Marquette Group was founded in 1963 in Peoria, Illinois as the Charles Ruppman Agency.

In 1996, current CEO and co-owner Chris Cummings purchased Ruppman's Yellow Pages division. Soon the company reinvented itself as Marquette Group. In 2004, Cummings purchased USMotivation, an incentive awards and event management company located in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 2008, Marquette Group opened a Canadian division focused on directional media and response measurement services that generates qualified measurable leads for advertisers. Less than a year later, we further supported the Canadian growth plan by announcing a merger with a Quebec-based marketing services company.

In 2011, we acquired select assets from one of our former competitors as the company was dissolved. These assets included Atlanta, Toronto, Memphis and St. Louis offices and clients, as well as the order platform and members of the executive, client services and operations teams. We now offer full service offices in Atlanta, St. Louis, Toronto and Montreal, in addition to our headquarters in Peoria.

Marquette Group is co-owned by Chris Cummings and Eric Webb, both actively engaged in daily operations and client strategy.

Fully accessible to our clients, Chris and Eric set the tone for our highly responsive account management teams who provide proactive campaign oversight and management and high-touch service to each client, helping us achieve high marks on our annual client satisfaction survey and unprecedented client tenure, one of whom has been with us since we began in 1963.

Through solid and balanced leadership, we have enjoyed year-over-year growth despite the severe economic downturn. Our revenue has grown an average of 7 percent annually from 2006 to 2010.

We consistently rank highly on internal employee satisfaction surveys and have ranked in the top 25 of "The Best Places to Work in Illinois'" in both 2008 and 2010.