John's career experience includes over 25 years of marketing, consulting and advertising agency work in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. He was an officer of both Bozell and Wells, Rich, Greene Advertising, and also served as the Creative Services Director of the Dr Pepper Company during the well-known "Be A Pepper" era, For 10 years prior to joining American Express Institutional Services as Senior Vice President in 1993, John had his own marketing and management consulting firm, Grant & Palombo, where American Express was his client. He returned to private practice at Grant & Palombo in 1997.

John's background includes significant experience in a variety of industries including financial services, consumer, packaged goods, healthcare, and travel & leisure, in addition to American Express Institutional Services, and other business-to-business marketing. Some of his specific client experience includes: American Airlines, AT&T, Braniff, Carlson Companies, Cessna Aircraft, Dr Pepper, First Bank System, General Electric, Hallmark Cards, Heath Candy Company, Hershey Foods Corporation, Land 0' Lakes, Max Factor, Olin Chemicals, Pillsbury, Procter & Gamble, Radisson Hotels, Schenley Industries, Toys R Us, Trusthouse Forte Hotels, The Wall Street Journal Winchester/Western and Xerox.

John is a 1969 graduate of John Carroll University's School of Business in Cleveland, Ohio, with a degree in marketing. John was elected to the Society of International Business Fellows in 1989. He completed his SIBF Fellowship at the London Business School, where he studied strategic planning and marketing in a global economy under Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the Society in 1990.

John is currently an adjunct professor of Strategic Planning, Marketing and Advertising in the Graduate Business School at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. John is an active member of the American Management Association, as well as the Strategic Leadership Forum, the international society for strategic management. He currently holds NASD Series 7-General Securities Broker, and Series 24-Registered Principal's licenses. He is a current leader in the Boy Scouts of America, Viking council.

He is past member of the Leadership Minneapolis Committee of the Greater Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of St. Paul Children's Museum, the Twin Cities Marathon, the American Lung Association of Ramsey County, Association of Health Sciences Marketing, the American Hospital Association Society for Healthcare Planning and Marketing, the Minnesota Council on Healthcare Marketing and the Minnesota AIDS Media Consortium.

Susan Palombo has been in the marketing and marketing communications business for the last 17 years. She has spent the past 12 years as founder and president of Grant & Palombo. Prior to that, she held account/management positions at Bozell Advertising and with Dallas-based DBG&H.

A partial listing of account experience includes: American Express/IDS Institutional Retirement Services, Bank of America Real Estate Group, Carlson Real Estate Group, Children's Health Care, First Bank System, Firstar Banks, Minnesota Council of HMOs, New Horizon Child Care, St. Francis Regional Medical Center, Schlumberger Well Services, Star Tribune Company and Stylmark.

In addition to Ms. Palombo's professional career, she has held several significant volunteer positions and has developed many pro bono public service campaigns. She served as Chair of the Greater Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Minneapolis Committee; has been a member of the Walker Art Center Business Council; and has served on the All Parents Teach Committee of Education Ventures, a non-profit group to help low-income parents help their children get ready to learn. Susan has also served on the Board of Governors for the Twin Cities Council of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAAs), and the board of Directors of the Minneapolis Ad Fed. She was selected as one of the nation's top 100 entrepreneurs in 1988 and 1989 by the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs, the only Minnesotan to be chosen.

Ms. Palombo has also been an associate professor in the College of Journalisim at the University of St. Thomas and at Metro State University, where she taught advertising principles and advertising campaigns. Frequently, Ms. Palombo serves as a guest lecturer/ambassador to colleges and universities across the United States.