Saleena Groves
President
With over twenty years experience within the industry, Saleena is a hands-on, results-oriented marketing and communications professional. As President of Crakerjak, Saleena plays a leadership role in strategy planning, account direction, client services, project management, production and overall campaign execution on behalf of all of our clients. She drives the strategic brand process to make certain our clients get the right strategies that ultimately leads to the best creative ideas and marketing campaigns.
Saleena has worked with many B2B and B2C clients across many industries such as Ford Canada, Nissan Dealer Group, Howard Johnson Hotels Canada, Staples Canada, Bell Canada, Rogers Wireless, Canadian Stone Industries (Cultured Stone®) and the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC), among others. Saleena is a big believer in collaboration as she fosters our client-agency relationships that make boundaries go away and vision and consensus appear in their place. With Saleena’s strong organizational skills and proactive approach, she always anticipates our client’s needs and executes campaigns on time and on budget to deliver positive ROI results.
Elly Miller
Creative Director
Elly Miller is an Executive Creative Director who has held top positions in Canada and overseas. In her creative portfolio, you’ll see award-winning work covering almost every category; from pharmaceutical, FMCG, financial, travel & tourism, telecom, and luxury goods marketing. Elly has created innovative ideas that stay grounded in business objectives. From her experience as General Manager of a Paris branding and design boutique to running the large creative department at JWT Japan, Elly incorporates a global view of people and places into her work for all clients. Elly’s creative leadership and innovative work results in brand-building campaigns that motivate consumers.
Blair Minnes
Director, Brand Strategy
With over 25 years of experience as a brand strategist, Blair applies the disciplines of branding, research and measurement on behalf of all of our clients. Blair unlocks the answers to high- level challenges and provides guidance on how corporate and brand strategies can be successfully brought to life in the marketplace. His proven approach to brand strategy uncovers insights to establish brand positions that motivate consumer behaviour.
The scope of his work includes brand communications, but more often than not, Blair focuses on long-term vision, helping our clients to identify, define, and implement their internal and external initiatives that help shape their future success of their companies and brands. Blair has brought clarity and effectiveness to some of the best-known B2B and B2C brands including Harley-Davidson, Unilock, Canadian Stone Industries (Cultured Stone®), Howard Johnson Hotels Canada, Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO), 360°kids, KiSP, Inc., Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC), Aurora Scientific and many more.
Maryam Golabgir
Managing Digital Director
Maryam Golabgir is a digital marketing veteran with over 14 years of experience leading successful B2B and B2C digital marketing campaigns. Maryam has worked in the Telecommunications, E-commerce, IPTV, A.I. Development, Broadband Alliance, and Financial industries. As Owner of Digital Marketing Experts, Maryam believes creating a sustainable digital marketing strategies will require a sharp vision and loads of metrics to accompany digital plans.
Maryam’s digital expertise is in Social Media Marketing strategies, Website Development, Search Engine Marketing and Optimization, Online Advertising and Video / Mobile Marketing.
Richard J. Groves
Vice-President, Business Development
Richard is a strategic, results-oriented Marketing/ Business Development Professional with a wealth of experience in planning and executing business-building programs. He brings excellent organizational, analytical and interpersonal skills combined with a proven ability to deliver results across a wide range of clients and product categories.
As Senior Vice President at Leo Burnett, he handled Maytag, Nissan Canada, Allstate, Smucker’s, Cathay Pacific and Freudenberg Household Products, among others. Richard has also consulted for many companies, most recently with Publicis Canada and Canadian Diabetes Care Guide and is a guest lecturer for the RMC MBA Marketing program. Richard’s hands-on work ethic and savvy market insights provide the smart leadership our clients are looking for.
Mark Mastromartino
Senior Art Director
Mark’s main objective is to produce the kind of groundbreaking work that cuts through the day-to-day clutter. With a clean, modern style, Mark knows how to bring an idea to life within each different medium, while ensuring each piece is visually true to the brand. He has worked on various media ranging from websites, online ads, outdoor, transit, guerrilla marketing, magazine, P.O.P, package design, direct mail, video and newsprint to annual reports, interactive, brochures and collateral material. Mark has worked with many clients in the B2C and B2B categories across many industries such as 360°kids, KiSP, Inc., York Region Economic Development and Tourism, Derlea Foods, Atlas-Apex Roofing Inc., Sony Canada and Aurora Scientific.
Marilyn Karamaritis
Senior Art Director
Marilyn has developed award-winning advertising for clients such as Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC), Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO), Harley-Davidson, Thomas Cook Travel, Piper Aircraft and Cadillac Fairview. She brings a deep appreciation of the importance of marrying creativity to a clearly defined brand strategy. Her visual skills are applied in the development of our creative concepts and then in every aspect of the creative execution from graphic design to production of all communications material.
Andrea Scott
Senior Copywriter
Andrea is a seasoned writer specializing in web content creation and marketing communications copywriting for over 20 years. She has been instrumental in helping companies achieve their communication goals. Her B2C and B2B client list includes Bell Canada, Canada Post, Canadian Forest Service, Intuit, Yellow Pages and AutoTrader.
Donna Dawson
Certified Professional Editor
Donna is a Certified Professional Editor (certified by the Editors’ Association of Canada in proofreading, copy editing and structural/stylistic editing). She knows how grammar works but believes clarity and impact are more important. She ensures that your text says what you want it to say, is clear and engaging and is right for your audience, whether that means eliminating jargon for general readers or maintaining professional language levels for experts.
Donna has been a freelance editor since 1996, working on a wide variety of material targeting both consumers and specialist audiences, including display advertising, press releases, promotional brochures, web sites, newsletters, books, children’s health programs, stock market research reports, medical and business journals, continuing medical education programs and professional testing materials. She has worked on content in the fields of health (especially cancer care and nutrition), business and finance, investing, biography, optometry, human resources, theatre, real estate and more.
