Meet the Authors

Kenneth W. Swanson

As CEO of Affinity Express, Ken leads a global team that includes operations, finance, human resources, marketing and IT. He is focused on ensuring we balance outstanding delivery to clients with the continued health and growth of the company. He also spends quite a bit of his time meeting with industry leaders in a variety of business categories and establishes the vision for Affinity Express.

Most recently, Ken was the director of business development for the Kodak Graphic Communications Group, where he organized and led a global, cross-segment team for a newly-formed business unit. Prior to Kodak, Ken spent 11 years at Bowne & Co., the $840 million global financial printer. He held the position of senior vice president of operations and manufacturing, reporting to the CEO. His responsibilities included strategy, budgets, P&L management and the leadership of 24/7 production platforms.

Ken lives in New Jersey with his wife, has two daughters and enjoys gardening and other home projects on the weekends. An avid fisherman, he looks forward to occasional breaks in his busy schedule to spend time with friends and catch striped bass off Montauk Point, Long Island, New York.

Sunil Garde

As president of the wholly-owned subsidiary of Affinity Express in India, Sunil is responsible for overseeing teams in production, IT, finance, human resources and administration, and strengthening the delivery capabilities of our world-class operation.

Sunil brings more than 26 years of experience to Affinity Express, with the last 14 years in senior positions in the IT-enabled/BPO/KPO industries. Most recently, he worked at Aptara (formerly TechBooks), where he served since 2000 in various roles and since 2005  as senior vice president and head of Pune operations for eLearning and content IT services. Significant achievements during his tenure include quality certifications and development of training methods with the help of University of Pune.

He has earned the following degrees: BS in basic sciences and BS and MS in Chemical Technology from Bombay University department of Chemical Technology.

Sunil is married to Rajashri, who is trained as a occupational therapist. His elder son Chinmay is studying for his master’s in IT at Carnegie Mellon University and his younger son Arnav attends architectural school in Pune. While not juggling busy days at Affinity Express, he loves reading, jogging and meditation.

David Kang

Executive vice president and chief digital officer, David has more than 13 years of interactive agency experience and proven success in business and product development. Before Affinity Express, he was vice president of client service for TrueAction (formerly GSI Interactive), where he oversaw account management, capability development and business development. Before TrueAction, David was senior vice president/group account director at Beyond Interactive, part of WPP’s Group M. Clients included Western Union, Cendant Corporation, Kmart, JetBlue and more.

As engagement manager for McCann Erickson Relationship Marketing, David led development of online marketing programs for top-tier global clients including Coca-Cola. Prior to that, he worked at MVBMS/Euro RSCG on accounts including Intel, Evian, and Schering Plough.  David also was a founder of deepFry, LLC, an award winning interactive agency.

He has an MBA from Duke School of Business and a bachelor of arts in English from New York University.  In his free time, David takes a keen interest in sports and is a fan of the New York Giants and the Knicks.  He lives in Summit, New Jersey, with his wife, his daughter and his twin sons.

Kelly Glass

Kelly has been vice president of Marketing at Affinity Express for the past seven years. This role has made her an expert in doing more with less in record time—the same challenge many Affinity Express clients face. She is passionate about communications and building a dialog with employees, clients and prospects. Kelly drives company strategy and leads all marketing activities including: advertising, trade shows, collateral, public relations, e-marketing, the website, social media and sales support.

Prior to Affinity Express, Kelly built a decade of experience overseeing marketing in the business process outsourcing industry at Oce Business Services, Danka Services International and Archer Management Services, where she developed a wide range of promotions and educated potential clients in what was then a new approach to doing business. She also held marketing roles in syndicated television and healthcare.

Kelly and her husband have two children, with whom she spends most of her time when she is not working. She also likes reading fiction and baking desserts (which she sometimes uses to bribe co-workers to give her tasks higher priority).

Mike Marinos

As vice president of premedia operations, Mike oversees operations for major retailer and other clients, ensuring people, technology and processes are in place to meet rigorous service level agreements and set the stage for growth in our business. Mike often travels to meet clients to discuss new objectives and potential new accounts to assess their needs in detail.

