Throughout the years, CB&A has developed relationships with extremely intelligent, hard-working experts within the education industry. We consider these professionals as our associates, turning to them when questions arise in their specific areas of expertise. Whether it is marketing, design, sales, new media, or capital gain, we are able to draw on the special skills of our associates to help our clients to reach their goals.

Annie Galvin Teich - The Teich Group

Annie Teich is a sales and marketing professional whom we always enjoy working with - and not just because she’s a former member of the CB&A team. Today, Annie serves two critical roles in helping educational publishers achieve success. First, she is a “keyboard for hire” who creates sales-oriented copy for white papers, brochures, Web sites, magazine articles, and other marketing materials; tasks she’s performing for two members of our client family. Second, she is a veteran player in the publishing game. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience, she develops strategic marketing and sales plans, including compensation and sales training programs. Annie, who leads The Teich Group, has been a publisher at several companies and in addition to sales and marketing expertise, she also has a keen eye for identifying new product opportunities in the market, streamlining and revising current product lines, and leading rebranding initiatives.

Jerry Rosenbusch - 7th Wave Consulting

We turn to Jerry Rosenbusch for expert advice when a member of our client family may be experiencing “channel conflict” while using a mix of sales initiatives to reach potential customers. We’ll also confess that we like working with Jerry because he shares our love of boats and water. Presently, Jerry and the 7^th Wave Consulting team are leading the sales initiative for a member of our client family, focusing on so-called “open territories” states that do not have an official curriculum adoption program. His consulting firm specializes in successful execution of profitable marketing and sales plans. Jerry is a revenue generation expert who recommends new pricing, product configurations, and sales channels to increase revenue.

Linda Winter - The Winter Group

Linda Winter can pull a rabbit out of her hat when it comes to direct mail and advertising campaigns. The first promotional piece Linda ever sent Charlene as a potential client - nearly two years before CB&A was founded - featured a magician doing exactly that, and she’s always exceeded our highest expectations. Nearly 20 years later, Linda and her team are leading the extremely successful catalog, e-mail and direct mail campaigns for two members of our client family. And we have the pleasure of watching her “in action” several times a year, leading focus groups for SIIA and CoSN. Having earned numerous awards from the Association of Educational Publishers and others, Linda and her team at The Winter Group set the education industry standard for excellence in advertising, branding, and exhibit design.

Lee Wilson - Headway Strategies

Lee Wilson is an education industry sales and marketing guru. He’s the point-man whom publishers turn to when they need help establishing themselves in the education industry or reorganizing internal teams to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Lee’s current passion is studying the way “gamers” learn, which brought him to Madison in July 2007 for the “Games Learning & Society Conference.” In addition, Lee shares his unique industry insights in a thoughtful and thought-provoking online forum, The Education Business Blog, always a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Liz Strauss

Liz Strauss was the first person we knew from the education industry to embrace blogging. We rely on Liz Strauss at Successful Blog to glean Web 2.0 insights, and we contact Liz whenever we need a review of a client’s blog strategy. Her blog has been called both a destination and an event; it’s in the top 1,300 of more than 80 million blogs indexed at Technorati. Liz has worked more than 20 years in print, software and online publishing, and has developed product development and business strategies for publishers in Europe, Australia, the UK, and Ireland. She has worked with entrepreneurs, small businesses, companies in crisis, and corporate giants. Liz led the vision behind last year’s “SOBCon07 - THE Relationship Bloggers’ Conference,” which gained the attention of BusinessWeek, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Innovation Initiative of the Kellogg School of Business.

Kevin Custer - Arc Capital Development

Kevin Custer specializes in helping education companies evaluate options when they are about to face a critical business moment - an acquisition, a sale or a round of financing - drawing on his experience as the founder of five companies that have all achieved sales of more than $10 million each. He asks great questions - it usually takes him less than three to identify the key issues on the table - and has counseled executives in businesses of all sizes, including several of our clients, as they work to develop the strategies needed to achieve a breakthrough to the next revenue level. Today, Kevin and his Arc Capital Development business partner Rita Ferrandino help position companies for investment capital or potential shareholder exits, provide business and operating expertise, and quickly improve a company’s competitive position for rapidly increasing sales. They also operate a private equity fund.

Peggy Lanier - Lanier Thinking

The focus of Peggy Lanier’s career has been to help companies bring products and services to the education market. She is known for her ability to quickly capture the nuances of education products and services, and to translate this information into effective sales and marketing campaigns, collateral, ads, tradeshow signage/design, and websites, all while staying within a budget. We’ve seen Peggy at work developing marketing and sales plans for several members of our client family over the years, and have always been pleased with her ability to generate highly detailed, easy-to-execute plans with a results-oriented focus that make sense to all stakeholders. Her ability to recruit, manage and develop teams of independent sales reps for companies needing sales coverage is another unique aspect of her business model that sends us back to Lanier Thinking again and again.