Bill Brennan, President, CEO
Bill oversees the operations, sales and marketing, promotions and finances of the company. Bill began with the company in 1996 as a Marketing Consultant, then VP, and moving to the role of President when he acquired the company in 1998. Bill grew up in Philadelphia and later moved to the Midwest in 1986 to continue his training as an Elite level figure skater. In 1989, Bill placed 12th in the United States at the US National Figure Skating Championships in pair skating. Bill comes from a comprehensive background of catering services, party and event planning producing large-scale events for Hewlett Packard, The Ryder’s Cub, Nova Pharmaceuticals Clausen Miller, Altschuler, Melvoin and Glasser, as well as Sprint Corporation’s 4,000 person Delegate Party at the 1996 Chicago Democratic National Convention.
Paula Burnette, Vice President
Paula oversees a multitude of tasks within the office including office operations, consumer bridal marketing, bride lead list management, Internet marketing, and print advertising to name just a few. Paula joined the company in 1995 and quickly advanced through the ranks to her current role as Vice President for the company. She also compiles comprehensive demographic research keeping abreast of the ever-changing trends in the local and national bridal market for the mutual benefit of the clients we serve and the brides in attendance. In addition, she oversees the entire website operation for the company managing one of the most critical aspects of our business; overseeing the execution and fulfillment of our daily ticket orders and data base management that is one of the major engines that drives our business
Carol Tardi, Fashion Director
Carol Tardi has been in the fashion merchandising and show production arena for over 30 years and has written fashion show scripts and commentated at over 3,000 events for local boutiques and major national retailer and designers from around the globe. Working hand in hand with Bridal Expo Chicago and Milwaukee for 18 years as fashion commentator and liaison between production and fashion, Carol officially came on board this year as head of our Fashion Division and serves as Fashion Director. Carol’s diverse background in fashion merchandising and coordination instruction at local colleges, sales, retail merchandising, and client relations brings a wealth of knowledge to our company and the clients we serve. Carol understands the need to simultaneously deliver great entertainment to standing room only crowds while also tailoring the presentation to ultimately drive traffic back to the show sponsors business.
Lisa Ellis, Vendor Relations Manager
Lisa is Manager of Vendor Relations and Accounting. She joined the company in 2000 as a part time Expo set-up assistant and immediately recognized a business model she knew she wanted to become involved with. She learned the ins and outs of the business so quickly and efficiently that she was offered a full time position almost immediately. Lisa is an excellent problem solver and has the foresight to see challenges that may lie ahead and make quick decisions to change direction to ensure a successful outcome. Lisa also acts as liaison between the company and our vendors to ensure flawless floor plan design, staging for our fashion show productions, and maintains detailed event communications to 30 hotel and banquet properties a year to facilitate well organized events for our 30,000 attending bridal consumers each year.
Jim Verraros, Account Executive
Jim is an Account Executive and wears multiple hats within the company ranging from servicing our wedding clients, copywriting and editing, participating in strategy sessions with the entire sales office, and choreographer for every fashion show we produce. Jim is fluent is American Sign Language, growing up in a household with deaf parents. Jim attended Monmouth College on a Theater scholarship, then transferred to Columbia college and has an extensive background in musical theater production and was on a little TV Show in 2002, called American Idol where he was ranked 9th alongside winner Kelly Clarkson. After traveling on to tour to 30 US cities, Jim has starred in two movies, and released a successful album. Jim now happily applies his extensive background in film, entertainment, and television, and marketing to his work at the company.
Dena Rodrian, Account Manager
Dena is an Account Manger and has an extremely extensive background in sales and marketing. Working as an Account Manger for Verizon on business-to-business accounts and one of the top selling executives with Rain Soft, Dena understands the benefits of establishing long term client relationships and the mutual benefits such relationships bring. Dena’s approach to new and existing clients is simple and straightforward; help the client understand how to best prepare for an upcoming show so that the client realizes their full potential and maximizes the return on the investment. She prides herself on working very closely with new businesses in order to see them through the inquiry phase to the contract phase to their “show” experience and finally to assisting with the clients post show follow up with brides.
Amy Craig, Account Manager
Amy joined our company in 2007 as an Account Manager. Amy not only works with new clients to help educate them on the skills and knowledge necessary to run a successful wedding business, but she also acts in a support role during the “show” days. Her extensive background in hospital and elder care enables her to listen to the needs of our clients and is inherently interested in learning about our clients businesses and helping find solutions to entry into the bridal trade show arena. Amy’s upbeat and outgoing personality is apparent to all that get to know her and she is always eager to help clients in any way possible in order to help them succeed.
