Leadership Team
Zak Brown, Founder, CEO
Mr. Brown is a former professional race car driver. He founded Just Marketing International in 1995. He is known as an entrepreneur and as a leader, innovator, deal maker and increasing influencer of all things commercial in the global motorsports industry. Brown and his team have guided clients in all major motorsports series globally, including NASCAR, Formula One World Championship, Indy Racing League, NHRA, Grand Am Road Racing Association, and the American Le Mans Series. A four-time honoree as an Inc. 500 "Fastest Growing Private Company," JMI is now supported by a growing staff of more than 140 employees.
Brown is credited with playing a key role in the historic movement that successfully lifted NASCAR's 50+ year ban on spirits sponsorship in racing. In July of 2006, Brown was ranked the 33rd most powerful person in Formula One racing on the BusinessF1's annual "Power List" of the top 150 most powerful people. Previously, he was ranked 84th in 2005. Mr. Brown has personally been recognized as a PROMO magazine "Marketer of the Year," and also received Street & Smiths' Sports Business Journal 'Forty Under 40' award, in 2006 and 2007 for his unprecedented success as a young marketer. Brown has spoken at numerous conferences including the BusinessF1 Sponsorship Conference in Monaco, the Formula One Global Business Conference in Shanghai, IEG Sponsorship conference in Chicago and the SportsBusiness Journal's Motorsports Marketing Forum in New York City. Considered a motorsports expert, FOX, ESPN and USA Today have also sought Brown for his motorsports opinion.
United Autosports
HMP Series
Zak Brown MotorSports Insider Twitter Page
John Church, Executive Vice President, Partnership Development
John Church leads global business development for the Agency. For the past eight years, John has led Just Marketing International's client solutions process and is responsible for guiding would-be partners through strategy, planning and into activation. The department John leads is accountable for the Agency's state-of-the-art CRM system, an organically developed database of more than 12,000 industry executives.
JMI is proud to have introduced more new sponsors into motorsports than any other agency in the past six years and is intent upon creating similar success in 2009.
Jon Flack, Executive Vice President, Client Services
Jon drives JMI client programs in both domestic and international arenas, while managing the largest department within the company. His experience in the corporate sector - in positions with SBC and Conseco Corporation - has provided him a strong foundation for the creation of industry-leading efforts that deliver against quantifiable benchmarks.
In addition, his previous roles managing sponsorships involving the NCAA, NFL, Conseco Fieldhouse, IndyCar and NASCAR, have yielded insights into ways to maximize the management and direction of programs through a single-point-of-contact relationship structure.
Tom Moser, EVP, Strategy
Mr. Moser held a storied 20-year career with British American Tobacco (BAT). His tenure at BAT included the ground-up development, as well as direct oversight, of the BAR Formula One World Championship team (at the time, the largest deal in the history of Formula One), the creation of the Player's Champ Car and North American open-wheel motorsports program, and many other sports and entertainment sponsorships.
Much of his career has been devoted to the consumer communications medium of event marketing and sponsorship. Many of his research and analysis techniques, particularly to measure returns-on-investment, are used by several leading companies today. In addition to BAT, Mr. Moser has managed and contributed to the global events and sponsorship operations of other major corporations including BMW AG and Shell International.
Kevin Thimjon, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Kevin is responsible for managing the financial, human resources and information technology activities for JMI. Kevin joined JMI with over 20 years of financial management experience and has a substantial and diverse record of success. He is a Certified Public Accountant and has held a number of senior executive positions including as President and CFO of Bell Industries, a technology solutions company, and as CFO of the Systems Integration unit of Stanley Security Solutions, a division of The Stanley Works. Additionally, he has held a number of high-ranking roles with ISR Solutions, a high-tech security firm, including Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
Wesley Zirkle, Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Mr. Zirkle serves as Just Marketing International's in-house counsel and primary legal advisor. Mr. Zirkle is an expert in the field of motorsports marketing and has negotiated some of the largest and most complex contracts in NASCAR, Formula One, Grand-Am, NHRA, ALMS, World Rally and other major series.
His previous experience as an attorney includes nearly five years at CMG Worldwide (a leading intellectual property management and marketing agency representing such licensed icons as James Dean, George Patton, Marilyn Monroe and I♥NY® where among other clients he represented Evernham Motorsports, a NASCAR team.
Mr. Zirkle is a member of various associations and boards, including the Sports and Entertainment Executive Committee of the Indianapolis Bar Association. He is a frequent speaker at legal seminars regarding the issues surrounding motor racing and sponsorship.