Sterling Rice Group

Buddy is a 19-year veteran of Sterling-Rice Group and has expertise across all of the company's practices, including strategic planning, brand positioning, new product development, market segmentation, research, advertising, design, and integrated marketing.

Buddy has a unique ability to get to the heart of a company's problem and make things happen. And he has for clients such as The Children's Hospital, Aspen Snowmass, Frontier Airlines, and the Almond Board of California. His leadership of SRG's strategic marketing initiatives for the Almond industry helped make it the poster child for success in the world of US agribusiness.

Dan has spent close to two decades in various capacities with a focus on business development, retail, channel marketing and channel development, and branding and brand strategy.

Prior to joining SRG, Dan spent six years as a Senior Strategy Associate at a small brand consulting and communications firm called Greenhouse Partners. While there, Dan lead the majority of new business development efforts, as well as worked across a number of client brands, including Coca-Cola North America, Molson Coors, Celestial Seasonings, First Data, Adventure Collection, SpectraLink/Polycom, Charter Communications, Intrawest/Playground, Quintess, and others.

Jennifer has gained a depth and breadth of experience in design and branding across three continents. She began her career in Hong Kong with internationally renowned designer Henry Steiner. After five years in Hong Kong, Jennifer moved to London and worked with another design "guru," Michael Peters, at Identica.

In 1999, Jennifer returned to the US and joined Landor Associates in San Francisco , part of the WPP group ss a senior brand strategist. Jennifer directed branding programs for a wide range of international clients including Accenture, FedEx, HP, Coors, Pan Pacific Hotels, the US Olympic Committee, and the NCAA. In 2005 Jennifer joined SRG where she now inspires and leads the brand design and identity initiatives for several clients.

Jeff is a design specialist with a diverse background. He created advertising campaigns for Amoco, American Dairy Association, and LaSalle Banks while working at DMB&B Chicago. Next, he moved to Frankel, where he defined and managed large-scale design systems, POS programs and websites for Frito-Lay, United States Postal Service, ESPN, and Visa. Since joining SRG in 2001, Jeff has propelled SRG's design work to new heights. Large identity programs, packaging design initiatives, interactive campaigns, and complex collateral systems have been developed for brands like Guinness, Pepsi, Starbucks, Yogi Tea, Waterpik, the Almond Board of California, and The Children's Hospital. He's also created similar brand-defining work in technology and medical industries for Arrow ECS, MBT, and LMA.

For over 35 years, Rick has been working in the area of brand strategy and innovation. It was his very diverse marketing experience with sophisticated, consumer packaged goods firms , coupled with his very entrepreneurial experience that shaped the beginnings of Sterling-Rice Group.

Rick and Michael Rice formed the Sterling-Rice Group in 1984, here in Boulder. Their initial premise was that both large and small firms would be interested in the pair's experience in both sophisticated and entrepreneurial marketing environments. Twenty-two years later Sterling-Rice Group has become one of the country's leading integrated brand development firms recognized for the fusion of strategy and creativity.

A trained culinary professional, Cathryn received her culinary arts and bachelor's degree in foodservice management, magna cum laude, from Johnson & Wales University. In 2002, she earned her master's from Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Cathryn spent more than 11 years with Kraft Foods. As a culinary developer and corporate chef, she developed and championed numerous brands that are now household names and introduced a culinary training course that became mandatory for the company's food scientists. As the culinary director of SRG, Cathryn brings a unique combination of culinary and brand development experience to all of our foodservice and food manufacturing work.

Mike has extensive, global new product and business development experience. Prior to joining Sterling-Rice Group, he worked for the H. J. Heinz Company as general manager of marketing for the Heinz Frozen Food Division. Mike was responsible for the research, strategy development, and launch of the Boston Market line of frozen meals, which is the biggest new product launch in the history of Heinz.

