Our Team
Accountable. Talented. Disruptive.
Scott Ahrendt
Co-Founder / Executive Partner
So every merry band of disruptors needs adult supervision and direction. Decision Counsel just happens to be blessed with Scott who brings 40 years of executive experience with world-class consulting firms and top retail organizations. He helps shape all strategic decisions by the executive team. Maybe equally as important, he can run four fantasy football leagues at once and knows everything about the NFL draft.
Anna Arfaras
Head of Operations
Whether it’s keeping us all in line or engaging with clients and vendors, Anna makes it happen. She has worked for some of the world’s most famous chefs and is a Connoisseur of French Champagne. She is our go-to person for managing our business and social lives.
Jarie Bolander
Strategy Leader
Powered by a steady dose of locally-crafted espresso, Jarie loves nothing more than to figure out how to explain complex things in clear and compelling ways. With 6 startups, 7.75 books, and 10 patents under his belt, Jarie’s experience runs the gamut of semiconductors through life sciences to nonprofits. When he’s not helping clients convert a concept to a viable strategy, Jarie can either be found with his blue belt on the Jiu-Jitsu mat, interviewing entrepreneurs on his podcast, or researching the latest in earthship construction techniques.
Sato Bon
Design & User Experience
Sato’s diverse background in the humanities, design, and business, combined with her expertise in strategy, allows her to effectively collaborate with clients to understand their objectives and goals, integrating a range of perspectives into comprehensive design and business ecosystems across various mediums. She has developed campaigns for brands like SalesForce, Best Buy, Chevron, and VIZIO. She is passionate about neuroscience, startups, and emerging technologies, particularly AI, Robotics, and Immersive Technology. When she's not working, chances are you'll find her out in nature or tackling the hilly terrain of the San Francisco Bay Area on her bike.
Adam Bowen
Development & Technology
Born and raised in the green state of Washington, Adam has loved every minute of it. His hobbies are limitless and his interests revolve around technology, coffee, music, helping others, gaming with friends, and of course spending time with his wife. From small companies to multinational brands, Adam has helped take projects from conception to production at every step in the process.
Jack Carrigan
Client Engagement Manager
When he is not on the golf course (or gaming), he spends his days communicating with project teams to ensure projects remain on schedule and on budget. A native east coaster, Jack escaped cold winters and muggy summers of New Jersey for the “climate stability” of the west coast. An avid scuba diver, with a passion for strategy, Jack aims to bring in forward-looking and innovative ideas to every engagement.
Lewis Chang
Head of Strategic Partnerships
Innovator, visionary, and avid fisherman. Our native San Diegan loves finding original solutions to business barriers. He usually makes use of disruptive technology, personal experience and a customer centric mentality Previous to joining Decision Counsel Lewis Chang was the CEO of Officalize, a social, content, and technology platform serving professional athletes and their fans. He has served in executive roles at Experian, Citi and SkinIt. When not doing the disruptive thinker thing, he is usually catching a nap after his 5 year old twins exhaust him.
Jessica Chapman
Chief of Staff
Jes comes to DC having proudly served our country. This veteran and mother of three possesses 15 years in management – experience she uses in both her Chief of Staff and operations roles. Her love of learning is evidenced by the multiple degrees she holds. Jessica and her family live on their farm located in the secluded hills of Ramona, CA.
Sal Fuentes
Founder & CEO
Sal is all about the high-level message, the perfect soundbite, the smoothing out of the complex. He turns muddled thinking into clear, concise, strategic vision. He gets it, and even more important, he makes sure you, your business, and your customers get it, too.
Maggie Goldstone
Design & User Experience
Maggie has been crafting digital design for more than 10 years. Leveraging her fine arts education and extensive experience as a top designer for major media brands and marketers, she is as strategic as she is creative. Her lifelong interest in progressive design enables her to bring a unique aesthetic to our client’s work. Maggie resides in New York with her family and miniature Australian Shepherd.
Lloyd Hutchinson
Design & User Experience
With 10+ years at Decision Counsel, Lloyd's the detail guy that turns out clean, simple designs that make bold, powerful statements. His creative executions have powered some of Decision Counsel's most successful customer engagements. Professional DJ, sci-fi movie aficionado, you get the picture here, or rather, the pixel.
Michael Jackson
Traffic Director
Michael joins Decision Counsel for the second time, having served as a designer in the early 2000s. He is a Bay Area native who transplanted to become an Angeleno, and worked as a Production Manager for the Northstar Travel Media publication, TravelAge West. In this second leg of his fog and smog tour, he is serving as Traffic Director and Facilities Manager. Michael earned his Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University and his MFA from the David Lynch School of Cinematic Arts at the Maharishi International University. Away from the office, Michael enjoys reading and writing, and he is currently finishing his first book.
Brent Jang
Associate Producer
A homegrown Bay Area kid, Brent is a Swiss Army knife of sorts, kitted with a background in film production, data analytics, and graphic design. He brings a fresh perspective in digital event production and broadcasting. When Brent is not knee deep in video editing or statistical analysis you can find him knee deep shredding the powder or laid back getting a tan in the sand.
