Leadership
Curt Doolittle, Chief Executive Officer
Heading up the Ascentium executive team, Curt is defining the vision and agenda of Ascentium as The Experience Agency™. Under his leadership, Ascentium has become an agency that has 300-plus employees and has received industry accolades from Advertising Age and Forrester.
A renaissance businessman, Curt is a founder or principal in seven companies that span technology, law, art, and marketing. Curt is also a student of and prolific writer on philosophy, economic philosophy, and political economy—much of it associated with the Mises Institute, an economic think tank.
Curt is currently writing a book series that explores the frontiers of interactive marketing and will be published in 2011.
Steven Salta, President
One of Ascentium’s founders, Steven ensures that Ascentium delivers well on all operational commitments as well as managing the Ascentium customer loyalty program. He has been tremendous in leading Ascentium from a small team to a 300-employee agency.
His experience in managing enterprise software development and database design spans more than three decades. Steven was a manager at commercial construction exchange ContractorHub.com and partnered with the international consultancy Cambridge Technology Partners.
Steven was a key member of the Microsoft team that designed and developed the phenomenally successful Microsoft Access database. Prior to that, Steven ran the application development team at Sequent Computer Systems (now a division of IBM) and managed IT for 10 years at Tektronix Corporation.
Jim Beebe, Chief Financial Officer
With more than 30 years in the digital industry and an understanding of broad issues matched by a fine eye for detail, Jim works to develop a strategic approach to the overall management of the company.
Prior to Ascentium, Jim served as vice president of customer services at construction industry online exchange ContractorHub.com. Before that, as partner and cofounder of consulting services company Excell Data Corporation, he built and helped run Excell’s Application Development Division and Networking Services Division from 1992-1998. Jim also spent more than a decade at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he was U.S. Operations Manager.
After earning a bachelor of science in mathematics from the University of Washington, Jim completed postgraduate work in software engineering at Seattle University.
Alain Dias, Chief Operations Officer
As managing partner and executive vice president, Alain leads Ascentium's sales, marketing, strategic alliances, and corporate expansion initiatives.
A widely read authority on the subject of business transformation and co-author of seminal industry text Technology Strategy: Pure & Simple (1999), Alain assists companies and government agencies worldwide in reinventing themselves through technology.
Before Ascentium, Alain was director of strategic services at Interlink Group, where he helped clients such as Alyeska Pipeline and Bonneville Power Administration identify emerging market trends and strategic technology opportunities to make the most of them. He was also a partner with DPI Worldwide, helping Fortune 500 top managers align technology with business strategy.
Alain is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.
Steve Farrell, Executive Creative Director
As Executive Creative Director for Ascentium, Steve leads a multi-disciplined staff in delivering first-tier creative work to several marquis Ascentium clients including Mastercard, T-Mobile, and Windows, among others.
Most recently, Steve served as the Executive Creative Director of Publicis Modem in New York where he lead client engagements for Citibank, Hasbro, and LG Electronics. Prior to joining Modem, Steve worked with MTV Networks as the VP Director of Digital for Spike and before that as the VP, Creative Director for Digitas.
Kristine Stebbins, Chief Strategy Officer
Kristine has over 17 years of experience in the marketing and advertising industry working with a range of clients. At Ascentium, Kristine leads the strategic component of our T-Mobile account; other key brands include Electronic Arts, Precor, and World Vision. Kristine heads up many of Ascentium’s strategic offerings, leading a team of a dozen senior-level strategists.
Before Ascentium, Kristine was the Director of Client Services at Cole & Weber United in Seattle where she led all account management teams, delivering on integrated marketing programs for clients including Dell, Nike, TreeTop, and TiVo. She has also worked as a Senior Partner-Global Account Director at Ogilvy & Mather.
Kristine is a regular speaker at industry events including SXSW, WOMMA, and Market to the Max.
Max Romanenko, Vice President and General Manager of Technology
Formerly Managing Director of Ascentium’s United Kingdom office, Max moved to the States to oversee all technology initiatives. Leading a team of over 80 developers ranging in multiple languages and platforms, Max is a diverse technologist that finds inventive solutions to meet our clients’ needs.
Max has over 15 years of technology experience in both the Microsoft and UNIX stacks. His broad background includes Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, and Vignette. He has experience leading teams as an architect, director, technology lead, and most recently, a general manager.
Max is a founder of Ascentium’s Rocket Labs. Rocket Labs is Ascentium’s investment in creating best-in-class technology solutions for our clients. He recently spoke at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference regarding Ascentium’s success in using the SharePoint platform for public-facing websites.
Michael Hinnant, Vice President, Experience Design
As a partner and director of information architecture, Michael leads Ascentium’s discipline of user-centered design that includes user research, information architecture, conceptual and interaction design, and usability testing. With more than 15 years of design leadership and management experience, he knows how to revolutionize how users interact with brands.
Michael has focused on creating seamless online experiences for top-level clients including Microsoft, Precor, Samsonite, T-Mobile, Windows, and World Vision.
Prior to Ascentium, Michael was the usability engineer at AskMe, a start-up company providing enterprise knowledge management and expertise identification solutions for Fortune 500 organizations. As an information architect at InfoSpace, he focused on content and applications for mobile devices, content management applications, broadband services, and Web sites for Fortune 500 accounts.