Prior to that, Mike directed both trade marketing and business development at Heinz. He also completed a five-year assignment for Heinz in the UK where he directed business strategy development and new product initiatives across Europe. This work resulted in numerous pan-European product launches and significant incremental business for Heinz.

Susan has almost 25 years of experience planning and buying media. Being from Detroit, it seems only appropriate that she learned the ins and outs of media at BBDO while working on the Dodge Car and Truck account. Since then, she has found stimulating opportunities in retail businesses, B2B, and brand advertising.

Susan has been planning and buying media in the Denver market for 21 years with agencies such as McCann-Erickson and Barnhart. She has been with Sterling-Rice Group for 11 years directing media research, media buying, and planning for clients including the Almond Board of California, The Children's Hospital, Werther's Original, and Cascadian Farm.

Joan is a thirteen-year veteran of Sterling-Rice Group. She has over 25 years of experience in finance and accounting, including a CPA license from the State of Colorado and an MBA from University of Colorado, Boulder. Joan also has a master's in anthropology from the University of Denver.

Joan leads the budgeting and strategic planning for Sterling-Rice Group and is responsible for the office, accounting, finance, human resource, and technology functions of the company. With her team of twelve professionals, they promote the well-being of all the people of SRG and keep the business systems and infrastructure operating at peak efficiency.

Brad leads the Sterling-Rice Group research and media competency. He has built the team that conducts several dozen ad hoc quantitative studies each year. He is responsible for the company's proprietary research tools and analytical capabilities as well as oversight of the media team.

Brad began his career in market research at Leo Burnett. His research specialties included target market segmentation and optimizing new products from conceptualization to in-market testing for clients, including Kellogg's, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, Miller Brewing, Philip Morris, Black & Decker, and Heinz Pet Foods.

Sheila began her career in Chicago at Euro RSCG Tatham, where she worked on several consumer packaged goods brands for Proctor & Gamble and Stouffer's Foods. She then moved to DDB Needham where she held leadership positions on the Sara Lee/Playtex business and on the Unilever/Degree brand. There she led the team that created award-winning communications programs for Degree that shot the brand into the top three in the category.

Sheila joined Sterling-Rice Group in 2003 and spearheads our client work in the natural/organic space.

Wade's years in the industry have included stints at some of the most successful agencies around the country. He served as a copywriter at both Ogilvy & Mather and BBDO West in their New York City and Los Angeles offices working on a variety of consumer brands, including American Express, IBM, Apple, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Panera.

Wade comes to SRG most recently from Arnold Worldwide in Boston, Mass., where he served as vice president and group creative director, overseeing the global communications for the Jack Daniel's brand. During his time at Arnold, he introduced Jack Daniel's first targeted advertising campaign into the Chinese market.

John's passion for strategy runs throughout his 30 years of business experience-half of which has been as a consultant and half in senior executive marketing roles. His business development efforts include significant joint venture, licensing, and acquisition work.

At SRG, John runs the research, strategy, and innovation practice, leading engagements across a full range of global blue-chip clients, as well as more entrepreneurial businesses and private equity-backed brands. He has deep experience in nutrition and natural, organic, and functional food and beverage brands. He is a frequent speaker at forums including the Grocery Manufacturers' Association, Natural Products Expo, Healthy Foods Europe, Nutracon, and others.

Ed's training and business career began at Leo Burnett Advertising Agency in Chicago. He joined Bayer Bess Vanderwarker Advertising Agency in 1987 as vice president of strategic planning where he continued to work for some of the best brands in the world. In 1994, Ed joined Boston Chicken as vice president of concept and helped grow it into the world's largest home-meal-replacement restaurant.

Ed joined in 1997 as a senior consultant at Sterling-Rice Group. He has led the development of new products for GTE, positioning architecture for HP, TCI, and GTE, and need-state segmentation for General Mills and Globus & Cosmos.

In his six years at SRG, John has led a wide range of innovation projects in the food, foodservice, and nutritional-ingredient industries, from positioning, new product development to futures planning and strategic business development. His projects have included work for large packaged goods firms, restaurant brands, and companies in the health and nutrition space.

