Meet the Board of Directors

Jim Nichols is the Founder of Exclamation Marketing LLC, a marketing “stratecution” services company that works with companies in North America, EMEA, and APAC. A longtime veteran of the partnerships industry, he launched his first affiliate program in 1999. Throughout his career, Jim has held leadership positions for brands, agencies, media publishers, and affiliate tracking companies.

Before Exclamation Marketing, he was CMO of Partnerize, where he led all aspects of company marketing and demand generation globally, and successfully rebranded the company. Before Partnerize, he was VP of Marketing for mobile tracking and analytics companies Singular and Apsalar. Before Apsalar, he was VP of Marketing for Agency Solutions, SaaS Technology, International, and Corporate Marketing at CJ parent ValueClick, Inc., where he led the company’s rebranding to Conversant Media.

A frequent industry speaker, Jim is also a prolific contributor to many marketing, technology, and affiliate industry trade journals and communities. He holds a BA in US History from University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA in Marketing and Governance from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Mike Allen is a charter member of the Performance Marketing Association, has served on two PMA councils and is currently on the Board of Directors. He has been involved in affiliate marketing since 1999 as the founder and “Chief Executive Shopper” at Shopping-Bargains® where he was a finalist for the LinkShare Golden Link Merchant’s Choice Award in 2005 and the LinkShare Golden Link Advertiser’s Choice Award in 2008. Mike was Affiliate Summit’s 2009 “Affiliate of the Year” at the Pinnacle Awards. Now through Businesswright, which Mike founded in 2013, he provides a variety of Internet marketing solutions for online and local businesses. These efforts include ecommerce and affiliate program management, WordPress support, and local Internet marketing services. Mike is a regular presenter at Affiliate Summit. He has also presented at Blogworld (NMX), Affiliate Management Days, CJU and several other performance marketing conferences.’

Kelly Ground is a seasoned professional in the field of affiliate marketing, currently serving as the Chief Growth Officer at Gray Harbor Digital. With over 17 years of experience in this dynamic industry, she possesses a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective on driving strategic and innovative growth for affiliate and partnership marketing programs. Prior to her current role, Kelly held the position of Senior Director of Strategy and Insights at Acceleration Partners, where she provided guidance to AP’s global affiliate program management teams for over 6.5 years and was named a Top 30 Partnership Marketing Changemaker in the US by Hello Partner. Her strategic expertise and deep understanding of the affiliate landscape contributed to the success of numerous campaigns and initiatives.

Before joining Acceleration Partners, Kelly honed her skills as a Senior Digital Marketing Manager at HSN (Home Shopping Network), where she made significant contributions to revenue generation and overall growth through the implementation of highly effective affiliate and display programs. Her experience at HSN spanned over 7 years, during which she consistently delivered results and drove profitability.Kelly’s professional journey also includes a role as a Marketing Manager for an employee benefits publisher. Additionally, she has gained valuable experience in the manufacturing and telecommunication industries, further broadening her expertise in diverse sectors. Kelly earned a BA in political science with a minor in journalism from Clemson University. She lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, 2 kids and dog.

During Jeannine’s 20+ years in affiliate marketing, her dedicated focus has always been to grow our industry by supporting everyone involved, whether publisher, merchant, network or vendor. She has actually spent time working in each of those areas, giving her the knowledge to see issues and opportunities from a variety of perspectives. That’s a key strength in representing all of the members of the PMA.

Her involvement with the PMA began back in 2010 when she testified before the Colorado House and Senate Finance Committees fighting the Amazon Tax under the guidance of their legal council. We were successful in changing the law so that affiliates did not establish nexus, thus saving the jobs of 5,000+ affiliates in Colorado. Since then she has been honored to serve on both the PMA Compliance Council and the PMA Publishers Council.

Currently she is the Partner Acquisition & Development Manager at Awin US, supporting both merchants and publishers for both the Awin and ShareASale affiliate networks. In her role she constantly helps individuals make the most of their affiliate marketing efforts, whether optimizing their sites or improving their affiliate programs, either one-on-one or via webinars, podcasts, or speaking at events such as Affiliate Summit. The next Affiliate Summit will be her 33rd, including speaking over a dozen times.

Her vision for the PMA is to raise the profile of the organization. While she understands that the wide variety of members means a wide list of needs and priorities, there are definitely numerous items we can agree on, such as Compliance, Transparency, and Ethics. These are the values which will keep our industry on the right track both internally and externally to a world which rarely understands what we do.

As Senior Vice President of Product & Operations, Desiree leads a global team of talented Product and Support Operation Managers. This team’s collective goal is to deliver and implement highly innovative and differentiating products and solutions that meet our clients’ needs and set them up for success.

On her way to the top of the Product and Operations organization, Desiree was a leader within CJ’s Client Development department, managing teams responsible for the success of some of CJ’s top clients. Desiree has over 14 years of experience in digital media: in marketing, client management, and product development.

Desiree graduated with honors from Clark University with a BA in both Marketing and Studio Arts.

With nearly 15 years of experience in affiliate & partnership marketing, Mandy O’Brien understands well what it takes to bring her clients, who represent all major verticals, the success they seek in the channel.

O’Brien’s tenure and talent landed her the role of resident expert on all things partnerships, and she extends this knowledge and expertise to many internal facing, client facing and third-party led webinars and bylines.

