A seasoned team of strategists, designers, digital media experts and project managers.

Some of us are more left-brain, some more right-brain and some straight up the middle, but we are all united in our commitment to building great brands and strong cultures that drive competitive advantage.

Jon Hutson
Co-founder

Jon is a pioneer in wedding the disciplines of strategic branding and culture development united in Shared Purpose. From the time he had the prescience to purchase the domain “BrandCulture.com” back in the last Millennium, Jon cultivated the idea of forming a new kind of agency that integrates brand and organizational development as the flip sides of the same coin. With BrandCulture now in its second decade, Jon takes singular satisfaction in finding that the world has, at long last, come around to his point of view.

Jon has previously held senior strategic and business development roles within Wolfgang Puck, Siegel + Gale, Imagination and Caribiner International, where his clients have included BMW, BEA Systems, Ford, The Coca-Cola Company, Holiday Inn Worldwide, Jiffy Lube, Lexus, Motorola, Philips Electronics and other global organizations.

Jon serves on the board of the Michael Hoefflin Foundation and holds a BS in Finance from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse and an MS in Real Estate and Urban Affairs from J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.

Eric Pinckert
Co-founder

As a Co-founder and Managing Director of BrandCulture, Eric leads BrandCulture’s strategy practice. Across his career, Eric has worked with big and small organizations alike to put their respective best feet forward through strategic branding, naming, print and digital media.

Prior to BrandCulture, Eric served in a variety of client- and agency-side executive positions, including Head of Corporate Affairs and Head of Strategic Marketing for LRN Corporation and Senior Vice President at global branding and interactive media consultancy Siegel + Gale. Earlier, Eric was an attorney with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, where he specialized in representing technology clients.

Eric is an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Stanford University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He also studied at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford and the University of Urbino in Italy.

Patrizia Schopf
Creative Director

Leading corporate and product identity programs from BrandCulture’s Barcelona office, Patrizia’s decade-plus experience developing visual identity systems for a variety of organizations across Europe brings BrandCulture’s clients not only deeply strategic design solutions, but a distinctly progressive aesthetic. Patrizia’s most recent work includes developing breakthrough identity systems for Proxima, Bovitz, Westwood Village and the Center for the Digital Future.

Patrizia started her career with QWER Design and also served as an art director with SUMMA, roles in which she led creative development for Indo, the Barcelona Voll-Damm Jazz Festival and Apiserum.

Andrea De La Cerda
Director of Client Management

Andrea brings foundational marketing strategy and precise execution in equal measure to BrandCulture, with an extra dash of social media and communication mastery. For over two decades, Andrea has served leading brands, including Pacific Life, Honda, Néstle and Public Storage at a number of prominent agencies. Andrea expanded her client relations practice to focus on the dynamic world of social media and marketing, counseling BrandCulture's clients on SEO and best practices for their online promotions and networking. Most recently, Andrea built and led the communication team and strategy for Scorpion, a sizable MarCom technology company based in Salt Lake City, UT.

Andrea is a recipient of the Monty McKinney Award for Outstanding Advertising by AAAA and was recognized as a "40 Under 40" recipient for co-founding a popular series of family online social networks in her community. When not delivering exceptional value for BrandCulture clients, Andrea enjoys hiking with her two dogs, traveling and spending time with her family.

Andrea holds both a BA in Advertising & Business Administration and a MA in Education from Pepperdine University where she was awarded "Advertiser of the Year" in 1999.

Benjamin Rhatigan
Strategy Director

Leading strategy and content creation from BrandCulture’s Barcelona office, Benjamin analyzes, synthesizes and transforms new marketing and brand insights into results.

Benjamin brings more than a decade of experience in strategy work with a focus on tech organizations, and has previously served in leadership roles at Telefonica Digital, Infosys and the strategy consultancies Delta Partners Group and THR Tourism Industry Advisors. Benjamin has also developed a specialty in organizational culture as an expression of brand, studying and activating how employees and management shape, mold and advance an organization's identity, culture and performance. Benjamin also stays abreast of upcoming new trends in tech, writing about and reporting on conferences including the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and CES in Las Vegas.

