Board

ProductCamp Austin Board of Directors

Since the first ProductCamp Austin in 2008, PCA has been an ad-hoc organization focused on delivering the highest quality ProductCamps to the Central Texas product management and marketing community. During that time, the community has asked for ProductCamp to become more and provide more – and ProductCamp has delivered, adding new events like ProductPotluck and ProductParty. Now, ProductCamp Austin has made the next step in its maturation, forming a corporate entity chartered in Texas, moving from an informal planning team to a Board elected by its participants – in a style congruent with the origins of ProductCamp Austin events, and working toward becoming an official 501c(6) non-profit organization.

The following Members, and specific roles, on the ProductCamp Austin Board of Directors were elected at the organization’s second General Meeting, held on August 6, 2011 during the ProductCamp Austin Summer 2011 event.

President
Responsible for leadership and overall direction of PCA. Presides over board meetings and PCA planning team functions. Moderates planning committee, builds consensus and breaks ties where required. Serves as the public face of PCA. Responsible for understanding what makes ProductCamp a special group and event and preserving that spirit.

Time Commitment: Ranges from 5 hours a week between events to 10+ hours/week during heaving planning.
Qualifications: Must have served as a PCA planning team lead/board member at least once.

Colleen Heubaum (email) (LinkedIn) (Twitter)
Colleen is the founder and principal consultant of Winnow Consulting, an Austin-based firm specializing in the management and marketing of technology products. Colleen started her career as a software engineer, but after a middle-of-the-night epiphany decided to make the move to the marketing side, using her technical expertise to place her clients’ products in the best possible light. She has worked in all phases of the product lifecycle, from business and product strategy development, product concept testing and new product introduction to product retirement and replacement planning, training delivery and development and requirements development.
Outside of work, Colleen manages a busy family and an active volunteer schedule which includes former Girl Scout leader, synchronized swimming mom, and a one-year stint as Treasurer of her local elementary school PTA.

Colleen has been an active participant in ProductCamp Austin since its inception, serving on the Session and Marketing teams, leading the design of the various PCA logos, and has led a number of talks. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering and a minor in football.
Treasurer
Responsible for managing PCA’s budget and accounts payable and receivable. Provides quarterly updates to the board about PCA’s budget status. Signatory for PCA checks. Responsible for non-profit filings with IRS and State of Texas.

Time Commitment: Varies.

Phillip Kennedy (email)

I have lived in Austin for 4 years and attended the first Product Camp here. I am a Pragmatic Marketing alumni and have been in the product management field for over 8 years. I am currently Director of Product Management at InReach CE. We provide technology to associations for selling and delivering continuing education content online. Prior to InReach, I was a Product Manager at Everest Software.
While attending Virginia Tech for my accounting degree, I was Treasurer of my fraternity and oversaw dues collection for an operating budget of over $10k. As Treasurer for PCA, my objective would not only be to fulfill the responsibilities of the position; but also establish documented processes and best practices to make future Treasurer’s more effective.

Sponsors Chair
Responsible for the recruitment of new and existing PCA sponsors. Drives funding for PCA as an organization and for PCA events. Main point of contact for sponsors and is responsible for establishing, building, and maintaining sponsor relationships. Defines value proposition for sponsorship and sponsorship tiers. Manages sponsors team.

Time Commitment: Ranges from 1-2 hours/week between events to 10+ hours/week during the 2 months before PCA.

Melissa Muckenthaler (email) (LinkedIn) (Twitter) (Facebook)
Melissa Muckenthaler is a multi-lingual marketing professional with expertise in strategic business planning and global marketing. Melissa returned to the US after working in Europe and Asia the last 16 years. Her marketing background, primarily for a global health care company based in Germany, includes building up and mobilizing marketing and sales teams as Marketing VP in Bangkok, Thailand. Parallel, she oversaw Bayer Asia’s New Product Launch Team (Hong Kong, Australia and SE Asia). Prior to this, Melissa held various product manager and sales roles in Germany.
Melissa holds a BA in Economics from UT Austin and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. On the weekends, you can find Melissa training at the motocross track on her Yamaha or wakeboarding on Lake Austin.
Melissa is an active member of the ProductCamp organizing committee and is eager to help launch the group into its next boom phase.
Marketing Chair
Responsible for driving messaging execution for PCA events via a variety of channels: social and traditional. Manages the marketing team, and the PCA event website, facebook, and twitter accounts. Coordinates with the Sustainability Chair between events for ongoing website updates.

