MABC 2023 Board of Director Elections
Voting to approve the Slate of Candidates will take place via Zoom by Member Show of Hands
We have an exciting group of professionals showing strong interest in helping to lead MABC into the future.
Here is our 2023 slate of candidates for MABC Board of Directors:
Heather Dean (Term ends December 2023)
Heather Dean, M.Ed. National Board Professional Teacher. I am an educational consultant that mentors all types of teachers and leaders. We work together to improve their curriculum design, delivery, and desired outcomes for their students or clients. I focus on an approach that supports the creative thinking process. My clients go through a series of curriculum workshops to design high-quality learning experiences and to assess understanding in real time. Each series is differentiated to meet the specific needs of the leader or educator. Clients receive mentoring which includes curriculum and material design support, model/guest teaching, and implementation support. I have a B.A. in Studio Art/Art History from Denison University and a Master’s in Education from DePaul University. In 2005, I earned and currently hold my National Board Professional Teaching Certificate for Middle Childhood Generalists. I have delivered professional workshops around the country and have taught in-person for over twenty years in Chicago, Tampa, and Madison. I have served on multiple professional Boards to create and facilitate new systems, inspire grassroots participation, and solidify long-term change for success. I currently provide my consulting services and workshops in a virtual and in-person formats.
Stuart B. Fields (Term Ends December 2023)
Stuart Fields is a global workshop leader, speaker, transformational trainer and coach. Having worked in the USA, Japan, England, and Poland, Stu is a certified Canfield Success Principles trainer who uplifts adult learners around the world. During the pandemic of 2020, Stu virtually brought together 21 human potential experts/authors and interviewed them with his signature compassionate style to launch the Unleash the Leader Within virtual summit. This summit was a beacon of light during dark times, highlighting the individual power each person has to overcome tremendous challenges on their path to success. If there were one word to describe Stu, it would be “resilient”.
Matthew Ziemke Candidate for Election (Term Ends December 2024)
Matthew Ziemke is the founder of Strategic Sales Consulting. I help small to mid-sized business achieve profitable and sustainable revenue growth. As an executive with over 25+ years of experience in leading highly successful sales teams, I have executed the vision and strategies that built industry leading financial and insurance organizations. I am prepared to help your team reach new heights utilizing the proven principles of the Sales Xceleration platform. I partner with your company as an Outsourced VP of Sales to assist sales teams reach exceptional levels of performance, profit and increase revenue while building winning strategies to help you reach business objectives.
Ann Massie Nelson Candidate for Election (Term Ends December 2024)
Ann Massie Nelson is co-founder of Life Messages Media, LLC, a boutique video production company. Her background as a writer and editor of more than 40 years has allowed her to hone interviewing skills that she brings to video interviews, allowing subjects to tell their stories in their authentic voices. She also edits and proofreads manuscripts for aspiring authors. Nelson has served as secretary for the MABC Board of Directors since January 2022.
2023 MABC Team Leaders: MABC Team Leader positions are not official Board Positions but are part of the new organizational structure adopted in 2019. Team Leaders work with general membership to generate and implement ideas using the “one job, one time” motto to engage more of the membership in actively supporting and volunteering for the organization in areas of interest.
Programming Team Leader – Val Edwards
Val is the owner of P2G Consulting - Conflict Mediation & Team Building. Conflict, in the workplace, is most often an indicator that discovery, growth, and change are needed. Conflict, when identified and addressed, can be positive and move the team and organization forward.
Drawing on several decades spent developing professional relationships, team building, and collegial mentoring in an education environment, Val founded P2G Consulting to focus on addressing workplace conflict and removing barriers to team success. The name, P2G Consulting (Pulling2Gether), reflects Val’s commitment to unify team members to achieve organizational goals.
As a facilitator of team development, Val nurtures individual professional growth, mediates conflict, and supports strategic planning and execution. The guided team efforts lead to concise, clear communication, understanding of expectations and desired outcomes, and concrete action plans for moving forward.
