A VCCP GROUP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Creative Director
Ali is from Atlanta, Georgia. He's half Chamorro, and half Persian. He spent most of his growing-up years in the South, and never picked up a Southern accent.
Some of his favorite things to learn about include: the composition of a perfect sandwich, subtleties of fine white wine, deeper meaning and symbolism in rap lyrics, fishing with higher success, statistical game theory, and writing bios in third person.
He has spent most of his time at agencies up and down the West Coast, and then up and down again landing him at M/H. His work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clios, Comm Arts, PR Week and much more. Ali has created numerous campaigns all over the world for brands like Audi, Google, Sprite, Adobe, eBay, Microsoft and the Lottery. Ali specifically enjoys making ads that aren't really ads at all. His most notable skills can be seen on the dance floor, and he has never lost a limbo competition.
Allen is fresh off the boat where he was a Creative Director at TBWA Greater China in Shanghai. During his tenure there, he led the creative teams for Adidas and Intel, and won his client's first Cannes Lion in over 10 years.
But, his advertising career started on this side of the world.
Allen was born and raised in the Bay Area and has been a die-hard Warriors fan since the Run TMC days. After graduating from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, he moved to Los Angeles and worked on integrated campaigns for world renown brands. Lucky enough, some of those campaigns were Super Bowl fan-favorites. His favorite part of advertising is seeing his ideas come to life and working with talented people to make it happen, and the most rewarding part of the job is being able to mentor junior creatives.
Coming full circle, he has found his way back home in the Bay and to M/H.
When he's not in the office thinking of new ways to convince people to buy things, he is off traveling with his wife, or on the couch with Dinner (his dog). In his spare time, he also moonlights as a wedding MC.
Angie's love for understanding people and solving problems is what led her to sign up for a class called "creative strategy" during her junior year at the University of Oregon. And the rest is history!
After college, she moved to Los Angeles for an internship and has been there since. Before joining M/H as a Senior Strategist, she worked at agencies like 72andSunny, BBDO LA, and Mullenlowe. Some of her past clients include Whole Foods Market, AT&T, truth, Pluto TV, Patrón Tequila, and lots of new business.
When she's not working, you can find her in Palm Springs with her fiancé and a piña colada (or two… or three).
Anna is a Capricorn, Gemini Rising and Sagittarius Moon. If this is meaningless to you, please let her know before she starts bombarding you with astrological memes; a shameless obsession that has now led her to become an avid follower of at least 12 astrological meme accounts on Instagram. She's even considered starting her own, but can't because she's maxed out on IG accounts because every pet she's had in the past 6 years living or dead has their own.
Where is she from, though?
She started out in LA, then moved to NY for high school and lived there through college and a few years after that; and then she moved back to LA for a year and then continued on with that pattern for what felt like eternity until she moved to Palm Desert in 2020 where she currently resides.
Austin has lived in California his whole life. He doesn't know what a real winter is like but can tell you what part of The Valley that upward inflection is from. And that's okay. He's okay with that. Everything is totally fine. Totally fine... Still reading? Austin loves advertising! And production! Awards galore! Great people everywhere! Billions on billions of earned impressions! Craft beer!
In all seriousness, as the Executive Producer at M/H he loves the work and all the challenges that come with trying to figure something out. The more difficult, the better. His current project is figuring out how to keep his son from banging his head into everything.
Job Titles:
- Chief Strategy Officer
- Chief Strategy Officer, SF, Associate Partner
Brendan has worked on a wide range of brand strategies and campaigns spanning broadcast, digital, earned and social media over his 17 agency years. His favorite work includes The National Basketball Association and Corona Light at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; Launching the Volkswagen GTI and the teen anti-smoking "truth" campaign at Arnold; Virgin America at Eleven; and a global Olympics activation for McDonald's at AKQA. Most recently, Brendan led the strategic planning group at Edelman Bay Area, responsible for the development of strategic direction of clients including HP, Adobe, Starbucks, PayPal and Nissan.
At M/H, Brendan is the Chief Strategy Officer, SF responsible for bringing together brand and social strategy with media and analytics to bring our creative to life in new, brave ways. Outside of work, Brendan is a proud husband and father. He often spends his time as a fearless chef, homebrewer and is a proud part owner of the Green Bay Packers.
Bryn is a Southern California native who grew up spending summers as a junior lifeguard and putting the word "the" in front of freeway names. After deciding to take a break from the sun for college, she attended the University of Washington, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and fell in love with Seattle.
She spent the last few years as a project manager, and started out by overseeing workload assignments for creative teams at an eCommerce company. This drew her to the excitement of project management in an agency setting, where she was given a front row seat to the creative process, and felt the gratification that comes with solving problems for her teammates.