Brad Jung
Strategy Leader
Brad is a clear thinker, a strategist, a team leader with the organizational acumen to get results. His forte? Product marketing. His ultra-cool eye glasses really help with that. And since he’s a civil engineer by degree, he can rationalize anything. His core mission is to get products to market successfully.
Jon "Moge" Moggio
Head of Creative
He is a hands-on digital innovator who has held leadership positions in rich media development, creative agencies and web development firms. Moge is Decision Counsel’s expert for building augmented reality and virtual reality solutions. He has that rare ability to find pragmatic business application in ground breaking technologies. He has worked with Decision Counsel for over 10 years and has a wonderful working relationship with all our team members.
Shaw Shaida
Client Engagement Manager
After attending Rutgers University, Shaw spent more than 10 years in business development. Coming to Decision Counsel as a Project Manager, he brings a wealth of experience having led corporate Scrum processes and serving as a Product Owner/Product Manager in Scaled Agile Frameworks. Away from work, Shaw enjoys studying entrepreneurship and focuses on personal development.
Pete Shimshock
Digital Experience Producer
Pete is a Bay Area native and our residential music nerd. He works closely with our clients across a wide variety of industries including telecom, SaaS, and artificial intelligence. Pete wears multiple hats, bringing energy and acute attention to detail to every area of the agency’s work.
Todd Soligo
Design & User Experience
Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri – KC is in Missouri, folks – Todd has a 12-year track record of success at DC bringing usability, accessibility, and stellar design. He cares deeply about how we humans interact with all kinds of media, which is great news for our diverse clients. Some of his interests are the great outdoors, heavy metal music, and German automobiles. Oh, and don't let us forget, good whisky.
Haley Tang
Client Engagement Manager
Whether creating an experience digitally or in-person, you can find this girl behind the curtain pulling the strings. Haley specializes in coding spreadsheets, running call or making company endorsed memes. When she’s off the air, you can find her walking around the city with her camera or painting at the park.
Kristina Trimmer
Client Engagement Director
With more than 15 years as a marketing professional, Kristina serves as Senior Director of Client Engagement for our largest client, Calix. Over the course of her accomplished career, she has been responsible for the strategic development and successful execution of integrated multichannel marketing campaigns on the client side at Prudential and within an agency at Deutsch, NY. Kristina is an exceptional talent – able to balance her time between strengthening client relationships at multiple levels and managing internal department workflows helping Decision Counsel produce the very best work for Calix. In her spare time, Kristina enjoys knitting and spending time with her husband.
Anthony Vachris
Head of Content
Anthony brings more than 19 years of branding experience to Decision Counsel, having worked in every time zone and with clients across the globe. Anthony eventually found his way to the Creative Circus in Atlanta. Having worked with Nike, Manchester United and Starbucks, he leads the content team, crafting our clients' stories with an eye on market analysis and brand development.
Stabler
Head of Morale
Stabler is a people pleaser big time. Never met a client he didn’t love, so far. When he’s not snoozing under the conference table, you may find him strategically nuzzling key team members to keep them encouraged. He hears and sees all... which is why we call him the ultimate brand ambassador.
Strategic Collaborators
Martin McGee
Head of Technology
Technologist, Strategist, Professor, Developer and Problem Solver. No matter what hat he wears, Martin is always making a positive impact. HIs rare ability to mold and build technology solutions that address actual business problems has made him invaluable to Decision Counsel clients. Over the years he has delivered technology solutions for Driscoll’s Berries, Levi Strauss & Company, Plantronics, Cisco Systems, Stanford University, Tempur-Pedic, Mattel, eBay, PayPal, Pacific Gas & Electric, Denon, TiVo, Grupo Televisa, Logitech, and Mazda USA.
Chris Soucey
Strategic Partner, Video & Animation
Chris partners with Decision Counsel to develop, produce, and edit compelling videos for television, businesses, and the web. For over 20 years, Chris has been continually working with leading brands and high-profile entertainment companies for commercial and corporate video productions. He builds lasting relationships with our clients based on the quality of his work, trust, and the ability to deliver on time and on budget. Together, we produce amazing work and exceed expectations!
Mark Strathdee
Strategic Partner,
Technology & Application Development
Mark is one of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley and wonderful Decision Counsel collaborator. Mark co-founded Sherpa Digital Media with K.C. Watson in 2011. Mark began his career in broadcast television and went on to produce programming at CBS (60 Minutes) and FoxSports. He made the jump to technology, and following a stint at Apple, he joined Accordent which was later acquired by Polycom. He is one of the top minds in the digital distribution and management of content.
Seymour Duncker
Strategic Partner, Artificial Intelligence
Seymour has a deep and long standing background in big data and analytics, having built products and large scale data analytics systems for Fortune 500 companies. Prior to Mindscale, a business innovation firm specializing in Artificial Intelligence solutions, Seymour built iCharts, a pioneer in cloud-based data visualization, and worked closely with Google to design a global data warehouse blueprint for Coca-Cola. While at SAP, Seymour laid the foundation for SAP’s cloud transition. Seymour is always excited to bring his business innovation and data analytics background to Decision Counsel engagements.