Originally from New York, Benjamin has spent the majority of his career internationally, from China to Nigeria to Saudi Arabia. He earned a BA in English from Wesleyan University, and a bilingual (Spanish-English) MBA from the ESADE business school in Barcelona.

David James
Senior Consultant

David has held senior director, partner and owner positions in multiple international creative organizations and has deep industry knowledge of the events and entertainment sectors, with over 30 years experience.

David oversees and executes event design and experiential branding from BrandCulture’s Atlanta office, leveraging his background leading creative and production teams for such organizations as the Tate Modern in London, Euro Disney, Samsung’s Brand Center in New York, Microsoft Xbox Kinect, Mercedes Benz and The Coca Cola Company, in addition to the Olympic Games in Salt Lake, Vancouver and London.

Previously, David was a partner at The Sheppard LLC and a Senior Operations Director of the Qatar Foundation. David began his career with the venerable Imagination Ltd. Originally from the UK, David studied at The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.

Claire Angelle
Senior Consultant

Claire uses a unique combination of eloquence and tenacity to help BrandCulture clients explain their raison d’être, shape the court of public opinion and extinguish fires great and small.

For more than 15 years Claire has worked in the United States, Belgium and Argentina across PR, communications and international relations in in-house and agency positions. She served as Executive Director of Worth Cities – The Worth Group and led the Office of International Affairs for the City of Atlanta where she helped galvanize support and helped establish key partnerships with international organizations including the World Economic Forum, the Clinton Foundation and others. Earlier Claire worked for the Consulate General of France in Atlanta where she was in charge of public and media relations, communications, special events, and political analysis. Claire serves on a variety of boards including the Operation Hope Global Forum Annual Meeting, the French Foreign Trade Advisors and Alliance Française.

Originally from Nantes, France, Claire graduated from the University of Nantes and holds a master’s degree in International Business and Trade.

Christian Rishel
Senior Consultant

Christian thrives at the intersection of the circular economy, technology, marketing and strategy. Most recently he served as President & COO at Laso and QuarterSpot. Earlier, Christian co-founded and served as the CMO/CFO of data visualization platform Conduce, Inc.. The company was sponsored by his previous employer Oblong Industries where he led the commercial function and drove revenue to keep the company cash flow positive during a period of intensive growth. Prior to that, he was head of marketing and strategy for Google’s agency and travel vertical sales organizations. Before that, he was founding director of interactive marketing for JetBlue Airways, where he managed online revenue and was recognized for achieving industry-leading results, and led development of the TrueBlue loyalty program and IDEA Award-winning check-in kiosks. He was also a consultant for McKinsey & Company. Christian holds an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business, an MSFS in International Trade, Finance & Business Diplomacy from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and an AB in Philosophy from Colgate University.

Karen Flanders
Senior Consultant

Karen is an accomplished sustainability professional with 30 years of experience. Her career has focused on transforming businesses, organizations & communities into powerful agents of change, working internationally and domestically for complex organizations in the corporate sector, in the public policy world, for NGOs and academia.

Karen was the Director of Sustainability at The Coca-Cola Company. Prior to joining Coke, Karen led advocacy campaigns for World Wildlife Fund (WWF), initially in Europe (15 countries, 11 languages) and then on a global basis (60 countries). Karen also worked in Paris for UNESCO in the division of environmental education and is fluent French and Dutch.

Karen also previously served as a Senior Associate with the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL). She was also involved with The Prince’s Rainforest Project where she worked to engage the support of corporate America to call for emergency action to help combat climate change by addressing rainforest destruction.

Kasey Byrne
Senior Consultant

Kasey Byrne is a seasoned marketing executive who combines the logic of an engineer with the creativity of a copywriter. She has decades of experience working in high-pressure, rapidly morphing environments across technology, financial services, hospitality and other verticals. Kasey spearheads BrandCulture’s Bay Area presence and collaborates across strategy, organizational development, marketing, communications and project management. She also serves as founder and principal of strategy & communications at advisory firm Fullpoint Marketing.

