The Galen Group: Who We Are

We all know that a business is as good as its people.

Unfortunately, it's also as expensive as its people.

You learn that with a lot of large general marketing firms: your bill ends up showing the services of a whole staff of twenty or thirty sitting individuals -- while only three or four of them do the actual work.

At the Galen Group, we do it differently. We've found that if you want to do a good cost-effective job for your client, you have to tailor your services to his needs, not to your own staff overhead. As a result, our business consists of a few core individuals, and a large extended network of professional talent, information services, and consultancies hired for specific individual assignments. This enables us to extend our pool of talent as far as the largest job might require, or to cost-effectively focus it to the point where we can provide certain services for barely a few hundred dollars.

Yes, our people have worked for some of the larger companies.  (You've heard of the Department of Defense, I suppose?), and though we've worked with clients as modestly sized as one-person dental practices, we've also served the largest group practice in the State of New York. But we do have preferences.  And we prefer talking to people who can make decisions, not to subcommittees that put them off.  Which is why we prefer to work with professional practices -- legal, medical, financial, and so on -- and with medium-sized entrepreneurial-driven businesses. That's where we've specialized; that's where we've succeeded. And we believe in sticking to what we do best.

And who are we?

JONATHAN TASKER RICH, founder and president of the Galen Group, was born in South Portland, Maine, on June 1st, 1955. He is the son of Robert P. Rich, the current International Marketing Manager for Agriculture of the State of Virginia, and Suzanne Tasker. Mr Rich's forebears first came to America on the Mayflower and were among the earliest settlers of the nation. His roots are British and Scottish, and he is a descendant of the noted English pirate, Captain Richard Rich. ("Which is probably why I feel so at home in the corporate world these days," he says.)

Jon Rich was raised in Ohio and in Princeton, New Jersey, studied at Hope College in Michigan, where he received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Chemistry and English. After a tour of the Far East, he returned to the States and married in 1977. He subsequently received a Masters degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1980, and an MBA at New York University in New York City in 1984. His son was born in 1983. Beginning in 1982, Mr Rich worked for the Meredith Corporation as Circulation Manager for Metropolitan Home magazine. In late 1986 he left to form his own corporation -- The Galen Group.  The organization was intended in the beginning to focus exclusively on the marketing of medical and dental practices, but was so successful that it soon found itself working with clients in other professional fields, and eventually expanded to include corporate clients and businesses as well.

Mr Rich moved the organization to New York in 1989, settling in Rochester NY, where he now makes his home. Mr Rich and his wife divorced amicably in 1992; he re-married in 1996. In 1993, Mr Rich converted to Judaism, and currently donates his services on marketing and educational committees at Temple Beth El and other Jewish organizations. Mr Rich has taught and lectured at various colleges and universities and is the author of numerous articles. He has a particular love of the music of the American composer and businessman Charles Ives, and of the poet Walt Whitman. He is currently captain of a Rochester squash team. You can read a letter from him hear on our site, as well as contact him by email at [email protected].

RUDY MATIC, Senior Partner of the Group, was born on New Year's Day, 1954. His father, Tomo Matic, was born in that segment of the late Royal Austro-Hungarian Empire that is now known as Bosnia; his mother, Natasha Fyodorovna Ptahina, is Russian. Originally raised in Buffalo, he and his family moved to Rochester in 1960. Mr Matic distinguished himself in high school, winning a full Regents Scholarship with the highest score of his graduating class. He subsequently received a baccalaureate degree in Psychology from the University of the State of New York, followed by a second baccalaureate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, becoming the sole member of his graduating class to graduate with Highest Honors. In 1988 Mr Matic received an award for his writing from the nationally known organization Writers & Books.

He has worked extensively in advertising and direct mail, is a former President of the University of Rochester Go Society, and has traveled not long ago to England, France, and parts of former Yugoslavia. Mr Matic has practitioner certification in personal and corporate performance training, and is a member of the Conservative Party of New York State, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, The Cryonics Institute, and Mensa.  He can be contacted at [email protected].

BONNIE ABRAMS, our Executive Coordinator, was born in New York City. She is the daughter of Hyman Abrams and Eva Vezer, who immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1949. After attending the Bronx High School of Science, Ms Abrams, an ardent environmentalist, went on to earn a Bachelors of Science in Biology from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. She graduated in 1977, and went on to work for the National Science Foundation from 1977 to 1980. In 1980 she joined the Canandaigua Wine Company and rose to the rank of second in charge in the Upstate New York plant of the second largest wine company in the United States.

Ms Abrams became part of The Galen Group in 1992. A registered Democrat, she is active in liberal politics, and also is well known as a recording artist. Her releases include 'Life In Blue', and the CD's 'Wine, Woman and Song' and 'A Sudenyu of Yiddish Song', and many others. Further information on her recordings, as well as a digitized sample of her singing, may be accessed by contacting her recording company, Dynamic Recordings.  Ms. Abrams may be contacted at [email protected] 

Though our pool of professional aides is too large to mention here, we at The Galen Group are particularly pleased to be able to use on a regular basis the wonderfully expert graphics work of Mr GALEN HAGAR-RICH, and of Ms ELAINE VERSTRAETE; and especially the services of one of the most talented and knowledgeable copywriters in New York, Mr DAVID PASCAL, the author of this web page. Mr Pascal freelances, and may be contacted via his web page, at www.davidpascal.com.