Jon Samsel

Jon Samsel is a native of Syracuse, New York. He was born into the kind of charmed, happy life he writes about in his music, screenplays, poems and photo essays. As Jon likes to tell it, “I grew up on a cul-de-sac where all the kids ran home for dinner when the streetlights blinked on.” Jon’s creative work has always reflected the world through a strikingly honest and positive vision of the world. Jon graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a Bachelors Degree in Communications: Radio, Television and Film. While in school, Jon won awards in photojournalism, writing and filmmaking.

After toiling in Hollywood as a screenwriter, talent agent and casting director with some success, his breakout non-fiction book, the Interactive Writer’s Handbook was published in 1996. The tome, co-authored with Darryl Wimberley, was the first of its kind to bridge the gap between storytelling, mathematics and design. It went on to become a textbook at over 40 colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada—and propelled Jon into the interactive multimedia speaking circuit frenzy during the pre-Internet boom.

While under contract at Apple Computer, Jon wrote and produced one of the first interactive PDF guides ever created in Adobe Acrobat that incorporated text, images, audio, video, interactive forms and hyperlinks—which was considered leading-edge interactivity for the 1990’s. The work was titled, The Killer Content Workbook. Jon has presented at dozens of conferences, and his books, articles and white papers have been quoted or used as source materials by many artists, instructors, entrepreneurs and business professionals over the years.

Jon was involved with the early days of the Internet, launching one of the first online subscription services for a small multimedia publisher he co-founded that produced directories and database services. Tradeshow event organization, corporate sponsorships and web publishing soon became experience feathers in his cap.

Riding the wave of dot com fever, Jon took a position with leading marketing research firm as a senior e-business consultant for some of the nation’s top technology players including Oracle, Cisco, Sun, Quantum, 3M, Digital Island, Veritas and Clarify. One of the highlights of Jon’s consulting career was working with Ken Orton, former CEO of online travel giant, PreviewTravel.com on an “online dealership of the future” prototype for PSA Peugeot Citroën, for Peugeot’s planned re-entry into the United States market. Jon also had the pleasure of co-authoring, Dead Ahead: The Web Dilemma and the New Rules of Business, with Cognitiative’s CEO, Laurie Windham.

An intriguing offer from Ford Motor Company lured Jon to Southern California where he was tasked with building an e-commerce start-up, RoadLoans.com, from the ground up. He developed the company name, logo and business plan, secured state lender licenses, hired employees, built a custom web-based loan origination system, set up a back-end fulfillment processing system with integrated FedEx order tracking, developed the website, implemented live chat and managed a loan production operation and customer service call center. After four years, the company was sold by Ford to a group of Texas investors and Jon went on to a new opportunity at Countrywide Financial.

Jon is one of the key Internet marketing executives who had the good fortune of transforming Countrywide Home Loans into the largest mortgage lender on the Internet. Jon is currently employed by Bank of America, Countrywide’s new owner.

Links to more about Jon Samsel:

Casting Director, Rover Dangerfield – Warner Bros.

Screenwriter, Love Crimes (re-titled for video release) - New York Times review

Quoted in an AutoTrader.com press release

Quoted in an RouteOne.com press release

Recommendations:

“I have worked with Jon for a number of years and have found him to be the unique type of executive that every creative agency dreams of working with. He has his feet firmly grounded in the realities of business while having the imagination and vision to “push the envelope”. His willingness to try new technologies and explore innovative creative approaches to business issues makes him a force to be reckoned with. It has been my pleasure to work with him on a number of projects, ranging from microsites, landing pages, banner ads, rich media viral video campaigns and interactive flash widgets. In all situations he has been the consummate professional, his vision and in depth knowledge of both the business and creative aspects of new media production is truly remarkable. His contributions and vision have made the projects we have worked on together extraordinarily successful from a creative perspective and more importantly more a business perspective. This is a man truly “gets it” and empowers those around him to do their best work. Bottom line – Jon is a rare commodity, a visionary in the area of online direct response marketing and a creative powerhouse. I would highly recommend working with him.” - David Greene, owner of Creative-Spark.com

“Jon did something at Triad Financial Corp. that is rarely seen in business today. With his great energy, imagination and professional skills, Jon was able to create an internet based direct lending business in just a little over a year. That business, RoadLoans, is now a highly successful and profitable component of Triad. Jon has the ability and foresight to make significant contributions and he does.” - Joseph Tartaglini, former lead technology officer at RoadLoans.com

“Jon and I have worked together as partners and employees through three different industries. Jon is one of the most creative, industrious and efficient people I have ever had the pleasure to work. He is a marvelous sales/marketing person with a gift for always finding the right strategy to target a specific audience. On top of being an all round great guy and amazing friend, I would recommend Jon for any position he seeks to pursue. He has always been a shining asset in the organizations I have worked with him in and he will be an extraordinary asset to any future organization he wishes to work.” - Clancy Fort, former colleague

“I first met Jon while working for Cognitiative on projects for Quantum, Oracle and other technology vendors. Jon was my colleague and focused on various web technology and marketing consulting assignments. Clients included Sun, Oracle, Veritas, Personics, 3M and Saratoga Systems. I was impressed by the depth and knowledge of Jon’s web strategy and project management skills, as well as his marketing research savvy. Jon has an amazing understanding of consumer insights and behavior as they relate to online usability– skills that bring immediate value to strategic consulting projects. Understanding, and leveraging the technology through best practices and innovation are critical success factors, and Jon is clearly one of the best in his field.” - Christophe Bertrand, marketing consultant at Quantum Corporation and a former colleague