Dean Cruse brings 20 years of strategic marketing expertise with emerging enterprise and Internet software companies to PerformanceRetail. As EVP of Sales & Marketing, Cruse is responsible for driving PerformanceRetail's strategic marketing initiatives, market and product positioning, product definition, product launch, outbound communications and strategic alliance activities. Cruse also oversees PerformanceRetail's customer acquisition and business development efforts. Prior to PerformanceRetail, Cruse was a Venture Fellow at AV Labs, the seed-stage accelerator arm of Austin Ventures, one of the largest and most established venture capital firms in the United States. At AV Labs, Cruse evaluated ideas for new ventures and provided executive-level operational assistance to a variety of early stage software companies. Prior to AV Labs, Cruse served as VP of Marketing for Acuity Corporation where he developed, championed and implemented the company's transformation from ichat, Inc., a consumer-oriented Internet brand into a leading enterprise software provider of Internet-based customer relationship management solutions. Later, he was instrumental in the sale of Acuity to Quintus Corporation as well as Quintus' successful IPO. Prior to Acuity, Cruse held VP of Marketing roles for CSC's Financial Services Group and the Plexus Software Division of Recognition International. Cruse received a B.B.A. in Marketing from Texas A&M University and has participated in graduate business studies at the Harvard Business School, the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the University of Dallas.