Our world class team of branding experts is led by James Gregory. Jim, and his carefully chosen colleagues, represent years of wide-ranging experience as brand strategists, marketers and communicators. Each client engagement is led by a principal who integrates our offices and services to provide solutions for our clients.

James Gregory — Chief Executive Officer
Karl Barnhart — President
Andrew Bogucki — Executive Creative Director
Timothy Robinson — Managing Director, Research & Analytics
Larry Oakner — Managing Director, Strategy
Bill Westcott — Managing Director
Janice Bissell — Brand Director
Angela Leong — Brand Director
Renee Malfi — Brand Director
Patrick McCabe — Brand Director
Jonathan Paisner — Brand Director
Rebecca Wilson — Brand Director
Brad Puckey — Director, Intelligence
Annick Wydooghe — Concept Development Director
David Garcia — Creative Director
Stephen Hooper — Production Director
Bruce Thorpe — New Business Director
Matthew Eaton — Brand Director

James Gregory — Chief Executive Officer
One of the U.S. communications industry's recognized experts and leading advocates of corporate branding. As founder of CoreBrand, Jim has developed a proprietary three-tiered process that focuses on:

• Understanding of the brand and its meaning to different audiences
• Crafting the brand and the key messages it must communicate
• Measuring the brand and its effects on business performance

Jim speaks widely on the subject of corporate branding to both business and academic audiences. He has also authored four books: Marketing Corporate Image: The Company as Your Number One Product, Leveraging the Corporate Brand, The Best of Branding, and Branding Across Borders.

CoreBrand builds upon over 25 years of experience in analyzing the effects of strong brands on corporate performance. As CEO, Jim oversees all key strategic issues relating to the corporate brand. Over the years, he has developed a unique blend of creative and analytical expertise.

Jim created the Corporate Branding Index®, an annual research survey designed to capture vital reputation and financial statistics for CoreBrand's various measurement products. Such products include the CoreBrand® Analysis, which helps corporations and their agencies determine the return on investment for advertising and communications.

Karl Barnhart — President
The president of CoreBrand, Karl is responsible for the company’s direction, client relationships and marketing. As a brand strategist, Karl has managed several of the firm’s most prominent clients including The Hartford, VF Imagewear, Cisco Systems, AT&T, American Century Investments, BearingPoint, Delphi Automotive, Ranger Boats, NASCAR, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, CN, Sensient Technologies, Aventis, Omron and MasterCard.

Karl has been with CoreBrand for more than 14 years. He joined CoreBrand after two years as Vice President at Interbrand and five years at Siegel & Gale. A frequent speaker on the power of branding, Karl has a B.S. in technical writing and editing from Carnegie Mellon.

Andrew Bogucki — Executive Creative Director
Andrew directs all creative activities at CoreBrand. He has had much experience in the development of powerful, prominent brands, creating world-class design and identity systems for American Century, CreoScitex, The Weather Channel, Hitachi America, Standard Register, Ciba and Canadian National. Before joining CoreBrand, Andrew was Design Director at Interbrand Schechter, where he was integral in creating corporate identity systems for clients such as MCI, AC Delco, Delphi Automotive, MasterCard International and BankBoston.

Timothy Robinson — Managing Director, Research & Analytics
As Managing Director of CoreBrand’s strategy business and international efforts, Tim leads CoreBrand’s strategic efforts with our global clients such as Cisco Systems, Toshiba Corporation, Dun & Bradstreet and Lincoln National Corporation, focusing on building and leveraging global brand value. Tim joins CoreBrand with over 15 years of experience in design, design management and strategic marketing. Before joining CoreBrand, Tim was VP of Marketing and Strategy at d/g* New York. Tim managed the marketing and account groups, as well as the firm’s largest clients: Sunstar Inc., The Quaker Oats Company, Unilever and The Limited Group.

Larry Oakner — Managing Director, Strategy
Larry Oakner has spent more than 25 years building brands, positioning companies and managing strategic marketing projects. An accomplished educator and brand consultant, Larry has used his creative expertise to help communication professionals, product managers and corporate executives at more than three dozen Fortune 1500 companies implement their branding programs internally throughout their organizations. These include Bayer, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Abbott Vascular, Dun & Bradstreet, Medtronic, Russell, Cemex, TransAmerica Life, Guidant, Girl Scouts of USA, GeoLogistics, Organon, ING, Celestica, and TD AMERITRADE, to name a few.

