Cathy Lee Auxenfans

Cathy Lee Auxenfans brings fifteen years of highly accomplished marketing strategy and high-level project management experience to her role as a senior associate for The Kineo Group. Cathy is skilled at managing complex projects and building organizational collaboration in support of initiatives. Her professional experience and educational background in integrated marketing allows her to counsel Kineo’s clients at the highest levels about marketing issues and business challenges.

Prior to Kineo Cathy was principal corporate strategist of Exelon where she provided the company’s leadership with market intelligence and strategic business recommendations. While at Exelon she managed a wide variety of corporate projects that facilitated and promoted the integration of new businesses and supported the evolution of a rapidly evolving utility company.

Cathy and her international family live in Chicago where they converse in Mandarin and French (as well as English) and pursue their passion for food and culture.

Tom Marnell

Tom Marnell has been a specialist in Customer Relationship Management and its underlying databases for over 20 years.A hallmark of his databases is the dedication to capturing not just the behavior of stakeholders but their underlying motivations.

Prior to teaming up with Kineo, Tom held managerial positions at Bozell and Leo Burnett, where he was the first direct/database marketer hired.

In 2001, Tom became an educator and currently teaches graduate students at Roosevelt University and Illinois Institute of Technology, Stuart School of Business, the art of database marketing, research, customer relationship management and marketing strategy.

Denise O'Handley

Denise is lead for all Kineo Group client product publicity programs. She is the co-founder of wkpr, a successful public relations firm with deep experience promoting consumer products. She has nearly two decades working for top names in the food, pet, technology, retail, hospitality, tourism, arts and health care industries. She is skilled in communicating through social media and has developed campaigns that included blog outreach, Facebook group development and other online and mobile tactics.

Denise was previously affiliated with a leading Washington, D.C. marketing firm specializing in association management, and served as account supervisor for the retail and tourism divisions of the Donahue Group in Beverly Hills, Calif. She began her career as the program director for the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

Denise currently serves on the tourism and Lights Festival committees for the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. She is an adjunct instructor at the University of Chicago Graham School.

Anthony Ma

Anthony Ma brings over 20 years of recognized design excellence to The Kineo Group. His work has been acknowledged by every major international design publication, featured in exhibitions around the country, and he's a frequent speaker on design issues. As the youngest member ever invited to join the exclusive and prestigious Chicago 27 Designers, Anthony is committed to providing relevant and innovative design solutions that uniquely and creatively meet his clients' objectives.

He was most recently the executive creative director at Leapnet, where he strengthened the firm's design practice through the establishment of a process-driven methodology. Anthony's client roster includes The University of Chicago, American Academy of Pediatrics, DePaul University, US Robotics/3 Com, Nike, Hyatt Hotels, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Environmental Protection Agency and Valence Health, a holding company of health care providers.

A native of Honolulu, Anthony earned a BFA from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana where he has been a graduate seminar instuctor.

William Crawford

William Crawford is a former writer, reporter and columnist for the Chicago Tribune. During a 23-year career at the newspaper, Mr. Crawford garnered virtually every important award for journalism excellence, including a Pulitzer Prize. During his last eight years at the Tribune, he was assigned to the Business Section where he chronicled fortunes of the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other national and international exchanges.

Bill left the Tribune to become Vice President in charge of media relations for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Bill also co-founded a niche public relations and crisis management firm which focused on small and mid-size LaSalle Street trading firms, Chicago area corporate executives, and financial markets.

Vyto Jonynas

Vyto Jonynas is the Chief Financial Officer of The Kineo Group. Vyto has spent more than thirty years as a financial manager for advertising agencies and marketing firms. Prior to joining Kineo, Vyto was vice president of finance at KemperLesnik Communications in Chicago and regional finance lead for Hill & Knowlton's Midwest U.S. offices. He was also the chief financial officer of a medical marketing and sales training company. Vyto is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and a certified public accountant.

G. Brent Minor

G. Brent Minor has been involved with the downtown Chicago business community for many years as an active member of the Chicago Loop Alliance (formerly the Greater State Street Council). During Brent's more than 40 years with LaSalle Bank, he served as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Greater State Street Council/Chicago Loop Alliance (which manages, preserves and renovates Chicago's downtown area) and is currently a member of the Executive Committee. He also served as Commissioner of the State Street Commission and in July 2000, Mayor Richard Daley appointed him Chairman of the State Street Commission.

Brent has been active with the March of Dimes since 1980 and serves as a member of the National Board of Trustees. In 1992, he was elected Chair of the National Office of Volunteers, in which capacity he served for three years. He also served as Vice Chair of the Board of Chicago Association for the Performing Arts and President of the Institute of Financial Education.

Jim Strong

Jim is a career journalist with extensive reporting for the Chicago Tribune on labor-management relations, city, county and state government, including political and economic related issues.

