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Who We Are

Put our experience to work -- for your organization.

Long before we became consultants we were hands-on managers, designing, building, selling and supporting products and services. That experience has given us a keen understanding of what you and your team have to deal with on a day in and day out basis. We know how challenging it can be to secure internal funding and build the support necessary to rally an organization behind an initiative.

We’ve been there and we’ve been successful. We’re ready to contribute that experience to your organization and your team.

Principal, Russell Iuliano

Russ’ expertise in technology and complex information analysis has been honed by 30 years of experience developing and launching innovative information products.

He has performed complex information work for public and private enterprises such as Qualcomm, Raytheon, NASA/JPL, Harvard University and the New Zealand Government. Prior to founding The Ridge Group, Russell spent eight years running his own strategic business and marketing consulting service for clients such as Dow Jones, Knight Ridder, Ziff Davis, Desktop Data and Standard & Poor’s.

Russell has also served as product manager for Thomson Financial Services’ First Call and group product marketing manager for Lotus Development Corp’s One Source, a CD-ROM based financial and analytical business tool. He started working with information applications in 1978 at Data Resources, Inc., the economic forecasting division of McGraw-Hill, where he launched an international trade product that integrated foreign trade statistics from nine major countries.

Russell has a BS degree in biochemistry and can be reached at 781-820-3677 or riuliano@ridgegroup.com.

Principal, Rich LaFauci

Rich is a transformational leader who excels at inventing, developing, marketing and profitably managing digital services and information products.  A Ridge Group co-founder, he rejoins us after client-side and agency-side roles at ProQuest and Digitas.

At ProQuest, Rich served as general manager of a $16M strategic business unit that markets content-fueled digital research tools for academic and independent researchers.  At Digitas, he held technology and creative executive roles, where he led cross-functional teams to create marketing programs, interactive experiences, and products and services for American Express, IBM, Pfizer, Delta Airlines, Ameriprise Financial, New York Times, Allstate, KitchenAid, Dun & Bradstreet, Adweek, Wolters Kluwer, Barnes & Noble, and Morgan Stanley.

At The Ridge Group, Rich developed web-based products and services for clients such as Books24x7.com, The Gale Group, Thompson Intelligence, First Call, American Banker, and Course Technology.

Prior to co-founding Ridge Group, Rich was founding publisher of dot-com start-up Mainspring Communications.  He traces his digital roots to his time as VP of Systems Development at Information Access Company, where he built and launched three major digital services.

Rich has an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and a BS from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  He can be reached at 917-689-8428 or richl@ridgegroup.com.

Principal, Josephine Ottman

Josie has more than 25 years of general management, marketing and product management experience in financial services and entertainment publishing. She has applied her skills to launch, position and grow a diverse set of information products and services in both the B-to-B and B-to-C arenas for both Fortune 50 and Inc. 500 companies. Her clients tend be long term, with one “engagement” lasting ten years!

Prior to The Ridge Group, she led internet business strategy and product marketing for Dow Jones Interactive Publishing. Before her work at DJIP, Josie served as marketing VP and in a number of other roles for Thomson Financial Services, where she directed the marketing activities for six businesses delivering 20 major products. Her career began at Home Box Office.

Whether at HBO “before cable was cool,” leading online initiatives at Thomson and Dow Jones or helping clients grow, Josie has focused her energies on organizations in transition, whether they be start ups or a successful company with an internationally known brand facing significant challenges.

Josie holds an MBA degree in finance from Columbia Business School and an AB in American Literature from Middlebury College. She can be reached at 609-924-8864 or jkottman@ridgegroup.com.

Principal, Richard Carney

Dick has more than 30 years of experience in electronic information publishing, with emphasis on business and product strategy, content development, and information architecture.

His experience includes 11 years with Information Access Company, then the electronic publishing division of Ziff Communications. As VP of product development and later senior VP of business development and acquisitions, Dick helped to grow the company from $3 million to $90 million. Prior to joining Ziff, he was product manager for Data Resources, Inc., the economic forecasting division of McGraw-Hill. There, he created multi-country news and data analysis systems used to manage international trade policy.

Dick has served as CEO of Ensemble Information Systems; co-founder and general manager of ContentWare, a new media startup in New York; general manager of Buyside Magazine, where he managed the sale of magazine; and acting CFO of Alliance Medical Center, where he developed new management solutions by analyzing and integrating separate clinical and financial information.

Most recently Dick has been working with the International Monetary Fund  on database development, international data comparability, and creating joint data reporting strategies with other international agencies.

He holds an MA degree in economics. Dick can be reached at 707-696-2995 or at rcarney@ridgegroup.com.

Affiliate, Thomas Baker

Thomas Baker has more than 25 years’ experience managing successful businesses in print and online media. Most recently, he has led long-term consulting assignments for a number of leading publishers and media companies, focusing on new product development, redefining and relaunching existing products, premium online subscription products, and the successful integration of print and online publishing.

His career in business publishing includes his work as co-founder and VP/general manager of The Wall Street Journal Online (wsj.com), where he led the business startup effort and helped grow wsj.com into a $60 million business unit and the largest paid news and information site on the Web, with more than 500,000 subscribers. In additino, he oversaw the Journal’s national radio news network and Dow Jones’ news syndication and licensing business, and led the effort to create the first company-wide customer database. He also served as Senior Vice President/Marketing for work.com, the joint venture between Dow Jones and Excite@Home.

Currently Tom also serves part-time as publisher of Commonweal magazine in New York, a 20,000-circulation biweekly journal of opinion founded in 1924.

Before his years at Dow Jones, he was marketing manager for Carnegie Hall in New York and began his media career as a reporter at Forbes magazine. He has degrees from Princeton University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.  Tom can be reached at 609-306-3703 and at tbaker@ridgegroup.com.