Bryn is excited to take on all things Audi as a Project Manager at M/H. In her spare time, she enjoys watching reruns of Parks and Recreation, answering to a long list of nicknames that all have to do with the mispronunciation of her name, and being back in the golden state where she can spend time (but not too much time) with her loving family.
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Affairs
Cara landed in San Francisco after many years in advertising in Los Angeles. She actually never thought she'd leave LA; but here she is at M/H San Francisco. She was born and raised in St. Louis, MO but has lived more years in California than Missouri so counts herself as a Californian. She has never met a project she didn't tackle, whether, working on the Space Shuttle Endeavour move through the streets of Los Angeles or raising three daughters, both equally challenging and rewarding. She currently lives in the East Bay with her husband and three daughters.
Carolina is proud to have grown up at M/H. She's been with the agency for nearly nine years, starting out in 2011 as an Account Manager, and now serving as Managing Director and Partner. She's worked with nearly every account that's come through the doors, and takes great pride in establishing meaningful relationships with client partners to make beautiful/smart/weird/wonderful work that really works.
Prior to joining M/H, Carolina had a two-year stint at Goodby Silverstein & Partners working on Chevrolet and Denny's. Before her time at GS&P, she worked at Fuse TV in Ad Sales helping to create and build integrated programs for clients such as Burger King, Kia Motors, and Mars.
When she's not making magic at 220 Sansome, you can likely find her at a yoga class, enjoying a glass of rosé (hopefully in the South of France if possible), or on her couch relishing in her never-ending Netflix/Hulu/AppleTV+ List. She and her husband, Brian, have big dreams of becoming better tourists in their own city - San Francisco.
Caroline joined M/H in 2021. After a series of career misadventures, from terrorizing wealthy shoppers in a department store sunglass kiosk to abusing her power as the moderator of a social network for amateur coders, Caroline found herself in the ad world. Here she discovered her calling, putting her love of language and inability to shut up like, ever, to good use for brands like eBay, Alaska Airlines, and Franzia Wines.
When she's not writing copy, she's extolling the virtues of Alison Roman recipes to anyone who will listen, composing impromptu songs about whatever activity she's currently partaking in, and massage-gunning her neck because she slept on it weird. Born on the East Coast and raised on the West, Caroline has mastered the perfect balance of basking in sunshine in a kombucha-induced haze and verbally abusing strangers who use the escalator wrong. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, two sons who are dogs, and one son who is people.
Job Titles:
- the Jock ( Junior Varsity )
Emily grew up on a windy road in Bedford, New York. She received Writing and Film degrees from the Johns Hopkins University; the majority of her time in school was spent writing poetry and analyzing Kubrick movies.
It was during this time that, unbeknownst to her more artistic peers, she developed a quiet organizational bug. Since then, she's crafted Excel spreadsheets for every and anything. (Ask her about her San Francisco restaurant list.) Luckily, her obsession with the clear and concise comes in handy as an Account Supervisor at M/H on Staples.
Emily loves sending handwritten birthday and Valentine's cards. She loves to bake banana bread and collect signed cookbooks, which serve as decorative pieces in her living room.
Erin grew up just outside of Detroit and received a degree in Cinema Studies and Mass Communication at the University of Central Florida. In college, Erin had her first introduction to LA production life as an unpaid intern. She left the internship grateful for the experience but said to her mom, "well it's just as important to know what you don't want to do". Yet here she is years later, doing exactly what she said she didn't want to do, but somehow loving it.
After college she immediately packed up and moved to Los Angeles without having any viable job plans. Despite this, Erin quickly moved into the advertising space, working in-house before eventually moving over to Fabletics where she managed production and studio operations. In addition to producing commercials with a bevy of A-list celebs, she also oversaw production for the launch of Yitty, Lizzo's shapewear brand, along with the launch of Fabletics Men with Kevin Hart.
Erin enjoys early morning workouts and late-night snacks, along with binge-watching reality tv and searching the town for the best espresso martini.
Job Titles:
- Senior Production Designer
Frankie grew up in Las Marías, a little mountain town in Puerto Rico, which is an island he is very proud of. He loves to visit his family there, spend a day on the beach and eat "arroz con gandules" (green pigeon peas). It's not the same as rice and beans, ok?
His artistic side comes from his mother's family. They all paint, draw and craft. Frankie picked up this hobby very young which led him to choose creative areas in school and in the university where he graduated with Magna Cum Laude in Art & Technology and Audiovisual Communications at University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus.
