Fuzati’s Executive Team is complemented with an extensive network of creative professionals including talented developers and experienced collaborating partners. We believe this provides our clients the best possible combined expertise platform with limitless potential for their projects. All services are customized to meet your specific needs at all project phases to guarantee your campaign’s complete success.

Ryan DellaCrosse, President & Founder:

Through the years, Ryan has developed and implemented award-winning national marketing campaigns for Fortune 500, government, and non-profit organizations including Coca-Cola, the Canada Post, The U.S. Department of Education, Honda, Special Olympics, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and many more.

He has provided leadership in a variety of marketing and strategy-related positions, including consumer segmentation and targeting, brand positioning, new concept development, portfolio brand management and research.

Beyond marketing, Ryan’s proven work in technology and the non-profit sector includes software and infrastructure consulting strategy and development.

He founded Fuzati on his philosophy that impact can be made by using innovation to fuse tradition and technology.

Courtney Shirley, Lead PR Consultant

Courtney brings more than seven years experience in journalism and non-profit marketing/communications management to Fuzati. Courtney’s portfolio includes strategic planning, brand/campaign development and implementation, media relations, public relations, social media, website design and management, advocacy, marketing, internal and external communications, crisis communications, fundraising, writing and reporting (for television, web, radio and newspaper), anchoring (television) and producing (television and web).

Previously, Courtney was the Communications & Media Relations Manager for Volunteers of America Chesapeake, Inc., the Washington, D.C.-area affiliate of the national non-profit Volunteers of America, one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive human services organizations. There, she led and managed all external and internal strategic communications and was responsible for the year-end giving campaign and blog entitled Courtney’s Quest.

Prior to that, Courtney worked as the Weekend Anchor/Producer and Morgantown Bureau Chief for WBOY-TV, the leading NBC/ABC affiliate in North Central West Virginia. A pioneer in backpack journalism, she was responsible for independently shooting, writing, editing and reporting all of her stories for the station’s main newscasts. Her broadcast journalism background includes: The Fox News Channel in New York City, WPHL-TV in Philadelphia, 9&10 News in Northern Michigan and The Medill News Service in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Courtney was a featured speaker at the American Marketing Association’s 2011 international Non-Profit Marketing Conference where she was recognized for her innovation and taking non-profit communications and marketing to new frontiers.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Courtney holds a Master of Science in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Science in Communication. She currently serves on the Alumni Admissions Council for Northwestern University and is a member of the American Marketing Association and the Junior League of Washington.

Thaddeus Ruszkowski, Organizational Management Consultant/Software Project Manager

Thaddeus is currently the Senior Manager, Client Special Services for FirstPic, Inc. a Maryland-based project management consulting company.  Fuzati partners with FirstPic, Inc. on a number of organizational management consulting/software projects and Thad is the consultant used to provide these services throughout the country. Through Thad’s leadership, together Fuzati and FirstPic, Inc. have worked for a number of clients including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), the National 4-H Council (4-H Council), the National Police Athletic / Activities Leagues, Inc. (National PAL), and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation.

Thad brings his creative and energetic approach to project management and client relations. From non-profit training and technical assistance to conference planning and grants management, Thad has worked on various projects for government and non-profit clients. Drawing on more than 10 years of experience utilizing technology to increase workflow efficiency and marketing effectiveness for non-profit organizations, Thad brings innovative solutions to all of his projects and his understanding of the non-profit arena allows him to provide insightful strategic planning services. With Fuzati, he has led the development of FirstPic’s online grants management software and works with our team of developers to create custom online data management solutions.

Thad holds a master’s degree in non-profit administration from the University of Notre Dame.

Jalali Hartman, Social Media Strategy

Jalali is experienced in digital product development and his patented technologies now serve millions of users across the web, including eBay, Google, Facebook and Amazon.

He is considered one of the premier thought leaders in the area of integrated, high-availability social engagement via the web, including social media optimization, web usability, integrated media and cloud computing.

In 1998 he co-founded Infopia.com, a company that offered one of the first E-Commerce solutions for businesses selling products online. After helping Infopia become a market success, Jalali became the head of strategy at MECLABS, the leading online marketing research firm. During this time, he helped transform organizations like the NY Times, Reuters, TheStreet.com, Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica transition their brands online.

He is named on 3 patents, and was awarded the prestigious eBay Innovation Award in both 2004 and 2005. He is the inventor of Social Velocity™, which predicts how content will or will not go “viral.”

Jalali co-founded Yovia in 2006 and directs community development strategy for organizations such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (NCR), Blue Cross Blue Shield, Coca-Cola, the State of Tennessee with Fuzati to implement cross-media marketing campaigns and technology solutions.

Jalali holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of New Hampshire.

Howard Trant, Creative Director

Howard is our lead for all things design. His vision and expertise in building branding concepts and design is a hinge for our overall success with our clients. For more than five years, Howard has worked with top ad agencies in the US and now gives Fuzati his cutting edge perspective for the growth of our design strategies.

Chris Shigas, Social Media & Branding

Chris shigas is an award-winning digital and social media expert with an emphasis on integrating traditional public relations campaigns with social media. Chris has worked with premium clients including Coca-Cola, Nestea, Dasani, Wrangler, Waffle House, Glaxosmithkline, Dearfoams and many more corporate brands. Chris is a frequent speaker on emerging social media techniques. He recently won the best in category “integrated communication award” from the public relations society of america for a campaign that utilized a number of social media platforms, including Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Flickr and Second Life.

In 2007, Chris developed a virtual city for canada post in the online community of second life. the retail city of maple grove features stores from ten national and international retailers. At the time, it was the largest collection of real-life retailers in the virtual world, featuring the likes of Sears, Toys “R” Us and many others. the Maple Grove Project is a finalist for an echo award presented by the direct marketing association.

Before his public relations career, Chris was an emmy award-winning television news producer and has the distinction of producing the first high-definition newscast in the country.