SEMPO Names New Board

Members of the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) have elected a new board of directors for the organization, naming all 5 previous members who stood for election and 8 new members to one-year terms.

The 13-member board, expanded from the previous nine, will be formally announced at SEMPO’s meeting at Search Engine Strategies in New York on Monday. Members were notified of the results by email today. The board will officially begin its one-year term on March 9, at which time the board members will elect officers — a chairperson, president, vice president, secretary and treasurer.

“Our organization now needs to step up to the next level, as the industry has been moving to the next level,” said Barbara Coll, SEMPO’s outgoing chairperson. Coll, of Webmama.com, won a seat on the new board, but will not seek a position as an officer this year.

Other existing board members who were elected were current SEMPO VP Dana Todd, of SiteLab; Kevin Lee, of Did-it.com; Mauro Lupi, of Ad Maiora SpA; and Jessie Stricchiola, of Alchemist Media.

New to the board are Ron Belanger, of Carat Interactive; Chris Churchill, of Fathom Online; Koichiro Fukasawa, of Wasabi Communications; Gordon Hotchkiss, of Enquiro; Jeffrey Pruitt, of iCrossing; John Sanchez, of Zunch Communications; Julienne Thompson, of Advertising.com; and David Williams, of 360i.

“There’s a good cross-representation of our industry, with both large and small companies, as well as board members from the U.S., Japan, Canada and Europe,” Coll said.

The expanded board will allow SEMPO to expand some of its committees, including ones for membership, business development, education and marketing.

Nearly 70 percent of SEMPO’s more than 300 members participated in the elections. Both corporate and individual members were allowed to place one vote. Voting was overseen by SEMPO’s professional management company, Virtual Inc. Virtual Inc. manages the infrastructure for SEMPO and 16 other non-profit organizations, with a 7-person team tending to such things for SEMPO as finance, marketing program implementations, and member communication.