Marie Young | Care factor infinity  
Partner // Conductor

Key facts

*Online commentator for TVNZ's Breakfast show
*Founder of Marie Workshops, a popular social media workshops series
*Nearly two decades of experience in customer service, from over-the-counter to behind the phone to behind the screen.
*An accomplished trainer, with students who say she actually helped them to care.
*A skilled facilitator and communicator

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Simon Young | Story listener, story teller
Partner // Connector

Key facts

* A thought leader in the online communications space since 2001
* An experienced and respected journalist, published in the New Zealand Herald, NZ Marketing Magazine, Australian Marketing Magazine, Idealog, and many other publications.
* A sought-after public speaker for the past 6 years, with speaking engagements in Shanghai, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin... and Rotorua.
* A public commentator on technology and social trends, sought after and quoted as an expert by the media (for example, TV3 and the New Zealand Herald)
* A business owner who has been at the forefront of emerging business trends
* A hell of a nice guy who many people turn to for advice and direction

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Sukesh Sukumaran | Rainbow chaser
Partner // Catalyst at sy-engage (Non-executive director)

Key facts

* Presently in an advisory role to sy-ENGAGE

* Geophysicist with 5 years of field experience
* Executive MBA from University of Otago
* 20-year career in corporates and SMEs spanning operations, strategic business development, sales, marketing, general and executive management across IT/ICT, information management, web/online, social media and consultancy
* Worked in 12 countries across 4 continents
* Business mentor via Business Mentors NZ
* In 2009 led a local web agency to be awarded Waitakere Best Mid-Sized Business, to double revenue in 18 months, and be recognised as an upcoming “web performance partner”

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The time that we spent with sy-engage over these initial months of investigation, really gave us the momentum and focus we needed to take the first and significant leap into the SM space – and essentially we moved forward with purpose from this point on.

Jules Lloyd, former Marketing Director, Air New Zealand

The greatest benefit of working with sy has been the vast knowledge they had. And even when they didn't necessarily know something they found out. Their attitude was "we don't know, let's learn it together" - a consultative, open approach.

Charlotte Mayne, Former Marketing Director, Lincoln University

The workshopping worked very well. What we've done with Marie and Simon is identified some staff to take responsibility for social media platforms, but before we went out and did stuff, we took them all into a workshop, working from the inside out. That worked extremely well. Now they understand where we're going. We've seen really good results so far, and look forward to seeing more in the future.

Vanessa Freeman, Marketing Manager, Taupo Tourism Holdings

sy-ENGAGE Ltd is a startup with 10 years’ experience. It brings together iJump Ltd, a company with a 10-year track record in the creative and internet space, and Sukesh Sukumaran, an experienced executive and veteran of web strategy.

sy-ENGAGE adopts a light and nimble organisational structure, bringing together the best resources (people, software, etc.) necessary on a per project basis. We structure agreements with subcontractors that are based on strong shared values, including most importantly, trust, transparency and authenticity.

iJump Ltd began in 2001 as a freelance copywriting agency, focused around the then emerging field of web copywriting. The company’s focus on emerging technologies led to opportunities to write for industry publications giving an overview of emerging opportunities, including developing an Email Marketing course for the Direct Marketing Association in 2003.

In 2004, company principal Simon Young wrote the NZ Marketing Magazine cover story “Logging into Blogging”. Since then, Simon has been a regular at conferences and seminars around New Zealand, Australia and China.

As SimonYoungWriters (the name iJump Ltd was known as before it was iJump), the company pioneered a virtual team model, bringing together the most relevant writers available for client requirements. This first hand experience in cultivating a community led to a strong interest in social media, and in 2007 the company transitioned to iJump Ltd, focusing on “making sense of social media”.

In 2010, Simon and Marie Young, the partners of iJump Ltd, began working with Sukesh Sukumaran, who had recently transformed The Web Company into a high performing organisation, winning the Westpac Waitakere Business Award for Best Mid-Sized Business in 2009. From a company that simply built websites, Sukesh introduced an approach that enabled web business, including internet business models, search engine optimisation and online reputation management.

Together, the three principals of sy-ENGAGE (and the accompanying “tribe” of suppliers and subcontractors) provide in-depth, strategic advice for organisations that wish to use social media not only to reach and engage with customers, and create buzz, but to transform their businesses.