As Partnerize’s Senior Director of Managed Services, O’Brien prioritizes clients’ needs by providing thought leadership and strategic oversight all the while honoring best practices. She oversees an account team that support brands with data-driven performance insights, strategic planning, recruitment and optimizations and product adoption. 

O’Brien earned a reputation for delivering results, even in precarious circumstances, including the pandemic. Her tenure taught her how to pivot when necessary, manage risk & expectations and always keep minds trained on goals. O’Brien is highly skilled at analyzing data to evaluate both advertiser and publisher segment performance to determine areas of risk/opportunity and she consistently operates from a client-centric approach to program management.

Chris has over 18 years experience in affiliate marketing, originally as one of the founding team at the buy.at affiliate network. The network grew to become one of the largest in the UK market, managing some of the key largest merchant programs, additionally expanding into the US market from 2006. The buy.at network was acquired by AOL, then resold two years later to Awin. After 7 years network side, he spent a year client side, setting up and managing the affiliate program for the UK based Easyspace webhosting provider, working via the CJ affiliate network.

In 2011, he re-joined buy.at founder Dr Steve Brown to develop the Linkdex SEO platform. They created the publisher discovery platform using the Linkdex technologies to analyze affiliate network tracking and provide a competitor affiliate analysis platform, which was used by clients worldwide, including Apple, Sonos, CJ Affiliate, Tradedoubler, Partnerize and DGM Australia. In 2016, with Linkdex being acquired by Scribble, Chris spun the Publisher Discovery platform as a separate company, retaining many of the key clients and growing the business further.

In later 2018, Publisher Discovery was acquired by Cloudfind, who were already providing AI technologies in the affiliate sector. The new combined company now operates under the Publisher Discovery trademark, with completely rebuilt technology driven by AI and machine learning. Partners and clients now include CJ Affiliate, TUNE, Everflow, Affiliate Future and FMTC.

Chris has written extensively in Feedfront magazine as well as other publications and blogs. He has also spoken and moderated sessions at A4U (PerformanceIn) and Affiliate Summits over recent years.

Jade is an experienced marketer trusted by best-in-class digital marketing agencies, start-ups and direct-to-consumer brands. With over 10 years in the space, Jade has a breadth of experience across direct response, paid media and specializes in affiliate & performance partnerships. She has helped to stand up the affiliate marketing service offering at three agencies and has trained multiple brands to manage their programs in-house. Jade is currently the Head of Affiliate & Performance Partnerships, US at Dentsu, whose network of integrated agencies include Carat, iProspect, Dentsu X, Merkle, MuteSix and Dentsu Creative (formerly known as 360i).

Christen Evans has built her affiliate marketing career on the tenets of fostering relationships, educating partners and advocating for the industry. She received the Affiliate Marketing Advocate Pinnacle Award from Affiliate Summit in 2017 and serves on the Board of Executive Directors for the Performance Marketing Association.

Named one of PerformanceIN’s Top 50 in 2021, Christen is an active and engaged leader in performance marketing. Her history as an affiliate, at an agency and working with brands in-house has allowed her to develop a unique perspective on how to approach a diverse affiliate strategy with an eye for growth. When not spouting off about FTC disclosures, attribution or activation strategy, Christen can be found spending time with her husband, kid and cats. She’s a huge fan of sparkles, bourbon and is really good at high-fives.

Lee-Ann started in Affiliate Marketing in the early 2000’s and has dedicated her career to building successful affiliate programs across multiple industries. The industry has come a long way since then and she now runs a successful niche affiliate marketing agency, hosts The Affiliate Marketing Podcast and publishes content that helps others to learn, scale and grow their affiliate programs.

As an industry, we’ve developed guidelines, we’ve implemented strategy, we’ve realised that affiliate marketing is in fact also a digital skill.

Lee-Ann plays an active role in promoting the PMA initiatives in the EMEA market and helps with the development of skills and new best practices for the industry as a whole.

There is plenty of talent in digital marketing but only a few make a conscious decision to specialise in affiliate marketing. We need to be building insight and knowledge around why Affiliate & Performance marketing is a great career choice.

We need to be helping educate brands and businesses and CMO’s about the benefits of a joined up approach and we need to be helping the next generation of digital marketers choose Affiliate as a career of choice by showcasing the exponential skill sets required to do this job well.

Lee-Ann is passionate about all of this. She wants to see our industry continue to evolve and grow and would like to play her part in giving back for the 20 year history of growth she has experienced being in this marketplace via our community support, via strong leadership and the sharing of knowledge and expertise.

Debbi brings a strong track record of knowledge and experience in all digital channels. In her current role as SVP – B2B Marketing and Communications, she is responsible for all aspects of marketing for various customer solutions globally. Prior to Rakuten, she led marketing efforts for a variety of “leader” and “challenger” organizations across digital, including Viber, Cheetah Ad Platform, Radium One, and Kontera. She was also Co-Chair for Partnerships and Events for SheRunsIt (formerly Women in Wireless) which is focused on fostering connections and increasing representation of women in digital and mobile.

Debbi is responsible for go-to-market for a leading partnership platform and one of the world’s largest publishers, Rakuten Rewards. She uses my experience and energy to enhance the diversity and dynamism of performance partnerships for brands and publishers. Partnership exemplifies the adage, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” She helps drive that rise by making a deeper contribution to the PMA.