Sharon Rhoades, Programming Manager

Sharon joined the ACTON programming staff in 1997 as a Programmer Analyst I. She adapted quickly to the fast-paced world of direct mail production programming and she filled several programming roles before accepting her current manager position in 2002.

While at ACTON, Sharon has excelled as a project manager and senior programmer, and was project manager for many automated direct mail delivery and Internet support systems. Sharon led the G3HPC project in support of ACTON's Financial Services Checking Account Marketing program. G3HPC resulted in a drastic reduction in manual data entry and increased the speed and efficiency of CAM data processing. She is the senior Advanced Function Printing (AFP) programmer and manages the suite of Group 1 Software products, which support the US Direct Mail processing effort.

Matt Zak, Director of Product Development, Data Products Team

Around the office he's simply known as Matt Zak. But "simply" doesn't begin to describe the impact of Matt's work at ACTON Marketing. In the first few months after joining ACTON in early 2007, he smoothed out some bumps in our CD Renewal Program and hooked up ACTON with our initial CD Renewal Program client so that our testing turned into an automated, regular live electronic data feed. That's only the beginning. Matt monitors and tweaks all our production procedures to be certain our systems are running at the highest efficiency and is working to insure ACTON can provide all of your direct marketing needs.

Matt honed his expert computer programming talents at Information Technology, Inc. (ITI) as a client service analyst. There he worked with bank systems all across the U.S., especially teller, new accounts, and report and image warehouse systems, so he has a thorough knowledge of the industry's daily operations and front-line procedures. He developed several internal database systems to automate collection, analysis and reporting for various bank customer support processes.

Matt graduated from Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Finance with minors in Computer Studies and Accounting. During his college years, Matt jumpstarted his computer abilities by working for Nebraska's Natural Resources District where his duties included chemigation permit inspections, flow-metering irrigation wells using ultrasonic technology, and collecting soil and water samples. In the District's office, he designed database computer systems to easily and efficiently collect, display and report results to end users, plus he created geographic information systems for on-demand report and map generation.

Adam Walter, Network Administrator

Everyone understands the need for computer and network security. The guy who handles that big assignment every day for ACTON is Adam Walter. In fact, he tackles the tough tasks of AD management, server administration, security, firewall management, as well as overall troubleshooting for our computer systems.

Adam comes to ACTON from the National Strength and Conditioning Association Certification Commission where, as network administrator, he was placed in charge of “pretty much everything technical, from toner cartridges to Apache and IIS servers.” Before that, he was an analyst for five years with the Nebraska State Patrol, so you can see security is high on his priority list and among his qualifications.

He earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 2002, and since then he’s continued to expand his knowledge of all areas of computing. “I take the stance that a good attitude and proactive measures make a big difference toward keeping things running smoothly,” Adam says.

Don Bourne, Programmer Analyst

If you want to talk computer programming, then Don is the guy to look up. At ACTON, he's handled everything from simple media conversions and list enhancements to complex list selections over large Japanese databases and advanced multi-language merge/purge operations. Don has been a team leader for all our non-domestic production jobs and file maintenance projects. In fact, he's developed and maintained several processes that make working with foreign language lists easier and more productive.

And of course, Don's skills help our U.S. banking clients' mail find the right addresses.

With all his computer skills, it's no wonder Don earned an Associate of Applied Computer Science degree at Southeast Community College while compiling an impressive 3.75 GPA. Before he came to ACTON in 1999, Don worked for Farm Bureau Insurance Company of Nebraska where, among many other tasks, he helped connect the home office to its sales and claims offices throughout Nebraska - and, he created enhanced computer programs for all home office departments and agency offices.

Brenda Zhang, Database Programmer Analyst

Brenda is a member of the team that applies advanced analytical processes to ACTON's proprietary TasC Model system. She programs data for analysis in the TasC system as it chooses the best possible mail drop areas for ACTON's Totally Free Checking program. Brenda also works with the Data Processing team, where she applies her extensive database and programming languages experience to write automated programs for client-specific reports. Her strong IT skills come from working two years in Unisys, one year in TerraScan, and her ACTON experience since she joined the company in January 2003.

Brenda completed a Bachelors degree in Physics at Beijing University of Science and Technology and spent three years teaching college level physics in China.

Back to Our People