Jim Calhoun has been a leader in the marketing database and list processing services industry since 1982. In April 1990, Jim co-founded Daystar Data Group, Inc., a precursor to Daystar Wheaton Group. Daystar Data Group is renowned for its long-standing client relationships, innovative database and list processing services, and client-centric disciplines.

Prior to founding Daystar Data Group, Jim was Vice President of Sales at Direct Marketing Technology (now Experian).

During his career, Jim has worked with some of the direct marketing industry’s leading companies, including Allstate, Crate & Barrel, Sears, and Land’s End. At Daystar Data Group, he has had the privilege of working with clients such as Amazon.com, Arizona Mail Order, Waterford, E*Trade, Bank One, SBC, Mercantile Bank, First Data Resources, Fingerhut, GAIM, Southwest Indian Foundation, and The Bradford Exchange.

Jim holds a B.S. in Business Management from Marquette University.

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Cynthia Wheaton has been a database marketer since 1978, including nine years in direct marketing line management. As a consultant, she focuses on strategic planning, circulation management, testing and reporting, general direct marketing management and new venture development.

Cynthia has enjoyed broad profit and loss responsibility, primarily at prominent cataloger Sara Lee Direct. She also has deep expertise in areas traditionally not central to direct marketing, including strategic planning, qualitative and quantitative market research, and the structured development of new products and services.

Cynthia drove the development of all new ventures at Sara Lee Direct, including the “Just My Size” hosiery product and catalog, which was so successful that it was rolled out nationally at retail. Other start-ups included the “Sheer Variety" hosiery catalog and “Nurse White” mini-catalog.

Then, at World Book, Inc., she served as Director of Marketing for the Direct Response Division, focusing on the development of new products for the direct response and direct sold divisions. At GRI Corporation, she served as VP Marketing for the $40 million cosmetics division, and was responsible for all aspects of the business except product procurement.

Cynthia began her consulting career at Kestnbaum & Company, with a focus on new venture development and strategic planning. In 1989, she launched her own consulting practice under the name Strategic Insight. In January 2000, Strategic Insight was folded into Wheaton Group, a consultancy that she co-founded with Jim Wheaton.

Cynthia has authored a number of industry articles and speeches. She holds an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.A. from Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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Boris Gendelev has been a database marketing professional since 1983. He delivers value to clients with hands-on marketing data warehousing, software development and analytics. Boris has also spearheaded data process quality initiatives, including the innovation and modernization of the database services practice at a major service bureau. Throughout his career, Boris has consistently delivered substantial cost savings and strategic insight to his clients via segmentation and lifetime value studies, channel interaction analysis, product affinity investigation, and longitudinal contact optimization.

Boris joined Wheaton Group in 2002 as a Principal. Previous to that, Boris was Vice President of Database Technology at Experian Marketing Solutions in Schaumburg, IL. There, his experience in quantitative and business analysis, and expertise and thought leadership in database management, data quality and systems usability, resulted in the delivery of cost-effective and flexible marketing databases and business intelligence systems to Experian clients.

Earlier, Boris was a database-marketing consultant and software developer with Precision Marketing, Inc., and prior to that with Foote Cone & Belding Direct Marketing Systems. He developed cutting edge software systems that emphasized rapid and powerful data aggregation, campaign segmentation and selection, and analysis.

Prior to entering the database-marketing arena, Boris was a Systems Designer for Martin Marietta Data Systems, where he developed statistical reporting and data auditing systems.

Boris’s articles have appeared in database marketing and database technology publications, and he has presented at several database marketing and data warehousing conferences. He has an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago, and a B.S. in Computer Science.

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Leo Sterk has been a database marketing professional since 1984, with management positions at consulting organizations that have been on the cutting edge of the transition of direct marketing techniques from the catalog to the general marketing arena. Hallmark projects in Leo’s career include two groundbreaking cluster analyses that revolutionized the approach to niche marketing at a very significant Canadian retail bank, and at a major U.S. retail organization.

Leo joined Wheaton Group in 2004 as a Principal. Previous to that, Leo held vice president positions at Experian/Direct Marketing Technology, including head of Consulting, and of Database Content. Prior to Experian, Leo was a Vice President at Precision Marketing, which pioneered the crossbreeding of strategic and tactical marketing consulting with hands-on development and access of marketing databases. Earlier, he was a database marketing consultant at Kestnbaum & Co., a firm that pioneered concepts such as lifetime value and the standardization of direct marketing mathematics.

Leo holds an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago, and bachelors and masters degrees from The University of Illinois-Urbana in the field of urban planning. He solves business problems by taking his unique sociological approach to the scientific method and blending it with quantitative and statistical methodologies. Leo is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing (Henry Stuart Publications, London).

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Phil Jewison brings a unique and extraordinary blend of talent and perspective to the industry because of his operations as well as client services background. Phil co-founded Daystar Data Group, Inc. in 1990.

Phil has been in the computer services industry since 1980 when he was hired as a computer operator at Listronics in Lisle, IL. Eventually, he became Operations Manager for Listronics, and then for New Process in Scottsdale, AZ. Then, Phil returned to the Chicago area to become a Team Leader and Supervisor at Direct Marketing Technology.

Phil leads the marketing database and operations teams at Daystar. He maintains the highest standards for quality data processing and account service.

For a business-to-business mailer, Phil led the team to build a prospect database and then leveraged it by developing a sophisticated statistics-based predictive model. Combined, they have contributed to a dramatic reduction in mail volume and simultaneous increase in revenue.

For the industry leader in online retailing, Phil and his team developed and deployed an integrated marketing database. With the database, the client was able to develop and execute an advanced contact strategy to optimize sales while controlling marketing costs.

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