Digital Strategies and Online Communities

Susan Askew is a results-oriented leader with proven experience in customer acquisition, revenue growth, business integration and product development.  She works with clients to grow revenue, develop and strengthen customer relationships, and build online communities.  Susan recently helped Qvisory, a nascent online community focused on helping 18-34 year olds achieve their money, work and health goals, achieve successful acquisition by AARP and Rock The Vote.

Previously, she served as President and CEO of Backfence, one of the first-to-market citizen-generated, hyperlocal content web companies. With its groundbreaking business model of rolling out grassroots journalism sites across the country, Backfence achieved wide recognition from community leaders, media executives and industry analysts.  The company, which launched 13 local communities in three markets, rapidly grew audience penetration and participation.  Under Susan’s leadership, the Backfence sites also began to reach a significant number of local advertisers, signing on more than 600 small businesses for long-term contracts.

Before joining Backfence, she served as Vice President of Software and Games for the NPD Group, a global market information company.  In addition to Backfence, Susan has gained significant experience running early-stage companies. Prior to the NPD Group, she was CEO of StreamingText, which combined proprietary processes and technology to create digital text from live audio and stream it via the Internet. Susan also was the founder and CEO of womenCONNECT.com, an Internet portal for women in business.