As a relatively new member of MABC, I was drawn in by the enthusiastic welcome of the organization’s members. With each meeting attended, I have had opportunities to make new connections, sharing and learning as we explore the meeting topic. The genuineness of the members and the expressions of interest and support made joining a quick and easy decision. My initial impressions have only been reinforced as established members extend invitations to take on leadership roles, empowering every member to build an organization that meets their professional needs.
Membership Team Leader – Brooke Saucier
Brooke's day job is Property Manager of Hilldale Towers Apartments in Madison; by night, he is a serial networker with an innate sense of making strategically successful introductions, constantly striving to connect people, companies, and ideas. Since founding Knektar LLC, it has become Brooke’s goal to create avenues for professionals to meet one another for mutually beneficial purposes. A true Curator of Opportunities, Brooke enjoys facilitating various connections–related to business development, strategic partnership or investment opportunity–for colleagues, clients, and friends.
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee to Louisiana-native parents, Brooke has slowly inched north over the second half of his life. After finishing at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in Commercial French Studies, he began a career in international banking. He lived for over 25 years in Evanston, Illinois, becoming the unofficial “Mayor of South Evanston.” His post-banking work life was gloriously random–stay-at-home dad, preschool teacher, Chamber of Commerce director, liquor distiller–before settling into a sales/business development consulting track.
Marketing Team Leader– Mike Schuster
Most business owners spend countless hours marketing their business only to feel deflated when they only get lukewarm results. Mike works side by side with them to create marketing that actually works so they can reach and serve more customers … and have fun while doing it.
Before founding FiddleSmart Marketing, Mike spent 25 years on the client-side leading teams and improving marketing programs for family-owned businesses. A believer we make better decisions when focused on the customer, Mike is an accredited small business consultant and proudly holds a Ducktorate Degree in Management, Disney Style, from Disney University. He also has a MBA in marketing from Villanova University and a degree in public relations from Western Michigan University.
Mike enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, camping and playing around with photography. From, time to time, he also spends time on stage acting in community theatre productions. An avid swimmer and devoted dad, he lives in Sun Prairie with his wife, three kids and their dog.
Web Team Leader– John Russell
The idea to provide single source sales solutions for small business owners began two decades ago, when John realized the work he was doing as an advertising consultant for small business was only one dimensional. "I couldn't provide the full complement of services my clients needed when I only represented one company". It was at that moment that The Business Source LLC began to formulate.
Today John leads a team of marketing professionals each hand picked for their capabilities as the best in their respective fields. We work together as a single company focused entirely on creating successful solutions for our clients. “When I formed the business, I did so in a way that allows us to provide low cost, high quality solutions that small businesses can afford. In a sense we pioneered the virtual office business model for marketing firms in Wisconsin, where we don't have the expense and overhead of a traditional brick and mortar company. Our ability to stay engaged wherever we're at, to pull together quickly to develop and deliver exactly what the client needs in ways that are smarter, better and faster than traditional marketing firms is unique.”
John has been coaching, training and leading small business owners in many different business categories for the past 30 years. After a 20 year career in radio sales and sales management, where John helped generate over $10MM in sales, John joined Certified Speaking Professional and Professional Sales Trainer Chris Lytle as the Director of Marketing and helped launch a successful web-based, e-learning sales training system as a start-up helping to generate over $4MM in sales in 2 years. Seeing that the future was in helping other business owners increase sales, John branched out by working in the Outdoor Advertising industry with Adams Outdoor, before becoming the Sales and Marketing Director for Dream Rooms by Dream Kitchens, a successful kitchen design and build firm in Madison. John was also recognized by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards Honor Roll for his volunteer work at Middleton’s Clark Street School.
Over the years John has coached numerous area business leaders and companies with the goal of increasing sales, revenue and personnel effectiveness. John has served as President of the Middleton Chamber of Commerce in addition to being a featured presenter and facilitator for the Madison Area Chamber of Commerce Business Roundtables. In May of 2000 John was featured in Selling Power Magazine in a story titled, "Probing For Real Objections", under the skills workshop heading.
In September of 2000 John was featured again in Selling Power Magazine in an article titled, "Win Back Lost Accounts".
John earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communications and Marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, earned the Master Sales Performer designation and Certified Radio Marketing Consultant in the radio industry.