Kasey served as VP Marketing for Rasa, the conversational AI infrastructure leader, VP Marketing for Bangalore-based Postman, the “API First” company that builds connected software via APIs, CMO of Cardlytics and the Chief Communications Officer of Overture Services, Inc. (since acquired by Yahoo!) among other executive positions. Earlier, she was a Senior Vice President at SunAmerica and a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company. She began her career as a software engineer working with both Hewlett-Packard and Digital Equipment Corporation. Kasey holds a Masters of Science in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a Bachelors of Science in Engineering with Distinction from Cornell University.

Dorothy Vollmer
Senior Consultant

Dorothy brings a unique blend of creative, strategy, and relationship management skills to help clients with a variety of needs. As a seasoned facilitator, she guides cross-functional groups of executives in articulating and executing strategies at the corporate, functional, and team levels.

Most recently, Dorothy served as chief customer officer at Consequent, a 20+ year-old management consulting firm. In addition to leading sales and overseeing customer experience and value realization, she led strategy and implementation planning engagements with Fortune 500 clients, including SAP, United Airlines, and UPS, as well as served the social sector in the maternal-child health space.

Dorothy has over twenty years of experience in business development, customer service, facilitation, management, and marketing in a variety of industries, including consumer products, hospitality, entertainment, and telecommunications. She is also a professional actress in film, television, and voiceover.

Dorothy earned BA from Davidson College and a MBA The University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, where she focused on the business of entertainment.

Ralph Ardill
Senior Consultant

Ralph is an expert consultant, speaker and author on Brand Transformation and Experiential Design and has consulted to some of the world’s leading brands including BP, Coca-Cola, CBRE, Diageo and Ford. Ralph brings a pragmatic and powerful cocktail of management consulting, brand strategy, experience design and change management to deliver brand-led, design-inspired business transformation across the total experience of businesses.

After beginning his strategic branding career with the Brand Union f/k/a Sampson Tyrrell, Ralph served 10+ years as Marketing and Strategy Director of the London-based Imagination, Ltd. Ralph is the author of pioneering "Experience" book, "Experience Design" Knowledge Cell for Design Council and "The Future of Brands and Shopping Places" for British Council of Shopping Centres. Ralph is visiting Fellow at York St. John University and holds a Masters in Management Science from Warwick University and Bachelors of Science in Physics and Geology from Staffordshire University.

Clinton Barnes
Senior Consultant

Clinton is a branding expert with over 10 years’ experience launching new brands and refreshing established brands. He identifies brand positioning and unique value propositions, steering new visual identities, developing key messaging, naming, campaign development, and social media strategy.

While a broadly skilled strategist working across industries from vodka to biotech startups to media to destination marketing, he has developed a specialty working in technical, B2B spaces for the likes of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Airbus.

Originally from Sydney, Australia, where he earned a BA in Political Science at Macquarie University, which included a scholarship at the University of East Anglia in the UK, and then completed a Masters in Management and Marketing at Monash University, Melbourne, he now lives in New York, and brings a global lens for brands that live in a global culture.

Melanie Murphy
Senior Consultant

Equal parts quick study and raconteur, coupled with a passion for wellness, Melanie excels at the art of developing the potential of great brands and distilling them into powerful and effective public and media relations campaigns with a focus in nutrition and health. She brings disciplined focus and strategic energy to her work, supporting the goals of her clients through compelling strategic marketing, brand architecture, naming, public relations and social media initiatives that build enduring brand awareness, increase sales and drive market share. She also navigates seamlessly across the technology, healthcare, lifestyle, insurance and consumer industries, securing client coverage in leading publications from TechCrunch to The Wall Street Journal. Over her diverse career, she has represented leading brands including Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, DePuy Orthopaedics, Metagenics and Brighter.com.

Melanie earned her BA in Journalism and Public Relations from the University of Georgia, and is pursuing her MS in Nutrition and Wellness from the University of Southern California.

Marcy Willis
Organizational Strategist

Marcy Willis is a change agent with exceptional acumen in all aspects of training, organization development and leadership coaching. Her passion for supporting diverse individuals, teams and organizations through the change process, is matched by her personal warmth, creativity and genuine devotion to driving the success of every initiative that she touches. Her consultative vision provides clients with navigational guidance through the murkiest of ambiguities. Strong analytic and evaluative skills have been honed by years of experience, leading to improved client performance and effectiveness. She is an ATD Master Trainer and uses years of theatre training and improv to train other trainers, sales teams and public speakers. Clients view Ms. Willis as a trusted partner.

