Rob Laporte
Founder and CEO, M.A., has more than twenty years’ experience in marketing and advertising. He began his career with Boston advertising agency Maslow, Gold & Rothschild (which launched Reebok), where he co-authored the firm’s marketing and advertising campaign for Whistler Spectrum Radar Detectors. Rob then became Project Director at market research firm PERT Survey Research in the Hartford, CT area, followed by a marketing position at mainframe parts-maker REN Electronics, a division of Fortune 500 INSILCO. Rob then embarked on a six year career in literary academia, teaching at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. But the lure of business was irresistible and in 1995 Rob founded DISC. For the first three years he personally did most of the firm’s web design and coding and, starting in 1997, SEO. It soon was clear that all Rob’s previous experience coalesced ideally in this pursuit, and the apt timing allowed Rob to become part of the first wave of SEO pioneers. Rob now divides his time among research, web marketing plans for clients, and managing a growing firm – though he also does some SEO in order to stay close to the work. Rob also publishes occasional articles in Visibility Magazine on SEO, CMS, and related matters.

Why Rob doesn't blog . . . yet.

DISC's Offices
DISC has an ample office suite in an historic brick house in Hadley, MA, that was built in the 1830’s and functioned as an inn during the 1920’s. The office is situated in the talent- and culture-rich Five-College Area – a few miles from Smith, Amherst, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire Colleges.

Despite its housing's antique charm, the DISC office is equipped with sophisticated, robust hardware, software, and wiring systems. Our tech team has built enterprise-class security and back-up systems for our internal server and eight work stations.

DISC also has a satellite office at East 90th Street in Manhattan, NY, run by Dale Webb. 

DISC's three partners, Rob Laporte, Jennifer Williams, and Dale Webb

Dale Webb
Partner in the firm, PPC Specialist, Web Programmer, PHP Guru, Database Programmer
With DISC since early 2002
Dale, a Summa Cum Laude alumnus of the Commonwealth College honors division of UMass Amherst, is a master of PPC, ROI metrics, PHP, database programming, Flash, and web design. Dale has ten years of web programming experience, and has earned a Certificate in Web Technology from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (www.wpi.edu). Besides his technical abilities, Dale's talents include superb organizational skills, language aptitude, and a strong drive for excellence - qualities that dispose him to his outstanding success in managing client Pay-Per-Click campaigns. Dale passed Google's rigorous exam to earn Google's certificate as an "AdWords Qualified Professional."

Jennifer Williams
Junior Partner & Chief Innovation Officer
Web 2.0 & Search Engine Specialist
With DISC since mid 2006
Like DISC's Jessie Stricchiola and Jennifer Vander-Weyden before her, Jennifer is a graduate of Smith College, which is widely known as one of the top three women's colleges in the country. Though her degree is in neuro-psychology, her exceptional linguistic aptitudes, previous web site design and usability work for Smith College, her outstanding organizational aptitudes, and her social savvy, qualified her for DISC's long and thorough training program and a rapid promotion to Junior Partner. Jennifer too has published material in Visibility Magazine, some written herself and some in collaboration with Rob.

Mark Baven
Search Engine Specialist and Copywriter
With DISC since 1998
Mark’s affiliation with DISC extends back to 1998, when he became one of our first full time SEO specialists and copywriters. From 2000 to 2005, he wrote several business and e-commerce books, worked as a freelance writer/editor and marketer, and also did intermittent work for DISC. In mid-2005, Mark resumed working exclusively at DISC. An Amherst College graduate, he has over 20 years of writing, editorial, and marketing experience, mostly gathered in the NYC publishing world, spanning daily journalism, book, magazine, journal, and newsletter publishing. He has written copy for a sizeable number of web sites.

Heidi McGuire
Bookkeeper and COO
With DISC since 2001
Heidi deals with all accounting, resources allocation, and operational efficiency. At any time, a client can request a record of our hours spent. She has a BA in accounting, an Associates in business, and has been a practicing accountant since 1997. She embodies one simple golden rule of successful business: keep accurate records!

Andrew Stevens
Web Programmer
With DISC since mid-2008
Andrew has been a web designer and programmer for many years. In fact, he’s been programming since he was 8 years old! (about 20 years). His obvious excellence in all aspects of web programming, including SEO technicalities, his calm professional manner, and his location a few blocks from DISC, all qualified him to become DISC’s principal sub-contractor for complex programming and SEO technical projects.

Laura Scandalis
Search Engine Specialist and Copywriter
With DISC since January 2008
In keeping with DISC’s quest to hire people with first-rate education and language skills, Laura earned a B.A. from Smith College and a Masters from Harvard University. Laura's accomplishments and organizational aptitudes made her an excellent candidate for DISC's training program in PPC.

Josh Silver
Network Administrator and Web Programmer
With DISC since 1998
Josh is the web specialist for the library at UMass Amherst. His combination of university education and professional experience contributes to DISC's cutting edge knowledge of web technology. He works for DISC part-time, as network administrator and web programmer.

Jesse Sanford
Web Programmer
With DISC since 2001
With more than seven years with DISC and over a fourteen years in the computer industry, Jesse has had his hands in nearly every aspect of web development. From database design to flash animation and server-side programming in .NET, Jesse has done it all. A guru of Flash, Jesse is also proficient with SEO related web programming. Before DISC, Jesse worked as a programmer for Fuji E-Systems, helping to create a web kiosk for Walmart Photo Center. Jesse, who is now based in the mighty city of Brooklyn, N.Y., has a degree in Computer Science and formerly taught in the computer science department at UMass Amherst. His main job is as a web programmer in Manhattan, so that his part time programming for DISC is on the cutting edge.

DISC Alumni

Jenny Vander Weyden
Search Engine Specialist and Copywriter
With DISC from September 2001 to early 2008
When Jenny joined DISC, her superb SEO work and copywriting skills produced consistent successes for our clients. In mid-2005, Jenny left full-time work at DISC to pursue an M.A., which she completed in April 2007 while doing some SEO for DISC. Then she worked up to 20 hours per week for DISC until she found a non-web marketing job of her dreams in her home town of Seattle. An honors Smith graduate, Jenny worked for five years in the Seattle area as a technical writer, researcher, and online support pro before joining DISC. She remains available to DISC to train and advise our newer SEO people.

Fern Seiden, search engine specialist with DISC from 1998 to 2001, "graduated" to full-time mothering and part-time educational counseling. We will all miss Fern's rare combination of linguistic aptitude, statistical acumen, and empathy. Her diverse experience in public relations and publicity writing, her Phi Beta Kappa brains, and her three years at DISC enabled many of our customers to achieve the best possible search engine position.

Patrick Rodriguez, our senior programmer from 1997 to 2003, continues to consult as needed for DISC. An Oracle-certified master programmer, inventor/entrepreneur, mathematician, concert pianist, rock climber, and citizen of the world, Patrick's technical and business acumen has long been one of DISC's "secret weapons."

Sheldon Snodgrass, a top-flight sales and marketing consultant, helped DISC organize and implement sales and marketing during 2002. He brought DISC superb results, and went on to found a sales and marketing consultancy, which we highly recommend for any company looking to optimize its sales personnel and procedures: www.SteadySales.com.