Chris Hiland | President & Chief Operating Officer
Chris Hiland is dedicated to building an adaptive organization that delivers print and interactive directory marketing expertise with a local point of view to a diverse list of clients. Under his leadership, Wahlstrom helps clients activate localized media solutions that capture customer attention and deliver business results. With over a decade of agency experience, Chris brings a unique blend of financial expertise and operational efficiencies to the agency, streamlining its service model to create richer and more dynamic partnership opportunities for agency clients.
Prior to his role at Wahlstrom, Chris served as President of Geomentum’s Media Network, where he was responsible for sourcing, assessing, closing, and integrating external media partnerships for all Geomentum divisions. His tenure at Geomentum was preceded by his roles as CFO of North America Operations for Ipsos, a leading global market research firm, and Managing Director of the Chicago and Minneapolis offices of Jack Morton Worldwide.
Chris holds an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business in addition to a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Middlebury College. A resident of Evanston, Illinois, he enjoys fishing and skiing with his wife and twins and coaches with the Evanston Youth Lacrosse Association.
Debora Lance | Executive Vice President/Managing Director
As Vice President Group Account Director, Debbie oversees account services for Wahlstrom’s Minneapolis, Norwalk, Philadelphia and Louisville offices. Debbie is an inspiring and collaborative team leader who works with senior level marketing executives designing print, online, pay for performance, mobile and voice search advertising programs that maximize revenue and sales through ROI based advertising programs. She is skilled at achieving results by combining superior strategic and analytical skills with operational excellence.
Over the course of her more than 25 year career in the industry, Debbie has handled some of the industry’s most prestigious and demanding clients including Sears, Walgreens, WellPoint, Enterprise, Andersen, Brinks Home Security, Mutual of Omaha and 3M.
Currently Debbie serves on the 4A’s Directory Advertising committee.
Debbie holds a Master of Arts in Organization Leadership from the College of St. Catherine and has a Bachelor of Arts from St. Cloud State University.
In her spare time, Debbie serves as a mentor for both the IPG Women’s Leadership Network and Menttium, plus volunteers at WomenVenture.
Bob Kyker | Vice President, Operations
Bob is responsible for quality control and operational excellence by ensuring all processes are effective and are implemented efficiently using technologically advanced systems. Lean thinking and analyses are employed to create customer-centric value-added workflows and eliminate unnecessary steps and rework. Six Sigma methodologies are utilized to analyze results and continuously improve processes and procedures that increase productivity and accuracy. Dashboards are created to monitor key performance indicators. A graduate of Vanderbilt University with a BA in Business Administration, Bob has been with Wahlstrom for 35 years and serves as a member of YPA’s Operations Committee.
Rick Barry | Vice President, Client Services
As a long-time Yellow Pages Advertising Executive, Rick joined Wahlstrom in 1996. With over twenty-five years experience in the Yellow Pages Advertising industry, he has expertise in many facets of the business, including corporate marketing, strategic planning, business development, management and client account services. During his career, Rick has managed on some of the most prestigious and challenging accounts including Avis-Budget, Canon, Century 21, Jackson Hewitt, IBM, Marriott Hotels and Xerox.
Throughout his career, he has served on many Industry task forces and steering committees and was a longstanding member of the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Yellow Pages Advertising committee.
Rick is married with two young adults and lives in Princeton Junction, New Jersey. Rick and his wife Betty are active in the school system, church and do volunteer work at a local nursing home.
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