Marcy earned her Master’s Degree in Organizational Behavior and Evaluation from Claremont Graduate University, is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and has extensive expertise in developing and using assessments. She is certified in the use of multiple 360-degree Feedback Assessments, Hogan Leadership Assessments, Prosci Change Management, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DiSC and Emotional Intelligence (EQ-i 2.0).

Emily Beyda
Content Strategist

Emily Beyda is a Los Angeles based novelist, journalist and content writer who works with BrandCulture to help clients discover the narrative side of their work. Her first novel, The Body Double, was published by DoubleDay to critical acclaim, and since its publication she has worked to share her passion for words with clients within the wellness, lifestyle, and innovation spaces.

As a writer, storytelling is something Emily is deeply passionate about. There's nothing she loves more than working closely with clients and collaborators to explore the hidden stories behind their everyday work. Always curious to delve deeper, she's committed to helping others discover the sometimes surprising ways that narrative can help establish a brand's presence, and help it make an impact in the marketplace.

Emily earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Literature (French and Italian) and Anthropology from New York University. She also earned a Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing from Texas State University.

Amy Mew
UX Strategist

Amy Mew combines creativity and strategy with over 15 years of professional experience as Brand Culture's UX designer. From small startups to Fortune 500s, she has worked with advertising and branding agencies, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams of all sizes to help guide a product’s functionality, development, content and layout into an attractive, rewarding digital experience. She is seasoned in a wide range of verticals, including automotive, healthcare, hospitality, and technology, transforming businesses with her.

Amy earned her BA in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Lilly Sur
Senior Designer

As a designer, Lilly combines infectious enthusiasm with a unique combination of print, digital and motion-graphic design that helps activate BrandCulture client brands across today’s digital landscape.

She has been active launching BrandCulture’s own new brand identity, while providing design support for clients including Cinedigm, Epson, Michael Hoefflin Foundation, VMware and Westwood Village. Prior to BrandCulture, Lilly worked with Seoul-based Infinite and The Children's Museum at La Habra.

Lilly holds a BFA in Advertising from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

Franzisko López Bernad
Senior Designer

Energizing the design department in our Barcelona office, Fran comes from a rich background of design work as well as teaching. He brings a magician’s legerdemain to transforming design into captivating video and motion graphic experiences. Fran earned his degree from EINA Escola de Disseny in Art in Barcelona and Taller d'Art Rafel Plaza.

In addition, Fran molds the minds of the future of Europe's best designers as a professor at the Taller d'Art Ateneu Santfeliuenc while simultaneously being a priceless addition to the BrandCulture team.

Olga Severina
Senior Designer

Olga comes to us by way of Ukraine. Holding extensive deep-rooted experience in graphic design, she has a true understanding of how to transform a brand into a thriving company. She is proficient in multimedia marketing and web design with first-hand management experience, both internationally and here in Los Angeles. Her previous work experience includes stints at Netkach Promotions, Aplent Design Group and Publishing House Personalities. Olga works with BrandCulture’s clients in developing corporate identity, marketing collateral and website design.

Olga holds a BA, MA and Ph.D. in Graphic Design from the Design Academy of Kharkiv, Ukraine. After obtaining her education she became involved with some of the leading poster and art competitions that promote graphic design and environmental sustainability. As part of this effort, Olga started working with an International Eco-Poster Exhibition, The 4th Block, where she served as an exhibit curator in 2006-2012.
Following her passion for environmental awareness, Olga founded PosterTerritory, an initiative envisioned as a takeoff platform for contemporary poster exhibitions.

