Our Team

The ThomasSchumerGroup is composed of seasoned business professionals with strong backgrounds in a number of industries including:  Legal, Insurance, Financial, Marketing, Business Development, Information Technology, Social Media, and Industrial and Graphic Design.

Ed Schumer
Co-Founder | Chief Executive Officer
ThomasSchumer Group

Ed Schumer has over 40 years of business experience with a strong background in the retail, wholesale, service, consulting, and insurance industries. Ed is recognized as an expert in the relationship-selling model and specializes in a consultative selling approach.

He is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the ThomasSchumerGroup, a specialized marketing, management, and consulting agency.

He also founded Identity Security Consultants Group, LLC – an identity theft risk management firm where he is a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist (CITRMS). Ed also serves as a Regional Manager for LegalShield® specializing in recruitment, training, and Small Business and Group Benefits.

Ed is a member of many prestigious organizations including, the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) and the National Association for the Self Employed, in addition to being noted as a Member of Distinction in the McLean County Chamber of Commerce.

Ed is married to Joyce Thomas (his partner in ThomasSchumerGroup) and resides in Lexington, IL with additional offices in St. Louis, Mo. and Cooperstown, NY.


Joyce Thomas
Co-Founder | Chief Creative Officer
ThomasSchumer Group

Joyce Thomas, MFA, IDSA is an innovator and educator with a passion fordesign and entrepreneurship. As a professional industrial designer and design coach, she has worked across interdisciplinary boundaries and integrated marketing, engineering, and consumer needs into creative products for 30+ years.

Joyce has invented products that have been awarded 59 US and international patents. She has employed the consumer as an active participant in the designing process, utilizing user-centered design, design ethnography, and empathic design research methods.

Joyce is a professor at the Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship and a Visiting Scholar at the Beckman Institute of Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She teaches design thinking, studio and entrepreneurship courses.

As Chief Creative Officer for the ThomasSchumerGroup she is helping to develop creative ideas and innovative solutions for a diverse group of small businesses.


Heather Hollaway
Chief Communications Officer
ThomasSchumer Group

Heather Hollaway is the founder of Cooper Leigh Productions, a company she established in 2010 to provide corporate Videography and Photography services for online marketing.

For her education, Heather studied at Olivet Nazarene University where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in Film Studies.

Additionally, Heather spent time in Los Angeles working closely with film professionals both through studying at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center (LAFSC), and completing her internship at Buddha Jones Inc., a post-production house who made box-office movie trailers.

In addition to her role in Cooper Leigh Productions, Heather also acts as the Chief Communication Officer for the ThomasSchumerGroup, and the Director of Videography at both MyInspiredMedia and Inspired Publishing Group.

Heather has proudly been married to her wonderful husband, Steve Hollaway since 2009.


Steve Hollaway
Chief Technology Officer
ThomasSchumer Group

As an avid technology enthusiast Steve has spent most of his life tinkering and loving technology. At the age of 16 he began to teach himself HTML, and quickly found a love of both software and hardware.

Shortly thereafter he joined the U.S. Army and became a Signal Sergeant. After his final deployment in 2009, Steve returned home and married his fiance Heather.

In 2010 Steve was approached by ThomasSchumerGroup with the opportunity to work with them on their Web Based and Technology based operations.

Today, Steve serves as the Chief Technology Officer for ThomasSchumerGroup.

 


Nicole Allen
Chief Financial Officer
ThomasSchumer Group Affiliate

Nicole graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 2010 with her Master’s Degree in Professional Accountancy from Illinois State University. She holds credentials as a certified public accountant (CPA) and a certified business valuation analyst (CVA).

Her professional work involves business and personal tax preparation, audit work, financial statement preparation, business valuations and fraud investigation/prevention. She specializes in the areas of startup businesses and QuickBooks training as well as general business consulting.

Nicole holds a position at Insight Financial, LLC in Bloomington in addition to acting as the Chief Financial Officer for the ThomasSchumerGroup..