In four years at Rakuten, we boosted aided awareness (+5%), unaided awareness (+4%), and the company hit $1 billion in revenue for the first time—but what stuck with me was a young writer saying, 

“I feel like I work for a cool brand.”

In my experience, when people have pride in where they work and what they work on, good things happen. That’s why we were able to accomplish so much as an in-house group: complete brand redesign, global expansion to Canada and Europe, creating net new revenue driving events, two Super Bowl campaigns, 9000+ creative assets per year, and more.

Over my career, I’ve worked with dozens and dozens of brands, launched new products, relaunched major franchises, worked on products and with people that are cultural icons. And I’ve worked on small stuff with scrappy teams and no budget. I get the same joy from all of it. And as my career has progressed, I get even more joy from building and guiding teams and helping them succeed in solving business problems using creativity, simplifying the complex, making sure they ask the right questions.

When I’m not working, you can find me with my family in the mountains or on a trail or on a beach or on the sidelines of a youth sports contest or watching Steph Curry doing something amazing or running around with Thunder Biscuit Coates (pictured).