PEOPLE

At a Glance
As co-founder and creative director at Mechanica, Jim gets to do exactly what he’d hoped for when he helped launch the company: work closely with clients to craft meaningful brand positions, and help create interactions of all types to make those brands—and what they stand for—more relevant in people’s lives.

Past Work
Over his 25+ year career, spanning behemoth NYC agencies to creative boutiques, Jim’s work has won national and international awards. His campaigns have appeared in industry publications, a textbook or two, and even on the walls of a fictitious ad exec played by Mel Gibson in a movie few people remember. Prior to working with a full spectrum of clients at Mechanica, Jim worked on brands including L.L.Bean, Four Seasons Hotels, General Motors, Swiss Army Brands, XM Satellite Radio, The Speedvision Channel (now Velocity), Fortune Magazine, Nextel, EMC, MFA/Boston and many more both big and small.

What makes Jim, Jim
If Jim isn’t at the office or with his family, then odds are you’ll find him on a tennis court, a bike, or in the garage tending to the many needs of an old car.

At a Glance
As a senior designer, Pete engages in projects ranging from brand identity to campaigns, and concepting to packaging and even photography. He loves a good photoshop challenge and can often be found pulling together all the pieces for client presentations.

Past Work
At Mechanica, Pete’s clients have included Downeast Cider, Saucony and Liberty Mutual Insurance. Pete came to Mechanica from the brand team at Converse, where he worked on high-impact retail executions for seasonal campaigns and product launches (including window displays and brand activation spaces like a giant sculpture of a skull made entirely out of Chuck Taylor sneakers). He’s worked at large agencies like MullenLowe, boutique design firms, and on brands like New Balance, Avid, Pro Tools, iPath, Gartner, and Constant Contact.

What makes Pete, Pete
Two wheels and a motor. Riding and fixing motorbikes is how Pete channels his creative energy outside of work. He currently rides to work on a vintage 1961 Italian Vespa that he restored from the ground up. People are always photographing themselves next to or sitting on Pete’s Vespa so it’s only natural the scooter should have its own Instagram: @youandmyvespa

At a Glance
Robyn is both a conceptual and executional designer. On a given day, she could be building a brand’s visual identity from scratch, developing a trade show presence, designing social media posts, hand-lettering a chalkboard mural, or dreaming up some new patterns.

Past Work
Robyn’s work at Mechanica has included Liberty Mutual, Sea Cuisine, Saucony, Allways Health Partners, Weight Watchers, Period., Northeastern University, Staples and Kronos, just to name a few. In the past, she’s worked on brands such as Fidelity, IDG, NFL, MBTA, MEFA U.Fund and Reebok. She helped launch the Charlie Card that lives in every Boston commuter’s wallet. She designed a single piece of direct mail that brought in over half a billion dollars for Fidelity Investments. And most relevant, she was female leg wrestling champion of her seventh-grade class.

What makes Robyn, Robyn
Robyn equals trivia plus TV minus olives. If there is laughter nearby, she wants in. As you’re reading this, she’s 100% wearing her bathing suit underneath her clothes in case she comes across a pool. She is a true-crime fanatic, devouring podcasts by the dozen. She’ll make a guessing game out of anything, which is only 1 of the 1 million reasons why we adore her.

At a Glance
Ryan spearheads all strategic and executional components of account engagements, through to implementation and in market impact. He spends a healthy portion of his time gaining insight and understanding of the client’s business, crafting strategies, and creating strong, trusting relationships with his clients and members of his teams.

Past Work
Ryan joined Mechanica coming from well-respected area agencies, CTP Boston and Kelliher Samets Volk, working on high profile brands such as Microsoft, Webster Bank, Eastern Bank, and the Boston Red Sox. Since joining Mechanica, Ryan has successfully launched new positions, identities, campaigns, and everything in between as the Brand Director for both B2B and B2C accounts. Ryan’s current and past clients cover a wide range of sizes and industries from Metro Credit Union to Beyond Trust to Gulden Draak.

What makes Ryan, Ryan
When Ryan isn’t at the office you can find him on the beach, slopes, course, or trails around New England with his wife and kids.

At a Glance
Ted is in charge of strategic oversight and building a next generation agency that helps clients thrive in today’s restless markets. As a very hands-on strategy director and CEO, he currently leads the strategy work for Raytheon-backed cybersecurity firm Forcepoint and Allways Health Partners, while staying involved with all of Mechanica’s clients at key strategic junctures in their businesses.

Past Work
Past work at Mechanica includes Saucony, Sea Cuisine, Sprinklr, and Ticketmaster. Prior to Mechanica, Ted spent eight years as the Managing Partner, Brand Strategy Director at Mullen where he built an award-winning brand strategy and customer insights group, which contributed to the brand development and customer acquisition and retention strategies of brands as varied as General Motors, Oracle, Dell, SAP, Disney, Sony, Coca-Cola, Nextel, and Monster.com.

What makes Ted, Ted
If Ted isn’t at the office or with his family, then odds are you’ll find him on a bike, a run, a swim, or at a tasty restaurant refueling with good food and live music.

At a Glance
As brand manager at Mechanica, Joanna works closely with members of the client and internal teams to identify opportunities and strategies to further the client’s agenda. She then ensures those opportunities move through flawless execution, are optimized as appropriate, and produce marketplace impact.

Past Work
Joanna has spent over a decade working across a broad spectrum of clients, industries, and marketing disciplines. Prior to joining Mechanica, Joanna led the food and beverage vertical at Match Marketing Group in Boston, where she helped international food brand Charles & Alice break into U.S. marketing with national, regional, and retailer specific strategies, including the development of a U.S. brand voice, a consumer launch campaign, retailer sales materials, and social presence.

