Corporate Leadership

William Harper, Owner and CEO

As an industrious and resourceful entrepreneur, Bill established Associated Building Services in 1972, which specialized in the custodial care of office buildings.  After selling this highly successful company of 500 employees, Mr. Harper, along with partners, spent the next 18 years launching, developing, and subsequently selling two more equally successful companies.  One of these companies, Staff Management Systems of Florida Inc., was sold to Automated Data Processing (ADP), a Fortune 500 company.  Following this, he added his financial support, leadership, and direction to such companies as Växa International, Rath Harper and Associates, Professional Employer Plans Inc., and Ace Industrial Equipment, to name a few.

Appointed by the Hillsborough County Commission, Mr. Harper served on the Board of the Tampa Sports Authority, which was responsible for the construction of the original Tampa Stadium, as well as bringing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an NFL expansion team, to Tampa.  Mr. Harper was also appointed by Governor Bob Graham to the Tampa Hillsborough Express Authority where he served a term as its Chairman.  During his term he was involved in the planning and development of the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway and the Veterans Expressway.

Mr. Harper has dedicated his life to building and improving businesses, as well as striving to create better communities.  Bill continues to be very active in numerous local and state charitable events.

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Chris Behan, Owner / President and Chief Optimization Officer

With over a decade of experience in the Internet marketing world, Chris Behan brings invaluable expertise to Socius Marketing. Chris pioneered "pure client-side optimization," referring to the strict optimization of the client's website as opposed to using proprietary software, content management systems, doorway pages, etc., which are used by many search engine marketing companies.

Chris began his web marketing career optimizing what is now one of the largest vitamin/supplement sites on the web: www.Vaxa.com. His unique ability to balance the optimization of this website with user experience led to an increase in sales of more than 500 percent in the first year.

 

Chris then implemented those same optimization techniques for clients such as Ace Industrial Equipment in Tampa, Florida, and quickly helped them become one of the nation's largest online suppliers of industrial shelving, completely transforming their sales and marketing strategies.

Chris has helped countless companies successfully market their products and services online, driving millions of unique visitors to their websites. 

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Bob Ford, Owner and Chief Operating Officer

Bob Ford spent eleven years as CIO for AEGON Equity Group Division in Tampa, Florida, where he successfully supported the company’s dramatic growth from 300 to 2,000 employees and annual revenues from $200 million to $1.3 billion in just seven years, and received AEGON's International Technology Award. Bob initiated and drove the creation of the company’s first eBusiness department including business strategies, infrastructure design, and organizational structure.

Prior to AEGON, Bob Ford spent 10 years with a Texas-based insurance company where he played a major role in relocating the company from Austin, Texas to Scottsdale, Arizona, and had management responsibility for over 80 percent of the employees as Senior Vice President of Operations.  In addition, Bob had full responsibility for the merger of an acquired California-based insurance company into the Scottsdale operation.

Bob Ford has also owned and operated an E-Z-GO Distributor/Dealership in the Clearwater, Florida area where he increased sales more than 40 percent and improved profitability over 300 percent in just two years.

Bob Ford is a founding member of the Tampa Bay Florida CIO Council.

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Stacy Behan, Owner and Graphic Designer

Stacy Behan has spent her career as a graphic designer and web developer creating design material for some of the most recognized companies, media outlets, and sports teams in the nation and the world. This includes high-profile individuals like George W. Bush, Martha Stewart, and Rusty Wallace (of NASCAR), plus companies like Lucas Films, Nintendo, WWE, Cadillac, Fox Entertainment, GoArmy.com, Elle Magazine, and many more.

Prior to Socius Marketing, Stacy worked for Kelby Training, worldwide leaders in education and information for creative professionals. She designed, developed, and managed all 23 of the heavily trafficked websites that supported their association (The National Association for Photoshop Professionals, or NAPP), magazines (PhotoshopUser Magazine and Layers Magazine), seminars (The Photoshop Seminar Tour), books, DVDs, tutorials, newsletters, education, and the largest Photoshop design conference in the world (Photoshop World).

As a result of her work at Kelby Training, Stacy gained industry recognition and is acknowledged in dozens of Adobe books by multiple authors. Stacy was also awarded the first ever "Kelby Training Hall of Fame Award" from Scott Kelby.

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