The Brand Capitalists
This work is part art and part science, both tangible and intangible, and always creative. It’s more than just a strategic practice; it is a unique skill set and methodology honed by years of practical experience. Assessing brand strength and uncovering insights and opportunities to improve performance and build value demands some serious experience and not just a little talent. Doing this work wants for a love of discovery and learning, and a passion for solving strategic puzzles. We take the complex and distill it to the simple and the actionable. Doing it well demands a seasoned understanding of branding and positioning and their power to improve every facet of business.
Lysle C. Wickersham, Principal Consultant
Uniquely right and left-brained, Lysle is a brand capitalist to his core. He understands the power of branding and positioning along with the practical reality of operations, managing a P&L, and scaling a business to a liquidity event. He leverages a career in brand development, investment banking, and management consulting, refining his craft over a 30-year career. As Managing Director and Chief Creative Officer, Lysle built and sold a $170M integrated agency where he positioned and built many world-class brands. He went on to work in several tech startups and founded an investment banking and M&A firm. All of these explain BRANDThink’s holistic and integrated approach to value creation.
LinkedIn
Skip McKee, Senior Advisor
Skip has spent the last 25 years in a diverse range of business development roles within the Boston advertising and brand design industry. Skip’s passion for building business led him to roles in account management and sales for a variety of brands. A serial entrepreneur, Skip is the founder of two brand design companies which he merged in 2013. Skip is also an active investor and spends an inordinate amount of time sitting on boards and in strategic advisory roles for a diverse group of companies including Dedham Country Day School, Horizons of Greater Boston, and the United States Ski & Snowboard Association.
LinkedIn
Amy Paxson, Brand Strategist
Armed with over 25 years of experience in brand development, marketing, and advertising, Amy brings a wealth of insight to BRANDThink. She is the founder and Managing Partner at Vox Marketing, and the founder and COO of BankDot, a web development firm focused on community banks and credit unions. Amy’s worked for some of the advertising industry’s finest shops including Arnold Worldwide and Hill Holiday. She’s led strategic teams across B2B and B2C, and in all channels and verticals for brands like Bose, iRobot, Sonos, Keurig, Hyatt Hotels and a slew of others. We steal as much of her time as we can get.
LinkedIn
Dee Slattery, Brand Strategist
The scope and breadth of Dee’s experience are significant. With decades of brand strategy and management experience across B2B and B2C, Dee is a brand architect for global giants and startups alike. Her focus is always on brand performance, positioning, and building sustainable equity, helping brands achieve revenue and market share growth. After senior global brand leadership positions with Nautica, Fendi, and Ansell, Dee designs brand strategy across diverse categories from luxury goods to leadership services to recently positioning, branding, and launching new high-end offerings for Gatsby Spirits. The common thread is market success and revenue growth. She’s a natural at building brands and business.
LinkedIn
Michael Rowland, Research Analyst
Michael is a seasoned “brand safecracker”. He’s held roles as Director of Brand Strategy for leading agencies such as Eisner Communications in Baltimore and Kirshenbaum Bond in New York. Michael has worked with many leading brands including Cablevision, Bank of America, CIT Financial Group, and the Kingdom of Spain. With decades of experience as an agency strategic planner, Michael is a uniquely skilled brand strategist. He has taught marketing courses at Johns Hopkins University and Loyola College, and a regular speaker at conferences. Born in London, Michael makes his home in Israel.
LinkedIn
Julie Zimerman, Research Analyst
Julie has an enviably rich research background with significant expertise in in-depth qualitative research and insight gathering from primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. She has a remarkable ability to pull together, synthesize and integrate information from multiple sources, generating valuable strategic insights that drive brand growth and value. She compounds her research talent with extensive brand and product management experience. Julie received her BA in economics from Cornell and her MBA from NYU’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Suffice it to say, Julie keeps us very smart.
LinkedIn
