Pete Zimek is the founder and president of iLS network, a collective of online apartment guides serving renters in seven cities across Florida and now Georgia. Generating over 60,000 visits each month, the websites use cutting edge technology to match renters with the apartment community that best fits their lifestyle and budget.
Pete's personal mission is to connect people with ideas and other people in ways that create opportunity, and all of his business and philanthropic endeavors have centered on those themes.
A National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI) Faculty Member, Pete serves as a volunteer instructor for a number of local apartment associations across the State of Florida. His courses include NAAEI's CAM and CAPS modules as well as original content focused on marketing and leadership.
In Orlando, Pete has served as the chair of the Marketing & Branding Committee for AAGO and as a supplier member of the organization's Board of Directors. 407apartments.com, his website matching Orlando renters with apartment communities, is a three-time recipient of AAGO's prestigious "Supplier Company of the Year" Golden Key award, and he has been personally named "Social Media Person of the Year."
Outside of Orlando, Pete serves as the past-treasurer and board member for NCFAA and is a delegate to the Florida Apartment Association board of directors.
Pete is also an active member of Leadership Florida. He was a member of the inaugural Connect Florida Statewide Leadership Institute class, Leadership Florida's program for young professionals. He went on to serve as Statewide Chair of Connect Florida.
No stranger to associations, Pete's latest venture, novi AMS, is a technology company that partners with associations to create smart, friendly association management solutions so that they can focus on their non-profit missions.
In a prior life, despite the fact that he's actually allergic to milk, Pete owned and operated two Ben & Jerry's franchise stores in Gainesville, Florida and served for a number of years on the company's national Franchise Advisory Council and marketing committee. His innovative – and sometimes edgy – marketing campaigns resulted in being named the company's 2006 Marketer of the Year. Pete credits his interaction with the company's founders all those years ago for instilling an ethos of social entrepreneurship and service into his current endeavors.
Pete received his bachelor's degree in History from the University of Florida in 2001. He earned his master's in Management in 2002 also from the University of Florida and was recognized upon graduation as an MSM scholar. A transplant originally from New Orleans, Pete has made Florida his home with his wife Jennifer and daughters Olivia and Alexis.
"We are on a mission to change the way that renters find their apartments. People want a local source, but they want that local source to have the same or better technology than what the national sources have. That's what we do."
Pete has since taken a mentor role and let the Managing Director, Sydney Jamieson, take the lead on creating ApartmentForAthens.com. He continues to be a source of guidance and creativity for iLS network.