Brent Martino

digital director

Years in Branding:

Brent has spent15 years working in all aspects of digital development, strategy, audio-visual production, social media, SEM/SEO and design.

Brand Experience:

Brent has worked with a diverse group of brands in a variety of industries, including education, travel and tourism, manufacturing, retail, hotel, building products, healthcare and lifestyle. These brands include American Skiing Company, Nature Education, Harvard, State of New Hampshire, Lockheed Martin, GeoDeck, USPL, UPG, Beacon Partners, Warner Brothers, Dunkin Brands, Tetrapak, MediRevv and SPi Healthcare.

Life Experience:

In Brent’s spare time, he performs as a guitarist for the bands This Scarlet Mourning and Skylight. He spends most of his time either with his family, working on music or cooking. Brent has a certification in multimedia studies from UMass, is certified in sound engineering, and is a member of SEMPO, the search engine marketing professionals’ organization. He is also a master of Ninjutsu, a 33rd degree Mason, and a member of the Illuminati.

Brent Believes:

Brent believes paper should be a thing of the past, everything should be digital and we should all have flying cars.

Tracy Hartman

Director of Public Relations

Years in Branding:

Tracy has more than 20 years of experience developing, executing and overseeing the PR strategy for a variety of national and international clients. Her extensive experience includes media relations, media training, crisis communications, copywriting, ghostwriting and implementing complementary integrated social media campaigns.

Brand Experience:

Tracy’s experience encompasses a variety of industries, including healthcare/medical, outdoor recreation, lifestyle, building products, manufacturing, education and entertainment. She has shared her expertise with such companies as The North Face, Fujifilm Medical Systems, U.S.A., iSOFT Group Ltd., GeoDeck, Correct Deck, USPL, United Plastics Group, Beacon Partners, MediRevv, SPi Healthcare, Nature Education, Humane Society of the United States, Radius Product Development, Crimson Forest Films Ltd., Electric Insurance and Radius Product Development.

Life Experience:

When Tracy finds the time, she loves to play volleyball and soccer (in what she refers to as “old lady” leagues) and enjoys other fitness activities like walking and running. When she and her husband are not busy with their teenage and pre-teen sons’ sports and other activities, Tracy loves to cook and spend time with family and friends.

Tracy Believes:

Tracy believes that the little things you do to be a resource to the media don’t always produce media coverage, but will foster a relationship of mutual trust and respect. The media coverage will absolutely come if you believe in and stick to that mantra.

David Macgregor

Director of Content

Years in Branding:

David has more than twenty years of experience helping leading organizations in a variety of industries overcome their marketing challenges to meet and exceed their business and brand-growth goals.

Brand Experience:

He began his career in the entertainment and lecture industry, helping to promote the personal brands of a host of nationally known performers and inspirational speakers, including renowned poet and author, Dr. Maya Angelou, and legendary civil rights leaders James Farmer and Reverend Martin Luther King, III (son of Dr. King).

Next he moved to the nonprofit arena, helping to develop marketing and fundraising initiatives for such notable nonprofit organizations as The (New England) Home for Little Wanderers, Boston Children’s Services, Justice Resource Institute and the United Way. For The Home for Little Wanderers, David successfully developed and promoted a single, unified brand presence for an agency that, prior to his arrival, consisted of thirteen disparate satellite programs.

Since then, as a creative director and copywriter, David has delivered results-oriented campaigns to such leading brands as Bose Corporation, Andover Bank, Boston Scientific, Thermo Electron Corporation, Hyperion Financial Group, kSARIA Corporation, Segue Software, BJ’s Wholesale Club and 3Com, among others.

As the Director of Content for Aloft Group, David has played a key role in brand strategy and marketing execution for a host of clients, including Beacon Partners Healthcare Consultants, Fujifilm, MediRevv, Thomson Reuters, Schneider Electric, Nuance Communications, The New England Journal of Medicine, ADP and The North Face.

Life Experience:

David enjoys life with his wife and two kids and is an avid runner, skier, kayaker and New England Patriots fan (the last four not necessarily in that order). He also serves as a board member for The Free Men House, a nonprofit, faith-based transitional home for alcohol-dependent males.

David Believes:

David believes that through the effective development and promotion of your company’s brand, you can inspire legions to become loyal brand disciples.

Dustin Pons

Director, Business Development

Years in Branding:

Dustin has spent the better part of 20 years working with brands to help them grow, both in U.S. and international markets. What he’s learned is that brands are about people connecting in unique and exciting ways.

