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Our Team

Did you know that Gecko’s color vision is 350 times more sensitive than a human’s, and sometimes we can even regrow our tails! Yep, that’s how we roll…

Meet the Geckos

Peter Van Deventer

Pete is the founder & CEO of Muddy Gecko. Some say he invented the Mud as a pioneer in the IoT & wireless markets, as a business builder, a dad and a professional athlete. This Chief Gecko is equally at home sailing the San Juan Islands or enjoying a good vino on the back deck.

Peter Van Deventer

Chief Gecko

Teddi Jensen

That etch-a-sketch under the Christmas tree at age 6 was clearly the gateway drug to a life as a hardened graphic designer for Teddi. She has spent more than 3 decades translating all manner of messages into a visual language for companies large and small. 

Teddi Jensen

Design Gecko

Seth Sanders

Seth is a basketball fan, coffee snob, audiophile, foodie and HTML & CSS lover. Working at the nexus of aesthetics and function to save the world from bad web design. Equally comfortable working with startups or Fortune 50s. Seth is also the 10th worst surfer in California.

Seth Sanders

Renaissance Gecko

Brian Forbes

Brian loves hiking, yoga and building a great marketing strategy. In other words, the really epic and gnarly stuff.  Brian honed his chops at technology shops like VMware and Intel. He began his career in the muddy oil fields of Oklahoma, and has experienced what it takes to find a gusher.

Brian Forbes

Managing Director

April Van Deventer

From operations to sales, April is experienced in wearing many hats. She is now enjoying wading through the Mud with her fellow Geckos seeing projects through from start to finish!

April Van Deventer

Operations Gecko

Cooper

Cooper is the Defender of the Empire

Cooper

Social Influencer

Florin Ivan

Florin makes amazing videos, including ads for Pepsi, Heineken, McDonalds and many others. He also does websites, world-class animations and much more. We call him the Romanian Spielberg

Florin Ivan

Jedi Gecko

Chris Barlow

Even after a 25 year finance career, Chris is the master at finding the nickels and dimes scattered in the muddy terrain.

Chris Barlow

Number Crunching Gecko

Alexandru Buzea

Alex has been getting muddy doing world-class animations for over 25 years.

Alexandru Buzea

Animation Gecko

Greg Sieck

Greg is the dancing, whistling traffic cop working at the intersection of strategy and creativity, so your brand work never gets caught in gridlock. Greg’s work for brands like Intel, Taco Bell, Dolby and AT&T have resulted in some really muddy results. 

Greg Sieck

Brand Guru

Sasha Van Deventer

From the mailroom to the boardroom, Sasha is ready to get Muddy!

Sasha Van Deventer

Gecko in Training

John Miller

John started as an art director and editor in media. He now helps clients with visual storytelling, among them: Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, Oracle, IBM, the IRS (!), and Gecko…err, Geico.

John Miller

Renaissance Gecko

Jonathon Bell

Naming companies, brands and products is a gecko specialty. Jonathan gets really muddy branding & naming stuff.

Jonathon Bell

Wordsmith Gecko

Charlie Sadoff

Charlie got his start digging in the dirt 20+ years ago editing music videos for the likes of Peter Gabriel. Since then, he’s cut movie trailers for Miramax, produced documentary films for ESPN and the History Channel and plied his craft for Toyota, NRG Energy, NBA Entertainment, HBO, The World Bank and lots of others. 

Charlie Sadoff

Storytelling Gecko

Jon Obermeyer

Jon is a highly-focused generalist. From the circus to circuits, he’s written for everything from Ringling Brothers to RF Micro Devices. As a marketing executive, he’s worked in nanotech, regenerative medicine, ad tech. Jon started out as a bank teller with an English Major. What a chameleon!

Jon Obermeyer

Poet & BDM Raleigh-Durham

Stefan Visan

Stefan builds muddy websites. Really muddy websites.

Stefan Visan

Web Gecko

Lisa Dion

Lisa digs deep into her OG newspaper experience to sling the mud for a wide swath of clientele from real estate developers and hip-hop artists to hoteliers and haberdashers. She also knows a thing or two about marketing Industrial Robots & doing social for Hawaiian Airlines.

