Principal Biographies

Jim Taszarek, Jr., MANAGING DIRECTOR

Jim Taszarek, Jr., began his media career in sales at Taft Broadcasting, with CBS Television affiliate KTSP. He has been both owner and publisher of niche-marketing journals including Arizona's Senior Magazine. In each case, he created significant revenue increases and product innovations. In 1999, he created Public Radio Partners as the provider of Corporate Underwriting sales for Phoenix stations KJZZ and KBAQ.  In early 2010, the company became Market Enginuity and expanded underwriting services, creating two branches:  Enginuity Outsourcing and Enginuity Workshop.  Jim holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Kirk Nelson, DIRECTOR OUTSOURCING

Kirk Nelson, co-founder of Public Radio Partners (now Market Enginuity) brings more than16 years experience from Phoenix's legendary, News/Talk/Sports station, KTAR. He was also responsible for advertising sales for Arizona State University, the Phoenix Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Suns. During his tenure as Director of Sales, revenue records were established that have never been exceeded. A former general manager has said: "Kirk made a major contribution to KTAR's heritage."

MARLENE SCHNEIDER, DIRECTOR WORKSHOP

Marlene Schneider comes to Market Enginuity with more than 16 years of experience in corporate support for public media.  She started her public broadcasting career in the underwriting department at Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB).  She left OPB in 2002 to found Revenue Solutions, where she specialized in corporate support consultation to a number of local stations as well as national organizations, DEI and PBS:

At DEI, Marlene oversees all member service activities related to station corporate support. This includes management of the corporate support track at the PMDMC, the DEI Worksite content and the webinar series, as well as active participation in the DEI Benchmarks program, the program that allows stations to gauge their revenue performance as it relates to audience size.

At PBS Marlene was involved with the PBS sales training program, CSPI, from the outset. Marlene served as the lead trainer and consultant for CSPI, working with and training the volunteer training teams.  She refined and updated the CSPI programs. Marlene also led the research project, PBS Best Practices in Corporate Support, 2007.

In her role at Market Enginuity as Director of Enginuity Workshop, Marlene continues to serve DEI and local stations.
 
Prior to public broadcasting, Marlene worked in sales in the managed health care field. Marlene graduated from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA and resides in Sisters, OR.