John Simms

John Simms is the founder and President of CMDI. Supported by a talented development team, John designed and created Crimson, a fundraising CRM and Federal Election Commission compliance software serving Republican political committees and campaigns including the Republican National Committee and four Republican presidential nominees. During the 2020 cycle, Crimson managed $4.32 billion in contributions from more than 12 million donors.

John is a forty-year veteran of direct marketing communication and fundraising. He is also President and owner of Odell Simms, Inc. (OSI), a marketing company with a forty-six-year history of engagement in fundraising, corporate sponsorship, and direct marketing for many important institutions and iconic projects, such as, The Martin Luther King Memorial, Pentagon Memorial, Gettysburg Visitor Center, Disabled Veterans Memorial, Heritage Foundation, World Meeting of Families, and seven presidential campaigns.

John is founder and CEO of Home Valet, Inc. and holds patents on a technology-based solution to the “last mile” security of package delivery. He was an investor and a member of the Board of Directors of Audience Partners, an online ad targeting firm, which was sold to Altice SA in 2017.

John is a graduate of the Emory University School of Law and holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University where he was Speaker of the Yale Political Union, a member of the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus and a Whiffenpoof. After college and law school, he became immersed in politics as Executive Director of the Mississippi Republican Party, state director of a presidential general election campaign and director of a gubernatorial campaign in his home state of Mississippi before going into business in 1980. He is a member of the Mississippi, Georgia, District of Columbia, and American Bar Associations.