Lisa Dion

Writer Gecko

Jill Robinson

Jill is a globetrotting travel & adventure journalist who’s logged miles, crossed borders, broken a bone or two, & won awards for telling great stories. She’s written for the San Francisco Chronicle, AFAR, National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Saturday Evening Post, Sunset, Robb Report, and more.

Jill Robinson

Gecko Writer

Dr. Richard Windsor

20 years on the wild seas of Wall Street surviving 2 major crashes taught Richard the difference between substance & noise. It is this ability to see straight to the heart of the issues at hand & explain them in simple & blunt terms that earns Richard the ear of the biggest tech companies competing in Digital Life today.

Dr. Richard Windsor

Digital Markets Gecko

Dave Olmos

Dave is a Senior Technical Illustrator and Presentation Designer who got Muddy for over a decade at Cisco.

Dave Olmos

Designer Gecko

Leslie Smith

Simply put, Leslie helps clients strengthen relationships with their communities. Attracting news and views, her ideas and events are groundbreaking (sometimes literally).

Leslie Smith

Public Relations Gecko

Robert Carlton

Robert has spent 25+ years getting marketing and communications muddy at Ford, Intel, McDonald’s and Owens-Illinois.

Robert Carlton

Managing Director

Dr. Peter Williams

Peter’s major association with mud came from playing rugby for 26 years until his tail fell off & never re-grew. All of which was great training for his career in business & technology strategy, focusing on cloud, IOT, AI, blockchain & the like & eventually becoming an IBM CTO & Distinguished Engineer. He has extensive experience advising startups & VCs in the Industrial IOT area.

Dr. Peter Williams

Chief Technology Gecko

Mark Viken

25+ years of digging in the mud as CMO level/ Sr. VP Sales & Marketing Sony Electronics and others. Marketing integration expert with Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart and other major retailers.

Mark Viken

Chief Retail Gecko

Rex Miller

When not perfecting his tennis game, Photographer / Director / Cinematographer Rex Miller gets Muddy as a visual storyteller. His photography clients have included ABC News, American Express, Atlantic Records, Calvin Klein, CBS, Forbes, John Kennedy, Jr., McDonald’s, Musician, Newsweek, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Nickelodeon, Rolling Stone, Spin, Sony Music, and Time. His video/TV production work has appeared on HBO, PBS National, Tennis Channel, & screened at major national & international film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, etc. He has been part of two Peabody Award winning projects, 3 Emmys and was twice nominated for an Emmy for Cinematography.

Rex Miller

Photo & Video Gecko

Lucy

When not fumblin’, bumblin’ and tumblin’, Lucy is our new foundation of social influencing.

Lucy

Gecko Impersonator

Marion Koehler

A self-proclaimed Globe Trotter with an explorer streak. Marion is a global marketing veteran with an instinct for anticipating the next question while messaging to specific audiences. Focused on the end-result, this gecko is skilled in driving projects with extreme attention to detail.

Marion Koehler

Program Gecko

Brett Tipul

Animator & VFX Artist for 10+ years. “It’s not the years.. it’s the mileage”

Brett Tipul

VFX Gecko

Jerrie Ames

The secret of life? A good cup of coffee. The secret to telling award-winning business stories? Begin from a place of deep empathy. With over 3 decades of experience working with some of the biggest & best known brands in the world, Jerrie knows how to help win your audience’s attention & earn their affection.

Jerrie Ames

Strategic Messaging Gecko

Brett Udashkin

Brett has been digging through sales, business development and strategy mud for more than 30 years. A passionate & strategic seller, he is a veteran of companies such as Intel, Microsoft and Rogers Communications. Brett is based in Toronto.

Brett Udashkin

Global Development Gecko

Shawn Sackman

Shawn got Muddy as one of the world’s leading semiconductor experts while at Intel, with expertise in semiconductor memory components (2D/3D/3D Crosspoint NAND, DRAM technologies) and solutions such as SSD, SATA,PCIe, M.2, HDD, and key industry players such as Samsung, Micron, Hynix, Toshiba, WD/Sandisk, Seagate.

