Tom J. Blake, Chief Executive Officer

Tom is the founder of Optimé International and is one of North America 's most dynamic sales and customer development executives. He has an excellent track record of applied senior sales experience with a leading global corporation, including membership on the company's Management Committee in Canada. Key accomplishments included highest people development results over four years, the successful integration of the sales and merchandising programs of 3 companies, Team Leader for the development and implementation of Customer Business Teams, and the development of a National Part-Time Sales Organization which is recognized as "World Class" and has been implemented in 15 countries. Tom speaks at numerous conferences on the topic of performance improvement with the National Speaker's Bureau rating him in the top three Canadian speakers. He has played a leadership role in the transformation of numerous Canadian and American companies. Tom holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B Comm SPAD) from Laurentian University.  As CEO of Optimé, Tom is responsible for the overall management of Optimé's international business.

Hugues Gibeault, President

Hugues (“Hugh”) Gibeault is the President and co-founder of Optimé International.  Under his leadership, Optimé has helped clients achieve consistently superior performance and business results, along with industry-leading levels of employee engagement. A notable highlight has been Optimé’s partnership with a Fortune 100 company division that achieved and has been recognized as the #1 operating unit in the world for the past two consecutive years.  Hugues is known for developing strong relationships and working very closely with sales and company leaders. Prior to co-founding Optimé, Hugues also established a proven track record of strong business results as Vice President Sales of a professional sports franchise and with Procter & Gamble’s Health & Beauty Care Products division in Eastern Canada.  On a personal note, Hugues currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Paralympic Committee and is responsible for the Marketing and Partner Relations portfolio. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B Comm SPAD) from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

Marty D. Blake, Vice President & Customer General Manager

Marty is a respected sales and marketing leader with a background in customer marketing and brand management.  He has spent over 10 years developing and implementing strategic plans to build and grow businesses against global brand equities for major Fortune 500 companies. As Group Manager Innovation with The Hershey Company he led large multi-functional teams through key strategic projects, shaping the future direction and diversification of the company’s brand portfolio.  Leading collaboration initiatives with key customers Marty built product development and implementation plans directly tied to retailer specific strategies.   Previous to this, he was involved in the Health Care industry delivering business results both in Brand Management and Sales for a major pharmaceutical company.  As Vice President & Customer General Manager Marty is responsible for building client relationships,developing and executing Optimé’s strategic direction.

Grant McClement , Senior Sales Practice Leader

Grant is considered a thought leader and creative innovator on Strategic Customer Management.  Prior to joining Optimé, he held executive level customer marketing (sales) positions at consumer packaged goods industry leader Procter & Gamble and at life sciences global leader Monsanto.  Grant has worked in Canada, the USA and Western Europe.  In leading complex regional and global teams, he established a reputation for enabling ‘customer marketers’ at P&G and Monsanto to create unique value for their customers.

Steve Lutz, Managing Director, Optimé Asia Pacific

In 1989, Steve began his international career as Director of Business Development Asia Pacific with AC Nielsen, and in 1994 he became an entrepreneur and shareholder of media startup ActMedia Asia.  Today Steve is the Managing Director of Optimé Asia Pacific. During Steve’s career with AC Nielsen he was responsible for establishing its presence in Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. In addition, he assisted with the company’s operations in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. Steve gained a dynamic reputation for leading the industry into new territory as Chairman of major industry events and keynote presenter/organizer at many Asian conferences such as CIES (The Food Business Forum) and FMI (The Food Marketing Institute).  As a highly skilled facilitator, he was able to bring together marketers and retailers with different objectives to introduce and develop new concepts including ‘category management’.

In 1994, as a Director and Shareholder, Steve assisted in the establishment of the ActMedia Group throughout Asia. With his leadership skills and extensive contacts he enabled ActMedia/Demo Power to become the largest in-store media and demonstration group in Asia. Steve has a wide range of international experience through his work with major multinational retailers such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Ahold and Tesco, as well as multinational suppliers such as Unilever, Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble.  His experience provides a natural alignment with Optimé International, a sales consultancy that enables client organizations to ‘Win with Customers’.  As the Managing Director of Optimé Asia Pacific, Steve is responsible for all aspects of business development for Optimé International throughout the region.

Marina de Mattos Staub, Managing Director, Optimé Brazil & South America

In 1989 Marina started her career in P&D in the Health & Beauty care Products Division with a leading global CPG corporation. During 4 years, she had responsibility for project implementation in Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Venezuela. Her knowledge of consumers habits and cultural beliefs in South/Latin America were valuable and extremely demanded in her marketing assignments in Health, Beauty and Baby Care products in the following years. With a strong entrepreneurial sense, Marina worked at the initial stages of Eccelera, the Venture Capital arm of the Cisneros Group of Companies in Brazil. As a Marketing Director, she was responsible for structuring the marketing group, strategic marketing plan development for each one of the invested companies, sales and marketing training and relationship development with key government, universities and NPO’s. Result driven and business oriented, Marina has the ability to lead teams into established goals while establishing company’s systems and process at very high standards. As the Managing Director of Optimé Brazil & South America, Marina is responsible for all aspects of business development for Optimé International throughout the region.