Prior to SRG, John's client-side operating and strategic development experience, including working at Showtime Networks and Jones International-where he spent seven years positioning and marketing the company's cable programming channels and developing new internet-based education offerings. John has an MBA from the University of Virginia.

Steve began his advertising as a copywriter and later, associate creative director at DDB Needham, Chicago. In 10 years there, he created award-winning work for many global consumer goods giants, including McDonald's, Frito-Lay, Anheuser-Busch, and Clorox.

He then joined Foote, Cone & Belding (Chicago) as creative director, creating award-winning campaigns for DiGiorno Rising Crust Pizza, Kraft Parmesan Cheese, and Coors Light (the John Wayne spots). Steve's "It's Not Delivery, It's DiGiorno" campaign launched the most successful new product in Kraft history and is one of the most enduring selling ideas in modern packaged goods history.

Eileen's experience, knowledge of the field, and honed organizational skills means she is an expert at finding ways to produce projects within budget and on schedule. And she loves working with the creative staff, art directors, and designers to push the limit of today's production technology.

Eileen started working with Sterling-Rice Group in 1995, and today her responsibilities include direct supervision of the production group, managing supplier relationships, sourcing new technology and materials, and managing the print production for some of SRG largest clients. Eileen graduated with both her master's and bachelor's of science degrees from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Cindy has deep experience in both strategy and innovation. She began her career in marketing at J. Walter Thompson, Chicago in account management where she lead agency efforts across multiple product categories for major clients including Uncle Ben's, Kraft, and Oscar Mayer. She subsequently worked for Kraft in brand management, doing strategy, innovation and business development in the Grocery Products and Cheese divisions. Since joining SRG more than five years ago Cindy has lead projects for major blue chip clients in the areas of strategy, innovation, brand development, brand experience design, and portfolio strategy.

Upon completing his MBA at the University of Chicago, Tim launched into his marketing career at Euro RSCG Tatham . Two years later Tim moved to the client side where he has managed and led new product development with such big name brands including Pizza Hut and Sealy Posturepedic.

Before joining SRG, Tim served as senior vice president at KeyCorp, a regional financial services company, where he built and managed several groups specializing in such disciplines as marketing research, direct marketing, ecommerce strategy, and new product development.

Al began his career in the financial services industry with Travelers Insurance Company, where he was a financial analyst. After earning his MBA from Carnegie Mellon, he launched his marketing career at H. J. Heinz. Over 12 years, Al led many Heinz businesses and drove record market share on the flagship ketchup brand.

Al was then recruited to Visa USA as senior vice president for consumer credit products, where fhe helped grow both market share, member satisfaction, and profitability. He then joined Centura Health, Colorado's largest hospital and health services provider as senior vice president for strategic planning, marketing, and communications. Al joined SRG in 2007 and leads relationships with clients in food, financial services, and healthcare.

Rob spent 18 years honing his skills in NYC at some top-notch agencies, including BBDO, Hill Holiday, Korey Kay and Partners, and most recently, Grey Worldwide. At Grey, he was a senior vice president responsible for all aspects of marketing and communication, from entertainment and promotion to interactive and traditional media, for a number of iconic brands, including Canon, Aetna, Novartis, and Con Agra, among others. Rob possesses a particular strength in building true partnerships based on mutual goals and a deep understanding of a client's business and culture.

Despite enjoying the thrill of the big city, Rob is a Coloradan at heart - he attended high school in Denver and received his bachelor's from CU.

Rob came to SRG from Leo Burnett, where he started as a copywriter, creating campaigns for Kellogg's, Pillsbury, and most notably, the Ad Council's "Crash Test Dummies" campaign. Through the years Rob has created a leadership position as an Creativity Director at SRG touching on a wide variety of clients from advertising, to new product development to brand positioning. Rob graduated from Purdue University with a degree in advertising.