Customer Support Order Entry Manager - Freeman Fabrication

DFW FWD Chapter Leaders

Ruth Foster

Customer Support Order Entry Manager - Freeman Fabrication

Ruth began her Freeman career in 2006 as a Customer Support call center representative. In 2008, during the Order Entry team’s infancy, Ruth joined as Coordinator. Today, as Manager of Customer Support Order Entry, Ruth oversees a team of 19 representatives devoted to customer satisfaction. A Star of Excellence winner in 2012, Ruth is devoted to hiring, training, and developing employees in our True Blue culture.She has served as BCSC member, chair and AHA captain in her years with Freeman. As a chapter lead of FWD, she is excited to learn and grow in her career and champion others who are motivated toward the same.

Morgan Ferrick

Senior Project Manager, Customer Experience

Morgan began her career with Champion Exposition Services in 2010 as an Account Executive intern. She was later offered a job as a Kit Administrator where she stayed until 2011.

In 2011, she came over to Freeman with the Champion Acquisition. She moved from Massachusetts to Dallas to be a Project Manager in Corporate Exhibitor Services. She was responsible for maintaining the master Kit forms for all branches, being the point of contact for Kits, Freeman Online and Exact Target for the field and recently last year taking on the custom website project for CES. She was the main point of contact for CEA and helped them develop a custom website on Freeman Online.

She currently serves in the role of Senior Project Manager in Customer Experience, under the leadership of Katy Wild. In this role, she still works with CEA to develop their website year over year as well as manages projects that come in through the department. Some of these projects include the Great People=Great Decisions certification and the Huddle Us Playbooks.

Morgan earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Sports/Entertainment/Event Management from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. She is a member of PMI (Project Management Institute).

Ivette Smith

Clerk, Operations

My name is Ivette Smith I was born in Laredo, Texas my family and I moved to Dallas when I was 18 months old. I attended Catholic private school and later went to Beauty College. I am a proud mother of 5 children ages 3-20. I have 3 beautiful girls with my first marriage and 2 very handsome sons in my second marriage. I’m very thankful God has blessed me with a wonderful family.

Life was very hard for me financially and I quickly understood the importance of preparation, hard work, and respect. I applied these values to my endeavors by making an inventory of resources, planning my activities for efficiency, working on my goals every single day.

Along with working fulltime at Freeman Decorating Company I own my business in tax preparation services. My upbringing has completely supported my development and I am thankful for it.

Kristine Hartkopf

Customer Support Center Supervisor

Kristine joined Freeman in July 2010 as a part time Customer Support Center representative and brought with her years of experience in various customer service and sales environments. Since then Kristine has held both full time representative and team Coordinator positions within CSC. Kristine became the Supervisor for the Customer Support Center in 2013 and works to create a collaborative environment for her team that focuses on outstanding service and efficiency for Freeman customers. In her Freeman career, Kristine was a Service Star and a Star of Excellence nominee (3 years), has helped bring home six JD Power Call Center certifications, was involved in the Grand Prairie Holiday and CSC Birthday committees, and also co-wrote and co-directed a video that helped CSC be a semi-finalist in the 2013 ICMI Global Call Center of the Year awards. Kristine is currently participating in the FWD Mentorship program and is now a second year FWD Chapter Leader for Grand Prairie.

Rhonda Lynn

Senior IT Business Analyst, IT

Rhonda joined Freeman in 2013 as a business analyst in IT, focusing efforts on designing and building solutions for internal-facing systems.

Starting on an S&OP project designed to improve operational efficiencies allowed Rhonda to quickly get up-to-speed on Freeman’s business. Soon she was immersed in the worlds of Freight Operations and Freeman XP, as both groups launched “discovery” projects to develop systems roadmaps that would support current business operations as well as growth strategies for the foreseeable future.

Having come to Freeman with extensive business analysis experience from a Fortune 500 company, Rhonda has been excited to apply her knowledge and skills in such a vibrant and dynamic company and industry. In addition to her professional pursuits, Rhonda volunteers her time with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., an international organization of professional women providing service to communities around the globe, with a particular focus on education for girls and young women.

Rhonda holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Dallas and a Master of Science degree in Technical Communication from Colorado State University. She is married to Keith, and has a daughter (Jessica), a son (Nick), a daughter-in-law (Kala), a granddaughter (Nia), and a stepdaughter (Jordan).

Dee Cousins

Office Manager, South Central and Southeast Regions

Freeman Exposition

Dee Cousins, Office Manager for South Central and Southeast Regions, Freeman Exposition. She serves as the point person for the two regions for budget related reporting, sales related tracking, employee administration and company policy and procedure issues.

In 2013, Dee moved toSenior Administrative Assistant for the National Sales Group, Team 2 supporting the team in various functions including, but not limited to, budget review, office management, and meeting planning.