During his lengthy career in journalism, Jim was a public information representative for WBBM-TV, Channel 2, in Chicago before joining the station's award-winning news department as assignment editor. He supervised local press arrangements for the first nationally televised Presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy in the studios of CBS-TV Chicago. He later became a reporter for WBBM radio.

In recent years, Mr. Strong has been a close advisor and media consultant the Illlinois Democrat caucus. He has also participated in media campaigns in the private and governmental arena.

Lisabeth Weiner

Lisabeth Weiner is a communications expert with a strong background in investor relations, executive and crisis communications. She was previously a vice president in the corporate practice of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide where she worked on crisis management, positioning and identity. Lis ran the public relations department.

At First Chicago Corporation where she served as chief spokesperson for Chicago's then-largest bank. During that time, she handled numerous issues related to corporate restructuring, crisis communications, strategic redirection, and senior management changes. At First Chicago she also established several integrated marketing and public relations programs related to retail banking, investment products and corporate finance.

In addition to her expertise in financial services, Lis has conducted media training programs and has extensive public speaking experience on communications issues.

Cheryl DeMong Hubbard

Cheryl DeMong Hubbard joins the Kineo Group from Bank of America, where she was a Senior Vice President, leading marketing and communications during the transition of LaSalle Bank into Bank of America for the wealth and commercial businesses. Prior to the merger, she was a First Vice President for LaSalle Bank responsible for strategic marketing, marketing operations and marketing business management.

Before joining ABN AMRO, Cheryl was with CNA Insurance, where she managed marketing, sales and business development for the Small Business Unit and as the Chief Marketing Officer of Covere, a direct insurance business within CNA. She also worked at GE Capital’s Auto Financial Services Business as a Director of e-commerce. Cheryl has also worked with Mercer Management Consulting (now called Oliver Wyman consulting), Public Financial Management and Swidler & Berlin.

Wilson Standish

Wilson Standish has worked in social media marketing for the last six years, including work for corporations, academic organizations and artists as well as for e-commerce sites, online magazines and blogs. He has consulted on site usability, rebranded websites and journals, new technology trends and has conducted web trend analyses. He graduated from the University of Denver’s communication department, where he held a chair on the Student Media Board.

Dan Krenn

Dan Krenn joins the Kineo Group as a Visual Communications Associate. New to the Chicago area, Dan is a designer with experience in all communication mediums including print, web, 3D modeling and photography. Prior to joining Kineo, he was a designer for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's publications department, where he created publications for student organizations and departments at the university. Dan has also been recognized for his achievement in Fine Arts, receiving a University Art Achievement Award for sculpture.

Dan has a B.S. in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, with an emphasis in graphic design. Dan also attended Norwich University where he studied Mass Communications.

Barbara Champion

Barbara Champion has over 20 years of experience in the field of qualitative marketing research. Her expertise encompasses all phases of the research process, from innovative study design and execution through insightful analysis and delivery of strategic recommendations. Barbara's highly developed skills as a qualitative researcher delve deep beneath the surface to unearth the reasons and rationale that shape the overt decision-making behaviors of study participants. She has a thorough command of interview techniques, methodologies, and projective applications to heighten the depth and breadth of study output.

Barbara's work oftentimes encompasses assignments that are global in scope, thus providing differentiating cultural perspectives and usage behaviors that define the US market.

Her work spans diverse industry groups, including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, municipal branding, consumer package goods, telecommunications, retail, publishing, and financial services. Throughout Barbara's career she has addressed a wide array of integrated messaging issues encompassing broadcast, print and digital medium. Barbara's client roster includes Hunt-Wesson, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Rush University Medical Center, Eli Lilly, Fujisawa Pharmaceutical, Sanofi-Synthelabo, ABN AMRO, ConAgra, Whirlpool Corporation, Diageo, Pernod Richard, Advanta Corporation, Guinness UDV, Sears, and J.C. Penney.

Sandy Guettler

Sandy Guettler specializes in cultural and heritage tourism planning, community development, marketing and visitor service. She co-authored Exploring America Through Its Culture, the report on cultural tourism commissioned by the President's Committee on Arts and Humanities for the White House Conference on Tourism.

Sandy has developed cultural and heritage tourism initiatives throughout the country for nearly eighteen years. She has provided consulting services to the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, focusing on the arts and economic development, and has worked with the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Heritage Tourism program in Wisconsin, Tennessee and Texas and the Illinois Bureau of Tourism's Welcome Center Program. She developed the initial cultural tourism plan for the proposed Jazz Museum of Chicago.

Earlier in her career, Sandy was Vice President of Tourism for the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau and the Director of the State of Illinois Office of Tourism. The National Council of State Travel Directors named her State Travel Director of the Year and she served on the board of directors of the Travel Industry Association of America.

Committed to supporting arts and culture, she has served on the executive committee of the Illinois Arts Alliance, as a board member of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, on the marketing committee of OpenLands and as the board president of The Three Arts Club of Chicago. Sandy is currently a docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation leading historic, modern, art deco and Millennium Park walking tours and Chicago River architectural boat tours.