ABOUT PORTENT INTERACTIVE: STAFF

Ian Lurie – CEO
Ian Lurie is one of the world’s top experts on internet, search and social media marketing. He is founder and CEO of Portent Inc., an internet marketing agency that has provided internet marketing, including search, social and analytics services, since 1995.

He co-published Web Marketing All-In-One for Dummies and wrote the sections on SEO, blogging, social media and web analytics. He also wrote Conversation Marketing: Internet Marketing Strategies. In addition, he writes regularly for the Portent Blog.

Ian has spoken at various marketing conferences, including Ad::Tech, Search Engine Strategies (SES), Search Marketing Expo (SMX), MozCon, Blogworld and Pubcon. He brings humor, deep insight and actionable advice to every event.

Ian was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO). He has a B.A. in History from UC San Diego and a JD degree in Law from UCLA. He has lived in New Jersey and Los Angeles, and currently resides in Seattle with his wife and two kids.

Steve Gahler – President
Steve Gahler is an experienced, multifaceted sales, operations and marketing executive, having achieved success within Fortune 200 media corporations, mid-sized organizations, as well as leading emerging companies. 

He has proven to be a media & marketing industry leader over the last 15+ years, with highlights that include guiding the turn-around of the CBS-owned property in Seattle, having spent five+ years as its Vice President, General Manager & Director of Sales.

In his time there, he is credited with restoring overall profitability; launching and directing interactive/digital efforts; driving double-digit revenue and share growth; a brand rebuild; and, strategically revamping content.

As Portent’s President, Steve leads the company’s success by defining organizational vision and strategy to reach its goals. His leadership focuses on achievement of revenue and profitability targets, refining & implementing the company’s image & marketing message, creating a culture that empowers employees to reach full potential, as well as supporting development of new company products and offerings.

Tracy Beach – Chief Operating Officer & Creative Director
Tracy graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle in 2000, and came straight to work at Portent. After working as an office mover on his first day at the company, he helped grow the company from 4 to over 20 people. Tracy guides the creative side of Portent’s business and supervises the company’s day to day operations. He never gets far from his roots and has led several successful projects, including IAMAW.

Elizabeth Marsten – Director of Search Marketing
Elizabeth started out as a PPC specialist and climbed up to Guru and then Manager before hitting Director in late 2009. Co Author of the All in One Web Marketing for Dummies, SMX Advanced presenter and author of the blogs Glue Gun Crafts and Cocoa-Heaven, she leads the SEO, PPC, Copy and Link Building teams in their daily trials and triumphs.

Matthew Henry – Search Engine Optimization Guru
Matthew Henry has helped steer Portent’s search engine optimization practice since 2001. His keyword ranking methodology and SEO toolset back up every search engine optimization client.

Michael Wiegand – Senior PPC & Google Analytics Strategist
Michael’s claim to fame includes slashing a client’s lead acquisition costs by 66% in less than 3 months, while septupling their monthly lead volumes. He also increased another client’s year-over-year paid search revenues in 2008 by 4% (in a down economy), and then by 31% in 2009.

Ariana Burgess- Account Strategist
Ariana started as Ian’s Business Coordinator to help streamline communications to the teams. She quickly moved up to Project Manager as Portent grew. She builds relationships with clients and makes sure projects are delivered on time.

Mike Fitterer – Account Strategist
Mike has worked on strategy and account planning for clients from an expansive spectrum of fields –from iPhone apps to vacation getaways and even heavy lifting devices. Creating and following a favorable strategy for every client and pushing the Portent team towards achieving both client and internal goals are his primary focuses.

Aviva Jorstad – Associate Director of Accounts
Aviva has an MBA from the University of Oregon and brings a wealth of product and brand strategy experience to Portent. She ensures that our clients’ Internet marketing objectives are met efficiently and effectively, by coordinating with our internal teams to develop the optimal strategic mix of web design, SEO, PPC, link building, content development, and social media.

Andy Schaff – Developer
Andy has been a developer at Portent since 2004. He’s our CMS Guru and skilled in implementing content management systems. He has experience in Java, ColdFusion, PHP, ASP, and database management and is the main developer on the new GOIAM site. He also played a large part in Pythia Analytics.

Anna Abraham – Senior Designer & Producer
Anna came here fresh out of school (as an intern) and liked it too much to leave. Her goal in designing websites is always the same: make sure every pixel has a purpose, and KISS (keep it simple, stupid).

Jaelithe Guillette – Associate Director of Content
Jaelithe earned a BS in Advertising from The Art Institute of California-San Diego where she earned highest honors while gobbling up every nugget of knowledge about copywriting. Jaelithe started her copy career in the outdoor industry and has written about everything from concrete to cloud computing. Jaelithe brings to Portent eight years of sales experience, five years of brand marketing experience and eight years of copywriting experience.

She heads up the copy, social, and link building teams and assists in creative campaigns, content strategy and driving traffic to client sites with out-of-the-box brainstorming and sharp SEO.