Renee Peet
Group Director: Strategy, New York
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With respect to Thomas Wolfe, at Siegel+Gale, you can come home again. We recently welcomed Renee Peet back to the firm as Group Director, Strategy, where she specializes in developing and leading strategy-based branding and identity programs.
From 2000-2004, Renee cut her branding teeth at Siegel+Gale, joining as an analyst and leaving as a senior strategist.
During her tenure, she worked largely in professional and financial services for such clients as HNTB, SunTrust, DBM, ING, and Morgan Stanley, with additional experience in healthcare and higher education.
Renee then worked at Desgrippes Gobé in a number of senior strategy roles, including executive director, brand strategy and acting managing director of the New York office when the firm merged with LAGA to become BrandImage. Most recently, Renee led the Travel and Luxury practice at Sullivan, managing client relationships for American Express, Fidelity, Bessemer Trust, JPMorgan, TRowe, Coty Prestige, and SingleStop USA.
Before entering the world of branding, Renee spent 10 years in high-tech product development as a technical writer and product manager for IBM and Aspect.
A poet and student of the world at heart, Renee earned her BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona and her M.B.A. from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus Graduate School of Business in the Netherlands, where she also spent a term on exchange with the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines.
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Group Director: Strategy, Los Angeles
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Laurence Vincent is a writer and strategic marketing consultant, specializing in brand management, corporate alliances, integrated marketing and branded entertainment. His
clients have included MasterCard International, Texas Instruments, the National Football League, the Smithsonian Institution and The Home Depot, to name a few. Prior to
joining Siegel+Gale, Laurence led the Los Angeles office and entertainment marketing division of Octagon Worldwide.
Laurence is an active writer. His book,
Legendary Brands: Unleashing the Power of Storytelling to Create a Winning Market Strategy, was released by Dearborn Trade
Publishing in 2002. The book explores the narrative structure of consumer brands and the ways in which consumers develop relationships with brands over time through the
devices of storytelling. He is currently at work on a new marketing title, due out in 2010. He released a collection of poetry in early 2007.
Laurence began his career managing and developing strategic brand alliances and partnerships for The Walt Disney Company, where he spearheaded projects that leveraged
Disney’s brand equity and integrated marketing power to launch initiatives with leading corporate partners such as AT&T, American Express, Coca-Cola and Kodak. He also
worked on global brand building initiatives that spanned multiple Disney divisions. He holds an MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business. He also received his Bachelor’s
degree from USC, where he attended the School of Cinema-Television.
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Piers Guilar
Group Director: Strategy, London
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After graduating from Imperial College with an MBA in 1995, Piers started his career in advertising at Saatchi & Saatchi. He is particularly proud of the work he delivered for The Army, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Harley Davidson.
Piers left the world of advertising for branding and design, spending six years at Interbrand as the lead strategist on projects across many sectors. His clients Orange, Barclays, McLaren, Conservative Party, National Lottery and the Co-op Pharmacy.
Piers joined Jones Knowles Ritchie to broaden his skills and theirs, by instilling the discipline of planning whilst gaining specific experience in FMCG. His clients included Diageo, Britvic, Greene King and Mars.
Lured back into corporate branding, Piers joined Futurebrand in 2007 to take responsibility for the strategic offer of the London office. He advised a wide range of clients on strategies for creating, developing and managing their brands.
Piers joined Siegel+Gale in May 2009 as director of strategy.
Piers has commented on branding issues regularly in the media, including BBC, Sky News, CNBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, Bloomberg and Radio 5 Live.
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Christina Stanfield
Group Director: Strategy, Dubai
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As Strategy Director in Siegel+Gale’s Dubai office, Christina is charged with competitive strategy and identity creation for B2C, B2B and non-profit companies. With clients such as Avon, Campbell’s, GE, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Merrill Lynch, Pepsi, and Unicef under her belt, Christina was well-prepared to hit the ground running for Siegel+Gale’s diverse set of clients.
At the beginning of her career, Christina focused on creating customer-facing communications and brand experiences for clients in the media, packaged goods and luxury industries, such as Conde Nast, Kellogg’s and LVMH. After completing graduate school in 2001, her experience expanded to include brand strategy and portfolio management projects at leading firms, including Prospero Consulting, Wolff Olins, and Avenue A/Razor Fish.
