Who We Are

We're here to help you avoid trade traps. How do we do it?
With a pretty sizable helping of industry knowledge and maybe a few superpowers.

Celebrating 20 Years

 

A look at who we are and what we do here at Blacksmith Applications:

 

 

About Blacksmith Applications

Premier CPG companies choose Blacksmith Applications, which has been around since 2000. The company was founded by Paul Wietecha, who left a career at Kraft Foods to develop a comprehensive, modern trade management solution. Now we’re the industry’s leading TPM, processing more than $10 billion in trade promotions each year. We specialize in technology for businesses of all sizes, creating innovative products that deliver trade transparency for CP and foodservice organizations.

Our #1 priority is the health and welfare of our employees and customers. Click here to learn more about our business continuity plan.

 

Customer-Centric Culture

We treat customers like family and encourage our team members and application users to dream about what’s next. Join us at one of our Smoke Jumpers trade conferences to network with industry peers, get educated on industry best-practices and continuously influence what the market’s best TPM solution looks like. We know that our work will never be done. We evolve with your needs.

Our mission is to deliver trade spend transparency and enable our customers to make profitable decisions

Don’t surrender to trade management challenges just yet.

Victory (and visibility) can be yours.

We can help.

schedule a demo

Our Leaders

Passion, industry expertise and functional knowledge that our competitors can't match.

Paul Wietecha | President & CEO

Paul started Blacksmith Applications in 2000, boasting a career of 20 years in foodservice management with premier CPG companies. Since that time he has become a highly sought after trade spend advisor. With Paul at the helm, Blacksmith continues to pursue innovative solutions as we increase the value gap between our applications and ordinary alternatives.

Karen Cullom | VP, Product Development 

Karen has more than 17 years of experience with pricing analytics and revenue management in the foodservice industry. She possesses a deep understanding of the customer process from her time implementing FORGE with dozens of customers prior to taking the helm of Product Development. Karen serves as an advocate to bring the best software solutions to life.

Paul Cummings | Chief Technology Officer

Paul enjoys applying disruptive technologies to solve real-world problems for our customers. He possesses an unwavering commitment to innovation and has been working at the leading edge of technology throughout his career. From Internet Banking to Internet insurance and now cloud-based Trade Management, he takes pride in edging out the competition.

Jennifer Schiffman | VP, Marketing

Jennifer not only has a profound passion for marketing, she also holds the consumer goods industry near and dear to her heart. Jennifer’s experience in Brand, Customer and Segment marketing at Heinz (now The Kraft Heinz Company – and a valued customer) enables her to understand the benefits Blacksmith brings to clients and helps her bring that story to life.

Scott Poitevent | Chief Financial Officer

Scott is deeply committed to helping companies grow and achieve their full potential. He has a passion for improving business performance through analytics and pragmatic decision making. Scott is excited to be working with the high performing team at Blacksmith to identify innovative and impactful ways to support customers on their journey to modernize trade strategy and grow revenue.

Brian Maloney | General Manager, GoSimple

Brian joined Blacksmith in early 2018, bringing with him decades of professional experience with foodservice trade management and a team boasting the same pedigree and expertise. The GoSimple acquisition has been a win on all sides right from the start. Brian is excited to offer the best technical and customer service solutions to companies of all sizes as part of the Blacksmith family.

Terry Ziegler | General Manager, Retail TPx

Terry has over 28 years of Consumer Packaged Goods management experience in the areas of trade marketing, consumer marketing, category management, sales and finance. Professional experience includes leadership and management roles at RJR/Nabisco, Borden Foods, Dairy Farmers of America, Synectics Group and AFS Technologies.

Dan Scheunemann | VP, Sales

Dan brings more than 24 successful years of sales and sales leadership experience in technology verticals to Blacksmith. He is a passionate advocate for business development and sales process and delivers fresh exciting energy to our leadership team. Dan looks forward to welcoming customers across the CPG landscape in the coming years.

Rachael Zierden | VP, Strategic Services

Rachael has two decades of management expertise overseeing an array of trade and financial services in the CPG industry. Her team handles complex trade spend analysis, settlements, claims management and deductions management for some of the world’s leading food & beverage organizations. Rachael is passionate about improving performance and service excellence for every Blacksmith client.

Locations

Boston, MA

One Union Street
Lawrence, MA 01840

Pittsburgh, PA

1000 Cliff Mine Rd Suite 430
Coraopolis, PA 15275

Chicago, IL

300 S Wacker Drive, Suite 820
Chicago, IL 60606-6680