OUR OWN LEAPING LEADERS
Jim Brewer – Chief Evangelist
Jim is no stranger to a good leap. It was during his tenure as VP of Individual Sales for MemberHealth LLC – a payer in the Medicare Part D/Medicare Advantage market– that the company was awarded the INC Magazine #1 Fastest Growing Privately Held Company in the US in 2008. MemberHealth grew at an astonishing 23,000% in three years of annual compounded growth to over $1.3 billion dollars in top-line revenue. An important element of the success was building alliances with pharmacies and their patients across the US.
Jim’s style and skills were honed in the technology sector at companies like Compuserve and PeopleSoft. Many experts believe Compuserve’s efforts led to the Internet we know today. Jim was also at a number of the dot com players in the early 2000s. Some succeeded, some failed. But that’s a story over a glass of good wine.
Jim is a believer in brave leaps, innovation and bottom-line results, but more than that; he cares about how things get accomplished. Stealing a line from management guru, Peter Drucker he’s often heard saying “Culture eats strategy for lunch”. To Jim it’s all about relationships - our relationship with you and your relationships with your customers, stakeholders and community.
Susan Taylor – Consumer Head Shrinker
Susan’s witty, irreverent style of writing earned her a suspension from the Academy of Our Lady High School in Chicago before the age of 16. Her career in advertising was well under way.
During her 25+ years in advertising, Susan has headed up the creative departments of a number of noteworthy agencies and has worked on a wide variety of national and international accounts. She is recognized for her big ideas, powerful headlines and clear communications. She is particularly adept at strategic positioning, integrated brand messaging and multi-touch marketing. Oh yeah… and squeezing the most out of a budget.
If you ask Susan the reason for her success, she’ll tell you it’s simple psychology. She has the ability to get inside the heads of consumers and connect with their needs. While her insightful approaches have garnered numerous awards, she’s the first to say her real benchmark for success is bottom-line results as evidenced by her impressive track record for meeting clients’ goals.
Susan heads up every creative project at LeapCreativeGroup. In her off time, she enjoys yoga, sipping good wine and figuring out how to do both at the same time.
Gae Benson – Ambassador of Amazement
Gae began her art career at the age of two on the walls of her parents’ home in Marshall, Texas. Decades later, she perfected her unique style at Art Center School of Design in Pasadena and then went on to become one of the most in-demand art/director/creative directors in the Southwest.
Gae is proficient in, well, you name it: promotions, point-of-purchase, packaging, television campaigns, logos, website design, digital & social media, magazine, newspaper, outdoor and direct mail. She’s worked for some of the world’s most popular brands and has to her credit a long list of prestigious awards for companies like American Airlines, Borden, Burger King, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Cointreau Liquor, Diet Coke, El Fenix Mexican Restaurants, Frito Lay Houlihan’s, Imperial Sugar, La Crème Creamer, McDonald’s, Motts Apple Sauce, Mug Root Beer, and Starbucks.
At Leap Creative Group, Gae envisions all things visual. Though her skill set is vast, she is best known for her customer-winning big-picture thinking, her irrepressible enthusiasm for her work and last but not least –her outrageously infectious laugh.
When not coming up with brilliant concepts, Gae enjoys making art out of found objects, and cooking things that make people swoon.