Though based in New York for the 20 years prior to her relocation to Dubai, assignments have taken her to live and work in France, Germany, Iceland, India, Scandinavia and the UK. Her globetrotting also led to increased knowledge of the global marketplace, honing an understanding of how multi-nationals can overcome and leverage cultural differences internally and externally to their greatest benefit.
In addition to her MBA from Yale School of Management, Christina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from New York University and an Associate Degree from Parsons School of Design. Her unique academic background lends her a fresh perspective on brand vision and how to connect with key stakeholders.
Christina is also very active in non-profit and community outreach work. A pro bono consultant with the Taproot Foundation, she provides professional strategy services to non-profit organizations, and was involved as a team leader, site captain and fundraiser for New York Cares since its inception in 1992.
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Enshalla Anderson
Strategy Director, New York
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As a strategy director at Siegel+Gale, Enshalla works on branding and identity programs for clients across many different sectors, particularly financial services, beauty, spirits, and healthcare. She is currently working on engagements with American Express and Penske.
Before joining Siegel+Gale, Enshalla worked as a director at Vivaldi Partners, where she focused on brand positioning and brand architecture projects. Prior to that, she worked in the world of beauty for Avon as a marketing strategist for their global brand portfolio. Before Enshalla fully embraced her love of branding and marketing, she worked at the Monitor Group as a strategy consultant.
When away from the office, Enshalla has two young boys who occupy much of her free time. However, she also lends her energy to Dress for Success, a non-profit that promotes economic independence for disadvantaged women. Enshalla has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Steve Santangelo
Strategy Director, New York
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Steve Santangelo recently joined Siegel+Gale as a Strategy Director with over 25 years experience in branding and marketing. He combines passion for all aspects of branding with a diverse base of industry experience that includes technology, financial services, consumer products and nation branding.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Steve was Senior Director of Consulting at FutureBrand North America & Middle East, where he led branding engagements for a variety of clients, including UL (Underwriters Laboratories), Saudi Aramco, Nakheel, Batelco, Bahrain International Airport and LeisureCorp. His responsibilities covered positioning development, brand architecture, messaging/voice, market research, naming and copywriting. While at FutureBrand, Steve also focused on nation branding, leading the repositioning of Qatar and St. Lucia; consulting with Peru, Mexico, Hungary, Singapore and Australia; and managing the research, planning the content and being the lead writer of the Country Brand Index for the past three years.
Steve has also led branding engagements at marketing and design firm Mangos for high-profile clients like Cannondale Bicycles, BlackRock and Siemens. Steve’s early career was in advertising, where he worked as a media planner, account manager, market researcher and account planner.
Steve holds a bachelor of arts degree with a double major in Government Studies and Philosophy from the University of Virginia. He is close to completing his MBA from the University of Phoenix. In his spare time, Steve is a partner with Sir George Martin (legendary producer of the Beatles) and Wildheart Entertainment in the television documentary, On Record, on the history of recorded music. The series is scheduled to air on PBS in the fall of 2011. Steve lives in Havertown, PA with his wife, three sons, four cats, one iguana and a rabbit.
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Kathleen Kindle
Strategy Director, Los Angeles
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Kathleen Kindle is beginning her second round in Strategy at Siegel+Gale after working for the firm more than 10 years ago. Her career spans over 17 years in strategy, marketing and communications, including stints in advertising at TBWA\Chiat\Day where she developed insightful creative strategies for the automotive industry (Infiniti), packaged goods (Whiskas, Pedigree, SaraLee), consumer electronics (JBL, Harman Kardon), and financial services (Principal Financial Group). At Fraser Communications, her work focused on the public sector – including the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, First Five of California early childhood development, Flex Your Power energy conservation, and the Metropolitan Water District, as well as industry leaders such as Whole Foods, Cedars-Sinai and St. John’s Medical Center.
At Sapient, Kathleen developed digital brand strategies for Nissan and Infiniti. Her first tour of duty at Siegel+Gale (when the “+” was still an “&”) included work for Charles Schwab, Amgen, Countrywide Home Loans, PIMCO, Pacific Life, IndyMac Bank, and PacificCare.
Kathleen has a Master’s Degree in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and an undergraduate degree in English Literature and History from Ohio Northern University, and is currently trying to teach her Labradoodle how to “shake.”
