As Chief Idea Officer at Madison+Main, Dave runs the show. Whether he’s coming up with a brilliant idea for your brand or spreading the gospel about social media, Dave approaches every task with unbridled enthusiasm. As a nationally recognized expert in New Media Marketing, Dave frequently speaks to businesses and civic organizations about the power of social media, inbound marketing and “Why Bold Brands Win. Period.”

To book Dave as a speaker, for your organization, please contact Arnett & Associates.

After college, Dave lived in Los Angeles for 12 years, starting his first advertising and design firm, Great American Concepts, in Venice Beach. Later GAC merged with Hal Riney & Associates and Dave continued to work for that firm as the Director of the LA office. Then, he moved to the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Media where he served as the Marketing Program Director for Times Direct. Dave later returned to his beloved home of Virginia, working as the Advertising and Marketing Manager with Richmond-Times Dispatch/Media General before founding Madison+Main in 2005.

Dave also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he taught the nation’s first undergraduate level course on social media marketing. Additionally, he leads the new media and social media workshops for VCU’s Center for Corporate Education.

In the media: Dave is frequently quoted as a marketing and social media expert in print publications (such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Village Voice,The Guardian, Wired Magazine, Richmond-Times Dispatch, Style Weekly, Virginia Business, Richmond Magazine, Grid Magazine, and Work Magazine). He has also been interviewed on many radio and television programs to discuss interactive marketing including Virginia News Network, WRVA, WCVE, CBS6, TV8 and NBC12. He is a regular contributor to CNBC’s Media Money program

Education: Dave attended VCU’s School of Mass Communications and graduated from the University of Mary Washington, with BA in English (writing concentration).

Community Involvement: Dave sits on the boards of the Greater Richmond Chamber, Chesterfield County Chamber of Commerce, National MS Society, Lucy Corr Foundation and Positive Vibe Café Foundation. In 2009, Dave was honored as a finalist for Business Person of The Year by the US Small Business Administration and was appointed by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to Virginia’s Small Business Commission in 2012.

Dave may get the press, but it is Molly who runs the show at M+M. Her organizational skills keep everyone on task and help direct the flow of work efficiently. As Director of Operations, Molly manages the day-to-day agency operations, executes staffing plans, coordinates meetings, establishes financial planning and future goals for the company and much more.

Molly graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications, with a concentration in Business Advertising. From there she worked as a HR Assistant for Target, a Building Manager for the City of Richmond and served as the Director of eVisure for Visure Corporation, a company that measures product placement effectiveness within the television and movie industries. At eVisure, Molly served as a project manager for the corporate and consumer websites, where she was singularly responsible for meeting project deadlines and navigating front and back end development teams through technical challenges. While she was there, she also helped with developing investor communications, supervising teams, acting as a vendor point-of-contact and claiming responsibility in forecasting website initiatives, staff objectives, company advertising efforts and website content structure. As you can see, Molly has done it all. She joined Madison+Main in 2007 as the Traffic & Production Manager and was promoted to Director of Operations in 2008.

Molly’s positive, can-do attitude radiates the second you meet her. If you look up “hard-worker” in the dictionary, you’ll most likely find Molly’s name. Equipped with her entrepreneurial spirit, Molly founded SproutLaunch, an online organization that encourages kindness and rewards people for doing good deeds, in December of 2009. SproutLaunch has not only gained national recognition for the generosity it promotes, but was also nominated as a 2010 VMFA Muse Awards Finalist, and was spotlighted at the StylesGroundUp television breakout series, a Richmond venture featuring innovative start-up companies.

There’s no one better suited to manage your brand than Kara. Kara’s super-friendly personality, strong work ethic and her ability to multitask make her the perfect liaison between the agency and its clients. Kara has over 12 years of agency experience and lends not only her project management skills, but also her energy, creativity and focus to every task and assignment at Madison+Main. She manages a number of the agency’s accounts, but also oversees a three-member account team. And because Kara sends friendly reminders that something is due, it’s not difficult to meet every deadline.

Kara earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and International Business from the University of Georgia. While in college, Kara was a 5-time All-American swimmer, SEC Champion and even attended the 1997 World University Games in Sicily, Italy. Today, Kara continues to be an avid Bulldogs fan.

Since college, Kara has worked for a range of companies, including Fortune 500 companies, and has managed budgets of more than $3 million. She has worked with a diverse range of clients including the Wall Street Journal, the Coca-Cola Company, Lake County CVB, Florida Department of Citrus, AmericasMart Atlanta, Lightfair International, Old Edwards Inn and Spa & Stiefel Laboratories. In 2007, Kara enjoyed a lucky year winning three industry awards including an ADDY, an AMY and an ECHO. She most recently worked as a Senior Account Supervisor at The Jones Group in Atlanta before joining Madison+Main in 2009 as a Brand Manager. Not long after, Kara was promoted to Director of Client Services due to her extensive knowledge and experience with direct marketing, traditional media, social media, market research, tradeshows, fulfillment and promotions.

