We started Communicators International, Inc. in January of 1994. It seems like yesterday.

Business Beginnings in Venice, 1989. L-R: The late great Dave-o King; Mustachioed Ron Treister; Randy Stertmeyer, navigating as always.

Our very first client was Creative Edge, the Fairfield, Iowa-based company which has grown to be the world’s leading waterjet design and fabrication firm. They’re still with us, and the relationship has never been stronger. It’s still a lot of fun working with Jim Belilove, Harri Aalto and key members of their great team. Another core account from way-back-when was Rover North America, the stateside subsidiary of Italy’s then-premier manufacturer of agglomerated marble slabs and tiles. The President/Managing Director of that firm was Randy Stertmeyer, who today is our COO. Randy worked for four other companies which became our clients since that time, one being Creative Edge, for which he was VP/Sales & Marketing.

It’s all about good people helping good people…and, not forgetting each other.

I hired Terri Sparks in 1990 to work as my assistant at Treister Incorporated in Chicago; I think it was just after she had graduated from college. She stayed with me when we sold that firm to another ad agency, and then joined up with the ex-client for whom we both worked a short period of time. Moving forward, she became the marketing director of a very large stone company about the same time I started this company. In 2003, Terri came back as an account exec, doing great stuff (as always) until she left four years later, taking on an even more important job: being mother to her twins. Now that her kids are in school, she’s back with us on a part-time basis.

It’s never been easy. It’s never been dull. Overall though, it’s always been rewarding. Thanks to everybody who has worked with Communicators International, Inc. over the last two decades!