In 2008, Dee began her career at Freeman as the Administrative Assistant in the Exposition Sales Department at the corporate office. She currently serves on the American Heart Committee, Customer Service Committee and is a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. Dee was also the recipient of the Star of Excellence Award in 2013.

Before her career at Freeman, Dee was employed at Metro Technology Centers in Oklahoma City where she started as the switchboard operator and was promoted to various levels of administrative positions and later worked as a trainer/facilitator. After 23 years of service, she moved to Texas with her husband when his company transferred to Dallas, which ultimately prompted her prosperous career at Freeman.

Dee attended the University of Oklahoma to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts. She enjoys reading, especially about customer service and leadership. She also enjoys college football, riding horses, spending time with family and the outdoors.

Adrienne Sergeant

Senior Product Manager, Freeman Technology Suite

Adrienne Sergeant is a Senior Product Manager for the Freeman Technology Suite Product Team. In her current role, Adrienne handles creating web solutions and enhancements for products we offer our customers. She currently manages PlanTour and Concierge Elite.

Adrienne began her career with Freeman 9 years ago in Corporate Events as an Account Manager. Moving exclusively to product management, Adrienne has supported or been a part of the several product development projects including PassPort.

Customer Service has always been the common thread throughout her career, including account management for several Estee Lauder companies as well as the Marketing/Exhibit Manager for Customer Minded Associates.

Adrienne grew up in Dallas and returned here to start her career with Freeman.

Adrienne lives in the Valley Ranch area of Irving and has many hobbies including interior design and growing roses.

Chakietha Hicks

Administration Supervisor

Chakietha Hicks, Administration Supervisor for the Freeman Dallas branch joined Freeman full time in June 2004. She attended Panola College, graduated and began her career in the legal field and began by supporting various Judges and the District Attorney. She then went on to attend Devry University for Computer Technology and eventually made the permanent move to Dallas, Texas.

She began work as a legal assistant with a law firm based in Dallas, while still attending school full time. She eventually made a complete career change and left the legal field. She went to work with VWR Scientific as a Project Manager within their Furniture Division in Irving, Texas.

She left VWR Scientific and took a temporary position as Sales System Administrator with Freeman Dallas in April 2004. In June 2004 she became a permanent employee as a Sales System Administrator. After two years, she was promoted to Sales System Supervisor and in 2009 she won the Star of Excellence award.

Heather Chapman

Director of Sales

Heather joined Freeman in March of 2004 as an Account Executive bringing with her sales and event experience from ABC / ESPN Radio. Her background and education includes a BBA in Marketing from the University of North Texas. She was promoted to Sales Manager in the Dallas branch Expo office in 2006 and became Director of Sales in July of 2008.

Heather is a proud graduate of the Freeman iLead program and holds her CEM certification. She is currently serving on the Advisory Committee for the Richland College T.E.M.M. program as their marketing chair.

She is honored to be a part of Freeman FWD and is looking forward to learning more from the group.

Angie Richard
Office Manager, Freeman Dallas

Angie began her Freeman career in 1991. Prior to coming to Freeman, she received her BBA in Management and Marketing at Loyola University of New Orleans. After graduating she worked for a small cruise line based out of New Orleans, first in reservations and eventually as the administrative assistant coordinating all of their trade show information. This was the perfect transition into her Freeman career.

Angie started with Freeman New Orleans as an Exhibitor Services Representative and was later promoted to Exhibitor Services Supervisor. In July 1995, she transferred to the Dallas Corporate office, starting in Accounts Payable, then transferring to Credit & Collections until she was approached to start the Freeman Help Desk.

Angie was the Help Desk Supervisor from 1996 until 2005. In 2005, she started the QA and testing group and began testing all of the internal Freeman applications. In 2008, she moved to her current role as the Office Manager of the Freeman Dallas office. Being a member of FWD since its first year, she is now looking forward to the additional responsibilities of being a Chapter Leader.

Angie and her husband Randy are preparing to be empty nesters. Their oldest, Victoria, is already in college in Louisiana. Their youngest, Nicole is starting her senior year in high school.

Alex Flores

Office Manager

Alex started working for Freeman as the Office Manager in Austin back in January 1989 when it was known as AVW Audio Visual. She was there for 9 years. Within this time, she was called to assist with problems in the St. Louis and Chicago Sheraton Hotel offices.

She later transferred to Chicago in the summer of 1998 as the Office Manager for AVW-TELAV where she remained for seven years. While in Chicago, she married Alan Flores who workedin our Austin office. Theyhave two children, Nicholas who is 14 and Samuel who is 13. Both of theirchildren haveAutism.

She then transferred back to Dallas in 2005 as the Executive Admin for Craig Smith, Darren Temple, Ed Goodman and Judy Owen in the Freeman AV corporate office. Later in 2005, she moved with Judy Owen into the Training Department where she remained for three years as a Training Coordinator.

