Industry Summit Details - The Association of Pool and Spa Professionals

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The Harrison Group is a leading strategic marketing consulting and research services firm. Our clients come to us with real business issues. They want to understand the structure of their market. They want a reliable picture of how customers feel about a new idea. They want to understand their competitive landscape. They want to know how much they should spend on media. They want to know the value of their brand.

We put the best science, research processes, sampling procedures and research people to work for them. We become the organized voice of the customer and the marketplace. We use advanced statistics to weed out noise. We sample the right people to increase validity. We conduct careful analyses to focus on the core of a problem. And we deliver results that define the best solution. Simply put, we are Definitive.

For the last four years, in partnership with American Express Publishing, we have completed the Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America as a continuous monthly tracking study among the top 10% of American households -- those with discretionary incomes of $100,000 or more. This group encompasses over 50% of all discretionary consumption in the United States, and 70% of discretionary margin at retail. We have become a trusted resource for many of the top “luxury” brands of the world who trust our on-going tracking of the wealth and affluent market to inform them of key trends and emerging spending patterns. Our clients rely on our syndicated results and our ability to interpret and project for their specific categories and brands.

Doug Harrison is the founding member of the Harrison Group, which he established in 1996. Under his leadership, the company has grown exponentially over the last decade. Harrison Group specializes in marrying attitudinal and behavioral information in producing actionable market segmentations, positioning/brand equity evaluations, new product forecasts, product/price/design optimization – all done with an orientation toward understanding the volume impact of marketing actions.

Growth of the company has been based on three core principals: First, a commitment to delivering insights to clients that surpass client expectations; second, market research findings anchored in real-world projections relative to the cost to a client’s business; and third, responsibility to deliver clients outstanding results in which they can feel ownership.

Prior to founding Harrison Group, Doug ran strategic research and volumetric forecasting at Yankelovich Partners. Over the course of his career, he has directed the brand positioning, product development, and targeting strategies for some of the world’s largest companies and brands, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Motorola, American Express, McDonald’s, Home Depot, Sara Lee, Honda, Yamaha, Louis Vuitton, T-Mobile, Neiman Marcus, Four Seasons, GlaxoSmithKline, Fleet Bank, ScottsLawn, and InBev.

Doug has completed over 700 forecasts of business potential for an enormous range of products and services. Among his many accomplishments, he was also one of the pioneers automating the research process.

Three years ago, Doug helped formulate an on-going study of the top 10% of the US economy that has become a critical source of insights for over 50 companies who target this critical audience.

An honors graduate of Cornell University, Doug earned a BS degree in business and marketing in 1988. Doug has co-authored a new book with Dr. Jim Taylor and Steve Kraus that was released in September 2008 called The New Elite: Inside the Mind of America’s Truly Wealthy. For more information, visit TheNewElite.net.

POP is a leading digital agency that crafts experiences for the web, mobile devices and emerging digital platforms for Fortune 1000 brands, including Target, Amazon, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Epson. Founded in 1996, POP has 120 employees with offices in Seattle and New York. To learn more about POP, please visit www.pop.us.

Tony Hoskins provides strategic direction and facilitates the implementation of interactive services for global consumer brands like Target, Microsoft and Epson. For 10 years, Tony has been on the Executive team at one of the largest privately held Interactive agencies in Seattle. POP is 120 full-time employees with offices in Seattle and New York. Prior to POP, Tony worked for various groups at Microsoft. Prior to joining the technology world, Tony worked as a Producer for local and national television commercials and film projects, where he supervised production activities for several key national brands including Chevy, Acura and T-mobile.

Tony served two terms as President of the Board for the Puget Sound chapter of the American Marketing Association (PSAMA) and is a member of the Association of Professional Design Firms (APDF).

Bil Kennedy is president of P.K. Data, an Atlanta-based market research firm specializing in trade and consumer surveys, competitive assessments, industry reviews, and merger and acquisition advice.

P.K. Data has served clients in the swimming pool and hot tub industry since 1992. The firm also provides market research counsel to the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals. P.K. Data has compiled over 300 studies covering all aspects of the industry including consumer activity, market development and industry statistics. This year the firm is working with APSP to launch the new Yearbook and Marketplace industry intelligence reports.

Today’s financial landscape
Bank of America, Peter Dontas and Dan Prevoznak

Peter Dontas has served as Bank of America New Jersey’s Market

Executive for Commercial and Middle Market Banking since 2004. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of commercial lending, treasury management and investment banking services to corporations within the state. Currently, he manages nine associates responsible for relationships with companies ranging from $25 million to $2 billion in revenues.

From 2001 to 2003, Dontas was the Team Leader for Fleet Bank’s Mid Market Banking Corporate Group. Prior to that, he was a senior vice president in Mellon Bank’s middle market lending organization with responsibility for the New Jersey and Long Island offices. In addition to providing solutions to credit needs, his team was responsible for cross-selling cash management, defined benefit and contribution plans, wealth management, foreign exchange and interest rate hedge products.

