The longtime Broward County resident has been in the high-tech business since high school, starting more than 20 years ago with electronic bulletin boards and building up to sophisticated e-mail delivery technology.

Yannick Tessier started tinkering with computer software as a student at South Broward High School in Hollywood, and launched his first business. Several tech ventures followed, until he was working as a consultant and created an e-mail delivery system for a client.

Eventually that system, designed to help Tessier's client with e-mail communications, morphed into Global Resource Systems Inc., the Plantation company Tessier founded in 2002 and runs as chief executive officer. Tessier said he was able to take past problems with previous companies and avoid them with Global Resource Systems, which has helped contribute to his firm's success.

"This is like my third time around," he said. "I was able to learn from previous mistakes ... in terms of how we did with investors and how fast we were growing the company. We did it with organic growth this time."

And today, the company expected to announce a merger with New York-based interactive marketing company MediaWhiz.Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Tessier will continue to head Global Resource Systems.

The so-called "white list" e-mail delivery system that Tessier developed for a previous client is the cornerstone of Global Resource's business. The system helps businesses get e-mail offers and other communications to customers that have agreed to receive the solicitations, he said.

Global Resource also scours its clients' e-mail database for demographic information, to allow companies to better target ads to customers, Tessier said. "When it comes to recipients, they want to recognize, `Where did you get our e-mail from?" he said. " ... They also want to receive content that's relevant to them. If you're an attorney, you don't want to hear about the doctor's news of the day."

And as companies try to set their electronic missives apart from unsolicited e-mail spam, Global Resource Systems has grown. The firm's net revenues last year were $5 million, Tessier said.

Global Resource is expanding into other areas of e-mail marketing. One area: A program that will allow other companies to tap affiliated businesses' e-mail lists to send ads.

InPhonic Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based online vendor of wireless products and services, is using Global Resource's affiliate marketing system. The company also has consulted with Global Resource on how to better mine its own customer database, said Jeff Baskin, vice president of e-commerce for InPhonic.

"There's plenty of affiliate networks out there, there's plenty of list management companies," Baskin said. "But at the end of the day, the technology that they've built ... is very, very good and very easy to use."

Advice: Let the market dictate your product. "I always listen to the marketplace and to the clients and what they're looking for," Tessier said. "I don't build something first and try to sell it."

This is cache, read story here