After a year out of college and working as a photography teacher, he felt he needed something more. He made the decision to leave his home country and go for a new adventure. In 2014, he moved to San Francisco to study Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design at the Academy of Arts University. He is currently a Senior Production Designer at M/H working on various clients from Penn Mutual to Audi.
His passions are travels, photography, technology and beer tasting. A fun fact, he always wears a cap and has had his signature beard since 2015. His next adventure is going to travel through Europe in a camper van and collect stickers of National Parks.
This marked the end of his hip hop foray, but the beginning of a creative career that would eventually lead him to the hallowed halls of advertising. Geoff was part of Netflix's "you gotta get it to get it" launch campaign that began in Canada, and crossed the border south due to popularity. Geoff soon followed.
His time in LA had him blowing the dust off the Lexus brand for a new generation. This took the form of giant slot cars, grand theft auto and one very fashionable chase through a hedge maze. He managed to convince Indian Motorcycle to let him make tattoo ink out of a motorcycle burnout, and then convince thousands of die-hard fans to then put it in their skin. No infections have been reported to date.
Geoff then came back up to Canada (if this sounds exhausting, it was) to run creative for Canada's largest Telco and Internet provider, before coming back to California (not kidding) to join M/H. Here, he leads creative for both Audi and Klaviyo, where he's always looking for a unique point of view. Be it moving at 200 mph, or simply curled up under a blanket.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer, North America, Associate Partner
A 3rd generation San Franciscan, George has spent the past 12+ years leading finance at advertising agencies here in the city by the bay. George has held posts as VP / Director of Finance and CFO at MRM, McCann, Agency 215, and Grey San Francisco. George brings a wealth of finance knowledge to M/H, as well as a keen interest in growing oversized pumpkins. He fosters great bonds with everyone he meets, and has never caught a fish he didn't release.
Raised in Pitt and educated in Philly, Gretchen finally left PA and packed her bags for NYC the second she graduated college. There, she spent 9 years in advertising across the healthcare, CPG, beauty, and fashion industries. When the opportunity arose to move to California-a lifelong dream of this small town Yinzer-Gretchen unhesitatingly jumped at the chance and joined the M/H family.
Gretchen has led everything from traditional, global integrated launch campaigns to always-on social strategy and content development. A few notable clients include Audi, Moncler, adidas, Y-3, NARS, L'Oréal, Kiehl's, Keurig Dr. Pepper, and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Outside of work, Gretchen can be found road tripping up and down the Pacific Coast Highway with her pup Fred, making mini films of their adventures, and attempting to write something that will hopefully one day be published
Hannah hails from the land of lobst-ah rolls and Fenway Park. A born & raised Bostonian, she moved to San Francisco a few years ago, where she discovered wine country, steep hills, and M/H. She has recently returned to Massachusetts and continues to represent M/H from the east coast.
In true account fashion, Hannah thrives on helping clients solve their problems and bringing great ideas to life. Past clients include Bank of America, TJ Maxx/Marshalls, Staples, AAA Insurance, Botox Cosmetic and Greyhound Bus Lines. She is currently leading the Albertsons client business as an Account Director.
Outside of advertising, Hannah can be found taking long walks on the beach (no really, she lives in a beach town), taking an absurd amount of pictures of her dog Rosie (shamelessly), and shopping for things she does not need (also shamelessly).
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Evolution
Henry does what he does because he wants a better world for himself and for his kids. Try and separate Henry's passions for his work, his beliefs, and his family. Good luck. He's a one-track kind of guy.
Born in Manhattan, the city of the greatest art and commerce and the biggest dreamers, Henry grew up finding beauty and energy in the people and culture around him. His friends have a term to describe the feeling you get when you're around him: HENERGY. It's a real thing.
Father. Brother. Husband. Friend. Worker. Henry has over ten years of Fashion Marketing experience that includes working with brands including Liz Claiborne, Nautica, and Alpha Industries. From strategic brand marketing to launching social media platforms, Henry is an idea generator, executing with boundless dedication and passion. His ideas are smart, understandable, and make you wish you'd thought of that.
When Henry isn't off helping with new business at M/H, he is exploring his new home in Northern Virginia with his two sons, Henry and Hudson, and his wife, Angelyn. He can be seen driving around NOVA, singing with the windows down, working to perfect his best rendition of New York City pizza.
Ian grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where outside of violin lessons and hockey practice, very little happened. Eager for some commotion in his life, he spent his next thirteen years in Washington, DC, and New York City.
Before venturing west and joining M/H, Ian worked at Night Agency and Mission where he led social media & digital campaigns, product development initiatives, and branding projects.
