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Biography
Graeme Richard Thickins
Founder & Principal Consultant
GT&A Strategic Marketing Inc.

The web isn't all he surfs.

BEFORE HIGH-TECH EVEN KNEW IT WAS TRENDY,
GRAEME SAW THE NEED--FOR A NEW BRAND OF MARKETING.

Graeme Thickins left a successful corporate career to found
GT&A in 1982, to fill a critical need in the Twin Cities. That need
was for an organization to serve the marketing & communications needs
of emerging technology firms...in the computing, electronics, medical, and software
industries. GT&A's emphasis grew to include other types of technology-intensive
businesses, including services firms and those seeking to reposition their companies.
Over the years, GT&A has built a remarkable record in helping its clients achieve
branding and marketing success in the Knowledge Economy.

Graeme's firm has contributed to either the launch, product introduction, or ongoing
brand-building of more than 100 developing and established technology firms. These clients have
included BestBuy.com, the 3M Company, various units of Control Data, Medtronic, American Medical Systems,
Dacomed Corporation, VTC Inc. (recently acquired by Lucent), Premier Computer Corporation, FSI International,
Peripheral Components International (acquired by Seagate), National Computer Systems, Crosfield Dicomed,
EDI Solutions, Datakey, Secure Computing, Investment Advisers Inc. (IAI), IAI Venture Capital, Apogee
Enterprises, Transition Networks Inc., Datacard, UbiQ Inc., Connect/Norstan, The Smaby Group,
Cartia Inc. (acquired by Amazon.com), SquareOne Ventures, USWeb, MEANS Telcom/MR Net
(now Onvoy), Eliance Corp., Cognicity Inc., KnowHowZone.com, ZeroFriction Commerce,
Digital Velocity, TelePacific Communications, Net Perceptions, Virtucom Group,
FlexStorNet, Iceberg International, VSA Partners (for the Cingular Wireless
launch), and many other successful startups and category-leading firms.

His career, now spanning more than 25 years, has been devoted entirely to marketing,
branding, and communications for high-technology and emerging/fast-growth firms. From 1978
to 1982, he was with Control Data Corporation,then a highly diversified, $5-billion, Fortune 200
computer technology/information services firm. There, he served in five progressively responsible management
positions--on both the corporate communications staff (as head of Creative Services), and at the divisional
level (where he managed advertising and promotion for the Computer Systems & Services business).

Previously, he was with the Twin Cities office of a top-ten worldwide
advertising agency, D'Arcy-MacManus & Masius,where he supervised multimillion-dollar
advertising accounts for the 3M Business Products Group.

His earlier experience (in reverse chronological order) included positions in
marketing services and communications management, as well as editorial services, for several highly
entrepreneurial, successful firms--including American Medical Systems Inc. (acquired by Pfizer
and later spun out in an IPO), Medtronic Inc., MTS Systems Corporation, and
Data 100 Corporation (later acquired by Northern Telecom).

Graeme Thickins was born in Perth, Western Australia, but was raised and educated
in the U.S.--in Washington state, the Chicago area, Hawaii, Minnesota, and Southern California.
(He learned to surf at Waikiki in the year of Statehood and continued his passion through the height of
of the surfing craze in Southern California in the 1960s.) He began his college education in pre-med, with a
heavy concentration in science and mathematics, later discovering (at the University of Minnesota) that
he could best apply his interests in medicine and technology (primarily left brain) through
his natural love and abilities in (the primarily right brain) marketing and journalism.
He thus happily found his place in the world as a "center-brained" person.

Graeme's affiliations have included memberships in several organizations:

- The Council of Growing Companies, MN Chapter
- American Marketing Association
- The Collaborative (formerly MN New Venture Collaborative)
- MN High-Technology Council
- MN Software Association
(the above two now combined as the MN High Tech Association)
- Advertising Federation of MN
- Australian-American Chamber of Commerce
(North Central Chapter)
- The MN Interactive Marketing Association
- And, of course, The Surfrider Foundation

He and his firm have received more than 25 awards for creating
and managing marketing and communications programs.