Shawn Sackman

Chip Gecko

Jay Gangi

An entrepreneur and a keen observer of human behavior and trends, Jay has helped elevate brands both large and small while holding a variety of strategy, insights, and account services positions at Levi Strauss, Clorox, Landor, and his own consulting practice, novaQuant. When he’s not solving marketing challenges for clients, Jay likes to play basketball, coach his two daughters in softball, and hike the hills and beaches near his home in Pacifica, California.

Jay Gangi

BDM & Brand Gecko

Karen Stephens

As a qualitative researcher, Karen loves to ask questions and get muddy with our customers.

Karen Stephens

Research Gecko

Jenny Huang

Jenny brings strategic and creative lenses to help you uncover blind spots, so your marketing and branding stay top-notch. With curiosity and contagious entrepreneurial spirit, she always wears great ideas on her sleeves, ready to share anytime. Good laughs and homemade Crème Brulee make her day!

Jenny Huang

Silicon Valley Gecko

Michel Hassan

After a first career in Europe, Michel decided to invade the retail and e-tail in the Americas where he left his muddy fingerprints. For more than 25 years he has been muddying his hands in the IT and consumer electronics world. From Amazon to Walmart he is a veteran of many successful strategic campaigns. He now lives in Southern California.

Michel Hassan

Memory Gecko

Peter Gross

Peter has been getting Muddy as one of the world’s leading data center experts for 30 years. He is recognized as a thought leader in the mission-critical information, communication & infrastructure design realm, has published numerous technical papers in the field & is a frequent speaker at international events.

Peter Gross

Managing Director

Rex Anderson

Rex’s triple background as a writer, theater actor, and audio engineer coelesced in 2013, forming the base of a successful career in voice over. Since then, he has voiced hundreds of projects for a diverse range of clients. His natural acting ability combined with his broadcast-friendly baritone produce a unique sound for clients such as Estee Lauder, Hewlett-Packard, The American Red Cross, LEGO, The US Air Force, and many more. This gecko is available to imbue your brand with the voice it deserves.

Rex Anderson

Voice Gecko

Brian Hamilton

Brian is an active gecko that gets muddy playing tennis, golf and basketball. When he is not working out or with his family Brian has served in Sales, Marketing and Global Business Operations roles at companies such as Intel, Micron, Avnet, PNY and SMA America.

Brian Hamilton

Vice President of Operations

Nicole Hassan

When Nicole is not teaching in a classroom she can be found hiking or traveling but she never gets lost in translation for Muddy Gecko French customers!

Nicole Hassan

French Gecko

Donato Pineda

Donato is a digital photography enthusiast and gadgets geek. He traveled WW to program manage corporate marketing events and trade shows for Intel and VMware and got muddy while translating program updates for the Intel Inside® Program Licensees in Latin America.

Donato Pineda

Spanish Gecko

Blake Scribner

An award-winning video media producer with 25 years of experience producing hundreds of Fortune 500 global branding assets. This gecko believes the story is at the crux of every great brand to empower the customer’s experience. “Infotainment” is where he plays in the mud to create value.

Blake Scribner

Video-media Gecko

Kerry Ward

The founder of FullTilt Team Development is at home in the mud as an entrepreneur, ultramarathon runner, 10-time Burner, swing dancer and world adventurer.

Kerry Ward

FullTilt Team Gecko

Scott Webster

This FullTilt, Spanish-speaking, world traveling gecko loves exploring the unknown. When he is not knee deep in mud team building, he loves the outdoors, sports and will always say yes to a round of golf.

Scott Webster

FullTilt Team Gecko

Tom Seletos

A FullTilt gecko who hosts unique experiences for companies like Intel, Microsoft, Toyota and dozens more – he loves to help groups get muddy! This gecko also loves to rock climb, kite surf, and find a good deal!

Tom Seletos

FullTilt Team Gecko

Lydia Richards

This gecko is driven to uncover the muddy brilliance in others. She is an author, speaker, facilitator and executive coach. Her unique blend of experience enables her to transform work teams and organizations into engaged, high performing, FUN places to work.

Lydia Richards

Executive Training Gecko

Chad Laws

A globally curious gecko, this lizard has always focused on bringing the right messages to the correct audience, via the most effective vehicles – driving positive organizational change as a result. Sharpening his communications and marketing teeth within the corporate IT world he now brings strategic value to corporations, NGOs, and nonprofit organizations in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. When not focused on communications and marketing, this reptile can be spotted traveling, getting active in the outdoors, and reading history.