Ijah started his storytelling career in elementary school when he had to explain that he was the new kid because of a massive lava flow. After teaching himself drawing to salvage memories of his old home, an ancient VHS camcorder sent him into the world of filmmaking. When he discovered Liquid Television, these interests collided and drove him into animation with a focus on stop motion.
He's developed his craft over the years by shooting, editing, and animating for commercial and independent film. He also loves working with teams and has taught animation classes for Oakland high schoolers.
His live storytelling reached a pinnacle when he won a Moth StorySlam but don't ask him about it. The stage is not his home.
He now lives comfortably behind the scenes telling stories with pictures that move at M/H.
Born in Oakland and raised in the Peninsula, Isaac swears by and loves everything about the Bay Area (except for some very odd reason he roots for that football team in Dallas). Growing up with 1 older brother, the household environment was highly competitive from a sports and academics standpoint. Regardless of the dozens of fights they got into, his brother always pushed him to try and be the best version of himself; Isaac owes a lot of his success to the mentorship his brother gave him growing up.
After attending high school in San Jose, Isaac decided to go to the University of Arizona where he discovered his love for social media while helping a close friend market his new clothing brand on Instagram. This newly found love for fashion and social media would lead to a career as a manager/strategist for various companies throughout California.
Prior to M/H, Isaac was contracting with a tattoo skincare company called Mad Rabbit. Prior to that position, he helped a close friend with her fashion startup where he wore several hats such as managing the Instagram page, conducting outreach for models and influencers, planning photoshoots, and assisting with the app design.
Aside from work, Isaac loves to play basketball or stay active in any sort of way. From time to time he gets bored with his hair color so you'll see him spending a lot of time with his colorist (especially in the summer). He also does personal and virtual styling for his friends so if you need some help putting together some outfits make sure to hit him up!
Jayme Ray is from Atlanta, GA. He was originally born Jayme Ray Morgan, and is related to Captain Morgan (the pirate, not the rum at college parties). Jayme has always had delusions of grandeur, so writing about himself in third person has always come natural to him.
After a long list of odd jobs, Jayme stumbled upon the Creative Circus and decided to become an Art Director. After graduating from the Circus, he landed a spot at David & Goliath and later Havas, as an Art Director on various accounts including Jack in the Box, Kia, and Coca-Cola, before joining the team at M/H.
In his spare time, Jayme can be found drawing/painting, riding his motorcycle around the countryside, or at the local pub, singing and chanting the songs of his favorite football (soccer) club.
A Southern California native, Jiho started his advertising stint in Korea as a freelance copywriter after working for the nation's hydro & nuclear energy's legal division. To avoid being drafted into the Korean military, he returned back to the States and found himself immersed in the world of strategy & media and a few years later and more importantly, analytics. After spearheading analytics practices from Detroit to LA, Jiho arrives to San Francisco as Director of Analytics at M/H.
Apart from work, his time is spent practicing and competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu nationwide. To feed his feverish appetite after being strangled to death, Jiho's been known to venture nearly two hours for good comfort food, namely tacos. From there, he ritually burns off calories through karaoke performances.
Job Titles:
- Executive Creative Director
- Partner
- M / H As a Creative Director
Joel Kaplan first joined M/H as a Creative Director, helping launch the award-winning Netflix "Spoilers" effort, shaping the messaging for Method Soap's "Fear No Mess" campaign, and show running Audi's live episodic content series, "Think Faster". Joel now plays a lead role in the agency as Executive Creative Director, making innovative connections, platforms, products, and marketing for our growing list of brand partners.
Before starting in creative advertising Joel had been a cook, construction worker, accountant, teacher, and sound engineer. His path to marketing wasn't the most direct, and the diverse experiences led to a philosophy about advertising that focuses more on cultural insights and personal interaction than data sets and character counts.
In the years since his first writing assignment, Joel's teams have won everything from the Cannes Titanium Lion, to the One Show Integrated Best In Show, to the Grand Clio. His work has been featured in Creativity, CommArts, TheFWA, and Contagious, and his previous agencies have been recognized as Agency of the year, Agency of the decade, Small Agency of the year, and Digital agency of the year.
Joel has identical twin daughters. They do not know any of this about him. They have trouble pronouncing their "R"s.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Social Strategy
Joey is a first generation Iranian-American born and raised in the City of Roses, where he currently resides. If you ever ask him for the time, the only response you'll receive is "Dame Time". IYKYK.
For his college years, Joey flocked down to the University of Oregon where he pursued a degree in the J-School's advertising program. His initial attraction to the industry was copywriting, but quickly found his calling in social strategy. Joey was lucky enough to get his foot in the door by spending two seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers. You may or may not have seen a tweet or two of his during a Blazers game.
