About Oconus.com - Your APO FPO Shipping Headquarters

Who are we?
Oconus.com is a partnership dedicated to improving the lives of U.S. Military families, DOD Civilians, and other Americans living overseas. We strive to provide the net's largest collection of merchants who can ship to APO FPO addresses, along with information and features useful to those living overseas. We are not a one-man show with a collection of links that are posted and then never checked again. We have spent hundreds of hours searching the internet for merchants, information and other sites which are useful to our target audience. Since 1999 we have operated our website from Maple Grove, Minnesota, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our site is updated daily with the latest specials and sales being offered by our merchant partners. We also regularly update the site with news, information, and other links which are useful to families living overseas. One of our goals has been to utilize the talents of spouses living abroad to collect and maintain a large repository of data which we think will be useful to other military families long into the future. Because we know how difficult it can be to find work overseas for military spouses, we eventually hope to become an employer of choice for a good number of military spouses who enjoy writing about their overseas experiences.

Our Story:
When our founder, Dan Latvala, was assigned to Ansbach Germany in 1996, he quickly realized how painful it was for Americans serving overseas to shop online. Tired of finding out at the last screen of the checkout process that the merchant couldn't ship to his APO address, Dan devised his idea for Oconus-Shopper.com. The idea remained only a registered URL and a dream for the next three years of his tour. Although Dan considered launching the site while in Germany, military regulations about using an APO FPO address to operate a business and on operating a business from military housing precluded the site from becoming a reality until Dan separated from the Army and returned stateside in 1999. During the summer Dan developed the site and worked on it in the evenings after a full day's work with Andersen Consulting.

In the Fall of 2000, Dan met Kirk Hoaglund and the Clientek development team. Clientek's interest in Oconus led to a partnership that has vastly improved the useability and usefullness of the site. The name of the site was changed to Oconus.com in November 2000, and the Oconus.com team began working with merchants from all over the United States to increase their awareness of APO FPO shipping and make their sites friendlier for APO FPO customers. The response has been terrific and the team has many ideas on how to improve the site and the overseas experience of our hardworking military families, DOD civilians and contractors.

Our Team:

Dan Latvala, Founder & CEO
Dan served in the U.S. Army for 8 years as an AH-1 and AH-64 aviator. He developed the idea for Oconus.com while serving in Ansbach, Germany. After leaving the military, Dan worked for Andersen Consulting on a number of eCommerce and technology related projects before joining Clientek as the Oconus.com lead and technology consultant in October 2000. Dan currently serves as the Director of Information Technology at Strategic Fundraising, a Minnesota company providing fundraising services to political parties, candidates and non-profit organizations.

Dan Weaver, COO
Dan spent 10 years on active duty as a Captain in the Army's Armor Branch. After leaving the military, Dan joined Clientek as a technology consultant and provided network and java expertise to various clients in the Minneapolis area. He currently works for Parametric Technology Corporation as a software development manager.

Kirk Hoaglund, CTO
Kirk is one of the founders of Larson & Hoaglund (now Clientek). He has over 15 years of experience in developing leading edge, technical solutions for clients in industries as diverse as aerospace and healthcare. Kirk provides Oconus.com with sound technical guidance and direction.

Jacqueline Latvala, CFO
Jacki is a Certified Public Accountant and co-founder of Oconus.com. During her 8 years as an Army spouse, Jacki worked for the public accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand and provided income tax preparation assistance at the Katterbach, Germany, Tax Assistance Center. She is currently a licensed CPA in the state of Minnesota.

Craig Vosper, VP Software Engineering
Craig is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer who also spent 7 years on active duty in the Infantry. A graduate of West Point, Craig currently works for Clientek as an Associate Partner with expertise in the Sun Java and Microsoft Development Environments.

Past Contributors We've had many excellent people on our team over the years. Special thanks goes out to Ryan Gingery, Megan Misoni and Luke Hansen for their hard work and dedication to maintaining and improving the site.

Consulting Services:
We also provide consulting services to small, medium, and large businesses who desire to improve their service to, and understanding of, the APO FPO system. Our proprietary zipcode database is the only one of its type in the world and can help merchants verify the validity of an APO FPO address and any restrictions on merchandise before shipping a product. This helps keep the number of returns and mis-shipped items to a bare minimum and improves the satisfaction of our military shoppers and the merchants who serve them. If you are a merchant and would like to learn more about how we can help you make your site APO FPO friendly or would like to use our database to verify your APO FPO transactions via XML query, please contact us at info@oconus-shopper.com.

Military Discounts & More from stores shipping to APO/FPO addresses!