Steve Klein, CEO + Creative Director

Passionately dedicated to his company, his staff, and his clients, Steve's mantra is "practice kaizen" - a Japanese value that means to always strive for improvement. It is this personal and professional philosophy that has been the key to Steve's success as a self-made entrepreneur, a best-selling author, a motivational speaker, and a family man. As one of Canada's foremost professional marketers, Steve is a voracious learner and stays at the top of the game by continuously expanding his network and gaining new skills and knowledge.

Steve holds B. Comm. and MBA degrees from Queen's University, where he majored in Strategic Planning. While his first career was in public accounting, it wasn't long before he found his true passion for sales and marketing. A highly successful corporate turnaround executive during the 1980s, Steve started his own industrial marketing and sales agency, Packaging Connections, in 1988, and parlayed his first order into a $40 million business.

For years, Steve had a dream of building a high-performance marketing company. His dream became a reality in 1995 when he founded Marketing Breakthroughs. Since then, he has worked as chief marketer and creative leader of MB. Steve is primarily in charge of client acquisition and has coached more than 150 different clients over the past 16+ years.

As Creative Director of MB, Steve has produced thousands of print, radio and TV ads and has directed over 150 branding assignments. His favourite thing about his job? Helping his clients succeed and grow beyond their expectations.

Steve is the author of the best-selling book JobWise, and has contributed to numerous professional publications, including FORUM Magazine, CPA Profitability Monthly, Ontario Dentist, and Investment Executive. Dubbed "Canada's One-Minute Motivator" by the Ottawa Citizen, Steve has written, hosted, and produced more than 2,000 daily radio shows, including two nationally syndicated features - CareerWise and A Motivational Minute.

A highly respected author, Steve has been awarded Expert Author status on EzineArticles.com and has published dozens of articles on web marketing and search engine optimization on the Internet. Many of these articles are available in our Knowledge Centre.

Over the past 20 years, Steve has delivered hundreds of seminars and workshops. In 2000, he began marketing a series of public seminars on a wide range of marketing, advertising, business development, web advertising, and sales presentation techniques. Hugely successful, these seminars have taken Steve across the continent where he has delivered his message to thousands of Canadian and U.S. professionals. For more on Steve and MB's seminars, visit www.MBseminars.ca

Steve is dedicated to helping the community through involvement in pro-bono work and by volunteering with a variety of charities. He is especially proud of his work during the past four years as the Executive Producer of the Annual Ottawa Celebrity Sports Dinner, which has raised nearly $1,000,000 for a variety of worthy Ottawa charities, including the Ottawa Senators Foundation, the Queensway Hospital Foundation, Citizen Advocacy, Football Canada, and the Soloway Jewish Community Centre.

Since 2008, Steve and the Marketing Breakthroughs team have worked behind the scenes for Ottawa's Gold Plate Dinner, overseeing branding, creative, and production of this important gala fundraiser for the Ottawa Heart Institute and Ottawa's Greek community. During the past two years, Steve has been the Executive Producer of this gala event, which has raised more than $300,000 for these charities.

Between September and December 2005, he served as the Senior Marketing Advisor to the Ottawa Bid Committee for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Between 2001 and 2003, Steve served as the Campaign Advisor to the Town of Greater Napanee's Capital Campaign, which raised over $1,100,000 for their new community centre. During this period, he also designed another highly successful Capital Campaign for Pathways To Independence, which raised $125,000 for a variety of projects to help the developmentally disabled in Belleville, Ontario.

In November 2002, Steve was elected President of the Heron Lake Community Association, which he held until June 2004. While in this position, he successfully negotiated the first ever neighbourhood partnership agreement between a Canadian military base and local community.

A huge Senators fan, Steve lives in rural Ottawa with his wife Cathy and their beloved retriever, Big Jack.

Follow Steve on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.