Lokion Interactive

Megan has extensive experience in the communications industry and the technology industry. She provides her clients with solid Internet business strategy and execution by combining her business development, marketing and communications acumen with technical knowledge. Her past clients include FedEx, International Paper, Harrah’s Entertainment, Thomas & Betts, and M&A International.

Megan’s first experience in the technology industry was with a Memphis start-up, Quest Interactive Media. When USWeb acquired Quest in 1998, Megan gained first-hand knowledge of the business of high-tech mergers and acquisitions, re-positioning companies, growing tough markets, and refining business processes and corporate culture.

Megan then began working at OnlineFocus, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based Internet professional services company. She established and ran the Memphis office. She was responsible for supplying strategy and management for the company’s largest account, FedEx (www.fedex.com). After leaving OnlineFocus, Megan co-founded Lokion, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.

Megan speaks on entrepreneurship and technology, and has been a guest speaker on National Public Radio’s Smart City program. She has served as board member for the Memphis Literacy Council and served as a mentor for New Leaders for New Schools.

Mike O’Hearn has over ten years of experience with enterprise-level web development and architecture. He has expertise in both Unix-based and Microsoft-based development, as well as enterprise level databases including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and DB2.

Mike comes to Lokion from the Washington, D.C. office of marchFIRST (formerly USWeb/CKS), an international Internet professional services firm, where he was a Senior Architect. Mike was responsible for recruiting and managing development teams for large-scale projects.

Mike’s architecture experience spans several industry vertical markets such as banking/financial, data warehousing, retail e-commerce, and intranets. He has extensive ATG experience and expertise writing technical specifications and other types of technical documentation.

Recent projects include large-scale e-commerce efforts for clients including eDiets and Viking Range, as well as custom desktop application development for FedEx and Google Gadgets.

Marcus Stafford has over twenty years of experience in the software development industry, beginning with his employment at software giant Microsoft during the rollout of Windows. Marcus co-founded software publishing company Baseline Publishing, and later co-founded Quest Interactive Media, Memphis’ first Internet consulting firm, which was purchased by USWeb.

With his extensive experience in the technology industry, Marcus has acted as a lead advisor in strategy and technology consulting, ecommerce deployments and user interface design, as well as 3-D illustration and animation. Marcus also conducted very early and extensive research into Paid Search Campaign theory and used the results of that research to formulate winning campaign strategies for a number of clients. He has also spearheaded Lokion’s Paid and Organic search efforts by aggressively following and analyzing emerging trends within the growing and volatile search engine market.

Past clients for Marcus include Interactive Entertainment Limited, Performance Magazine, and Marriott International. Current clients include Viking Range Corporation, Stephens Inc. and International Paper. He has helped his clients with strategic planning for several Internet projects, including intranets/extranets, large-scale ecommerce initiatives, and the deployment and maintenance of a secure online banking application.

Vaskin has over a decade of experience with software engineering, the last several years of which have been dedicated to Internet-based enterprise technologies. Vaskin has extensive experience in the lifecycle of web-based applications, from strategic consulting, to design to deployment. His technical expertise has depth and breadth – he is knowledgeable and proficient in both of the major application framework toolsets (Win32 and J2EE) as well as many databases (Oracle, SQL Server, Informix).

While Vaskin’s biggest strength is illuminating and explaining complex software solutions for Lokion clients, he is a very gifted software developer. Particularly adept at custom and customized solutions, Vaskin leads the way in investigating new technologies / platforms for our clients, with emphasis on rapid prototyping and development in Grails. Vaskin also reviews open source projects for progress, direction, and maturity on an ongoing basis for major players related to business applications. Under his helm, Lokion has been successful in implementing and gaining great benefit from OS products such as CVS (version control), Bugzilla, Mozilla.org offerings, and Apache (httpd, Jakarta, and XML). He is also versed in many aspects and differences between various OSI approved OSS licenses and related intellectual property issues.

Vaskin has worked at a number of successful companies both large and small, from start-ups to international online consultancies such as marchFIRST (formerly USWeb/CKS). Prior to starting Lokion Vaskin worked for Pivotry, a software development firm in Washington, D.C. Past clients of Vaskin’s include M&A International, American Presidents Line, FedEx, International Paper, VarsityBooks.com, Tower Records, and Mars Music.

Vaskin works in the DC area to open the Lokion presence in the East Coast and particularly the government sector. He is a graduate of Christian Brothers University with a BS in Computer Science and he is continually active in DC technology happenings, particularly with Refresh DC and open source forums.

Shiloh Barnat leads people-oriented processes to produce more usable interactive products. She brings a deep understanding of user-centered online experience design processes and broad experience with online strategy, audience analysis, user testing, and information architecture.

Shiloh’s web career began in 1995 at the University of San Francisco, where she pioneered distance education by introducing and supporting online certification programs through the College of Professional Studies at McClaren School of Business. Later she applied her growing skills proactively to the nonprofit sector as a technology consultant for CompuMentor.org, managing their first completely online volunteer mentorship program and conducting technology audits for strategic planning.