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Nikolas Contis
Strategy Director, San Francisco
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Nikolas Contis is a senior member of our strategy team overseeing major client relationships throughout the West Coast. Bringing 20+ years of strategic branding experience, Nik has worked in a vast array of industries including technology (Microsoft, Blackberry, Nokia), entertainment (Turner Broadcasting, Disney), financial services (Charles Schwab, Juniper Banks), consumer goods (Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Nestlé), retail (The Gap, Hugo Boss), and tourism (The Venetian, Las Vegas).
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Nik held a senior position at Lexicon Branding, where he managed global brand naming programs for clients like Blackberry, Nokia, Microsoft, CNN, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi and Toyota and many more. Nik was also instrumental in the implementation of Lexicon’s proprietary naming research tools to help companies like Intel, AOL and Coca-Cola create strong brands and effective naming systems.
Nik spent his early years basking in the sunshine of southern California working on marquee branding and design programs for clients like Hugo Boss, Bell Helmets, Disney Consumer Products, Columbia TriStar and Nestlé. After making his way back to his home base in San Francisco, Nik has once again embraced the natural beauty and innovative hotbed that is the Bay Area.
Nik holds a bachelors Degree in English from the University of California Los Angeles.
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Re Perez
Strategy Director/Brand Alignment, Dubai
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"Creating a culture in which employees consistently deliver your brand to external audiences requires an effort beyond a ‘feel-good’ communications campaign and a ‘how-to-behave’ training session. Here’s a simple idea: treat employees just as you would customers by showing them the value of the brand, and do so through a variety of critical touch points."
This philosophy is the recipe for success that has propelled Re (pronounced Ree) on an upward trajectory through BrandLink, Interbrand, and other top consultancies to his current position as Siegel+Gale’s Strategy Director of Brand Alignment. A brand strategist at heart, Re’s specialty lies in brand alignment, employer branding and culture transformation. He has consulted in a range of sectors including professional services, pharmaceutical, healthcare and technology, driving the development of methodologies and processes to integrate research, strategy, design, and change management.
Born in New York, Re is now based in Dubai, where he solves the branding challenges of Middle Eastern clients and also supports Siegel+Gale’s network to deliver brand alignment solutions to global clients. Re holds a degree in Organizational Behavior and Communications from New York University.
Re is known for seeking out new cultural experiences, blending an interest in foreign cultures, his own Filipino-Guamanian heritage, and a passion for unconventional activities, such as Brazilian dance/martial art Capoeria, all of which inform his fresh and innovative approach to brand strategy.
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Kari Blanchard
Strategy Director, New York
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Kari Blanchard joined Siegel+Gale New York as a senior strategist. Kari has extensive experience in all areas of brand strategy development and implementation, including: qualitative and quantitative research, brand positioning, name development, brand architecture, brand look and feel, messaging, and brand experience implementation.
Kari champions an immersive, engaging and insightful approach to brand building. Her unique ability to focus not just on, but also all around client challenges makes her a particular asset to both clients and colleagues. In her nearly 15 years in the branding world, Kari has had the privilege to work with such clients as: American Express, Asics, Bank of America, Biogen, DuPont, Fidelity Investments, IBM, Levis, Merck, Microsoft, OppenheimerFunds, Polaroid, and Visa.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Kari was Vice President, Strategy at Sterling Brands, where she focused on consumer and prosumer insight studies and strategic brand positioning in the technology space. Kari also spent many years at Enterprise IG (now Brand Union), where she had the opportunity to manage a number of global brand programs.
Kari holds a bachelor of arts in communications theory from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
When not solving strategic brand challenges, Kari enjoys experimenting in the culinary arts, planning her next trip anywhere, and watching sports.
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Senior Strategist, New York
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As a senior strategist at Siegel+Gale, Hayley works on developing brand strategy and identity programs for higher education, non-profit and corporate clients. Recent engagements include Florida State University, AARP, breastcancer.org, DeWitt Stern Group and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Hayley was a strategist with a boutique consulting firm where she provided strategic and marketing solutions to a diverse set of clients, including GE, AOL and the New York City Ballet.
Before venturing into branding, Hayley was the public affairs manager for Columbia University School of Law. While there, she was responsible for developing communications plans, overseeing proactive and reactive media relations, engaging in community relations initiatives and penning copy on a variety of complex issues ranging from human rights to corporate governance for publicity materials, feature articles, marketing collateral and the web.