Time Commitment: Ranges from 1-2 hours/week to 10+ hours/week leading up to events.

Mike Boudreaux (email) (LinkedIn) (Twitter) (Facebook)
Mike is a product manager at Emerson Process Management and he is the marketing director for ProductCamp Austin. He has a passion for all things marketing and he delivers a focused approach to marketing strategy and leadership. Mike has global experience marketing products for the refining, chemicals, oil & gas, solar power, and defense industries. He has filled various engineering, sales, and product marketing roles at Emerson, Alcoa, and AkzoNobel. He holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University Houston and a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Mike has been an active ProductCamp Austin participant and is presently involved in ProductCamp Marketing activities, including management of the @PCAustin Twitter account.
Logistics Chair
Responsible for the recruitment and coordination of PCA volunteers for a variety of activities. Runs PCA registration, setup and teardown, onsite vendor coordination, timekeepers and note-takers, materials and giveaways, and coordination with the PCA venue(s). Manages logistics team. Maintains PCA master project plan.

Time Commitment: Ranges from 1-2 hours/week to 10+ hours/week leading up to events. Is usually the first person to show up and the last to leave from PCA events.

Jim Discher (email)

Employment
Eight years with Xerox in direct sales, sales management and produced training, meetings and events for two of those years.

During my time with Xerox Also was also an Associate Professor at Wayne State University and Oakland Community College. Developed course content and taught Salesmanship and senior level Sales Management courses. With the exception of two years have been with BI Worldwide since leaving Xerox. Have held Regional VP positions in Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles. Responsible for business development and operations. Client included major domestic and Asian Automotive clients and Verizon.

Started a sales training and productivity company for two years. Development strategic selling course and marketed sales automation software.
Last year held position of Commander, United States Power Squadron, Alamitos Bay Chapter. As leader of this 95 person organization wore numerous hats such as: producing bi-monthly membership meeting including booking guest speakers, staff meetings twice monthly and managed volunteers for all administrative, recruiting new members, soliciting volunteers, financial, educational and social activities. Successfully initiated and engaged membership in process of completely revamping organizational structure, reporting relationships, responsibilities and scope of mission. Time commitment averaged 10 -20 hours per month.

Late 2010, we relocated to Austin to be near family and open a new office for BI Worldwide. My present challenge is developing business with clients in Austin-San Antonio markets.

Relevant Skills/Experience

About 30% of our business at BI Worldwide is creating and delivering all aspects of group travel and business meetings. Services include creating and managing all content and logistics, including: airline, hotel, ground transportation logistics, food/beverage, activities (i.e.; golf, sailing), breakout meetings and full business meeting production (set design/construction, all meeting content, entertainment, sound/light production, etc.). During my stint managing our Verizon business, we delivered somewhere between $12MM-$20MM in travel and meetings per year. My style is to be very hands-on and involved all aspects of developing, planning and operations.

Have had extensive experience in communications strategy and development. Almost all the initiatives we produce have some form of communication. Most of that has moved to a web based format, but have done quite a bit in print media as well. I am not the producer of these assets, but have significant involvement in the creative process and development of content.

It’s called by lots of different names, but we’ve labeled it, “Live Marketing”. That encompasses other formats like pop-up-retail, guerilla marketing, etc. Essentially taking products to where people live, work and play. As part of the Toyota Tundra launch strategy, we had six teams covering the Southeast US. Managers were given a Toyota Tundra and responsible for placement and staffing at all significant events in their respective markets. Did a similar program for Chrysler. Product placement in shopping malls and special events across U.S. with over 200, in market brand ambassadors. Program ran for 5 years at between $20MM-$30MM per year.

In addition to the training background highlighted in the first section, I’ve delivered numerous training initiatives for Toyota and Verizon. Most notable would be the experiential learning we delivered for the Toyota Tundra launch. I would be the first full sized pick up in Toyota’s 50 year history in the U.S. market. To level the playing field with long time competitors Ford and Chevy, we proposed and delivered a program to develop a “truck culture” in all 1200 dealerships nationally. The program was a huge success and a high impact element to the Tundra launch.

