About Virilion

Dan Solomon
Chief Executive Officer

Dan joined the firm as CEO in 2000, and as Chairman of the Board of Directors, sets the agency’s general strategic direction. He also directs our marketing and business development activities.

As a leading expert in the communications industry for the last 20 years, Dan is frequently asked to speak to industry groups and non-technical professionals nationwide about integrating Internet techniques into communication strategies. In December of 2007, Dan co-authored his first book, Media Rules! Mastering Today’s Technology to Connect with and Keep Your Audience, published by Wiley.

Prior to joining Virilion, Dan was publisher of nationaljournal.com, the National Journal Group’s “members only” Web site and was general manager of National Journal’s CongressDaily and Technology Daily. Dan held a political appointment with the U.S. Department of Commerce and worked in senior legislative positions in the United States Senate for Senator Harris Wofford (D-PA) and Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI). He also practiced commercial law with the firm of Hale and Dorr and clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Missouri.

Dan is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota Law School.

Huard G. Smith
President

Since joining Virilion in 2007, Huard has assumed the role of ensuring that clients are consistently satisfied. He oversees each of Virilion’s practices — including Account Management, Creative, Technical Services, Editorial Services, Media & Advertising, and Measurement & Analytics — to ensure that they deliver the highest quality, innovative work. As a member of the Board of Directors, Huard helps to set the strategic direction of the agency.

Huard has more than 22 years of experience in successfully creating and linking strategies to execution in branding, interactive marketing, online sales, lead generation and Web customer service. He has worked across many industries, leading large scale efforts with electric and gas utilities, financial services companies, health care entities, travel services, media corporations and retailers.

Recently as a Senior Vice President in the Strategy & Analysis practice of Digitas, Huard led strategy teams for key clients including AARP, the InterContinental Hotels Group, The Home Depot, The New York Times and Turner Broadcasting.

Huard holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the Pennsylvania State University in Aerospace Engineering.

David L. Haase
Practice Lead, Social Media & Content

David heads Virilion’s Social Media & Content practice, advising our clients on effective messaging and content development as well as online monitoring of articles, blog posts, and other discussions of interest to our clients, reputation management and crisis control. He also leads our efforts in social media and networking.

David started writing about the Internet in 1996, long before blogging, when he launched a pioneering newspaper column called Plugged-in Politics that was distributed nationwide by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. Plugged-in Politics examined how government organizations and campaigns were using the fledgling technology of the World Wide Web and email to deliver messages and sway opinion.

David became executive editor of National Journal Group’s Greenwire online daily briefing in 1999. He then served as Editor in Chief/Director of Publications for Executive Compensation Resources before joining Virilion. Prior to that, David spent 12 years covering Congress, politics and the White House as a Washington correspondent for Indianapolis Newspapers Inc.

A 20-year member of the National Press Club, David has chaired its online awards subcommittee for the last three years. David graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs from Antioch College.

Jason McQueen
Vice President, Media Director

Jason leads Virilion’s Media & Advertising practice, deploying interactive media strategies and technologies — from search visibility consulting (SEO) and paid search engine marketing (SEM) to display advertising including rich media forms — that reach the desired audiences and create response at the lowest cost to the client and in the most effective form. His team has built relationships with search engines (Google) and ad serving platforms (DoubleClick DART) as well as ad venues to ensure Virilion’s clients get the most cost-effective performance available.

Prior to joining Virilion, Jason tenured in several interactive media firms around the country where he worked with clients ranging from B2B tech giants to Fortune 100 retail brands. He recently worked in Central America as the acting interactive marketing director for SportingBet PLC gaming brands. Before SportingBet, Jason led client engagements in interactive media management —including all aspects of strategic planning, vendor management, execution, measurement and optimization — for nFusion in Austin, Texas, and 360i in Atlanta.

Jason received his Bachelor’s of Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michael Meehan
Senior Vice President

Political strategist Michael Meehan is a Senior Vice President at Virilion. With more than 20 years of national political experience, Michael provides strategic services and develops integrated campaigns for the agency’s national and international clients.

In 2005, Michael served as U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell’s top aide, managing her Senate office and operating as the chief strategist of her 2006 landslide re-election campaign in Washington state. In 2003-2004, Michael served as Senior Advisor in Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign. Before that, he was the Vice President of Strategy and Politics for NARAL Prochoice America.

For six years. Michael was a senior political and communications strategist for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and served as Director of Message Development and Polling for the Democratic National Committee, 2001 to 2003. In addition to his work at the DNC, Michael was staff director of Senate candidate recruitment at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1999-2000 and Communications Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Michael holds a degree from Bates College, Maine and was a certified school teacher.

Lynn Thomlison
Creative Director

As Creative Director for the firm, Lynn leads the Creative & Design team. Her experience in art direction, usability and branding allows her to manage the creative output of the agency and ensure it is of the highest quality.

Prior to joining Virilion, Lynn was Vice President and Creative Director at CBS College Sports where she was responsible for all CBS College Sports creative direction for both digital and television. While there, she built, staffed and mentored bi-coastal design teams, and developed and franchised an interactive video program which achieved the first ever marketing communications awards for the network.

Before joining CBS, Lynn was the Managing Director at the global public relations agency, Burson-Marsteller. There, she was responsible for the agency’s USA design creative team and supported business development and client relations.

Lynn has won numerous awards including the 2005 Grand Prize Mercury Awards, the 2005 Silver iNova, and the 2005, ‘06 & ‘07 Platinum MarCom Creative Awards.

Lynn holds a Master of Science degree in Design from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Fine Arts from the Université de Bishop in Canada.

Tim Smith
Senior Vice President, Technology & E-Commerce

As Senior Vice President at Virilion, Tim provides our Technology leadership as well as both strategic and tactical solutions for clients regarding all forms of selling and merchandising online.

With more than 20 years of experience in mission critical secure software and systems, Tim leads the ecommerce practice at Virilion since its inception in September of 2005 when Virilion acquired Promotional Commerce, where Tim was founder and CEO. Since joining the team, Tim has integrated ecommerce and promotional merchandise into numerous campaigns for clients such as Read for the Record, United Cerebral Palsy, and Ed in '08. Since it’s inception, Promotional Commerce has handled millions of visitors and hundreds of thousands of transactions.

Prior to joining Virilion and founding Promotional Commerce, he was Vice President Strategic Development and Field Planning for kinkos.com, inc., the Internet arm of Kinko’s, Inc. providing print-on-demand solutions to corporate, small-office home-office (SOHO), and personal customers.

Tim holds a Bachelors Degree in Management and Management Information Systems from Iowa State University. Tim lives near Annapolis, MD with his wife Brenda and two dogs, Rumble and Elsa.

Virilion

Management Team