Brand Experience:

Early in his career, he spent a lot of time introducing global brands from the U.S., Europe and Asia to emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Russia and Latin America. This was a truly exciting learning period in regards to international economic, political and social factors that influence brand growth. More recently, Dustin is busy growing Aloft Group client relationships in verticals like healthcare, lifestyle, publishing and technology, as well as furthering agency relationships with our global partners through knowledge sharing and project collaboration.

Life Experience:

While studying Economics and Russian at the University of New Hampshire and post graduation, Dustin was fortunate enough to travel (both for pleasure and professionally) and found it a great way to learn about other cultures, meet other people and figure out who he was as a person. He hopes to help provide this opportunity to his four kids whom he and his wife are now raising together in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where they enjoy an array of team sport and outdoor activities.

Dustin Believes:

Dustin believes the best things in life are college football Saturdays, dates with his wife and days at the beach with the kids. He also believes that strong, passionate brands are able to connect in meaningful ways with us as individuals. And, he hopes that in some small way, by helping brands grow, we also inspire brand fans to be passionate at home, work and play.

Mark Willingham

Partner/Chief Strategy Officer

Years in Branding:

Mark has over 25 years of agency and client-side experience in domestic and international brand marketing across consumer product goods, technology and business-to-business sectors.

Brand Experience:

During his career, Mark has spearheaded brand consulting, retail programming and brand strategy/positioning initiatives for some of the world’s most recognized brands, including Baskin-Robbins, Kahlua, Canadian Club, Sauza Tequila, Maker’s Mark, Dunkin’ Donuts, Warner Bros and others.

Life Experience:

Mark is an avid music fan with a genre range that covers almost every category, from international to hard rock and from hip-hop to lounge. Also a fan of Brazil, he has been there more than 40 times over the past 18 years; thus he can stumble his way through a conversation in Portuguese. Mark enjoys outdoor sports, including running, mountain biking, skiing and occasionally catching some waves at the beach. And, when time permits, nothing can beat a cold beer and a game of pool.

Mark is a frequent public speaker on a range of marketing topics including international brand building and strategy. He also regularly guest lectures at California State University Long Beach.

Mark Believes:

Mark believes that while the world is dynamic and continues to quickly change in so many interesting ways, the fundamentals of branding do not. Separating the “in” marketing hype of the day from what is actually required to strategically grow a brand and to ultimately dominate within a specific market sector is a big challenge for marketers everywhere.

Stephanie Widrig

Design Director

Years in Branding:

Drawing upon the fire of passion and the cool head of over 15 years’ experience, Stephanie can identify the very essential, emotive qualities of a company and visually explore them in a way that brings further definition, meaning and clarity to the brand.

Brand Experience:

Good designers can find ways to depict brands; Stephanie is able to amplify and transcend them. While working with such clients as L.L. Bean, Outward Bound, A.G. Edwards, Tufts School of Engineering, Timberland, Constant Contact and Panera Bread, as well as an array of Aloft Group clients, Stephanie continues to further develop her knowledge of fonts, colors, materials and processes, applying even the smallest detail in true support of the big idea.

Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Graphic Design from the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.

Life Experience:

The epitome of a moving target, Stephanie is always on the go! When she's not busy doing her part to make the world a more attractive place to look at, she can likely be found creating projects to make her house a better place to look at, or trying to find time to pursue her fitness endeavors. However, given the fact that she is a wife and mom of two, most of her free time is happily spent enjoying her family.

Stephanie Believes:

Stephanie believes that a successful brand is focused, memorable, and resists the temptation to be all things to all people. Most importantly, it remains ruthlessly consistent. Successful brands are desirably different. If you’re focused and memorable, you’re only a curiosity unless you’re better than your competitors in a way that matters to your customers. Customers know what to expect and they can count on it.

Matt Bowen

President & CEO

Years in Branding:

Matt began work out of college in 1987 with The Clorox Company, a fantastic place to start a career in brand strategy. His expertise, and his passion, is in helping brands find “their voice.” The bigger the challenge the better!

Brand Experience:

He’s been fortunate to have the opportunity to help some of the world’s top brands either get there or stay that way. He enjoys working in multiple industries and markets, and has always especially enjoyed international branding. Matt has helped guide such global brands as The North Face, Warner Brothers, The New England Journal of Medicine, General Electric, Fujifilm, Nature Publishing, Clorox, The Home Depot and many others. He’s also helped many start-up companies develop their brands out of the gate.

Life Experience:

Matt is pretty passionate about food (and consequently, working out!), and really enjoys cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. He especially appreciates how diverse cultures come to life in their cuisines, and his most recent culinary adventures have focused on those from Russia, Indonesia and Morocco. Matt is still holding out for that call from FoodTV…

Matt Believes:

Matt believes that every brand has the ability to be great if the company is serious about it, and willing to make the necessary changes in their culture to make that happen.