Chris Wade
Chris Wade grew up in Hinesburg, VT. He attended the University of Vermont and graduated with degrees from the school of Engineering, Business and Mathematics.
After three years in New York City Chris returned to Vermont and with a friend created a small business selling high technology energy products to the propane, plumbing, and heating trades. This business grew into a specialty wholesaler of high efficiency gas heating and air conditioning equipment with 3 locations in northern New England. From the early 1990’s this organization was an innovator both in the technology featured, and the use of computer based systems to streamline operations. Products such as condensing gas furnaces, high efficiency direct vent heaters, direct vent gas boilers, tankless water heaters, and variable speed technology were all pioneered in northern New England by Chris’s organization.
As a means to improve the market support and acceptance of high technology products within the wholesale business, Red Barn Media Group (RBMG) was formed in 1998. At first it concentrated on the production of printed technical product guides for wholesalers of plumbing, heating and air conditioning equipment and supplies. However this rapidly transformed first to CD based products, and then to comprehensive web based systems.
In 2003, due in part to family challenges, Chris gave up the wholesale businesses and focused full time on RBMG.
Since that time RBMG has become an important innovator in the PHVAC industry. The creation of open architecture relational databases has been instrumental in the development of national market segments such as tankless water heaters, heat pump water heaters, and mini-split heating and air conditioning.
Through the MyPointNow product brand, RBMG now server thousands of PHVAC contractors and a number of important high technology manufacturers. Chris’s long standing connection to, and understanding of high technology energy resources is instrumental in the creation and deployment of our online systems.
Stephen Quick
Stephen Quick grew up in Westborough, MA. He attended Champlain College in Burlington, VT where he received a degree in Multimedia and Graphic Design.
During college Stephen started at Red Barn Media Group as an intern publishing assistant. After college Stephen stayed in the northern Vermont and continued his work at Red Barn Media Group. With a new perspective on how information should be distributed in his first year at the company in 2001, Stephen helped RBMG start the transition from print to interactive cd-rom and websites. This move from static printed material to dynamic responsive online systems became the foundation of what RBMG is today.
As our technology improved Stephen mastered systems such as Flash, html, php/mysql and css. This became the basis for the utilization of online systems not just for marketing and technical support, but for supply chain management and dynamic customer relations. These concepts are changing the way that manufacturers and service contractors develop their markets and communicate about their products.
With over 8 years of experience developing websites and information portals for PHVAC manufactures, rep agencies, wholesalers and service contractors, Stephen is helping shape Mypointnow.com, RBMG’s flagship brand into an integrated community that serves the public and all PHVAC member groups.
Chiro Umezaki
Chiro Umezaki was born in Yokohama, Japan but has spent last 20+ years in North America. He graduated with a bachelor degree in Business Administration with concentration on marketing at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT in 1996. He worked for the Mayor of Boston as an International Business Coordinator for the city in 1996. His main focus was to assist small to mid-sized Japanese companies to establish successful partnerships with greater Boston area businesses.
In 1997, he moved back to Japan to learn his father’s business, a building supplies wholesaler and then transferred to Vancouver, Canada as a lumber exporter to Japan.
In 2000, he retuned to the University of Vermont to learn computer science and received a degree in Computer Science in 2003. During this time Chiro interned as a computer programmer at the UVM Biochemistry department specializing in PHP and MySQL databases.
He joined Red Barn Media Group in 2005 as a web programmer, with a focus on data collection and reports analytics. He helped to develop variety of online tools for our clients such as Contractors Search, Leads Management, and Product Registration Systems.
With over 8 years of experience creating web-base data systems, Chiro is the primary database programmer, and is instrumental in deploying MyPointNow.com as a primary resource for the PHVAC community.
