Strata

Joy Baer Executive Vice President, COO

Problem solving – that’s truly what energizes Joy Baer.  That dates back to her days as CEO for SpotBuySpot (SBS), where she directed new business and enterprise-scale software development initiatives.  “I like to get in front of clients and problem solve – to really dig deep and find out their needs and come back and build for success.”  It was during her time as CEO of SBS that she also gained a unique focus.  “Running my own business gave me the appreciation for efficiency and bottom line,” said Baer. “I bring that perspective to STRATA’s customers and am sensitive to that.”

Now the Custom Division at STRATA, SBS continues to be the industry leader in e-Business, research, business and financial solutions for media companies.  “The proof is in the pudding.  Our strength is our core ability to execute.  At the end of the day, we listen and turn needs into software solutions and products that help the bottom line of companies.”

As STRATA’s Executive Vice President, Baer leads the development and support of existing software while evolving the product to a new “enterprise” standard targeting the larger agency marketplace.  “It used to be we were bringing technology into companies, now people are coming to us saying – I need multimedia platforms and digital formats and analytics.  We make promises and keep them.”

Baer started writing software for advertising agencies in 1992.  Early on, she went to ad agencies and listened closely to what seemed to be most time consuming and difficult about their workflow.  “As agency margins have shrunk over the years, we have pushed ourselves to work harder and find the efficiencies that make a difference to the agency’s bottom line.  This approach has been a win for us and our clients.”

Prior to her work at SBS, Baer worked in Computer Aided Communication with Fortune 500 Company Watson Wyatt.  “We wrote programs to help communicate employee benefit information to large organizations.  We also worked on and shaped the direction for a Window-based pension software application that helped companies manage their pension plans - pretty cutting edge stuff for the time.”

“In my early software development experiences, I wrote the software myself, so I knew intimately what worked and what didn’t.  Today, I am very sensitive to what works for our development teams and how to drive to useful solutions.”

Born and raised in Chicago, Baer’s focus outside of work is her family.  “I love to be with my kids.  My son is a rock star skateboarder and my daughter is a champion figure skater.”  Right now, Baer is in the planning stages of building a half pipe for her son to use to hone his skating skills.  But don’t expect to see her on a skateboard anytime soon.  “Oh, that’s all for him – I only skate in my mind’s eye.”