Fast forward 6 years, Joey has had the privilege of working with everything from small, liberal arts colleges to Fortune 500 companies. He is now an Associate Director of Social Strategy at M/H.
Off the clock, Joey is a sucker for hip-hop discussion, debating who the NBA GOAT is (correct answer: Lebron), cooking (a constant WIP), and all things stocks+crypto.
It's rare to hear now, but Katie was born and raised in the Bay Area as a 5th generation local. After attending college in Michigan and with her degree in advertising, she came right back to San Francisco where she immediately started her journey in advertising.
In her love of working with people, she craves strong communication with clients and pushing exciting creative across the finish line. When she's not working or scrolling the latest on social media, Katie enjoys going to the beach, trying new restaurants, exploring wineries, cooking and baking healthy recipes, watching college football, socializing with friends and anything outdoors.
Katie takes on every opportunity that comes her way, so her diverse background is worth asking about - from volunteering at local hospitals, working for the Big Ten Network as a student, being a college radio host, working for wineries… the list goes on. Before joining M/H, Katie launched her career at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners where she thrived on large scale digital, social and integrated campaigns.
Job Titles:
- Director of Talent and Operations, Associate Partner
A Bay Area native, Katie Ramp attended college at UC Davis where she studied Communication, Spanish, and worked as a whitewater guide. Drawing on her passion for creativity and helping people, Katie has worn many hats in her advertising career: as an account manager, a project manager, a resource manager, a recruiter, and an operations lead.
Katie joined M/H as Director of Talent and Operations focusing on talent acquisition, retention, diversity, equity and inclusion, operations, and culture. An advocate for gender diversity in advertising, her 2016 Cannes Facebook Live discussion with AdWeek about gender balance in creativity beat out Usher's interview in number of viewers. When she's not talking to a candidate about their hopes and dreams, she enjoys trail running with her dog Kona, mountain biking, traveling, and baking her way through the Tartine cookbook.
Job Titles:
- Director of Creative Operations, Associate Partner
That's why Katy is at M/H. As the Director of Creative Operations, she, along with the Project Management team, keeps the creatives on-task, productive, and coordinated with the rest of the agency and clients. She ultimately manages the work flow and creative resources for the agency.
John met Katy at 180LA when he was visiting creative director and was impressed by her ability to free his brain up. Never one to poach, he waited for a good couple years to pass and an "I'm thinking about moving to San Francisco" email before they teamed up once again. Over 7 years later, they still remain a team.
Katy lives in the Peninsula with her husband and pup. If you're ever in need of a good pun or dad joke, she's your gal. She'll laugh, even if you don't.
Born and raised in Connecticut (yes, we're part of New England), Kelsey ventured off to New Hampshire for college but returned to CT post grad because well, the beach.
Before joining M/H, Kelsey was on the in-house social team at Subway. There, she not only helped start the brand's social channels from the ground up and pretty much everything in between, she discovered her love for brand voice and all things social as well.
When she's not down a Twitter rabbit hole, you can find her being a self-proclaimed charcuterie board and wine enthusiast, listening to every genre of music under the sun, or getting a new tattoo. Oh, and obsessing over every dog in the world.
Ken was born and raised in the city by the bay (San Francisco). Having spent all his life living in the city (plus a few early years in Daly City), he decided to make the move out of state and attend the University of Oregon, where he majored in advertising and Japanese. Upon graduating, Ken decided to connect back to his roots and make the move out to Tokyo to begin his career.
Now back in his hometown, he's excited about the possibility of finally going to Alcatraz or riding a cable car for the first time.
He's had experience working on both the agency and client-side, with companies such as adidas, Beats Electronics, Bed Bath & Beyond, Comcast Business, Jose Cuervo, and McIlhenny Co. (TABASCO® Brand).
Job Titles:
- Director of Client Services
When she first moved from the Midwest to San Francisco, people told her she had to live there for at least five years before calling herself a Califonian. Now in her 20th year living in San Francisco, she proudly considers herself a California girl with Midwest roots.
Krista has spent her career working on fully integrated campaigns, video content creation, digital experience development, and branding/design projects for companies like Virgin America, Visa, Staples, Albertsons, Callaway Golf, and Google.
She's bringing her passion for account management and a love of solving interesting problems with smart, creative people as a Director of Client Services at M/H.
Outside the office, Krista can be found planning her next big trip abroad-or maybe just back to Wisconsin to visit her beloved nieces-using her sourdough starter in a new recipe, or making her way through the next big thing on Netflix, glass of wine in hand.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Creative Director
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Creative Director
Job Titles:
- Head of Production, Associate Partner