Executive Profiles

Rod Kempkes, Executive Vice President, West Direct, LLC

Rod Kempkes has been part of the West senior management team since 1989. As EVP he has P & L responsibility for the Direct Response division of West Corporation which includes home agents, IVR, and partnership marketing. Rod has held various positions with in West Corporation in the last 20 years, including serving as Vice President of Accounting during West Corporation's IPO.

Rod was a practicing CPA in Nebraska prior to joining the West team.

Jim Speidel, Vice President, New Business Development. West Direct, LLC

Jim joined West in 1996 as a Client Services Account Manager where he remained for 2 years. In 1998, Jim switched West divisions and joined West Interactive as a Program Manager where he managed several top clients until being promoted to Client Services Manager in 2002. In 2003 Jim was promoted to Director of Business Development for West Direct, a position he held until being promoted in 2007 to his current position as Vice President, New Business Development. In his current position Jim's primary responsibility is to direct the sales efforts for the West Direct business unit.

Susan Scholl, Vice President, Client Services. West Direct, LLC

Susan joined West in 1991 after spending 13 years in retail management. During her tenure at West, Susan has held a variety of different management positions including both account and project management. In these positions Susan was tasked with managing several of West's largest accounts. In 1999, Susan was promoted to Vice President for West Direct where she remains today. Susan's primary responsibility with West Direct is to provide the leadership for our Client Services account teams that manage our clients day to day activities.

Bob Heeks, Vice President, Partnership Marketing, West Direct, LLC

Bob Heeks is one of the founders of West Direct and has been part of the senior management team since 2001. As VP of Partnership Marketing he is responsible for establishing and managing third party relationships that enable clients to monetize their customer touch points using West's proprietarily SmartSell® offer delivery system.

From 1998 to 2001 Heeks operated Nichols Marketing Group, a consulting company focused in direct marketing industry. Clients included Priceline, NY Road Runners Club, Habitat for Humanity, Profitec and West Telemarketing Corp.

Prior to this Heeks spent 11 years with CUC International in At CUC, Heeks was involved with clint services, ran the fulfillment department and launched CUC's Travel membership sector, CUC's largest membership service.

Heeks began his business career with Doubleday and Co, where he helped plan and manage direct marketing campaigns for the Book Clubs division. Heeks received a BA in Economics and Statistics from University of Rochester and received his MBA in Finance and Marketing from the Simon School, University of Rochester.

Monty Horine, Vice President, Operations

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