Rick Dean has been actively engaged in sales, sales management and marketing his entire working life, spanning over 30 years.

Rick started his career as a sales representative with Burroughs Corporation (now, UNISYS). During the next 10 years, he held positions of increasing responsibility, including Account Executive, Zone Manager, Branch Manager and National Sales Manager for two different divisions. In the mid-80’s, Rick became interested in the rapidly growing personal computer industry. He was recruited and hired by Apple Computer in 1983, in which he opened their first district sales office in upstate New York. He later joined Epson America, where he was promoted to Eastern Area Manager and was responsible for all of Epson’s national chain business east of the Mississippi.

In 1989, Rick moved from Boston to Buffalo to become one of the manager/shareholders of International Imaging Materials Incorporated, better known as IIMAK. During his eight-year tenure as V.P. of Sales, he and his colleagues built IIMAK from a privately held company with under $1 million in sales and 30 employees, to a publicly held firm with $125 million in sales and over 800 employees. Rick left IIMAK in 1997, the year the company was sold. Between 1997 and 2003, he held executive level sales management positions with two Buffalo based manufacturing companies.

In 2003, Rick formed R.W. Dean Growth Solutions, his own management consulting firm based in Williamsville, New York. To date, he has completed over 130 successful engagements with businesses and organizations throughout the Western New York region. He is also very involved in the local community, serving in various leadership capacities with Buffalo Niagara Sales & Marketing Executives (BNSME), Amherst Chamber of Commerce, and University at Buffalo’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, just to name a few.

Rick earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Psychology from Miami University (Ohio), and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He resides in Williamsville, New York.