Catherine Mehaffey, President
As the agency point person and leader, Catherine thrives on developing strong relationships with her clients and bringing value and results to each individual business. She gained experience by working at several big agencies on large clients such as McDonald’s, PepsiCo brands, ConAgra and Cargill before rounding out her experience at mid-size agencies wearing multiple hats. This paved the way to found CM Marketing Group in 2002 where she could better her serve clients with top notch talent under a no walls business model. Her success comes from a unique combination of solid strategic planning and a “can do” attitude with accountability at every step.
Wayne Karls, Creative Director
With nearly 30 years experience as an advertising designer and art director, Wayne brings his level-headed approach to the creative process. He is skilled at seeing the big picture, while keeping a close eye on the brand and marketing objectives. His experience in both B2B and B2C for top brands and fortune 500 companies allows him to influence our process by bringing a calm clarity to complicated creative scenarios.
Luke Graner, Web Design & Development
Luke is an art school-trained designer and self-taught developer with 20+ years of experience in the worlds of graphic art and website development. From garage shop screen printer to small business graphic designer to award-winning creative director to full-time entrepreneur & web design guy, Luke’s areas of focus now are web design & development and media production with a focus on mobile user experience and WordPress. His hobbies include songwriting, music production and the development of the rhythmic therapy program, BeRhythmic. He love sports and exploring the outdoors with his wife and four boys.
Randy Hatanpa, Creative Direction
With over 25 yrs experience in the both the B2B and B2C worlds, Randy is well known for creating successful, innovative solutions for both print and online marketing initiatives. He has extensive experience across a wide variety of segments: industrial, technology, food, hospitality, health & beauty, and outdoor recreation.
Mary Ellis, Digital Media & Analytics
Building on a ten-year marketing career in a B2B Fortune 500 Company, Mary brings an inherent understanding of corporate to all her projects. Her Product Management background allows her to step back and see the big picture before rolling up her sleeves to get the job done. Mary brings a unique blend of communication, analytical, and creative skills to every project. This, coupled with her love of data, makes her the ultimate project manager in digital media marketing.
Lizz Stearns, Brand Strategist/Copywriter
Leslie Hancock, Media Director
Leslie is a media planning and buying veteran with strong B2B and B2C client experience. Leslie got her start at Leo Burnett/Starcom in Chicago working on national clients including Allstate and Kraft. There she negotiated TV, radio, out-of-home and print with a focus on securing low rates and added value. She then headed west to Denver to work on many B2B clients (Johns Manville, Sensient, LivaNova, DIPRA, etc.) and B2C clients including Red Robin, Exempla Healthcare, Colorado State University, Xcel Energy, and Mountain High Yoghurt. Leslie expanded her media skill set to include digital (programmatic, social, search and email) and trade advertising (print, white papers, trade shows, email and web). Leslie is passionate about developing plans with effective media mixes that drive results. And about negotiating ad rates to save clients thousands to millions of dollars.
Kym Swanson, Project Manager
Every team needs someone to help manage their objectives and goals in a timely and fiscally responsible manner. Kym has strong and diverse experience in creating a client’s vision with all of this in mind. With 20 years of advertising and marketing communications background working with clients toward a common goal, she provides the continuity from idea inception to final implementation. Kym also took time to raise three boys and get involved with her community as well as pursue some personal passions including being in a rock band, singing and volunteering.
Paul Stratman, Web / IT Engineer
Technology, web and content management systems, ecommerce, database development, mobile platforms and emarketing services are just some of Paul’s passions. He also has graphic design, retouching and color correction expertise. Paul thrives on new technologies and implementing them.
Laura Castagna, Digital Marketing
With over 4 years of experience as an entrepreneur in the digital marketing space, Laura provides a strong and diverse digital skillset. Her refined focus is on WordPress website management and development, providing continuity, implementation and execution on all projects. Her creativity coupled with her fascination of analyzing and synthesizing data generates valuable information to drive the growth strategy of a website. Outside of work, Laura’s creativity shines through in her personal passions of photography, DIY house projects, refurbishing furniture and hiking the great outdoors.
Amy Covington, Brand Strategist / Copywriter
With 20 years of experience in brand strategy, content design, user experience and messaging, Amy is a skilled storyteller who gets to the heart of a brand quickly and turns it into an actionable plan that gets results. Having worked on both the agency and client side across manufacturing, technology, healthcare, financial, and consumer packaged goods (among others), Amy’s clients include 3M, Microsoft, U.S. Bank, Anthem Healthcare, United Healthcare, HP and more.
Bruce Silverman, Copywriter
With more than 20 years of experience in both consumer and B2B advertising and promotions, Bruce has worked on everything from food to financial services, across all media platforms, including print, Web, broadcast and video. Bruce’s main strengths lie in his ability to go wide and then delve deep. Highly adept at brainstorming and coming up with fresh approaches to creative challenges, he also has the resourcefulness and tenacity to see even the most novel and multifaceted projects through to completion. It is the unique combination of his diverse client background and versatile writing skills that makes him a valued member of any creative team.
Chris Bartels, Designer
Chris is a gifted designer with a vast array of unique interests that give him constant inspiration. His specialties are brand concept, creation and introduction through visual identity & standards development; brand rejuvenation; graphic and digital design with user experience focus; art direction/creative direction/production of all
internally created creative; and environmental branding.
Deb Hatanpa, Art Direction
Deb loves a creative challenge and is adept at producing fresh and unexpected solutions. Her experience of 25+ years experience in B2B and consumer markets includes national ad campaigns, promotions, consumer package design, POS, branding and menu development. In addition to her strengths in design, illustration and typography, she is an excellent photo art director – especially when it involves food and/or kids – two of her favorite things!