The owner of Winstanley Associates and Lenox Softworks has consolidated his two businesses into a single entity and hired a new chief operating officer.
The new company, now known as Winstanley Partners, is headed by COO Ron Thompson, a former senior vice president of Lenox Softworks, who returned to the Berkshires after serving as vice president of technology for Vista Higher Learning in Boston.
Company President and founder Nathan Winstanley said he merged the companies to make them more innovative and efficient. The business can handle and develop projects quicker as one entity instead of two, he said.
“It comes down to developing content much more quickly and efficiently,” Winstanley said. “We can work on the concept and the delivery system simultaneously. I suppose it’s like having a race car driver in the same room when you’re figuring out how to build the race car.”
Winstanley Associates, founded 24 years ago, is a marketing communications agency that helped design a new basketball for the National Basketball Association that was used briefly in 2006. Lenox Softworks, founded in 1994, develops media products such as Web sites, and interactive computer-based learning materials.
Beginning in 2000, the functions of both companies had begun to merge and overlap, Winstanley said. When last year’s economic downturn hit, Winstanley believed it would be a good time to reorganize. The company began operating as Winstanley Partners on Jan. 1.
Winstanley said he had been thinking about merging the companies two years ago, but decided to go forward when Thompson expressed an interest in returning to the Berkshires. Thompson, who worked for Lenox Softworks between 2004 and 2007, had the ability to oversee the transition from two companies to one quickly and efficiently, Winstanley said. He officially rejoined the company in September, Winstanley said.
Although the two companies are now one, Lenox Softworks will remain as a standalone brand and operating unit that will be focused primarily on educational software products and services. Karolina Valterova, the company’s former director of educational products, has been named vice president of Lenox Softworks Education in the Winstanley Partners organization.
Before the merger, employees of both companies occupied the same building at 114 Main St., but were “segregated” throughout the structure, Winstanley said.
“I mixed people all up,” Winstanley said, “so now there’s less computer space between the two.”
Jaclyn Stevenson has been named director of public relations for Winstanley Partners. Former account executive Susan Gage is the new company’s traffic manager. Jamie Haywood is the operations manager.
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