What makes Joanna, Joanna
Joanna loves nature, inside and out. When she’s not working in her garden, you can find her merging creative energy with precision and attention to detail in floral design.

At a Glance

As a design director, Wade uses his lifelong love of design and decades of strategically driven brand building to help clients communicate their ideas more effectively. In his own words, “I’m not someone who just makes things look good. I am first and foremost a creative problem solver.”

Past Work

Wade’s passion for design began as a young boy, when he was captivated by the stickers and decals on race cars. This fascination with branding marks, logos, colors, and go-fast stripes led him to design school. After graduating, Wade talked his way into an advertising agency, where he would combine his enduring interest in design with strategically driven ideas, working closely with iconic brands producing award-winning work that spanned everything from custom typography for Jack Daniel’s, to Super Bowl ads for Jeep and others. After nearly three decades as a creative practitioner and leader, Wade took on the challenge of building an in-house creative team for a little-known Boston startup called SimpliSafe, a home security company, where he helped grow brand awareness to transform the category disruptor into a category leader.

What makes Wade, Wade

Wade is the father of 4 young adults who along with his wife, Mary benefit from Wade’s other passion: cooking.  And as a habitual designer if Wade has time between preparing meals, he is likely designing or illustrating something for someone somewhere-mostly for friends and probably related to race cars.

At a Glance
Becky handles all things operations & financial.  Her title doesn’t cover the HR and IT roles she plays but we like to think a title doesn’t have to say it all.

Past Work
Becky came to us from a CPA firm in Portsmouth, NH where she spent a decade working with 40+ clients in all industries.  Prior to that she was a Finance Manager at Sprint PCS for several years and the Controller at North Atlantic in Portland, ME, a city she loves.

What makes Becky, Becky
She’s one of the most outgoing introverts you’ll ever meet.  Equally as comfortable dancing at a concert as quietly reading a book, what she loves best is being with her two daughters (both Penn State alum) and Mechanica family, especially if it involves travel.

At a Glance
Kristina has spent her career building and rebuilding brands across a myriad of industries – helping them create, sharpen, and enhance their positioning, brand messaging, visual identity and overall brand experiences. She thrives when digging in deep to uncover insights, truths, and tensions in bringing together the science and art of what makes a strong, authentic brand. And, having moderated hundreds of focus groups on just about anything – she’s a facilitator at heart. She likes educating clients on the importance of branding and leading work sessions to help clients work through their challenges and questions.

Past Work
Kristina started her career in market research where she honed her research expertise and discovered her passion of utilizing consumer insights to inspire brand strategy. During her time at Digitas she used her expertise to help brands such as Intercontinental Hotels Group, Staples, and GM find and connect to new audiences. As the former head of creative at Hawke Media, Kristina uniquely understands how to translate strategic thinking to the creative process and across the spectrum of creative disciplines.

What makes Kristina, Kristina
Kristina is always sweating every detail, but you wouldn’t know it. Bringing a sense of zen to any situation is her super power. And as a west coast resident, she’s fine tuned the art of staying present across two time zones..

At a Glance
As project manager, Demi touches every piece of business that comes through Mechanica from a scheduling/resourcing perspective.

Past Work
Demi has spent the bulk of her career at Mechanica, joining as Administrative Manager in 2013. Over the years Demi learned the ins and outs of the agency, which lead her to joining the brand team in 2015. With a smile on her face (always), staying calm and troubleshooting while under tight deadlines is what she does best.

What makes Demi, Demi
Demi, whose full name is Demitria, is the most Greek Irish girl we have at Mechanica. You might find her sipping champagne on her roof deck in Charlestown – and you can definitely hear her infectious laugh from two conference rooms away.

At a Glance
As creative director at Mechanica, Ted’s most important job is ensuring all the smart thinking we develop with our clients successfully moves into the consciousness and behavior of our intended audiences.

Past Work
Ted’s work at Mechanica has spanned Saucony, Sea Cuisine, and One Door (RBM). He has led projects from Disney to AeroShot Energy, and created branding campaigns for Fallon Community Health Plan, Kripalu, T2 Biosystems, and Community Wealth Ventures. Prior to Mechanica he worked at Arnold Worldwide on CVS and Fidelity, though he spent the majority of his career at Mullen on brands like Olympus, Zappos, JetBlue, Nextel, LendingTree, GameTap, Stride Rite and Four Seasons. Ted’s work has been recognized by industry awards such as One Show, Cannes, D&AD, Communication Arts, Hatch Awards, and AICP.

What makes Ted, Ted
Two words: Cookie. Sutra.

At a Glance
As Brand Coordinator at Mechanica, Hannah assists in managing the day-to-day client projects and schedules as well as doing research and competitives.

Past Work
Hannah came to us from Penn State where she graduated with a degree in Finance. Present Work at Mechanica includes: CPCT, Dragos, Metro Credit Union, and Viator.

What makes Hannah, Hannah
When Hannah isn’t wrangling the biggest spreadsheets you’ve ever seen, she’s keeping us laughing with her quietly unique sense of humor. When she’s not in the office she’s racing down the ski slopes doing higher math equations in her head.

At a Glance
As co-founder, creative director and part unicorn, Libby champions brand growth. She believes no idea is too big and has a steady pulse on trends, which she uses to elevate concepts to their premium potential.

Past Work
Libby’s work has won many industry awards and has been featured in publications such as PRINT Design Annual, Graphic Design & Logo, Fast Company, Communication Arts. She has also been profiled by BBC for a series called, “The Chain,” where leading figures name the woman who’s inspired their success.

What makes Libby, Libby
Libby is the mom of two tall boys, an impatient knitter, a national champion rower, and advocate of 3 Percent Conference, BlinkNow, and Period. Her superpower—that wherever she goes she finds a parking space. Right. In. Front.