Mike has extensive experience defining operations, international premedia strategies and developing and implementing new products across a broad range of industries within printing. In the past, he created and started the implementation of new client-facing business processes to reduce turn times and improve collaboration with clients.

He has more than twenty years of off-set and digital variable print-on-demand experience, utilizing Xerox IGEN, Xeikon, NexPress and high-volume color print technologies including variable workflows.

In his spare time, Mike loves fishing, golfing and spending time with his wife and children.

Joanna Grant

One of the founders of Affinity Express, Joanna is vice president of Graphic Production and Support Services, a position in which she leverages her decades of experience in embroidery digitizing, vector artwork, image editing and order management services to educate the promotional products industry on the benefits of outsourcing.

To help Affinity Express clients manage in the fast-paced, ever-changing, high-tech environment of business process outsourcing, Joanna meets with leaders of companies operating in diverse industries. She is happiest when interacting with clients and helping them solve their business challenges.

Joanna lives in Lewiston, New York, with her husband and younger daughter. The family enjoys annual adventures to South America for visits with the eldest daughter and her new husband. When she is not working or travelling, Joanna is planning boating trips to faraway places.

Bob Hartmann

Vice president of sales for Affinity Express, Bob has been with the company since 2008. He is responsible for establishing new revenue opportunities and developing strategic relationships with retailers who can benefit from advertising and marketing production solutions.

Before joining Affinity Express, Bob was the executive vice president of sales and operations for Hipzone, Inc. During his tenure, he created business process outsourcing solutions for retailers, manufacturers, cataloguers, ad agencies, magazine publishers and corporate clients. Previously, Bob served as senior vice president of sales and client services for Vertis Communications, where he directed 155 sales people, sales vice presidents and client service professionals and generated over $1 billion in revenue and 500 client relationships. He was also senior vice president of supply chain at Vertis and, earlier in his career, Bob was a sales executive for R.R. Donnelley & Sons.

Bob earned his bachelor of arts/bachelor of science in business administration and marketing from Clarion University and his master of business administration at the University of Texas at Austin.

Bob and his wife have five children. Two are in college at Penn State, two are in high school and one is a sixth-grader. Together, they like to travel, spend time in Pompano Beach, Florida, and watch movies. If Bob asks you to join his poker game, you should be honored but plan to lose!

Tinna Hall

With production operations in Pune, India and Manila, Philippines, as well as employees located across the United States, overseeing human resources for Affinity Express is a dynamic role. As vice president of the global HR function, Tinna not only handles policies and procedures, she spearheads the Learning Center (a web-based training and evaluation system), compensation and benefits, major initiatives and recruiting of new candidates at all levels.

Prior to Affinity Express, Tinna worked in a variety of roles, industries and countries. For example, she was a project and research officer for the Urban Development Institute of Australia in Sydney, where she developed project plans and represented the Institute on external committees on urban development issues and policies. She also edited a nationwide quarterly journal, oversaw design and layout, produced the Institute’s newsletters and created corporate and national websites. She was a special project coordinator at Mississippi State University in charge of planning, reporting and promotions for the launch of the new biotechnology institute. Before that, she held teaching roles at a university and an academic institution in Hong Kong.

Currently, Tinna lives in West Dundee, Illinois with her son. He and her role at Affinity Express keep her quite busy, but she tries to find time to shop, sew, do arts and crafts projects and watch television shows such as “Dancing with the Stars” and “24.”

TJ Ceballos

TJ is the vice president of solutions architecture and has more than 15 years of experience in the publishing industry. As vice president of solutions management, he leads the team dedicated to the development and support of workflow solutions for the various market segments. He is constantly looking to leverage advances in technology to improve the user experience or to save five minutes in a process.

Prior to joining Affinity Express, TJ was director of publishing technology at the New York Daily News, where he was responsible for end-to-end prepress, proofing and color management systems. During his tenure, he beta-tested and was the first to implement MediaSpectrum’s AdWatchEX. This implementation project provided the foundation for the implementation and production processes and systems on which the Affinity Express Service Bureau was built. The AESB is on its sixth release and supports dozens of client newspapers properties.

