Beth Blumenthal, President of The Westport Company, founded the company in 1991. She has spent more than 20 years developing and researching interactive products and deliveries. At Citibank, Beth managed interactive product design and development groups, creating touch-screen and natural language ATM's and next generation customer service kiosks. She led the Development Lab, the incubator for Citibank's electronic banking and customer self-service products, and pioneered techniques for hands-on experiential user testing. Beth earned a BA in Sociology from Colgate University and studied at the New School for Social Research.

beth@westportcompany.com

Melinda L. Weber, Principal of The Westport Company, has successfully managed marketing and research programs on "both sides of the desk"– in over 25 years of experience as a consultant and as a client. At Clarion Marketing and Communications, Melinda directed strategic consulting and research projects for a variety of Fortune 500 companies. She has moderated focus groups and conducted in-depth interviews for 20 years, with consumers, senior executives and specialized niche audiences. She has lectured on usability to major corporations and is a guest lecturer on usability research in the e-commerce division at Columbia University. Melinda graduated from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and studied at Rochester Institute of Technology.

melinda@westportcompany.com