Sessions Chair
Responsible for the recruitment of volunteer-led sessions at PCA events. Determines what types of sessions are in-demand, and drives PCA members to offer sessions. Runs the voting process on the day of PCA events where applicable. Manages the sessions team.

Time Commitment: Ranges from 1-2 hour/week to 10+ hours/week leading up to events.

Tom Evans (email) (LinkedIn) (Twitter)
Tom Evans is Principal at Lûcrum Marketing and brings over twenty years of successful hi-tech business experience helping start-ups as well as Fortune 500 companies create and launch winning products. He is recognized for building product management and product marketing organizations from the ground up that develop market-driven technology solutions, create compelling go-to-market strategies and build strategic partnerships that drive revenue growth in the US and global markets. Tom’s experience covers numerous vertical industries, technologies, and international markets. His industry experience includes complex software solutions for manufacturing, document management, call centers, financial services, and project management. Tom lived and worked in Brazil and has conducted business internationally, including Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.

Tom has a BSEE from The United States Air Force Academy, an MSEE from The University of Dayton, and graduated with honors with an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

Tom has been active an active member of the ProductCamp organizing committee since 2009 and is currently the sessions chair.
Sustainability Chair / Secretary
Responsible for defining the ongoing strategy and path to sustain and grow PCA as a mature organization for the product management and marketing community. Manages the non-event PCA website, responsible for capturing and maintaining PCA event content after-the-fact, and advising the board on how to evolve the PCA organization for the future. Manages the sustainability team.

Time Commitment: Ranges from 3-5 hours/week.

Jan Triplett (email)

Jan Triplett, Ph.D., is the Chief Executive Officer of the Business Success Center (BSC). The federal Small Business Administration (SBA) honored her as Austin and Texas’ Small Business Advocate for her work on behalf of small businesses. She considers herself a business owner and community activist.
She is a Certified Technical Advisor for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and a frequent speaker. She is co-developer of the award-winning “Owners MBA” and the City Management Academy. In 1996, she spoke on entrepreneurship in Japan at the request of the Nikkei Corporation and hosted the Inc 500?heavy Hitter Dinner for 15 years, the last year with NASDAQ as the co-sponsor. IN 2009 she was a speaker at SXSW.
The BSC began as a full service ad agency. Currently, it provides an individualized sales and financial management program for growing businesses and turnaround services for businesses in trouble. It received a 5-star national program award from the federal SBA and a Greater Austin Quality Council Level I Award. The Austin Business Journal selected it as a top 20 management consulting firm. It is a City of Austin certified “green business and a member of the Central TX Association of Guaranteed Government Lenders.

Along with partner/husband Daniel Diener, she successfully mapped business growth tasks from Idea Stage to Transference, Business Navigation Matrix. She is the author of A Networker’s Guide to Success, Thinking Big, Staying Small and other small business articles and books. She is a guest blogger for the Business Bank of Texas and has her own blog at http://www.ownersview.com.

Triplett, a former moderator for KUT ‘s nationally syndicated radio program, “The Next 200 Years”, now is interviewed on a regular basis by the media. She was highlighted as a family business expert in Austin Woman magazine and profiled in 2010 in the Austin Business Journal. She has led two successful trade missions and hosted business and government delegations from over 108 countries.

Currently, she currently serves on the Governors’ and President’s Business Leaders Network and Students Involved in Free Enterprise (SIFE). She volunteers for the Austin SBA chapter, Austin Farmer’s Market, Austin Humane Society, and the Red Cross, She served on the board of the Austin Literacy Council, Austin Community Television, the International Hospitality Council, the Mayor’s Task Force on International Infrastructure, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Austin International Coalition, and Responsible Growth for Northcross.

Emeritus Advisors
Appointed by the Board, Emeritus Advisors have previously served on the Board, or as Team leads on the Planning Team. TAdvisors are non-voting members of the Board for consultation and use of their all-important contacts.

Paul Young (email) Bertrand Hazard (email) (Twitter)