Mike Lascut
Chief Solutions Architect
Mike’s professional career spans over twenty years, specializing in email marketing, intelligent search, website development, mobile development, online marketing / advertising (PPC), SEO/SEM, information architecture, software architecture and development, along with usability and web analytics. As Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Solutions for Microforum’s Internet Solutions Group, Mike worked directly with Microsoft on the development of e-commerce programs. Mike entered the world of search marketing authoring a suite of SEO automation applications. Employing a unique blend of expertise, Mike takes a logical and analytical approach to any business requirement for all B2C and B2B client projects he undertakes.
Mike has worked with an multitude of high-profile clients and projects such as Chapters.ca (now Indigo.ca), Sony’s Mainlymusic.com, Dumex, J.J. Barnicke, Ford Motor Company, Ford of Canada, shop.businessdepot.com, Petopia (now Petco.com), NBC’s vvtv.com, WasteClick, Westsylvania, GoFood, MedicalAlert, Unicrypt, FordApparel.com, StorageTek, GamesMania.com, Atlas-Apex Roofing Inc., Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO) and Canadian Stone Industries (Cultured Stone®), among others.
Shakil Nundloll
Video Production / Editing, Multimedia Graphics and Animation
Shakil brings over 25 years experience as a talented motion graphics video production designer/editor. His ability to give ideas new dimension is what sets Shakil apart from the pack. He makes even the smallest detail blossom into a visual “must see” as he guides you through the spaces he creates. His creations for Harley-Davidson have won huge praise over the years as he consistently found new ways to entertain the audience and also made them look like super stars. Over the years, Shakil has contributed to hundreds of projects including work for 360°kids, Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO), Bombardier, Niagara Parks, Unilock, Fiber Connections and York Region.
Kelly Dutton
President, Gaggi Media
(A division of VMC Media)
Gaggi Media is a full service media planning and buying advertising agency that serves a wide range of international, national and regional marketers. They are experts in both traditional and all forms of digital media advertising. Gaggi Media works from the full spectrum of media options and have the resources and experience to build everything from a mass media campaign to “one-on-one” customer relationships…and everything in between.
In a highly fragmented media environment there is no single medium that can do it all. Gaggi Media is all about planning and executing a strategically balanced media advertising combination that will maximize effective connections between the clients and their potential customers. Gaggi Media’s goal is to bring their client’s brand closer to their consumers and stimulate conversions.
Mike Sorrenti
President, Game Pill Inc.
Game Pill Inc. combines world-class technology and talent to produce powerful entertainment.
Game Pill Inc. has an experienced team capable of extending your brand to digital. They specialize in branded online and mobile game development, mobile app development and website development. They are the go-to interactive studio for B2B, entertainment and consumer giants including Nickelodeon, National Geographic, Marvel, AETN, 9 Story Entertainment, CORUS, Astral Media, Pearson, Mattel, P&G, and Google.
Daisy Wai
Ethnic Marketing Consultant, Principal
Ad2000 And Beyond Advertising Inc.
Ad2000 and Beyond Advertising Inc. is Crakerjak’s partner that specializes in Ethnic Marketing for over 20 years. Daisy’s work includes market research, strategic planning, marketing recommendation, advertising, public relations, media relations, studio production (including creative, design, copywriting, translation, artwork, printing and production), event management and outdoor advertising.
Over the years, Daisy has contributed to hundreds of projects including work for Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO), Cosmo Music, Town of Richmond Hill, Village Nissan, Mackenzie Investments, Thrifty Car Rental, Chapel Ridge and others. With the growing immigrant population in Canada, Daisy has been supporting corporations to reach this market, especially to the growing South Asian and Chinese Community. Daisy’s professionalism and quality of service is well recognized in the industry and the marketplace.
Donna Lewis-Churchman
Marketing Research Consultant/Principal
Lumos Research Inc.
Donna Lewis-Churchman at Lumos Research Inc. is Crakerjak’s partner who brings over 20 years of experience in marketing research. Donna has extensive experience in advertising and strategic development programs, advertising testing, churn/defection, new product/service development and positioning, brand health, brand and advertising tracking, usage and attitude studies, website usability and pricing research.
Her qualitative and quantitative expertise is varied, soliciting insights and translating them into effective solutions for business in industries such as telecommunications/IT, financial services, retail, travel and tourism, confectionery/packaged goods, and eye care. Prior to establishing Lumos Research Inc., Donna held the position of Vice-President at the Canadian division of a global marketing research/customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement company.
Rob Worling
Founder
Orange Bazooka
Orange Bazooka develops Strategy, Creative and provides Execution across all media, both Mass and Digital. They incorporate a mix of technology and creativity between traditional and digital channels and work collaboratively with clients to explore new “territory” they can occupy and cultivate over time. Orange Bazooka brings new technology to client businesses to help them connect and collaborate with their fans, friends and stakeholders. And finally, they bring speed and experience to the services they provide through a network of hand picked partners.
Santhush de Silva
Business Management Consultant
Santhush is a senior consultant, project manager, business analyst and a proven Leader with over 16 years of experience in the industry. He has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Information Technology Management specializing in Applications Development with a minor in e-Business from Ryerson University and is ITIL Foundation Certified. During his career, he has specialized in Strategic Planning, Business/Operational/ITIL Process Consulting, Project/Transition Management, offshore development centre management and account management with many clients. Santhush has successfully collaborated with Shell Canada, Exxon Mobile, Suncor Energy, Shaw Communications, CompuCom, Alberta Health & Wellness and CGI, and many more.
