TouchCommerce

Bernard Louvat

Bernard came to TouchCommerce (then inQ) in 2005 with a vision to assist online shoppers to buy online. Drawing upon his specialty retail and online experience, he embarked on creating a set of innovative technology solutions to target, engage and assist online shoppers and returning customers and create a more personalized online shopping experience. These solutions are delivered to clients in a unique Pay-for-Performance model where TouchCommerce and its clients are aligned in a win-win partnership. TouchCommerce is a global provider of online engagement SaaS ecommerce solutions and works with some of the largest consumer brands in the world. Prior to TouchCommerce, Bernard was Co-Founder & CEO of Evolution Robotics, an idealab! company (sold to iRobot), CEO & Founder of Bizbuyer.com (sold to GE), GM at CitySearch, an idealab! company (sold to IAC), CEO & Founder of Office Depot France, President and Founder of The Disney Store France, and a consultant with Bain & Company. Bernard holds an MBA with Distinctions from Harvard Business School and a BA in Business Administration from HEC, Paris, France. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and 4 children.

Rick Hoefert

Rick Hoefert, GM, EVP Operations and Client Services, is an accomplished executive with 20+ years of experience in designing, developing, and executing large-scale marketing and product/service sales and BPO initiatives. His experience includes solutions designed and managed for Dun & Bradstreet, Sears, Wells Fargo, Sun Microsystems, Sprint/Nextel, AT&T, and IBM, to name a few. He also managed CRM operations for numerous Fortune 500 clients in the telecom, financial services, technology, and retail industries. Rick’s experience focuses on customer lifecycle management initiatives executed through telesales/telecare, and email and live chat customer-contact channels. Most recently, Rick was Vice President, Global Operations for TeleTech Holdings Inc., a global business-services company that provides a full range of front- to back-office outsourced solutions, including customer management, BPO, and database marketing services, to enhance clients' core customer-management processes. TeleTech generates in excess of $1 billion in annual sales. Rick was responsible for managing several Fortune 500 accounts with global operations across North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. Prior to TeleTech, Rick was President and COO of Zacson Corporation, a business-to-business marketing services company that served the technology, telecom, and financial services markets. During Hoefert's tenure with Zacson, revenue grew almost fourfold as they acquired majority interest in companies in Belgium and Mexico, and created joint ventures in Japan with Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) and in Canada with Saskatchewan Telephone. Prior to Zacson Corporation, Rick was Regional Manager, Credit Marketing, at Sears, where he developed numerous Sears credit and service-marketing initiatives.

Brad Timchuk

Brad Timchuk comes to TouchCommerce with more than 17 years of successful sales, marketing and leadership experience in telecommunications, eCommerce SaaS solutions, social media and branded entertainment. With experience in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, Brad demonstrates expertise in developing productive business relationships, business plans, global sales organizations, go-to-market strategies and mergers and acquisitions. Brad most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer for Fuel Industries, creating and implementing the company’s turnaround strategy, successfully returning the company to profitability. For ten years prior to Fuel, Brad was Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development for eFusion, Inc., an Intel spin off in the field of eCommerce voice interaction technology. Brad helped navigate eFusion through four mergers and acquisitions, including eStara Inc. and ATG, which became the world leader in online Click to Call and Optimization SaaS technology. ATG was acquired by Oracle in November, 2010. Through all the mergers and acquisitions, Brad was instrumental in developing client relationships and growing revenue from $1 million to more than $47 million. Before that, he held global sales management positions with Insight Corporation and NEC Inc. Brad attended Mohawk College in Canada where he studied Computer Electronics Technology.

Tony Rodriquez

Tony is responsible for the management and oversight of all financial functions within the company. He is in charge of overseeing the company’s accounting practices and directing the company’s financial strategy, corporate development, and human resources functions. Tony has spent the last 20 year as a financial leader in both private and public corporations managing all aspects of finance and accounting. Prior to joining TouchCommerce, Tony was a CFO Partner at Tatum LLC, where he provided financial, strategic, and operational leadership consulting to publicly traded companies. Before joining Tatum, Tony served as the Interim CFO at Efficient Frontier, Inc., a technology-based search engine marketing solutions company, and as CFO at Nextera Enterprises, Inc. and its operating subsidiary, Woodridge Labs, Inc, a publicly-traded consumer products company. Tony was the Chief Accounting Office at Capstone Turbine Corp., a publicly traded leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems. Before joining Capstone, he spent five years as the Vice President of Finance at ValueClick, Inc., one of the world's largest integrated online marketing services companies, where he managed the accounting and finance department and SEC reporting and helped lead over a dozen acquisitions during a period of revenue growth from $40 million to $500 million. Tony began his career at KPMG LLP, where he serviced international public and private companies in the manufacturing, retail, distribution, and technology sectors as an assurance senior manager. Tony is a certified public accountant (inactive) with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting from California State University, Northridge.

Jim Van Baalen

Jim has spent the last 11 years as a technology leader for public and private Internet technology service providers to the enterprise and SMB markets. Prior to joining TouchCommerce, Jim spent 9 years as the CTO for WebSideStory (a Top 50 global ASP for 5 consecutive years), where he led the development of WebSideStory’s industry-leading enterprise web analytics solution, HBX. During his time at WebSideStory, Jim performed as the technology leader, managed the engineering and network operations teams, and developed HBX from inception to an industry-leading product which led to a successful Initial Public Offering. Prior to WebSideStory, Jim was the director of engineering at ATMnet, where he designed, built, and ran a production IP network over ATM cell relay to deliver voice, video, and data services to medium-to-large businesses and small ISPs. Prior to ATMnet, Jim spent 6 years as a senior scientist at Naval Oceans Systems Center (NOSC). At NOSC, prior to the existence of the public Internet, he participated in the design, build, and management of a wide area, IP-based network that connected government research laboratories in the U.S. and overseas. Jim received a Master of Applied Mathematics and a BA in Music Performance from the University of Wyoming.