Chad Laws

Global Comms Gecko

Lisa Watts

After 2 1/2 decades at Intel Corporation helping create all the amazing mud making machines, Lisa now pours her energy into producing, advising and consulting in the immersive space (AR/VR). She firmly believes that to really understand mud, you have to become the mud. Get in there. Really experience it! Her favorite thing? Helping visionaries and businesses make their muddy plans a (virtual) reality.

Lisa Watts

AR/VR Gecko

Monique Heileson

In one of her first positions, Monique’s creative director asserted her title should be “Multimedia Goddess” because of her willingness to get muddy. He even put it on her business cards.

Monique Heileson

Design Gecko

Leslie Wilson

Leslie likes spending time with family and their new Shiba puppy. She loves working through muddy challenges leveraging her project management, operations and finance background from her +20 years experience in the fast paced high tech industry.

Leslie Wilson

Program Gecko

Tom Pastre

Tom gets muddy being clever. Because he believes innovative thinking requires a clever gecko who is quick, agile, and transformative. A connector of dots, he’s a strong writer, market analyst, trend specialist, idea generator, concept developer, and story teller. He’s been clever for the likes of PepsiCo, Unilever, GSK, IFF, and a host of others. After his family, Tom loves playing tennis and platform tennis (Google it).

Tom Pastre

Clever Gecko

Rich Marinaccio

In the mud for 20+ years in graphic design for Fortune 500 high-tech Silicon Valley companies.

Rich Marinaccio

Design Gecko

Dave Ard

Leading Go To Market organizations large and small, public and private, Dave is a seasoned sales and marketing executive specializing in architecting and developing market-leading teams. He’s dug through the mud in both the technology and financial services industries for the past 25 years and led several companies to exceed their revenue and market share goals through both organic and acquisition growth strategies.

Dave Ard

Managing Director

Art Roehm

Art loves golf, fast boats, and CUSTOMERS! He started his career as a geeky engineer designing radar detectors for F15s. Through the years he has transformed himself and many teams into Sales Gazelles!!

Art Roehm

Sales Gecko

Martin Steib

Martin has been digging through the Marketing mud, both B2C and B2B, for more than 30 years, getting his hands muddy in large corporations like Sony and Unilever, but also in small & mid-sized enterprises & start-ups. Martin has come around quite a bit, but always loves to come back to his native Germany. Currently he is based in Stuttgart.

Martin Steib

Managing Director Europe

Boone Jarschke

A jack of all trades, 23 years of learning and using whatever is required to get muddy on the web, in 3D, and in animation. Also loves getting literally muddy on his mountain bike.

Boone Jarschke

Animation Gecko

Luke Rowland

Luke is our outreach and lead generation team lead. He helps clients engage with their existing, and prospective, customer base to drive new business and leverage more return from their digital marketing efforts alone. He uses the phone to stand out in a sea of emails.

Luke Rowland

Lead Gen Gecko

Bruce Taylor

Growing up on a farm in Maine, Bruce knows muddy not to mention other smellier substances… He is a career-long print, TV, radio journalist — reporter, writer, editor, publisher, TV/radio news anchor. He shifted to digital technology writing, editing and publishing and, since 2005, has been focused on the data center from the IoT edge to hyperscale cloud. Most recently he has been focused on the digital infrastructure enabling Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0, with particular emphasis on climate change solutions. He skis, sails and is led on long mountain hikes by Griffin, his enthusiastic zen sensei golden retriever.

Bruce Taylor

Writing Gecko

Laura Sanders

When she isn’t churning out motion graphics or editing videos, Laura is often found on the treadmill or solving the daily N.Y. Times Crossword. She prefers to cook savory over sweet, but if dessert is mandatory, she can make a mean cheesecake. Laura’s latest addiction is playing Beat Saber on Oculus, which isn’t surprising, as she used to be a shoo-in at Whac-A-Mole.

