Meet the Team

When we say we are experts in real estate IDX technologies and websites we really mean it. YourMLSSearch was one of the first real estate technology companies in the United States to spearhead the IDX revolution in the late 90s.

We invite you to meet our team.

Richard Gage - President / Co-Founder

Rick Gage is CEO and founder of YourMLSsearch. He helped develop the first branded property searches on the Internet back in the late nineties with co-founder Alain Nisam. He is a Director of Carlson Companies, a travel and hospitality giant and owner of Radisson and TGI Friday's brands. Rick also works with several philanthropic and non-profit organizations including World Childhood, a foundation focusing on child exploitation and trafficking. He graduated from Augsburg College where he earned a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature and Art History.

 

Alain Nisam - COO / Co-Founder

Alain Nisam co-founded YourMLSSearch and is Chief Operations Officer. Alain uses his more than 12 years of experience in the real estate industry to provide technological and operational guidance, leadership and direction to the company. Over the years, Alain has been instrumental in developing innovative IDX and VOW solutions.

Alain has spent a total of 8 years living abroad in diverse cities including: Paris France, Brussels Belgium and London England. Alain is fluent in French and lived abroad for many years in Paris, Brussels and London. Alain is an accomplished classically trained guitarist and has written compositions performed by the University of Minnesota string orchestra and various other artists. He attended the University of Minnesota and earned his undergraduate degree in French.

 

Katie Montour - Operations Manager

Katie Montour has been with YourMLSSearch since 2006. After being a retail manager for 15 years she decided she wanted to go back to working directly with customers. She started out in Customer Service and Sales and is now responsible for managing operational activities.

Using her management experience and knowledge, Katie developed and implemented the training program used to train new Account Managers. These days Katie spends most of her time coaching and assisting the Account Managers as well as being the first level technical contact the Account Managers consult on projects and issues. She is the “go to” person for pretty much anything anyone is the office needs and has been given the title of “Keeper of All Things.”

Katie is currently working on her Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a specialty in Entrepreneurial Management. She is married to Troy Montour, our Director of Technology and they have three “fur children,” Sabrina, Bear and Isaboo.

 

Troy Montour - Director of Technology

Troy Montour started working for YourMLSsearch.com in 2005 as our primary Cold Fusion Developer, after leaving to try some new things in 2007 Troy came back as the Director of Technology in October 2008.

Troy graduated from Brown Institute in 1998. He specializes in Web Design and Development, E-Commerce Systems, Hardware Maintenance and Repair, Database Development and Integration, Network Administration and Cold Fusion Development. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional and is also A+ Network Certified. His expertise in the various aspects of the IT world is what makes him our go to person for all of our programming and computer system needs. His most recent project has been the development and implementation of a new system server for our customers’ websites and services.

He is married to Katie Montour, our Operations Manager and they have three “fur children,” Sabrina, a Siberian Husky, Bear, a Black lab/Pit bull Mix and Isaboo, a Samoyed mix. At home he can typically be found working on home improvements, like re-modeling the kitchen or building furniture.

 

Βrian Βird- Development Engineer

Βrian Βcame to work at YourMLSsearch in August 2006. Βrian graduated from The Art Institutes International Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design and Web Development in March of 2002. Immediately after graduating Βrian worked for a small local web designer company, after they had to shut down Βrian came to work for us where his design and programming experience was quickly put to use in creating some of our top customers’ websites. Βrian’s knowledge in Coldfusion, MSSQL, Javascript, ASP and PHP, has progressed him further in the company to a programmer position working with higher-level applications and programs.

 

Even though Βrian has moved on to a technical position he never forgets the experience and customer service skills he learned while working for Red Wing Shoe Company. That experience contributes to his attention to detail and the customer’s needs when working on customers’ projects.

 

Βrian is an avid skier and snow boarder and can be found on the hills of various ski resorts throughout Minnesota, Colorado and Utah on the weekends in the winter.


Bonita Stepaniak - Account Manager

Bonita Stepaniak is an Account Manger for YourMLSsearch and has been with us since 2008. Before coming to YourMLSsearch, she worked as a Store Manager and Photographer for a national chain of camera stores where she received the prestigious award of Sales Associate of the Year in 2003.

Bonita’s strong people skills and sales experience has proven affective in assisting her clients in a professional and friendly manner. Bonita is very detailed oriented and organized which made her the perfect person to be in charge of managing our customers’ domain renewals.

Bonita is currently working towards a Small Business Management degree. In her free time she enjoys working on her photography and enhancing her photos using Photoshop. 

 

Shannon Kettering - Account Manager

Shannon Kettering was one of the first Account Mangers to go through our Account Management training program in 2008. He has a Bachelors degree from South Dakota State University in Graphic Design and has also completed a series of courses on web development at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

Before joining our team Shannon worked in the print industry doing design layout, painting and fabrication of signs. His experience there has made him more detail oriented while working on customers’ websites and projects.

Shannon's can do attitude along with his problem solving abilities make him an invaluable part of our team. He has recently become involved with the more advanced technical part of assisting customers with their websites and with assisting our programmers with implementing new MLSs into our systems.

On the weekends you will most likely find Shannon at the movie theater checking out the newest releases or biking along the bike trails around Minneapolis.

 


Karlie Piekkola - Account Manager

Karlie Piekkola joined the YourMLSsearch.com team as an Account Manager in April 2009. Before coming to us she spent 10 years in the print music industry. Her experience consists of everything from retail to shipping and receiving and even working at music conventions. Her attention to detail and organization skills from working in the print music industry has helped her transition into the world of Information Technology and Account Management an easy one.

Karlie received her Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Music from St. Cloud State University. She is married to Jamie, an avid photographer, and the two of them have dreams of someday owning and running their own Photography and Portrait Studio. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, watching movies, attending Renaissance Festivals, and playing with her ferrets.