In a career that includes integrated marketing and advertising as well as branding, Larry served as an advertising Creative Director, overseeing the development of campaigns for clients such as Caterpillar, Chubb Insurance, Genesis ElderCare, Mellon Bank, and many others.

Larry Oakner has served as an adjunct professor in the Advertising and Marketing Communications Department at SUNY-Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. He holds a Master’s Degree in English, Cum Laude, from UCLA and is the author of And Now A Few Laughs From Our Sponsor: The Best Fifty Years of Radio Commercials (Wiley/Adweek, 2002).

Bill Westcott — Managing Director
As a Managing Director in New York and a member of the CoreBrand management team, Bill helps clients clarify, articulate and align their brand strategies in relation to their core business strategies. His approach to brand strategy is grounded in 10 plus years of strategy and operations management consulting and focuses on business fundamentals and disciplined problem solving. Bill has led strategic planning and business design engagements for Chase, Dupont, Kodak, and the Masco Corporation as well as several successful startups. He believes that well-architected and managed brands are absolutely essential to a company's success.

Janice Bissell — Brand Director
As Brand Director at CoreBrand, Janice works with clients such as Cisco, Samsung, TransUnion and Methodist Healthcare Systems on custom measurement programs and strategic initiatives. Before joining CoreBrand, Janice was an Account Director at d/g* group (currently brandimage - Desgrippes & Laga), where she managed strategy and design projects for such clients as Coca-Cola, The Quaker Oats Company, The Limited Brands, Unilever, EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports) and Allied Domecq. Prior to d/g*, Janice worked in creative and client services at The Doneger Group NYC.

Angela Leong — Brand Director
As Brand Director at CoreBrand, Angela works with multinational clients to develop brand strategy and custom measurement programs. Angela has worked with clients such as Sunstar, Lafarge, Target, Altria, AMS, Cisco and Toshiba. Before joining CoreBrand, Angela was an Account Director at d/g* group, New York (currently brandimage - Desgrippes & Laga). With a background in strategic brand and design development, Angela helped clients such as Manulife Financial and Weight Watchers launch their global identities. She also worked with Unilever and Sunstar to expand their presence into new markets and distribution channels. Prior to d/g* group, Angela worked in advertising at BBDO and Grey.

Renee Malfi — Brand Director
With more than 15 years of branding experience, Renee specializes in developing and managing corporate identity implementation programs. Currently, Renee is directing the MasterCard identity System and the on-going implementation of various MasterCard programs. In addition, Renee has worked on the development of the AT&T Brand Center and The Hartford Brand Central websites, the launch of the Hoover’s brand identity, and led a range of other branding programs. Before joining CoreBrand, Renee was Senior Program Manager at Interbrand where she managed corporate identity programs for ACE Limited Insurance, GTE, General Motors, MasterCard and Aramark.

Patrick McCabe — Brand Director
Patrick has been involved in the creation and implementation of strategy, corporate identity and communications programs for 20 years. At CoreBrand, he has directed engagements for D&B, Catalent Pharma Solutions, Delphi Corporation, Cengage Learning, ACE and Waterkeeper Alliance. Before joining CoreBrand, Patrick was at Siegel & Gale, where he led a wide range of naming, branding and design projects for American Express. He also developed positioning, architecture and identity strategies for such clients as Motorola, Upromise, LinkShare, Renaissance Hotels, The International Olympic Committee and Lincoln Life.

Jonathan Paisner — Brand Director
Jonathan brings over 10 years of experience to lead client initiatives in licensing and co-branding. Prior to CoreBrand, Jonathan was principal of BrandExperienced, a brand strategy and licensing consulting firm. Previously, with Siegel & Gale, Jonathan led engagements for several Fortune 500 and start-up clients. Jonathan has worked extensively with a range of notable brands, including American Express, Fisher Scientific, Reader's Digest and Cisco Systems. Earlier, Jonathan created and ran the licensing division of A&E Television Networks, building a successful business unit through the development of dozens of partnerships to extend A&E, Biography and The History Channel into publishing, travel, radio, music and interactive.