He is also a member of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta (Univ of MN)
and Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church of Minneapolis.

As an early proponent of personal computers (and one of the first users in this area),
Graeme was active in the growth of the Twin Cities IBM PC Users Group and served on that
organization's board. (He later became a die-hard Macintosh user, and these days
is seldom seen without his G4 Powerbook, which runs OSX Tiger.)

He served as volunteer marketing and communications co-chair for the 1986
Symphony Ball, an annual event that raised more than $504,000 for the Minnesota Orchestra
(a long-standing record). He has also been a marketing advisor to the Art Center of Minnesota
and a board member of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Minnesota Chapter.

In October 1991, Thickins was an invited panel member at a monthly meeting of the
MN New Venture Collaborative on Marketing & Positioning. He conceived and co-produced a
special "Minnesota High-Tech" section that appeared in the March 30, 1992 issue of ELECTRONIC
BUSINESS magazine. Later that year, he was named by the magazine's
publisher to its Relationship Advertising Council.

In April 1993, the MN New Venture Collaborative invited Mr. Thickins to moderate
two panels on New Product Development,at its Sixth Annual Growth Conference for emerging
company executives and investors. In October 1994, he was invited to participate in a panel
at The Collaborative's monthly meeting on Growth Company Marketing Strategies.

Beginning in 1994, he served for more than four years as board member and PR Chair for the Minnesota
Chapter of The Council of Growing Companies, a national CEO organization. He was instrumental in
developing programs, increasing awareness, and building the membership of the Minnesota
Chapter, which became the largest and most active in the U.S.

In June 1997, he organized and moderated a seminar in the Twin Cities
on "Digital Branding" in association with Apple Computer and the MN High Technology
Association, featuring Michael Moon, author of the recently released book "Firebr@nds."
He also served on the program committee of the MN High Technology Association,
helping attract such speakers as Guy Kawasaki to the Twin Cities.

He has written for several publications and web sites on topics related to
technology marketing, naming, and branding. For example, a naming article
he wrote was published by Darwin Magazine and also appeared on the
Computerworld-Australia site and on BrandChannel.com in the Brand
Papers section. He also writes extensively on technology topics (see
the link "Recent Articles & Other Writings" below).

Graeme is listed in Who's Who in the Midwest,Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America,
and Who's Who in the Media and Communications. He resides most of the year in West Bloomington, Minnesota,
and has three children -- one who went to college in Colorado and is an aspiring rock star....another a film studies grad
from the University of Minnesota who works in the film & television industry...and the youngest a
graduate of a great college, UW-Stout in Western Wisconsin, who's now a pre-school teacher.

Here's my son Chris carving up the face of a wave in
epic surfing conditions - Baja, Mexico, October 1999 (shot by me):

In 1998, Graeme began a formal effort to branch out from his strong base in the Twin Cities by establishing
a beach head (so to speak) in California. Beginning in 2002, he was able to begin operating at intervals from a part-time
beach place he acquired in San Clemente, in south Orange County.  (Thus his tagline: "Minnesota, California, Anywhere.")

Graeme's avocations include photography, surfing (if you haven't guessed by now), his woody, and
collecting Hawaiiana. His favorite places in the world other than Minnesota are (you guessed it): Southern California and Hawaii.

What's next for Graeme? One thing's sure: technology and the Internet will have
something to do with it. But, in between, there'll be plenty of day-dreaming...
Hawaii...Australia...glassy barrels...woodies...San Onofre.
Surfers do that sort of thing.

(T Street, San Clemente, CA)
What he'll be doing on his next long weekend.

And here's his favorite San Clemente sunset photo, which he
shot from T-Street looking north toward the pier.

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His favorite car is unquestionably his 1965 VW woody,
shown here ready to go cruisin' around the lakes of Minneapolis...
where, sadly, he has yet to find any waves.

Send Graeme an email.