Laura Sanders

Motion Graphics Gecko

Barbara Kohn

Barbara has enjoyed the challenge – and pleasure — of writing for global tech giants as well as emerging companies since the PC revolution. Research is a passion and she’ll dig deep into the muddy depths of the Internet for background on industry trends and issues. When she’s not writing, she’s walking her dog, traveling the globe and desperately trying to master the Pickleball “third shot drop.”

Barbara Kohn

Writing Gecko

Scott Turner

Scott has over 20 years experience working in television commercials (on set), corporate motion graphics, AR and interactive design with brands such as Nestle, Dolby, State Street Bank, LATAM, Leidos, Accenture, amongst many. He has taught visual effects classes in the US and South America and for 3 years chaired the departments of Animation and Game Design at a well known Chilean art college.

Scott Turner

Animation Gecko

Jennifer Long

Jennifer Long has more than 20 years of experience creating iconic and influential brands for companies in tech; global finance firms; nonprofits and foundations; public markets; and lifestyle brands, such as renowned art institutions. Her specialty is logo design and how it applies to brand identity. Getting Muddy means listening deeply to interpret precisely and translate ideas into dynamic designs.

Jennifer Long

Design Gecko

Kellie Ellermann

Kellie has always been intrigued by amazing events and the various aspects that go into organizing and strategizing them while creating the most impactful experiences for her clients. With over 20 years of experience in marketing and events, Kellie seeks diverse challenges that require strong leadership, a curious and creative mindset, and the ability to build and nurture exceptional community relationships and deliver exceptional business results. In her off time, you will find Kellie in many places from drinking coffee and sparkling water at a local spot in Little Italy with her pup, Frisco, at Law Street Beach doing yoga, hiking a 14er in Colorado, traveling to Chicago to see family or spending time doing energy work and meditation.

Kellie Ellermann

Event Gecko

Chile Hile

Chile enjoys skiing and foraging for culinary mushrooms when she’s not leading product marketing initiatives. Passionate about disruptive technology, she’s been getting muddy for 15+ years launching cloud products and marketing programs, positioning portfolios and gathering customer insights.

Chile Hile

Product Marketing Gecko

Allyson Klein

Allyson has been neck deep in the mud for decades and an executive in the data center and edge arenas. Her heart sings for great marketing strategy materialized and a well written narrative. She’s known for getting to technology truths on her award winning podcast series and loves to talk about the latest in industry innovation.

Allyson Klein

Comms Gecko

Rachel Horton

Rachel paints sunflowers and sea turtles in her spare time – when she’s not writing wow-worthy copy or running here and there (as all moms and dog moms do). Rachel loves the outdoors. And jalepenos. (She is Texan, after all). She’s a versatile marketer – she can do the research, the strategy, the planning, the writing and the art direction. Rachel honed her branding and marketing skills during a career in marketing and communications across healthcare, government, media, and technology. She prefers meaty projects that challenge her persistence.

Rachel Horton

Content/Comms Gecko

Bryan Rhoads

Bryan’s career mirrors the Internet. From early telecom journalist to Web 1 virtual worlds to social marketing pioneer w/ Intel, VICE Media, Opal and Micron… He’s an award winning researcher, content marketer and digital operations pro, including 10 years of teaching at the university level. Don’t believe us? Here’s his Content Marketer of the Year acceptance speech for laughs.

Bryan Rhoads

Digital Gecko

Rich Baum

Rich has spent his professional life selling air. This is appropriate as his passion is the game of Basketball which requires air to keep the ball bouncing. He has been involved in the Audio Network Syndication business for over 30 years, building and organizing National Advertising Sales Teams. Most of his free time is spent with his wife and 2 adult sons who both have been involved with Basketball either playing or coaching.

Rich Baum

Vice President of Sales

Jackson Kavrell

Jackson is a tech nerd who loves meeting new people and dogs. When he’s not using technology, he enjoys playing golf and travelling to new places. He looks forward to getting muddy and being your go to contact for all your marketing needs.

Jackson Kavrell

Sales Gecko

Tracy Veverka

Tracy is a marketing chameleon with 20+ years’ experience creating data-driven, customer-centric, and strategic campaigns focused on many muddy aspects from demand gen, retention, cross-sell, up-sell, to acquisition, and new product launches. Her joy consists of brisk walks listening to her favorite podcasts, pickleball, and red wine with friends.