In her free time, Kara enjoys cooking, keeping up her athleticism with works outs and spending time her husband, her daughter, whom she affectionately calls “Booger” and two dogs – Munson and Dixie. She also loves to travel, even though her roots are firmly planted in the South. Kara is truly a Southern gal at heart.

Jeff is Art Director at Madison+Main but he also goes by the professional title of “Creative Traffic Light.” Jeff concepts and designs ads and also acts as the taskmaster for the whole creative team by managing the flow of all projects to and from the creative department. Jeff’s strategic mindset, appreciation for detail and impeccable design craft make him an asset to Madison+Main.

After earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from Appalachian State University, Jeff studied business at Virginia Commonwealth University. Before joining Madison+Main in 2007, Jeff served as the Art Director for sister companies The Icebox and Alternative Apparel in Atlanta, Georgia from 2001 to 2006, coordinating catalog designs and creating retail apparel programs for clients such as Walt Disney, MTV, Urban Outfitters, NBC and Hard Rock Café. During his time in Atlanta, Jeff also directed creative endeavors for two monthly music & culture magazines and acted as Operations Manager for a screen-printing shop while marketing and distributing his own premium retail line to boutique culture shops in NYC, DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles and London. When Jeff’s not creating logos, layouts or awesome illustrations, he enjoys riding his bike. Jeff is also a self-proclaimed fledgling Ukulele Virtuoso. And yes, his last name really is “Smack.”

Katie is like the forensic analyst of the Madison+Main family. Her meticulousness and organizational skills are unmatched and the perfect complement to her outgoing and always upbeat personality. As an Account Manager, Katie works closely with clients to help channel their creative vision into integrated marketing campaigns and keep everything in its right place. Although she is not a creative, Katie spends a good amount of time with the creative department to mix in some left brain and right brain action.

Katie graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Business Administration, emphasis in Public Relations, and a double minor in Spanish and Sociology. After college, she interned with the Bergman Group of Richmond, planning and implementing social media networking strategies and working as an Account Management intern. Katie continued her career in advertising with Free Agents Marketing in December 2009.  From 2009 to October 2011, she worked as Account Coordinator, helping create and execute strategic marketing plans for several clients, mainly focusing in Health Care. She also worked to improve internal processes at Free Agents Marketing such as creative briefs, change orders and traffic. In the October 2011, Katie joined forces with Madison+Main as an Account Executive and was recently promoted to Account Manager in January 2012.  She currently develops and implements strategic marketing plans for various nonprofit, government and corporate clients as well as collaborates with vendors, print production and creative to coordinate actions and briefs for marketing campaigns.

Katie’s assertiveness, exceptional communication skills and outgoing personality make her a strong asset to the team.  She’s a fanatic for anything Hokie, and don’t say anything secret in front of Katie because she is always taking notes. In her spare time, you can find this Richmond native running and spending time with her dog, Minnie.

If you ever need some guidance in social media marketing, digital branding, new Mac technology and/or green smoothie blending, Dorsey’s your gal. As Madison+Main’s Digital Marketing Manager, Dorsey manages all types of new media, concentrating most of her efforts on strategy for social media and the design and implementation of social campaigns. Dorsey has the innate ability to construct the perfect combination of digital media platforms for each of our clients, pinpointing their exact needs and monitoring the campaign’s performance to insure the best possible results. In addition, Dorsey provides our clients search engine marketing services through our partnership with Google.

Outside of the office Dorsey is all about staying engaged in the social space and keeping up with the latest and greatest technology. Follow her on Twitter for way-too-adorable puppy pics, RVA restaurant reviews and fun new craft ideas. She’s also on a mission to find the perfect rib eye – any suggestions?

Dorsey graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in Communications and Political Science. She has also completed a master certificate program for digital media design through Johns Hopkins.

Sammy is Madison+Main’s reigning princess of social media, always thinking of new ways to help our clients reach their target audiences and engage them in conversation. As a key player of the account team, she exhibits an easy-going style that also comes in handy when she manages and co-manages a variety of our client projects.

Sammy graduated Cum Laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelors of Science in Mass Communications, with a concentration in Public Relations and a minor in General Business. During her final year of college, she worked at Dominion, where she assisted in the redesign of the energy company’s HR Intranet. Sammy joined the Madison+Main team in 2011.

In her free time, Sammy can be found at the dog park with her Beagle/Labrador Linus or exploring Richmond’s food carts, bakeries or “cheapo” lunch spots.