Rebecca Wilson — Brand Director
As Brand Director, Rebecca partners with clients to ensure the seamless development and execution of their strategic branding and identity programs. With over 10 years experience in branding, she has managed brand strategy, naming and design projects for a variety of corporate and consumer brands, including, Chubb Group of Insurance Co., Assurant, Methodist Healthcare, American Express, L.L. Bean, Time, Inc., Pfizer, J.P. Morgan Chase, GMAC Insurance, Columbia University, Pitney Bowes and the Adirondack Museum.

Rebecca holds an MBA in Marketing from Baruch College and a BS in Human Development from Cornell University.

Brad Puckey — Director, Intelligence
Brad has 15 years of intelligence analysis experience in both the U.S. Army’s National Security Agency and at CoreBrand. Brad has been responsible for the development and building of the Corporate Branding Index from inception in 1990 through to the present. He is also responsible for the development of computer-based models used to quantify the relationships that exist between communications investment, corporate brands and financial performance. Brad has worked with clients such as GE, Lucent Technologies, Bristol-Myers Squibb, International Paper and many others. Brad currently directs projects for Cisco Systems, Pitney Bowes, Union Pacific, United Technologies and Convergys.

Annick Wydooghe — Concept Development Director
As Concept Development Director, Annick has been involved in designing identity systems for Vantrix, RSM, Delphi, American Family, Waterkeeper Alliance, and D&B. Her strong creative vision, strategic approach and collaborative nature enable Annick to create distinctive solutions for all her clients. Most recently, Annick has created a new, comprehensive visual system for Citrix Systems, where she played an instrumental role as the client contact in the implementation of this system. Originally from Belgium, Annick earned a master’s degree in Communications from Pratt Institute in New York. Prior to joining CoreBrand, Annick developed identities and communication programs at Interbrand for clients such as Sirius Satellite Radio and British Telecom.

David Garcia — Creative Director
As Creative Director in our Los Angeles office, David leads major corporate identity programs, committed to creating distinctive and memorable designs that serve long-term client needs. In his years at CoreBrand, David has developed comprehensive identity programs for D&B, MasterCard, AT&T, Hoover’s, Toshiba and Sensient Technologies, overseeing sign and environmental programs as well as print and online brand management tools.

Before CoreBrand, David developed identity programs at Interbrand and Enterprise IG in New York, and Landor in San Francisco. He has also spent time at Larsen Design in Minneapolis where he designed print, environment and interactive projects. Originally from California, David graduated from California College of the Arts.

Stephen Hooper — Production Director
With more than 15 years experience in brand consulting, Stephen brings a practical, roll-up-your-sleeves approach to the implementation of corporate identity and brand communications systems. Stephen tackles critical project deliverables including final artwork, templates, guidelines and other key production issues for both print and online projects.

Originally from Ireland, Stephen studied architecture at Yale. Before joining CoreBrand in 1998, Stephen was Production Manager at Interbrand and Siegel & Gale. Stephen currently works out of CoreBrand’s Los Angeles office.

Bruce Thorpe — New Business Director
From his work with brander Siegel+Gale, interactive agency Electronic Ink, and financial services marketing boutique Wechsler, Bruce brings 15 years of sales and design management experience to CoreBrand’s business development team. He has initiated communications design and branding engagements with a wide range of enterprises from TATA Consultancy Services, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Allstate Insurance and OppenheimerFunds, to The College Board, The Environmental Defense Fund, Phoenix House and Florida State University. Originally from Minnesota, and yes it is something of a stereotype, he is Lutheran. Bruce joins CoreBrand to develop the firm’s relationships with clients of all kinds.

Matthew Eaton — Brand Director
Using his business-focused skills, Matthew expands CoreBrand's services to current clients. He is leading assignments for The Lane Construction Corporation and The Hartford.

Before coming to CoreBrand, Matthew was a Vice President at the the Boston-based marketing company EMI. At EMI, he helped companies such as The Hartford and Wachovia define their brands, introduce new products and optimize their marketing channels.