Tracy Veverka

Campaign Gecko

Chad Taggard

As an often-crashed mountain biker, Chad knows the mud up close and personal. When staying upright, he enjoys skiing, running, backpacking and leading teams. His high-tech, data-driven background focuses on the marketing fundamentals to create a lasting competitive advantage for both companies and products.

Chad Taggard

Managing Director

Barry Kleiman

Barry is a “recovering” headhunter who spent five decades helping people to connect with themselves and companies whose needs fit that self. He’s coached basketball on local, national and international stages…plays guitar, who also founded The Fifth Quarter Project (a nonprofit focused on assisting former competitive athletes find success beyond the gym/field/pool) He is quite excited to join the Muddy Gecko Team (though not quite as excited as he is to be a grandfather but excited nonetheless!)

Barry Kleiman

Sales Gecko

Mallory Serrano

Mallory is a true creative strategist with an impeccable eye for quality design. Her passion in work is creating beautiful brands and sustainable content strategies for clients. In her free time, she loves to travel, write, and practice creative directing through photography!

Mallory Serrano

Digital Gecko

Justin Clairmont

A jack-of-all-trades and a creative both in and out of work, Justin can often be found recording in his New England based music studio or deeply engrossed in a multimedia project. A lifelong world-traveler, snowboarder, and outdoors enthusiast, you can’t pin this gecko down!

Justin Clairmont

Sales Gecko

Shannon Gilcrease

This gecko is a passionate about brand engagement and meaning making as way to connect and deepen customer relationships – especially in the live event arena. Shannon has many moons of experience working with top notch companies. She incorporates her mindfulness training and heart-based leadership style to help clients unleash their full creative potential.

Shannon Gilcrease

Event Strategist Gecko

Eliana Amram

When Eliana is not exploring the beautiful Vegas outdoors with her family and dog, you can find her splashing in the mud to strategize and create beautiful and compelling marketing materials. With 10+ years of experience, she’s passionate about helping teams and businesses reach their audience and business goals with the right message at the right time, all while using analytics to track successes.

Eliana Amram

Program Gecko

Catherine Song

Cathy is a mom to two beautiful daughters and one adorable dog, who loves connecting with humans over a nice glass of wine or via innovative growth marketing programs.

Catherine Song

Managing Director

Greg Doran

Greg started in the mud writing code with a focus on data analytics. Realizing he enjoyed talking to people more than typing, it was time to move into management roles. He started one of the largest divisions at MLB.com using data to better engage with fans. From there he moved onto leading Ticket Evolution, an important but little known company in the live events industry.

Greg Doran

Managing Director

Michelle Schifrin

Michelle has spent the last 10 years working for VC-backed early-stage companies to late-stage growth companies B2B SaaS companies. Her passion is around building Go-To-Market teams from the ground up in strong concert with her Marketing counterparts. Much like a symphony, the music doesn’t play unless sales and marketing are synchronized efforts. When I am not digging deep in the sales pipeline, I am hiking in the hills of Northern California, traveling to new places, or working on my latest masterpiece for cookbook club.

Michelle Schifrin

Sales Gecko

Evelyn Grevelink

10+ years getting muddy in physics, technical writing, and hardware engineering. This gecko uses her background in watercolor to guide the visual elements of content and technical illustrations.

Evelyn Grevelink

Writer Gecko

Douglas Howatt

Writing, messaging, and strategy for B2B, technology, and SaaS. Happiest finding beauty within chaos: No mud, no lotus.

Douglas Howatt

Writer Gecko

Deborah Wiltshire

Deborah loves a good tale – whether listening to one or creating them for her clients, she loves to help companies develop narratives to reach their desired audience. Her expertise lies in tech comms – the kind that gets you in front of media, analysts, customers, partners or other influencers. She’s been getting muddy for over 20 years helping companies like Elastic, Cloudera, Informatica and Cisco grow their brands, go public and stay top of mind. In fact, her favourite saying comes from Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh: ‘No Mud, No Lotus’ which basically means that without mud the beautiful lotus cannot thrive – so get dirty!

Deborah Wiltshire

Comms Gecko