Mr. Dontas began his banking career with the former Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in 1983, where he worked in retail finance, including commercial credit training, until 1985. He later held positions of increasing responsibility with First National Bank of Central Jersey and United Jersey bank, before joining Mellon Bank in 1994 as a vice president in its New Jersey middle market unit.

Mr. Dontas holds a BS and MBA in finance from Rider University. He serves on the boards of such charitable organizations in New Jersey as NJ After 3, NJ Bankers, McCarter Theater Board of Trustees and the American Conference on Diversity. Peter lives in Plainsboro, New Jersey with his wife, Karen, and two children. NASD Series 7, 24 and 63 Certifications were completed in 2006

Dan Prevoznak is a Senior Client Manager in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Commercial and Middle

Market Banking since 1996. In this role, Dan implements the client management process, enabling the seamless, integrated end-to-end delivery of optimal financing and treasury solutions that maximize shareholder value. Under Dan’s direction, his product team manages a general industries portfolio of over 40 clients with loan commitments in excess of $375 million.

Dan has over 20 years of experience providing debt products, treasury management services, defined benefit and contribution plans, wealth management, foreign exchange and interest rate hedge products to privately-owned and public companies with revenues ranging from $25 million to over $1.0 billion.

Prevoznak began his banking career with Moody’s Investors Services as an Analytical Statistician in 1988, working in the Industrial Group. In 1990, he joined Chemical Bank’s Middle Market Banking Group based in Manhattan. He completed the Bank’s commercial credit training and managed a commercial banking portfolio until 1996. He joined Bank of America’s predecessor bank, Fleet, in September of 1996, as a Relationship Manager in its Large Corporate Division.

Prevoznak holds a BS degree in Economics and an MBA in Finance from Wagner College. He serves on the board of Westfield Booster and donates time to local Police Athletic League organizations in New Jersey. Dan lives in Westfield, New Jersey with his wife, Carol, and three children. NASD Series 7, 63 and 79 Certifications were completed in 2007.

The Continuous Learning Group, Inc., is a worldwide leader of behavior-based strategy execution and performance improvement consulting that enables companies to achieve sustainable results consistently, with speed, precision, and control. Visit us at www.clg.com

Steve Jacobs has developed a successful track record of results and culture change across a range of major corporate initiatives. Clients trust him for providing quality leadership, coaching, mentoring, and insightful implementation strategies that lead to sustainable change.

As a CLG consultant and Senior Partner, Steve works with high-level executives who are ultimately accountable for the speed, return, and sustainability of major strategic initiatives across a broad range of challenge areas such as:

Steve is an invited speaker at corporate and conference events as well as for executive programs at major business schools. He provides expert executive coaching with 24/7 availability, with his experience including the coaching of boards of directors (BODs) and high-level executives who are board members, as well as presenting to BODs and coaching executives in presenting to their own boards. Steve specializes in large-scale strategic change initiatives with senior management teams and building companies’ ongoing implementation capabilities.

Professional Accomplishments: For a healthcare enterprise, Steve coached a number of senior leaders on the executive management team to accomplish enterprise leadership development objectives and to achieve simultaneous impact on business results. This work was cited as a best practice by the Corporate Leadership Council in their benchmark report, Maximizing Return on Executive Coaching. For a Fortune 100 service organization, Steve provided coaching to help extend a senior executive’s strong track record as a functional leader to an equally strong record as a general manager across much larger organizational responsibilities. This executive’s progress led to significant improvements in business results and a demonstrable shift toward a culture of “the right results the right way.”

David Nason is Managing Director at the Promontory Financial Group where he advises clients on a host of strategic matters, including improving corporate governance, strengthening risk and financial controls, evaluating potential combinations, and meeting regulatory requirements.

Previously, Mr. Nason served for more than three years in the leadership ranks of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, most recently as Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions. As a principal policy adviser to former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Mr. Nason helped create, develop and implement Treasury’s response to stresses in the financial markets, including the Capital Purchase Program and the Troubled Asset Relief program, or TARP. He also led Treasury’s efforts in developing its Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure, and spearheaded the creation of the money market mutual fund guarantee program. For his work during the credit crisis, Mr. Nason was awarded the Alexander Hamilton award, the Treasury Department's highest honor.

Mr. Nason joined the U.S. Treasury Department in October 2005 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy, and was nominated for promotion to the post of Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions in March 2007. Before joining the Treasury Department, he spent three years as Counsel to Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul S. Atkins.

Mr. Nason was an associate in the Washington law firm of Covington & Burling LLP, where he worked on a wide array of corporate transactions. He previously spent one year as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Marvin J. Garbis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Mr. Nason earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from The American University and his law degree, summa cum laude, from The American University’s Washington College of Law.