In 2008, she transferred into the “Atlas” project as the Office Manager. Upon the completion of the SAP implementation, she became a Project Coordinator in the IT Department. Today, she serves as Office Manager out of the Freeman Corporate Distribution Center.

Rachel Hollis

Office Manager, Alford Media Services

Rachel joined Alford Media in 2011 as an Administrative Assistant and within a year was promoted to Office Manager. She quickly became an integral member ofAlford’s support team, gaining universal staff recognition by being named Alford’s Employee of the Year for 2012. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in History from the University of North Texas. Her initial career plan was to be a high school teacher, but she decided to pursue a career where she could optimize her servant attitude. She comes from a retail environment where she honed her customer service skills and excelled in numerous positions. Rachel loves learning about the live events industry and the rapidly changing technology keeps her intrigued.

Her boundless curiosity has resulted in bookshelves overloaded with biographies. She has been a volunteer for United Way and KaBOOM!,a non-profit that builds playgrounds for children growing up in poverty. Rachel lives in Melissa, Texas with her husband Chris. Though the road has taken her many places, Rachel was born in Texas and she is proud to be back home in the Lone Star State.

Cathy Ives

Director, Operations Freeman Audio Visual, Dallas

Cathy became part of the Freeman family in 2002 when she started with Freeman Audio Visual (AVW Telav at that time) in Las Vegas as a Production Manager.

Cathy has been involved in theater and live event production since the age of 15. She graduated from Webster University with a BFA in Stage Management and Technical Production and has begun working on her Masters of Business Administration degree at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Before being promoted to Director of Operations in August 2014, Cathy had served as the Production Services Manager. She is passionate about leading with Freeman values and is dedicated to ensuring the success of our employees, our clients, and our events. Cathy is honored to be a Freeman FWD Chapter Leader and looks forward to encouraging, developing, and supporting FWD members.

In her spare time, Cathy enjoys camping, mountain biking and spending time with her husband Lee, and her son Justin.

Chelsea Dyer

Business Development Manager, FreemanXP

Chelsea joined Freeman in February 2006 as a part-time Customer Support Representative. After earning her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington, she joined the team full-time and became the Customer Support Center Manager in March 2010. In this position, she was proud to lead the team during the Champion acquisition, launch of live web chat and the Hurricane Sandy initiative. In her Freeman career, Chelsea has been a Star of Excellence nominee four times and has helped bring home five J.D. Power and Associates certifications for call center excellence.

In April 2013, Chelsea transitioned into the Quality Assurance Supervisor position for the Customer Support Center where she piloted a quality program for chat and email customer interactions and supported the Customer Support Center in their continued excellence.

Recently in 2015, she has joined FreemanXP as a Business Development Manager.

Michelle Longoria Young

Designer, SC Regional Design

As Designer/Detailer, Michelle brings over 15 years of industry experience to Freeman’s South Central Regional Design Center. Her aggressive and conscientious work ethic, mastery of multiple design programs, precise communication skills and visionary concepts make her a key player in Freeman’s creative scene and a valued team member for both the Freeman Sales Force and our customers. During her tenure at Freeman, Michelle has excelled at numerous creative positions with emphasis on all facets of the design process, directing projects from initial concept to final production. She has successfully partnered with clients such as Alcon, Mc Donald’s, National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), SHRM, BIO, and SAP.

Michelle earned her professional certification in Advanced Computer‐Aided Design (CAD) from Mountain View College and has served as an officer for the Dallas Fort Worth AutoCAD Users Group. In addition to her duties as Designer, Michelle managed the Design Center’s detailing section, overseeing the accuracy of production detail drawings.

In her role as Designer, Michelle is committed to listening to your needs and transforming them into functional and aesthetic three‐dimensional reality. Throughout the process, she will work alongside you to ensure a positive partnership and delivery of service which meets your expectations and a product which fulfills your business objectives.

Sandra Moreno

Customer Success Manager, Sales Operations Freeman

Sandra is a Customer Success Manager within the Sales Operations Team with Freeman. Sandra specializes in helping clients become proficient with Freeman systems such as PassPort and PlanTour. From initial training to ongoing support, Sandra is their patient and friendly lifeline. Thanks to her efforts, clients such as the American Academy of Neurology and the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers have learned that they can count on Freeman to provide exceptional service and support.

Sandra credits her deep background in customer service for her ability to adjust her presentation style to the needs of each individual client, providing them with an informative and non-stressful training experience. Clients gain important peace of mind, knowing she is a friendly face they can turn to for assistance long after their initial training is complete. Since joining Freeman in 2009, Sandra worked in the Customer Order Entry Department in Grand Prairie and as a Senior Exhibitor Services Representative in Chicago.

Sandra was born in Dallas and received her Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Marketing as well as an MBA from the University of Texas, Arlington. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, running, and watching her hometown sports teams.