Richard E. Skaggs
CEO

A certified public accountant, Rick's career includes work in both "Big Six" public accounting and investment sales. This unique combination of formal finance and sales experience offers special insights into the marketing industry.

Prior to joining the agency in 1987, Rick worked for Wall Street investment company Smith Barney, Inc., as well as international consulting accounting firm Deloitte & Touche.

Kelley Haas
Chairman

Kelley has more than 25 years of experience in agency operations, having held leadership positions in virtually every department of the agency. She supervised the Parts Plus, Big A, Dorman, Mobil, All Pro and Douglas Battery accounts. 

Kelley was part of the strategy and implementation teams for Navistar, OMC/Johnson and Evinrude brands, Moog and Universal Underwriters accounts. A strong background in multi-channel marketing experience for clients like Caterpillar, Freightliner and John Deere completes her impressive resume.

Brent Kuhn
Vice Chairman

Brent Kuhn has been blazing trails in the advertising industry for over thirty years. He was previously Executive Vice President at Earl Palmer Brown, Vice President at McCann-Erickson and began his career at Tatham-Laird & Kudner.

While his chief strengths lie in marketing and media, he makes a point to become educated and involved in every aspect of the agency. Brent's lengthy list of major accounts includes such renowned business and organizations as the Christian Children's Fund, Coca-Cola Foods and Dirt Devil, just to name a few.

Maribett Varner
President — Atlanta

Before helping to lay BKV's foundations, Maribett proved her talent and determination as Senior Vice President at both KKB, Inc. and Earle Palmer Brown.  She's also held prominent account positions at McCann-Erickson and Al Paul Lefton, Inc. in Philadelphia.

Having spent over thirty years in the industry, Maribett considers marketing and media her primary strengths — despite her undeniable versatility. The long list of major accounts on which she has worked includes such prominent businesses and organizations as the American Red Cross, Dirt Devil, The Salvation Army and AT&T Wireless.

Virginia Doty
Executive Vice President/Director of Client Services—Atlanta

An integral member of BKV, Virginia has over 20 years of advertising experience. While she's spent a majority of those years with BKV, she has also held prominent positions at the prestigious agencies of Earle Palmer Brown and Ogilvy & Mather in both London and Atlanta. With her strengths in strategic planning and creative development, she leads several teams within our agency whose assignments cover all areas of creative and media for both traditional and Internet advertising. Virginia's impressive client list includes American Express, Black and Decker, Dirt Devil, The Salvation Army, EarthLink, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Stacy Pierce
Senior Vice President/Director of Interactive & Media Services

Stacy has an impressive 17 years of experience in both brand and direct marketing. She became BKV's Media Director after spending 10 years as a Senior Media Planner at Ogilvy & Mather with a focus on brand-driven media. Thanks to Stacy's expertise in strategic and interactive media planning and buying, BKV Track was developed around her vision and revolutionized the agency itself. She has worked with such well-known clients as American Express, Capital One, Royal Appliance (Dirt Devil), and Save the Children.

Danny Snyder
Senior Vice President/Chief Creative Officer— Atlanta

Before taking up his position at BKV as Czar of All Things Creative, Danny served as Executive Creative Director at DDB Direct and Tracy-Locke Partnership Direct.  He's also held positions at Bozell and Jacobs Direct, as well as The Drawing Board.

In addition to his strengths in creative strategy and copywriting, Danny has spent more than thirty years mastering the principles of direct marketing. He has been involved in a number of major accounts including American Airlines, the American Red Cross, Coca-Cola, IBM, FedEx, Black & Decker and Equifax.

Olivia K. Smith, C.D.M.
Senior Vice President/Account Director

A key player in the BKV team, Olivia has almost 30 years of experience in advertising and marketing, 15 of which have been dedicated in the non-profit arena. She's a Certified Direct Marketer and before landing at BKV, she worked coast to coast on both the agency and client side.

Olivia heads up the non-profit division and brings to BKV a wealth of knowledge on donor motivations and maximizing fundraising programs. Whether its fundraising through direct mail, the Internet, or DRTV, she effectively parlays this experience into ROI based strategic plans and program development that supports clients' goals. She also knows numbers! Her ability to analyze data and find insights has found her fans among such major accounts as the American Red Cross, Prison Fellowship, the American Cancer Society, and Make-A-Wish Foundation® of America to name a few. Olivia is also involved in new business development for our non-profit business.

Susan Reiter
Senior Vice President/Director of Client Service — Kansas City

In her role as leader and manager providing expertise in all areas of direct marketing for business-to-business clients, Susan has earned national and local success for her creative approach, thorough research and off-the-charts results.

Susan is instrumental in the development of innovative direct marketing programs for numerous clients with multi-channel distribution, including Caterpillar, John Deere, Wingfoot, Freightliner, and Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield. She also is closely involved with new business efforts for the agency as a whole and as they relate to Conduit, BKV's Web-based target marketing tool.

Tony Ali
Senior Vice President/CTO

Tony works closely with his project team to design, develop and implement applications for BKV clients. He is responsible for not only defining functionality requirements, but for ensuring quality, reliability, maintainability and efficiency of code.

Tony began his career with the agency in 1998 as a programmer, advancing into positions of increasing responsibility before assuming his current role. His previous professional experience involved development in Powerbuilder and Visual Basic as well as working with Unix and Sybase designing and documenting processes.

Sally Staab
Vice President/Account Group Leader — Kansas City

Sally is a seasoned executive with extensive knowledge of integrated marketing communications and account service management. She joined BKV in 1985 and now serves as vice president/account group leader, overseeing the day-to-day account service needs for a variety of accounts including Armed Forces Insurance, MAMTC, Freightliner LLC and its business units including Freightliner Customer Support, Freightliner Trucks, Sterling Truck Corporation, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses.

Sally excels in developing and directing all marketing communications programs to maximize results. She nurtures and cultivates the clients within her designated group, while engaging in new business leads.

Jeff Chase
Vice President/Creative Director — Kansas City

As head of the creative department in the Kansas City office, Jeff is responsible for devising creative strategy and overseeing the development of advertising and marketing materials for all BKV clients. He also plays an integral role in defining and creating a unique brand position for clients.

Prior to joining BKV, Jeff began his career as a copywriter and ultimately served as vice president/associate creative director at Barkley. Jeff served a wide array of clients across many industries: Monroe Shocks, Wagner Brakes, Cellular One, Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, UMB Bank and Commerce Bank. Since joining the agency in 2004, he has defined and launched the Mr. LongArm brand, created and executed a complex messaging strategy across a stratified military audience for Armed Forces Insurance, and led the rollout of the new brand for what is now EMBARQ.

Dianna Hakim-Nixon
Vice President/Market Planning

Dianna has led market planning & research initiatives for a long list of major clients, including Freightliner, H&R Block, Goodyear and Caterpillar. From scoping the project to identifying the most productive methodology, through project implementation and analysis of findings, Dianna directs every aspect of the market planning process.

With more than 25 years of research and product management experience, Dianna brings a solid background to BKV. Before joining the agency, she worked as a senior product data manager at Sprint, and also has held management positions at E | Solutions and Sprint PCS.