TJ enjoys spending time with his friends and family. A new father as of five months ago, he has found a new appreciation for the job his parents did and has learned to redefine the word “sleep.”

Jon Zerndt

Jon joined Affinity Express in 2005 and is the account manager for our office superstore and quick printer accounts, meaning he helps grow relationships with clients, train users, provides guidance and troubleshoots any issues. He relies heavily on his graphic design background.

Previously, he was director of digital imaging at Solaris Photo & Imaging, a full service photo lab in the Chicago area from 1990 to 2005. Before moving into the digital arena, Jon worked for several years in the screen printing industry and as a sign painter.

Jon is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in Painting & Printmaking. A lifelong Midwesterner, Jon currently resides in East Dundee, Illinois with his wife, two sons and various four-legged friends.

Todd Moshier

Todd is a new client implementation manager for Affinity Express. His diverse experience in print and online ad production gives our customers a valuable resource, whether they need immediate customer support or long-term change management.

Todd started his publishing career as a sportswriter and spent the past two decades excelling in virtually every newspaper job available (“Well, they wouldn’t let me drive the delivery truck. That’s one I didn’t do,” he says). As director of online and print operations at The State in Columbia, SC, Todd was a customer of Affinity Express and conducted one of the earliest installations of the Affinity Express Service Bureau workflow.

A graduate of Michigan State University, Todd continues to reside in Columbia, SC with his wife and two children. He is an avid sports fan and an accomplished hockey referee. He also is active in local Habitat For Humanity projects.

Mariel Go

Mariel serves as the quality lead for the Advertising Services Quality Group and has been with Affinity Express since September 2007. Her day begins when she gets updates on any quality issues, new client protocols, feedback or meetings. Then she meets with the PAs for team discussions or does hands-on quality analysis by getting involved in various teams’ ad production activities. She provides feedback to operations directors, managers, team leaders and PAs, as well as to upper management. Essentially, Mariel is a communications hub for Affinity Express and clients. One achievement Mariel is proud of in her three years at Affinity Express is that she spearheaded and implemented the Creative Design Review across properties in 2009.

Mariel graduated with an AB in interdisciplinary studies, communication arts, with a minor in Japanese studies. She has also pursued a second degree in fine arts, major in painting. She is married and enjoys watching movies and competitive sports. She also loves anime, TV series, concerts and poetry reading—whatever calls out to her creative soul.

Unmana Datta

Senior marketing manager Unmana joined Affinity Express in early 2010, and has since spearheaded the company’s blogging and social media efforts, managed email marketing, improved search engine visibility, written and edited marketing collateral, and worked on marketing research and strategy.

Unmana is an obsessive consumer of blogs and social media, and is fascinated by their use in marketing. She has had guest posts published on several industry blogs and publications and is fairly active on Twitter @Unmana.

Unmana has a post-graduate management diploma in Marketing and has worked for over five years in marketing and business research. She lives in Pune, India. When she isn’t working, she reads novels, writes on her personal blog, and likes having long pointless conversations with her husband and her friends.

 Melchizedek Fernandez

Senior graphic designer for marketing, Mel is responsible for designing and producing print and online marketing materials, sales presentations and e-marketing campaigns, as well as maintaining and advancing corporate branding.

Prior to Affinity Express, Mel worked as a designer for one of the country’s premier banks in the Philippines for more than four years. He led his team of artists to develop more creative and expressive illustrations of the different products and services of the bank, as well as its event management collateral, which earned several recognitions from various institutions including the International Association of Business Communicators (Philippine Quill 2008 and 2009) and Public Relations Society of the Philippines (Anvil Awards 2009).

Mel graduated with an A.B. in multimedia arts from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. As a full-time scholar, Mel’s love and passion for arts has exposed him to a vast array of advertising, event management and marketing and brand merchandising disciplines.