Early in her career, Hayley worked at several public relations agencies in the healthcare, crises and consumer groups. Projects of note include: crises work for the British Tourist Authority; product testing and launches for Procter & Gamble; thought-leader outreach for Unilever; and education awareness and advocacy programs for Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline.
Hayley holds a M.S. in Strategic Communications from Columbia University and a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Maryland. She has been a guest speaker on strategic communications topics at both Columbia and New York University.
Hayley hails from Durban, South Africa.
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Senior Strategist, New York
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As a senior strategist at Siegel+Gale, Matthew Huss specializes in developing corporate brand strategy and identity programs.
At Siegel+Gale, Matthew has worked on engagements with clients including Allstate, American Express, Cummins, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Moody’s, EmblemHealth, HD Radio, Intelsat and Ethicon. His responsibilities include conducting research and competitive reviews, leading stakeholder interviews, synthesizing findings, developing corporate and product brand strategies, and developing brand architecture and naming systems.
Matthew has over 7 years of sales and marketing experience in the technology and professional services sectors. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Brandeis University and an M.A. in Russian Literature from Cornell University.
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Karen Schnelwar
Senior Strategist, New York
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Karen Schnelwar joins Siegel+Gale as a senior strategist with over a dozen years of experience. She has great passion for mining insights and shaping brands, as well as an impressive track record of creating rich, emotionally resonant brand strategies that have helped transform organizations.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Karen was a director of brand strategy at the brand consultancy DesgrippesGobé, where she led several high-profile branding engagements with Gap Inc., Chico’s, American Eagle, Payless, American Express, The Face Shop, Cadbury, and the Qatari Conglomerate UDC. These projects involved a variety of strategic and creative branding challenges, including brand creation, brand positioning, brand architecture, brand voice, brand journey, brand engagement, innovation, as well as visual identity development across touchpoints.
Karen has also led branding engagements at Landor Associates across the Pfizer portfolio and technology and financial services sectors with IBM, Lenovo, and Capital One, respectively. Prior to that, Karen spent several years in advertising, involved with brand strategy and consumer insight work at J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather. At Thompson, she worked across the Unilever home and personal care, and culinary portfolios with a focus on personal care brands targeting women. At Ogilvy, she worked across the SmithKline OTC and DTC portfolio.
Karen holds a bachelor of science with honors in journalism from Cornell University. She spends as much of her free time as possible on Cape Cod, where she enjoys kayaking the kettle ponds. Karen has a lifelong passion for art history, with a focus on mid-century American Art.
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Senior Strategist, Los Angeles
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McNeal Maddox brings a variety of experience in marketing, graphic design, web design, web development, and project management to each client engagement as a senior strategist at Siegel+Gale. He has helped to craft strategic branding solutions for clients in a wide variety of industries, such as Sony PlayStation, Microsoft, McAfee, Genworth Financial, Yahoo!, Activision, and PayPal.
In his previous position as a project manager at FoxSports.com (a division of Fox Interactive Media), McNeal oversaw the design, development and implementation of custom promotional campaigns for major advertisers such as Gillette, FedEx, and Microsoft, as well as major sports leagues including the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. Before joining Fox, he worked as a web developer at ING Advisors Network, the US brokerage division of international financial services giant ING, where he developed corporate communications and regulatory updates for several hundred securities brokers across the network.
McNeal has also worked as a graphic designer and front-end developer at Broadband Sports, a first-of-its-kind social media, e-commerce and fan loyalty platform for sports stars including Kobe Bryant, Roger Clemens, Troy Aikman, Sergei Federov, Michael Waltrip and Anna Kournikova. While at Broadband Sports, McNeal oversaw the design and development of the first website for the world famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
Although McNeal enjoys Los Angeles, he often waxes nostalgic about his time in Austin, Texas working as a graphic designer at Trilogy Software, where he designed a range of corporate communications and marketing materials for the innovative enterprise software. During his time there, McNeal also gained a love for TexMex food and an appreciation for live music in small venues.
McNeal graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Graphic Design, and received his MBA from the University of Southern California.
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Alyson Schonholz
Senior Strategist, Los Angeles
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Alyson is a senior strategist with Siegel+Gale, where she develops branding and online initiatives for clients including Sony PlayStation, Yahoo!, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Earlier in her career, Alyson was the director of communications for Schoolboardnet, a web service that distributes communications for school boards and districts throughout the country. While there, she developed and ran all corporate marketing and training programs.
