Greg and Patti Gates


At Mt. St Helens

In April of 1996, moved to Oregon joining the Nationwide Insurance Enterprise to lead the aggressive marketing and advertising goals growing the business portfolio in the western USA.  Mr. Gates served as the Vice President of Marketing and Advertising for the business known as Nationwide Direct.  In July of 1997, Nationwide launched its new direct company after a year-long systems replacement and market test effort.  Nationwide Direct marketed via the sales/service channels of Internet, broadcast (television/radio), print, mail, and telemarketing.  In 1998 Nationwide relocated all marketing functions back to Columbus, Ohio.  During this time, Mr. Gates and his family fell in love with the Northwest, therefore they choose to remain in Oregon.

Prior to Nationwide, Mr. Gates was the VP of Relationship Marketing for HMS Partners. (HMS).  HMS is one of the top 75 national advertising agencies with clients such as Domino’s Pizza, Target Stores, AAA, Carnival Cruise Lines, Nationwide Insurance (and more).  The agency was fortunate to have a strong working/learning relationship with Dr. Martha Rogers co-author of “1:1 The Future of Marketing”.  Many of Dr. Rogers' powerful tenants regarding customer relationships were built into the business/marketing plans for RingDesigner.com, Inc. ®

Until 1995, Mr. Gates was with BANC ONE CORPORATION in Columbus, OH as the corporate Vice President of Direct and Database Marketing. He managed the day to day operations of the in-house advertising agency, providing creative and production services for all BANC ONE Affiliates.  Prior to joining BANC ONE, Mr. Gates was a Senior Vice President with Fidelity Investments in Boston, MA.

The foundation for Mr. Gates senior management career, really developed while at North American Communications, Inc.  (in beautiful Altoona, PA.) .  Over time, the founders of the company began giving Mr. Gates more and more responsibility and leeway over his years of service.  This was truly a tremendous management learning experience.  Mr. Gates learned hand's on as well as from watching and listening to the founders of the company who both had years of successful experience starting and running companies.  At NAC, he developed his skills assisting the founders managing a very large multitasked corporation that was in a tremendous growth phase.  

Mr. Gates has 32 years of general marketing, e-commerce, database marketing, direct marketing, public relations and operations experience in the corporations mentioned above plus Colonial Penn Insurance (Philadelphia), and Credit Card Service Bureau (Alexandria, VA.) .

Honors

In 1995, BANC ONE CORPORATION was honored for developing the “Best targeting database model for 1994” by the publication Credit Risk Management Newsletter.  This model “doubled” the amount of home equity loans (the bank’s most profitable product) resulting from direct marketing.  Mr. Gates conceived the idea and led the project team to implementing the model in four months.

In 1989, Mr. Gates was one of the 16 corporate executives honored with the Chivas Regal Entrepreneur of the Year award and thus became a featured guest on the Joan Rivers Show.  These honors resulted from Mr. Gates’ efforts in recognition of a private marketing campaign.  That effort raised money for the medical expenses of an 18-month-old infant, critically burned in a house fire.

   
(Click Here) View ADWEEK story.

In 1990, Mr. Gates was awarded the Executive Award by the Postmaster General of the United States.

Mr. Gates has been a featured speaker at marketing, operations, and database conferences nationally and internationally.

Mr. Gates is a 1972 graduate of Grove City College in Pennsylvania and a 1968 graduate of Mount Lebanon High School (Pittsburgh).

Personal

Mr. Gates, Patti, Jessica (daughter 18 going on 29), Devin (son 16 going on 4) and Dink the Cat (age unknown) who as a stray adopted our family, reside in Lake Oswego, Oregon (south of Portland).   Mr. Gates has two sons from his first marriage, Gregory Jr. 27, who attended the University of Delaware, is now an accomplished expert in training others in outdoor accomplishments such as extreme rock climbing  and his son Jeffery 25 a graduate from Germantown Academy near Philadelphia, attended West Chester State, is now is training to be a highly skilled licensed electrician.  Jeff and his wife Amy, in May 2007 became the proud parents of a handsome baby boy Trevor Jayden Gates!

Our beloved Cyber Dot Com Dog ("Cyber"  9.5 year old golden retriever) passed a way.  He was a loved member of the household and a very very very good friend.