Blake Roberts
Designer

Blake Roberts is a creative problem solver with a passion for design and innovation. With over 5 years of experience, Blake has been instrumental in propelling ideas and establishing products through the power of creativity. Whether it's working collaboratively or drawing from personal experiences, Blake brings a unique perspective to every project. Currently serving as a Brand Identity Designer, Blake develops visually captivating concepts that align with client guidelines and presenting ideas that reflect the brand's identity, Blake's expertise ensures completion, accuracy, and efficiency. As a freelance Graphic Designer specializing in brand design, Blake has successfully translated subject matter into innovative marketing materials, showcasing their ability to lead creative outreach and operations. Blake holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree in Studio Art from Georgia State University, where he was involved in impactful projects such as the Georgia Pacific mural painting and an artist residency in Kefalonia, Greece.

Stephan Wiendahl
Motion Graphic Designer

Overseeing BrandCulture’s motion graphics and digital animation production work, Stephan’s long and storied experience art directing and producing motion graphics for a wide array of organizations gives BrandCulture the expanded capability to accurately convey and illustrate our clients’ brand message across all forms of digital media.

Stephan’s most recent work includes creating the informative and inspiring animation for Princess Cruises, showcasing the “Moments that Matter” crewmembers create for guests while aboard a Princess ship. Stephan also helped lead the digital animation development for other BrandCulture clients including VMWare, Groovv, Cinedigm and Srixon/Cleveland Golf.

Stephan work encompasses film and video storytelling for globally recognized organizations such as the 2006 Winter Olympics, Disney Media at Feedmee Design in Köln, Telecom and more. Stephan’s passion for motion pictures and how stories are told through media began in the Department of Design at the University of Applied Sciences and the International School of Design in Köln, Germany.

Sona Gevorkyan
Architectural Designer

Sona is an experienced residential, commercial, hospitality, furniture and product designer with an extensive work background from internationally recognized firms SOM and Rottet Studio, as well as teaching experience at SCI-Arc and Kyoto Seika University.

Sona received her Master of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Ralf Beckert
Video Producer & Director

Located in our Barcelona office, Ralf manages the film and video production efforts, ensuring BrandCulture is continuously abreast on the best and most innovative methods within digital media and branding.

Whether it's creating a visually astounding trailer for the international courier DHL or producing a video for global superstar Christina Aguilera, Ralf ensures his talent and integrity are integral aspects of his work. With his wide array of experiences, Ralf specializes in film, post-production, directing and photography.

Kim Fox
Lead Developer

The three letters in “Kim” and three more in “Fox” serve as a visible hallmark of the efficiency, laser-like focus and eschewal of extraneous adornment that defines the elegance of Kim’s code and superb functionality of the websites she develops across BrandCulture engagements. With more than a decade of experience building sites on WordPress, Kim has remained true to her conviction that websites are not simply ambassadors for each brand, but also critical tools to achieve tangible business results. In addition to WordPress, Kim also specializes in HTML5, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and jQuery. Kim builds websites for a wide range of both B2C and B2B businesses with equal relish and also has an extensive portfolio of custom applications and
WordPress plug-ins.

Kim holds a BA from The Master’s College.

Erin Mosley
Analyst

Erin joins the BrandCulture team as an Analyst with a focus on social media and content marketing. She brings with her a background in fine arts and language. Prior to working at BrandCulture, Erin interned with Art Papers as an editorial intern and later went to work at Emory University’s Center for Ethics as an administrative assistant.

When not proofreading papers, or working on social media campaigns, Erin spends her time painting and playing bass with her band.

Erin earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alabama with a double major in Painting and German.

Sarah Howell
Analyst

Before coming on board full time, Sarah began her journey with BrandCulture as an intern during her undergraduate studies. After graduating, Sarah came back on board as an Analyst, specializing in research, writing, social media, website and marketing communication skills, production design and more. Her prior experience working as Creative and Marketing Coordinator at Oxford Road, where she produced audio ads for radio, podcasts and streaming and was also in charge of social media marketing and video editing for the Media Roundtable podcast, make her an invaluable member of our team. Before Oxford Roads, Sarah also managed the cast and crew scheduling, set direction and production team as a Production Manager for the feature film “Mayberry Man,” giving her a strong edge when it comes to client and project management under tight time pressure and demanding deadlines.

Sarah earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Purdue University, where she double-minored in Art & Design and Professional Writing.

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