Thomas Panton - Founder
Tom has been involved in website development and interactive media development since 1996 when he accepted a fulltime position with a pioneering website and multimedia development firm in Chicago called Intelli.com. At Intelli.com, Tom started as a graphic designer/HTML author, moved on to be the lead creative and finally, director of production where he coordinated the efforts of both the creative development team and the programming team. Tom and his team created websites for Miller Brewing’s Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft and Red Dog beers, American Drug Stores’ national chain of pharmacies (Osco, Sav-on, Lucky), The Clio Awards and multimedia trade show kiosks for Novopharm USA (a national pharmaceutical manufacturer) and Open Port Technology (a Chicago-based software development company).
Tom left Intelli.com in late 1999 to lead website development for Thinktank, an integrated marketing firm. In the two years that he was at Thinktank, the company grew from 8 to 30+ employees and transitioned from 80/20 print to web/interactive ratio to about 40/60 print to web/interactive. In that time, Tom moved from a project lead role to a strategic consulting role. He was also a member of the management team there. While at Thinktank, Tom worked on many high profile projects that included several Motorola websites and tradeshow kiosks, a Medicare website and interactive demos for Mercedes-Benz USA, just to name a few.
In 2001, Tom joined Leapnet as an Engagement Partner. His primary responsibility included the high level management of large scale website development projects. This position also included extensive client management. Tom led Leapnet’s development of the Sears Craftsman.com and Kenmore.com websites. He also led a team who provided information architecture, design and technology consulting services for an eMarketplace venture called Transora.com which was formed by a consortium of the largest packaged goods companies.
Throughout Tom’s career, he has always remained active in the development of websites and interactive applications. Tom has extensive knowledge and experience hand coding HTML and JavaScript. Tom is also very proficient as an information architect, having played that role throughout his career. He is continuously adding new skills to his resumé. In the past few years, he has become proficient in DHTML, ASP, ASP.Net, PHP and SQL as well as database design.
In 2002, Tom and and a partner formed Ricochet Digital LLC. The focus of their new venture was developing effective and engaging interactive user experiences. Ricochet Digital worked with many agency clients as well as corporate clients creating websites and multimedia presentations.
In 2003, Panton Interactive was launched and incorporated. From the beginning, Panton Interactive’s focus has been on content management consulting and development. Throughout his career, Tom as experienced first hand the difficulty most organizations have when it comes to producing marketing content particularly targeted for online audiences. This difficulty is can encompass technical limitations in accessing their own online content to the actual production of content. Panton Interactive’s primary focus is to help organizations overcome this hurdle.
Prior to his web career, Tom worked in corporate finance. He received his MBA from DePaul University in 1993. Tom made the switch from a career in finance to web/interactive development because he saw the potential for online communications early and decided to redirect his career towards this new and promising field. Tom has been married to his wife Colleen since 1992. They have a beautiful daughter, Elizabeth who will be completing her first year of Kindergarten in Summer, 2006. And, they have a cute little West Highland Terrier named Daisy whom they adopted from an acquaintenance who fell victim to breast cancer in 2005.
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