John Stucker
John has been helping clients create and evolve their brands for over 15 years. In addition to his naming and branding work, John’s broad experience in design and advertising has helped him develop a rare facility with both visuals and words which ideally suits him to lead naming and branding projects.
Before founding Pollywog, John created strategic communications in virtually every medium from brand identity to packaging, print ads to Web sites. John has worked as a consultant, art director and designer for a wide range of agencies including Campbell Mithun, Rapp Collins Worldwide and BBDO. His work has won awards from such institutions as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, How magazine and Print magazine, and his logo work has been published in Print’s Best Logos.
Devon Thomas Treadwell
Prior to founding Pollywog, Devon had been an independent consultant and copywriter/associate creative director with some of the world’s leading advertising agencies, including J. Walter Thompson in Los Angeles, and Young & Rubicam, Bozell and Campbell Mithun in Chicago.
Over the 20-year course of her career, Devon has worked on many leading brands, including the Walt Disney Company, Paramount Home Video, Coffee-mate, 3M, Southwestern Bell, @Home, Berlitz, Best Buy, Harmon AutoGlass and Mexicana Airlines. Her creative awards include The Show, The One Show, the Art Director’s Club, the Gold Addy, Print’s Regional Design Annual, the International Advertising Festival of New York, and others. Devon holds a Masters of Advertising from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
Joan Barnes
Joan Barnes is President of Sweetspot, a strategic communications and public relations agency. A seasoned communicator, Joan has 22 years of marketing and communications experience. Before founding Sweetspot, Joan was Director of Communications for the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation (MMRF) at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC). She developed the communications office and was responsible for all strategic planning and implementation. While exercising her creative side, Joan won two Telly awards for producing gala fundraising videos.
Before the MMRF, Joan was Director of the local office of Canine Companions for Independence for eight years where she was responsible for all of the day-to-day operations of the organization. She also has corporate experience including Allstate Insurance, Pitney Bowes, CPT and Compugraphic Corporation.
Jennifer Koniezcny
Jennifer Konieczny is a Partner with Beanstalk, PLLC, a Minneapolis-based law firm specializing in strategic counseling and advocacy in all areas of intellectual property and business. Jennifer and her partners have a passion for working with creative people and a focus on assisting entrepreneurs and corporations in bringing their visions to reality, at each stage of their businesses.
Jennifer was a Research Scientist with 3M Corporation prior to becoming an Intellectual Property attorney. As an attorney, she has worked in all legal landscapes, including law firm, corporate, transactional and litigation. Jennifer is licensed to practice law both in the State of Minnesota and before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office as a registered Patent Attorney.
Janese Evans
With a 25-year background in marketing research, creativity and ideation, Janese Evans brings significant experience to marketing strategy and research projects and a deep understanding of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Over the course of her career, she has worked in 21 countries and 12 languages—with businesses ranging from local to international in reach—and has moderated and facilitated more than 600 groups.
Having held leadership positions on the client, agency and supplier sides, Janese has the distinct advantage of being able to see issues from multiple points of view.
As President of Strategic Toolbox, which she founded in 2000, Janese readily draws on a wide arrange of methodologies and approaches to achieve her clients' marketing objectives while helping them get the most insight for their research dollars.