Introducing Ivan

BrandPoint Services is thrilled to welcome Ivan Olmendo to the BrandPoint family as our new Executive Vice President of Finance. Read or watch the interview to get to know our newest team member.

Sonya Bohmann: Good afternoon and thanks for taking some time to chat with me today.

Ivan Olmedo: Yeah. Oh my pleasure. My pleasure.

Sonya Bohmann: I’d like to introduce you to the BrandPoint world, so let’s spend a few time, few minutes getting to know each other.

Ivan Olmedo: Yeah, definitely looking forward to it.

Sonya Bohmann: Awesome. So I’d like to start out with you telling us who you are and where you’re from.

Ivan Olmedo: Alright. I’m Ivan Olmedo. So originally I was born in Weehawken, New Jersey north Jersey. So at one point or another, I was a Giants fan and a Yankees fan, so don’t hold that against me. But then eventually moved down to Southern Jersey.

Been in Jersey 25 years at this point once I got past the 1 95 on the turnpike I, I had to now change my alliances to Philly. So Philly’s giants the Sixers . But in between there I did have a stint in South America. My father’s originally from Argentina and my mother’s from Peru.

And so in the effort to make us learn our mother tounge, my father decided to move us to South America, so did all high school there, and then eventually came back for college. But at this point I’m a South Jersey guy.

Sonya Bohmann: We have lots of, not just Philadelphia sports fans, but we have lots of college sports fans.

So tell us when you went to college as

Ivan Olmedo: Where I went to college, I went to a small college in Philadelphia called Holy Family. Back then it was Holy Family College. Now it’s Holy Family University. . And I majored in originally in marketing, and then switched over to international business Spanish with also an IT concentrations.

I was looking for the easy A on the minor .

Sonya Bohmann: Very nice. Very nice. So what do you do for Brand Point?

Ivan Olmedo: So for what I do for Brand Point I am now the new EVP of finance, the Executive Vice President of Finance. And in my role there is to work with the finance team to put processes and procedures in, in place to help improve what we do.

It’s been BrandPoint’s history has been amazing, had some amazing growth. And now my goal is to help put processes in place to help stabilize the beast, let’s say. And find better ways to do things. Not that we do everything wrong, that’s not what I’m saying, but we. things that we can do to make everyone’s life easier and better.

And that’s what I hope to achieve with with the finance team.

Sonya Bohmann: Just like our values say practice and continuous improvement.

Ivan Olmedo: Exactly.

Sonya Bohmann: Awesome.. All right, so let’s peel the end in back a little bit. And find out a little bit more about you since you’re a finance guy and they’re, stereotypically little stodgy, we’ll say

Tell us, are you a night owl or an earlybird?.

Ivan Olmedo: Oh, geez. Am I a night owl, or an early bird, I’m gonna have to say I am completely a night owl. Okay. I am not a fan of the mornings . If I could sleep till noon, I would. I do have a little bit of a problem, which, my years in IT and things like that, I’ve learned not to sleep very much.

So I’ve operated on a four hour sleep schedule for a long time, and I’m working on getting it to. But yeah, I can work all night. I can be up all night. I’ve seen many sunrises. Good patterned effort, but I’ve seen a lot of them, but I’m working on that. So yeah, I’m definitely a night owl.

And one thing on, I need hate onions. I think they’re the root of all evil.

Sonya Bohmann: Interesting.

Ivan Olmedo: I like them in my food as long as I don’t see them.

 Sonya Bohmann: Huh

Ivan Olmedo: It’s a texture thing.

Sonya Bohmann: No onions, note to self

Ivan Olmedo: L ie to me. I’m okay. I’m okay. You lie to me. But if you tell me there’s onions and I see ’em, then I, then

Sonya Bohmann: We pretend we don’t like it.

 All right. So how about coffee? How do you feel about coffee? Because we’re big coffee drinkers in our office.

Ivan Olmedo: Yes, I love coffee. I drink it black. Until recently. My wife, now I drink it with oat milk.

Sonya Bohmann: I’m an oat milk girl. I get it.

Ivan Olmedo: And I actually like it, but I’m not gonna tell her that.

So this part of the video, we can skip . But no, I actually I love espressos and could lead to the reason why I don’t sleep very much, possibly have a double, triple shot of espresso before I go to bed.

Sonya Bohmann: So with an IT background and a Spanish minor and all of those things, what led you to this career in finance?

Ivan Olmedo: So yeah, that, it’s been a very interesting progression on how I ended up in. In the finance and marrying both the IT and the finance world. Back early in my career Rita’s water, ice years ago there was a necessity for someone to come in and manage their accounting department because of an issue that occurred.

And I was working on the IT world at that point and, looking at how to marry the two because ultimately the accounting system is a key component of any business. That’s where everything at the end of the day resides. I started to really expand my interest in finance and found a way to marry them both.

Sonya Bohmann: Very cool. That’s awesome. So tell us one more personal question, maybe two. That’s good. what is your most prized possession?

Ivan Olmedo: My most prized possession. I’ve been going back and forth on this. And I would have to say it’s a potato that I have that looks like Elvis.

Yeah. That’s that’s one of the things that I hold deep and dear as my collection, but really kidding. I don’t have,

Sonya Bohmann: So your comedian as well.

Ivan Olmedo: I don’t have a potato . I do not have a potato that looks like Elvis. Cool. If I did, but I don’t. No, though. And going back and thinking about that question, and I’m actually talking to my wife.

Ultimately it’s my family. And yes, I know my family’s not a possession, but it is a thing that I hold clear, deepest, and closest to my heart. My kids, I have two. I have a daughter and a son 19 and 18 year old. My wife, my pets my parents, my nieces and nephews, my sibling, my sister. They’re the most important thing that I have, I don’t possess, but I have. And it’s what I will do anything to help protect or help in anything they would ever need.

Sonya Bohmann: So if you were gonna buy this family a yacht, what would you name it?

Ivan Olmedo: Oh, I have two names. Okay. For this yacht. One is I’m Going to Hell, cause I probably am, but that’s a whole nother conversation. And the other one that I think is a little more PC would be, Don’t Tell Mom.

Sonya Bohmann: Also very good, but very similar . What else would you like the Bran Plain family to know about you?

Ivan Olmedo: One thing that I think is very important and to hope people get an understanding of who I am and how I operate.

I’m a very open person. I’m very willing to listen. I know I don’t know everything. It’s gonna take me some time to. . But I’m asking you to help me learn. So feel free to always reach out to me. Tell me whatever you need to tell me. Even if you think I don’t want to hear it, I want to hear it.

That’s the only way to build a relationship and to really understand what we do and who we work with. So I want everybody to understand that I’m an open book. My door will always be open. So please feel free to reach out to me and talk about anything.

Sonya Bohmann: Thank you.

Ivan Olmedo: No, my pleasure.  Thank you very much.