Prior to Schoolboardnet, Alyson served the director of marketing for the Penn Club of New York, her alma mater’s private club in Manhattan. During that time, she led the programming office in planning and executing all of the Club’s events and related communications. She also led the membership office in creating marketing programs to attract and retain new members.
Alyson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Communications. She received her MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Lisa Kane
Strategist, New York
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Lisa Kane joined Siegel+Gale New York as an analyst in the strategy group, and was promoted soon thereafter to her current role as a strategist. As a strategist, Lisa works to understand what makes her clients’ organizations tick, and then figures out the best, most strategic way to articulate the resultant truth. Since joining Siegel+Gale, she has worked with a wide variety of clients, such as SAP, LexisNexis, EmblemHealth, Easter Seals, breastcancer.org, Gates Corporation, and Walgreens.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Lisa worked in the marketing department of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum as a marketing assistant and later as the manager of membership development. The primary function of her role was to understand what was important to members and create programs to help grow the membership base. Lisa developed a marketing plan that boosted membership sales by 80% and truly helped bring the program back to life. She was also responsible for running events, crafting newsletters, and even writing a final scene of a History Channel documentary.
Ms. Kane holds a bachelor of arts in political science with a minor in communications from Tufts University, and a master’s degree in strategic communications from Columbia University.
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Daniel Katz-Golden
Strategist, New York
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Dan is a strategist based out of Siegel+Gale’s New York Office. His responsibilities include conducting research and competitive reviews, leading stakeholder interviews, synthesizing findings, and developing corporate and product brand strategies. He has worked on engagements with many of our clients across various sectors including Smurfit-Stone, CooperVision, LexisNexis, KeyBank, Quest Diagnostics, and Neustar.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Dan was senior vice-president at Intrigue Spirits where he headed up several successful brand development and product launches.
He holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
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Strategist, New York
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Matt is a strategist at Siegel+Gale, driving the development of international strategic branding programs for clients including Dell, Motorola, Adobe, Microsoft, Houlihan Lokey, Environmental Defense and Yahoo!
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Matt was an account executive at Passion Marketing for Issues and Causes, a firm dedicated to the nonprofit sector, where he served as a marketing consultant to charitable foundations, hospitals, and educational institutions. His clients included Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Women’s Cancer Research Institute and the Joint Distribution Committee.
Matt earned a B.A. from Cornell University.
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Jillian Mascarenhas
Strategist, New York
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Jillian is an strategist in Siegel+Gale’s strategy group. Growing up in both New York and Virginia as a first-generation American, she was influenced from an early age by a variety of cultures and ideas and continues to seek opportunities that broaden her understanding of the global stage.
She attended the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, earning a bachelor’s degree in Commerce with concentrations in Finance and Management. Upon graduation she settled nearby, in Washington D.C., to work as an analyst in a marketing/sales role for a B2B consultancy. After two years evaluating business strategies of high tech companies, she made the move back to New York to join the world of branding, working at Vivaldi Partners and FutureBrand prior to joining Siegel+Gale. Over the last few years she has had the opportunity to work on projects ranging from a global automobile manufacturer to American financial products and services to real estate developments in Dubai, an airport in Qatar, an energy institute in Saudi Arabia and even branding an entire country, as she did on a project for the Tourism Ministry of St. Lucia.
From travels around the world, Jillian continues to be fascinated by foreign cultures – and while not travelling she satisfies her curiosity with travelogues and personal memoirs.
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Marisa LeVeque
Strategist, Los Angeles
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Marisa is a strategist at Siegel+Gale, and has worked with clients including Texas Children’s Hospital, Sony PlayStation, Baylor Health Care System, FMC Technologies, and Robeks on brand strategy, brand architecture, brand alignment, and website strategy initiatives. Prior to joining the strategy group, Marisa was a business development analyst, responsible for prospect research, marketing strategy, and lead generation.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Marisa worked as sales and marketing support for Capgemini Consulting, where she helped develop new sales and marketing strategies using financial analysis and market research, and designed and managed multiple outreach campaigns.
Earlier, Marisa worked as a promotion specialist at Safeway, responsible for forecasting product movement and the layout of weekly advertisements. Prior to her work at Safeway, Marisa was a marketing and business development intern at the UCSB Economic Forecast Project, where she assisted in planning regional economic seminars.
Marisa received a BA in Global and International Studies, with an emphasis in culture and ideology, from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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