AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising Announces Leadership Changes
Two Partners Transition Out of Ownership as Agency Takes Next Steps in Long-Range Strategic Plan
AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising, a multi-service marketing agency with three locations in Iowa and Wisconsin, announces that partners Mark Mathis and Jim Infelt are transitioning out of ownership at the end of 2021. President & CEO Bryan Earnest remains at the company helm as sole owner.
The changes come as part of the agency’s long-range plan to transition from an owner-led to a leader team-led company. “We’ve been working and planning for this for some time,” Earnest said. “We’ve weathered the COVID storm together, and our business is thriving. AMPERAGE is in the best place it can be, and now is the right time for this natural transition in ownership.”
Infelt is retiring as chief digital officer/partner at the end of the year. “It can be difficult to leave a business one has helped build, but there is a right time, and that time is now. We have an incredibly dedicated and committed staff with great leadership under Bryan. I look forward to where the next path on my life journey takes me. My passion has always centered on digging deeper creatively, and now I will have time to focus,” Infelt said.
Mathis, chief creative and strategy officer/partner, will transition in 2022 to an employee role as special projects consultant. “After more than 40 years in marketing, I’m ready for this next phase of business life, and I’m excited to be a beginner again,” said Mathis. “I’ve been blessed to work with great people, and I’ve been lucky to have great mentors. Working in an advertising agency is a kick, and it continues to be an excellent career for highly creative and strategic people. It’s never easy selling something you’ve helped start, but it is rewarding to see how bright AMPERAGE future is.”
The trio — as much a brotherhood as a partnership — solidly established themselves as marketing and business leaders, creatively moving the needle for an extensive list of clients in the healthcare, education, financial and nonprofit sectors across the region and nation.
The company was founded in 1996 by Mathis, Earnest and Dee Vandeventer as ME&V, located in Cedar Falls, Iowa. In 2004, the marketing agency merged with 23rd Century Productions, Infelt’s video production company. Vandeventer stepped down from ownership in 2014.
Under the partners’ leadership, a series of mergers and acquisitions expanded services and grew the business. The company merged with longtime Cedar Rapids marketing firm HRB in 2014 and shortly after rebranded as AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising. In 2018, the company acquired Creative Communications, a marketing firm in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Today AMPERAGE employs 40 marketing and fundraising professionals across its three locations. Corporate headquarters remain in Cedar Falls. “I am excited for this new chapter for my partners and for AMPERAGE,” Earnest said. “Together we’ve built a phenomenally successful business, and the AMPERAGE team will honor that collaborative legacy as we move forward. I am grateful to Mark and Jim for the years of dedication and camaraderie. We’ve accomplished so much together.”
Those accomplishments include twice being named to the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies.
AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising is a leading marketing agency and fundraising consulting firm, serving clients across the Midwest, the nation and occasionally even the globe from offices in Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Wausau, Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.amperagemarketing.com or call 319-268-9151.
