About Us

Rick has been founding, leading, and growing successful companies for more than 35 years. Rick, along with his business partner Joe Thomas, most recently founded the Competitive Edge Organization LLC. The CEO-Edge helps successful CEOs achieve an even higher performance level in both their business and personal endeavors. Rick founded and is the CEO of Breathe – Freedom from Nicotine, a business/social service organization that has

helped many thousands of people quit smoking, chewing, vaping and nicotine gum addictions. Rick also founded and manages Doceo Solutions, LLC, which provides a broad array of consulting services to companies looking for new and different ways to put information into action. 

Rick was CEO and co-founder of ACI Telecentrics, Inc. He served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the company from its inception in 1987 until 2005. At 24, Rick and his partner Gary Cohen founded ACI with just $4,000 and they led it to its international scope. ACI had an annual growth rate that averaged 50% per year for 15 years.  ACI  completed its IPO on NASDAQ in 1996.  ACI operated more than a dozen offices and employed more

than 2,200 people in the U. S. and across three countries. 

Rick has a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Juris Doctorate from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. Rick also studied International Relations at the University of London and completed Harvard Business School’s OPM program.  

Rick is a licensed attorney in Minnesota, and he has been involved in the founding or acquisition of several other businesses over the past 35 years, including insurance, training of bodyguards of heads of state, travel, technology and office products dealerships. Rick was active in the International Organization of CEOs, since 1996.

Rick has spoken at many business conferences such as the DMA, TBT, ATA, the National Conference on

Database Marketing, and Direct Marketing to Business and Industry Conference.  Rick has spoken as a visiting lecturer at the University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Business, Morrison Center for Entrepreneurship, and Univ. of St. Thomas MBA program. Rick served in the Carlson School of Business Mentors program. Rick has also

served on the Board of Directors of the Animal Humane Society, the Board of Governors of the Alzheimer Association of Minnesota, President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of MN, and the Boards of Directors for ThreeWire Inc., C-Tech Inc, IntelAccount, The Sustainable Cities Project, Non-Profit Partners, Conservation Beyond Borders and helped co-found MN SNAP (MN SNAP has provided more than 175,000 free or low-cost subsidized surgeries for the pets of low income people across Minnesota since 2010).

Rick has been featured in many media, including; Twin Cities Business magazine, CitiBusiness, Minnesota Ventures, TeleProfessional, Wall Street Reporter, St. Paul Pioneer Press, a KARE 11 News extra, The Navigator, Minneapolis StarTribune, International Voice Technology Review, JATA, Wall Street Transcript, CEOcast, Ventures Magazine, Profits Journal, Upsize Magazine, AM1280The Patriot, BOB radio, Simon & Shuster’s-Bureau of

Business Practices, NewsTalk 1130, The Business Forum Show and others.

Rick has also been honored with several awards, including; CitiBusiness 40 Under 40 Award, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award finalist, along with many recognitions given to Rick’s companies over the past years; including the ACCE Excellence Award, the MVP Quality Award, GTE World Champion of Vendors Award, Ventures Magazine Top 10 Best Performing Businesses Award, Quebec’s Coup de Coeur Award, The Business Journal’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Companies, many Top 50 Awards and several Rising Star Awards.

Other assorted past experiences:

* Judicial Clerkship - State District Court of Minnesota - 4th Judicial District

* Attorney - Law Offices of Stern, Levine, Lifson, Wagner & Strauss

* CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) certified

* Editor of the Piranha Press book, "Neither Madmen Nor Messiahs - A prescription for U.S. defense policies"

written by Senator David Durenberger – Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee

 Joe has been instrumental in leading and growing companies successfully for more than 40 years.  Most recently he and his business partner, Rick Diamond, founded The Competitive Edge Organization LLC (The CEO-Edge). The company helps successful CEOs achieve an even higher performance level in both their business and personal endeavors. Joe has been the President and/or CEO of 10 companies, has spent 16 years in a leadership position within the Carlson Companies, and 10 years in the leadership of Gage Marketing companies. Other notable successful companies Joe has founded are Mid-State Promotions LLC, a marketing group founded as a joint venture with the Carlson Companies, and Skybridge Marketing Group Inc., a customer relationship management company with over 1,500 employees. 

In 2002 he founded JR Thomas and Associates – a diversified business consulting practice that continues to help businesses achieve a higher level of performance, has M&A advisory services, and which focuses on driving increased revenue growth. In 2020, Joe was named as one of the TOP 50 Business Brokers of Florida. 

After graduating from the Indiana University School of Business with his B.S., he furthered his education by doing significant MBA course work at the University of St. Thomas and graduated from the Carlson School of Executive Management. In addition to his robust education and practical business knowledge, Joe has significant international experience. As the President of Carlson Marketing Group – Europe, he was responsible for the leadership of 14 subsidiary companies across the continent. Additionally, he was a pioneer in the Canadian call center industry, and has also worked across the border in Mexico with both call center and marketing services companies. 

Joe has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Business Services Inc., a wholly owned company of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, was a Board Advisor to Marketing Alternatives LLC, a diversified services company, and Board Advisor to Emerge LLC, a contact center based in the country of Guyana.