3PV President and CTO Dale Combs Retires

Dale Combs, president and CTO of Third Party Verification Inc. (3PV), AssureSign LLC and Marketing Systems Group Inc. (MSG) announced he has retired, effective Jan. 1, 2010. CEO David Brinkman will take on his role as president.

Combs will maintain part-time involvement through mid-year while continuing his ownership interest in the companies. Brinkman will continue to oversee daily operations of the businesses, while Combs will be involved only in high-level strategy and business decisions.

Along with Brinkman, Combs co-founded Marketing Systems Group in 1991. 3PV spun-off from MSG in 2001, and has grown to be a force in third-party verification services: 3PV was named to the Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest growing privately held companies in 2008. In 2006, AssureSign spun-off from 3PV, offering integrated electronic signature solutions via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. The companies collectively have been named to the Orlando Sentinel’s Top 100 Companies for Working Families in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

“We’ve planned this transition for quite some time and I’m confident that Dave and his team are very capable of moving the business forward. I have had the privilege of working with many talented and dynamic professionals and I will miss the organization a great deal, but it is time for me to move to a new chapter in my life,” Combs said. “I’m looking forward to spending time with family, and pursuing other activities including traveling.”

MSG was initially focused in banking, country club accounting and telecommunications software, but a decision to focus on telecommunications legacy system order automation fueled the growth of this startup. Following successes with United Telephone and Sprint, MSG became involved in nearly every residential special project offering from the late 1990s through 2005. Sprint’s project tying customer loyalty between its landline, wireless and long-distance business units, known as integrated bundling, allowed MSG the opportunity to highlight their ability to implement disparate systems integration.

The relationship with Sprint also led to the creation of 3PV, with Sprint being the first verification customer. Following the spin-off of EMBARQ from Sprint, MSG continues a business relationship with the new company.