systems, databases, due diligence, online marketing, SEO, SEM, web marketing, mit, internet marketing, search engine marketing, design, CSS, best practices, Web 2.0, catalog circulation, media planning, alternative media, blogging, mathematical modeling, open source, operations research, linux, exec ed, adwords, PPC, javascript, cookies, tracking, startups

Alan Rimm-Kaufman’s Experience

Founder

Rimm-Kaufman Group

(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

2003 — Present (6 years )

Online marketing services, including paid search & web usability.

RKG ranked #315 on the 2008 Inc500 list of fastest growing privately held companies.
VP Marketing

Crutchfield

(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Consumer Electronics industry)

1998 — 2003 (5 years )

At Crutchfield, I was responsible for all direct marketing efforts, both the national catalog mailings and the national web advertising. My print team and I handled catalog circ, media buying, paper buying, retention, and name acquisition. My web team and I handled paid search, seo, portals, data feeds, and email marketing.

During my five years at Crutchfield, company revenues grew 48%, reaching $192 million in 2002. Internet revenues grew over 450%, reaching $80 million in ‘02. During this period, Crutchfield earned “best of the web” commendations from Time Magazine, Internet Retailer, BizRate, Forbes, and US News & World Report.
AVP Marketing

Signet Financial Services

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Financial Services industry)

1996 — 1998 (2 years )

I joined Signet just after CapOne split off. It was a wild ride: I came in as a freshly minted PhD with little background in direct marketing or financial services, and so I learned a great deal in time there.

We cleaned up a broker dealer unit from significant annual loss to modest profitability in a year. We trimmed costs and introduced new products, notably very successful high-yield FDIC checking account. I had responsibility for a Richmond-based team of marketing analysts and a Vermont-based creative team.

When First Union bought Signet, I didn't want to join a larger bank, and so I headed on.

Alan Rimm-Kaufman’s Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management

PhD , Operations Research , 1993 — 1996

I started off working on computational molecular biology, working at the Whitehead Institute on some of the computational aspects of the early human and mouse genome maps.

For my doctoral work, I worked on a grant from Japan Rail East, developing algorithms to stop trains when earthquake sensors suggested imminent danger, while attempting minimizing delays from false positives. I enjoyed visiting Japan on this grant to work with JRE's Safety Research Lab, and later to present our research to railroad execs.
Yale University

BS , Applied Math , 1988 — 1991

magna cum laude

Additional Information

Alan Rimm-Kaufman’s Groups:

Search Engine Strategies, Shop.org, Direct Marketing Association, NEMOA, Catalog Success Magazine, Multichannel Merchant Judge, Shop.org content committee, Appalachian Mountain Club Old Hutman Association, UVA's Center for Information Technology, UVA Darden School Of Business, American Marketing Association, Search Engine Strategies, Internet Retailer, Charlottesville BeTech, family, Search Engine Land, Etail, MouseDriver Chronicles, Market Motive, UVA's Darden School of Business exec ed course, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Strategies, blogosphere, Social Development Lab UVA