Relocating to Memphis in 1999, Shiloh has provided strategy consulting, audience analysis, persona creation, usability consulting and/or direct user testing for FedEx, SkyTel, International Paper, AutoZone, Cellular South, Ducks Unlimited, First Tennessee / First Horizon, Viking Range, Rhodes College, and The Seam.

She has managed information architecture and interface design strategies for numerous Web sites, intranets and extranets as well as CMS implementations, eCommerce systems, online banking, education portals, rich Flash-based demos, and complex applications.

Shiloh holds a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Tulane University and an MA in Sociology from the University of New Orleans.

Michelle came to Lokion as a Business Specialist/Office Manager in 2005. Her expertise in cost/inventory analysis, disaster recovery, communication plans, escalation plans, and ISO compliance quickly made her an invaluable part of daily business operations.

Michelle’s extensive resume includes past work for FedEx, Consolidated Media Systems, Inquisitor, Inc., Encoda Systems, Accredo Health, Women of Faith, Excel Communications, Mike Pope Productions, and Turner Broadcasting. She has served as an Assistant Director of Operations, a Mitigation Investigator for capital cases, an executive assistant, and an office manager.

Michelle, who attended the University of Mississippi and the University of Memphis, was promoted to Lokion’s Director of Operations in 2007.

Meka’s impressive resume began to build before he even finished school: His summer internships were spent at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL and later at HP in Palo Alto, CA.

After earning his master’s degree in 1996, Meka worked for companies such as HP, Geobot/Metatomix, and Hilton Hotels Corporation. His client list includes Beazer Homes, Sawtooth Software, Union Planters/Regions Bank, Federal Express, American Express, Georgia Prosecuting Attorney’s Council and the Florida Office of State Courts (including the State Supreme Court).

Meka’s project background spans Internet Security, Conjoint Analysis mathematics, Systems Integration, and Web Portals to name only a few.

Meka has a BS and MS in Computer Science from Morehouse College and Duke University, respectively. He joined Lokion in 2007.

Christopher has more than a dozen years experience in full-lifecycle development of projects as well as product management including requirements writing, architecture, analysis, implementation, testing, release processes, and maintenance.

While working at Metatomix/Geobot, Inc., Christopher designed, implemented, maintained, and managed development and technology of the Interchange Platform (iX), a java-based dynamic software agent system used in performing data processing and integration. His experience also spans Oracle database systems and PL/SQL, Java applications and servlets, basic Web and intranet development, and C and C++ based applications.

Christopher’s past clients include Methodist Hospitals (Memphis), Avanti Health Care (Sanus/New York Life), Just For Feet, Regions Bank (formerly Union Planters), Thomas and Betts, and Politzer and Haney.

He is a graduate of Mississippi State University with a BS in Computer Science.

Kirk is a seasoned multimedia professional with a strong understanding of client needs and the ability to translate those needs into original, innovative, effective, and market-conscious messages.

Before coming to Lokion, Kirk spent twelve years in New York City providing his clients with superior creative direction, art direction, interactive design and development, advertising and print design development, broadcast design and animation development, and identity and brand development services.

His impressive client roster includes Microsoft, IBM, HP, Dell, Motorola, Gateway, Elektra Entertainment Group, Xerox, Bertelsmann Media Worldwide, Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, British Telecommunications, Viking Range, FedEx, Cellular South, Random House, Vonage, Hilton, Blockbuster, MSNBC, Hotwire.com, CNET, and The Limited Brands.

Kirk is a graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

Shaun is a Java/.NET Software Architect experienced in integrating new technologies, assisting development teams with architecture designs, and creating consistent development practices and standards for those development teams to follow. He focuses on creating platform-specific tools and processes to enable rapid application development and scalable application deployments, and is especially proficient in mentoring development teams, allowing them to become more agile-focused while working within traditional waterfall methodologies.

Shaun has designed and implemented enterprise applications on several frameworks including ATG, J2EE/MVC and .NET. His work experience includes developing content management solutions; building system designs and implementation; clustering, fail-over and other disaster recovery implementations; creating deployment strategies; and the design and optimization of middleware and interfaces.

While working as an independent contractor, Shaun performed security audits of systems and applications, produced process compliance guidelines, and assisted clients with risk management strategies. He also developed secure wireless applications for Palm and the PocketPC hand-held devices used in telemetry, warehousing, and point-of-sale systems.

Patrick Miller was founder and President of Synapse, LLC, one of only a few Internet startups in Memphis, TN during the 1990s. He returns to Memphis after a 5 year stint with Nokia in Silicon Valley where he worked as Manager of Product Line Support for Nokia Enterprise Solutions, Nokia’s enterprise and security business group.

While with Nokia, Patrick worked on company-wide initiatives to improve product quality, customer communications, and product supportability. As the key manager of critical customer projects, a central component of Patrick’s efforts was to build long-term customer relationships with many of Nokia’s Fortune 500 customers.

Patrick brings experience and expertise from the technology sector as well as the business, communications and management fields. A former faculty member with Axia College of University of Phoenix, Patrick holds a Master’s degree in Music from the University of Memphis and certifications in network security, leadership, and customer service and support.