About me
I am a South African by birth, an American by choice and a global explorer by design. As a brand strategist, creative director, event producer and consultant I have forged relationships with a worldwide network of individuals and businesses, helping them to grapple with challenges, think outside the box, grow, and reach their vision.
I currently work with Accenture. At Accenture I partner with C-suite, VP and managing director clients to solve high priority challenges – innovate products/services, envision the future, build partnerships, create targeted messaging and brands. To date, I have helped to facilitate the acquisition of over $4 billion in contracts with Accenture’s global clients.
Before Accenture, I ran Fresh, a consultancydedicated to helping startups and innovation teams create fresh brand and marketing strategies. Prior to that, I co-owned a boutique creative agency. UnitOne partnered with clients such as Coca-Cola, Georgia Pacific, Hershey’s, Citi, J&J, TNS, and 3M to name a few.
I have depth and breadth to my career. I haveowned my own successful agency as well as working in an internal agency at a large global corporation. I have decades of hands on design and copy experience as well as managing and growing teams.
I have worked with everyone from highlysuccessful c-suite to scrappy non-profits and from brave, fledgling start-ups to towering, Fortune 500 giants across most industries, geographies, and products + services. The richness of my experiences allow me to translate multiple perspectives into crystal clear direction for growth.
At the heart of my entire career is thesingle thread that connects it all together: Strategic Creativity. This weaves through the fabric of my life’s work in the realms of marketing, branding, storytelling, and consulting. My approach shatters the shackles of conventionality, = obliterates barriers, and helps manifest audacious aspirations.
I look forward to hearing from you!
My Creative Journey to Now
A brief synopsis of my career and education.
Accenture: M+C Global Co-Creation Strategy Lead
September 2018 - present
A seamless combination of Strategist, Event Producer and Facilitator, I design custom, collaborative experiences for C-suite, VPs and managing directors focused on aligning teams, building partnerships and winning more business. Then work across our creative, broadcast, marketing and delivery teams to execute the experience.- Member of the Co-Creation leadership team managing operationsand overseeing onboarding, training and skill development.
- Work cross functionally with our internal creative agency,broadcast, marketing and sales enablement teams to produce our events, workshops and materials as needed.
- Core representative of the Co-Creation team responsible for training groups across Accenture in marketing messaging, storytelling, presentation and facilitation skills.
Outcomes:
My projects have helped our Accenture teams proactively sell new ideas and win more pursuits ranging from $10 million - $2 billion, as well as reimagine high-level business impacts, improve ways of working, communicate clearer brand value, and disrupt traditional thinking.
Industry experience:
CPG, Banking, Energy,Health, High Tech, Life Science, Public Service, Retail, Travel, Hospitality, Utilities, Insurance, Communications and Media
Function experience:
Data and AI, Cloud, Technology Transformation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Cybersecurity, Emerging Technology, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, Talent & Organization
Accenture: Creative Team Lead
December 2018 - March 2020
Lead the Southeast division of Accenture's internal creativeagency. The POD specializes in storytelling, experiences and workshops to support our teams with sales pursuits.
- During my time the SE POD had a 75%-win rate with over $200M in sales generated.
- The role is focused on briefing the creative team, providing exceptional client service, and facilitating all strategy sessions.
Velox Catalyst: Partner
January 2018 - present
Lead the marketing and branding strategy arm of this startup accelerator. Our efficient process guides startups through strategy, branding and launch stages to take their idea or product from initial concept to on the shelf in months.
- Specialize in CPG industry
- Clients include: Synapse (series 1A funding), Fitspot, Bolla, LaSauce
MOSAIC: Marketing Director
May 2017 - August 2018
Developedbrand and marketing strategy to establish MOSAIC [Design + Build] firm, as the premium home remodeling service in the metro Atlanta area appealing to professionals with $1 million+ homes
- Increased socialmedia presence by over 2000%
- Diversified and grew leads from solely referrals to 30% referrals, 35% web and 35% direct
marketing - Continuedevolution of business growth strategy through tracking and metrics across all
forms of marketing - Led the roll-out of a complete rebrand across all marketing materials
FRESH: Marketing and Innovation Consultant
February 2014 - December 2022
Fresh partnered with start-ups and entrepreneurs to advise anddevelop their brand and marketing strategies, investment pitches and launch plans.
- Responsible for the day-to-day business operations, including business development, maintaining
positive customer relationships, and budget management. - Managed and collaborated with the Fresh, Inc. multi-disciplinary consulting team
- Clients include: 3M, Honeywell, McDonald’s, Thrive Innovation
UNITONE: Principal / Senior Creative Director
June 2004 - January 2014
Successfully ran a boutique creative agency in Atlanta, GA with medium to Fortune 500 clients. UnitOne specialized in product design innovation and internal marketing.
- Oversaw alignment between client briefs and creative execution.
- Developedmarketing strategies for clients across multiple mediums.
- Built and developed our team, mentored and reviewed their growth.
- Responsible for project management and creative direction of over 150 projects annually.
- Led concept development and team ideation sessions for client projects.
- Held key role in business development and active participant in all client pitches.
- Clients included: Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, J&J, Citi Bank, Blackberry, Barilla, TNS, Unisouce, Georgia Pacific
Notable accomplishments:
- Grew Coca-Cola business from 1 to 50 annual projects in two years.
- Partnered with Coca-Cola Innovation Department to design over 200 product prototypes.
- Concepts that made it to shelf included PlantBottle, Coca-Cola Lite, Dasani Drops, and Dasani Plus.
- Produced over 100 videos and 300 presentations to sell ideas within the organization and to communicate with external global consumers.
- Secured marketing campaign project for “Minute Maid Kids”, in competition with global advertising agencies Ogilvy and BBDO; final campaign was successfully deployed in 10 countries.
- Developed first kids MinuteMaid app in multiple languages.
- Designed content, flow, and materials for Georgia Pacific’s Annual Marketing Conference, voted as “the most engaging and relevant conference to date.
- Developed a multi-phase approach to rejuvenate the creativity of Georgia Pacific’s marketing department.
CRITICAL FOCUS: Owner, Producer & Director
2002-2004
Critical Focus merged with Ines Kuhn. design to create unitOne. Critical Focus was a turnkey video production company specializing in creating internal marketing and B2B videos for Fortune 1000 companies.
Clients included: Spanx, Citi, National Geographic, Special Olympics, National Kidney Foundation
TOMORROW PICTURES: Videographer / Editor
2000-2002
A key member of the creative team within video production company, specializing in lifestyle, corporate, and documentary content development. Managed shooting and post-production of diverse client projects.
M.S. Creativity - Buffalo State College
* The human science of solving challenges.
B.A. English - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne
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