Meet The Team
We are truth-seekers teaching a new paradigm of story; focused on the essential narratives leaders need to communicate. Big bets to moonshots to transformational initiatives. It’s what we love.
MICHAEL MARGOLIS
CEO and Founder
Michael Margolis is the CEO and founder of Storied; a leading authority on narratives for disruption. Storied is the first and only strategic messaging firm that focuses on the internal story for hyper-growth and transformation: from selling a vision to change management to scaling your culture. Michael has built a reputation for solving complex riddles at the biggest scale imaginable. He’s advised hundreds of organizations including Facebook, Google, Hulu, Shopify, Uber, Dolby, Visa, Roche, and NASA on some of their most strategic and ambitious growth initiatives. Michael spends most of his time working with Silicon Valley and Fortune 500s: especially the functional disciplines of product, design, marketing, engineering, and talent. Basically, any team that’s responsible for building the future.
At every growth-inflection point, a company needs to change its narrative. Whether you’re solving for category disruption, platform creation or recruiting velocity – the story is the strategy. As a leader, you will be judged on the power of your communications: your ability to inspire, influence and motivate others through a shared, single source of truth.
Michael is deeply devoted to global systems change and transformation; working with the biggest platforms, tools, and interfaces that are reimagining every quadrant of life. The son of a mad scientist and a teacher/artist, Michael is obsessed with how to translate new ideas into cultural acceptance. As a social entrepreneur in his early twenties, Michael was funded by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations for his pioneering work on tech workforce development and the Digital Divide. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, he is a student of esoteric Tibetan buddhism, the conscious life of stories, and how words create worlds.
For almost 20 years, Michael has pioneered the field of storytelling and narrative as a management discipline. He balances scientific first-principles with deep craft and intuitive decision-making. His storytelling methods and tools have been taught to tens of thousands around the world, across 15 countries and 6 continents. As a bestselling author and two-time TEDx speaker, he delivers dozens of storytelling keynotes and trainings every year. Michael’s work and ideas have been featured in Fast Company, TIME, Inc, Brandweek, and NPR. His latest book, Story 10x: Turn the Impossible Into the Inevitable, is in bookstores, Kindle, and Audible. Michael is left-handed, color-blind, and eats more chocolate than the average human. A recovering global nomad, Michael lives in Los Angeles, CA.
DANNA KRESS
Principal of Insights & Strategy
Danna is a cultural and digital anthropologist specializing in “voice of the people” for the past 15 years. She believes that in order to both tell and activate an effective story, you first have to understand your audience.
With a background in ethnography, she’s dedicated her career to understanding the intersection of human behavior, identity, and brand. Captivated by the foundational role narrative has across communities and culture, she has led strategic research initiatives across a wide range of countries and categories – including Disney, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, PayPal, and Southwest Airlines.
Before joining Storied, Danna worked as VP of Qualitative Insight at Maru/Matchbox and Senior Director of Strategy at Greenberg Strategy. She holds degrees in both Cultural Anthropology and Corporate Communication & Public Affairs from Southern Methodist University.
Raised in the Potawatomi Nation, her second name is Debwedi, which translates to “she who speaks the truth” – a phrase that has become her life’s work.
AVA ROSE
Engagement Lead
Ava is a strategist, communicator, and project manager with expertise in B2B tech, change management, and internal comms. She is a certified scrum master that supports Storied’s Client team across consulting, research, and training practice areas. As a client-facing project manager, she optimizes organization and communications so team members can do their best work and clients have a great experience.
With a masters in education, Ava loves developing programs, campaigns, and communications that create positive change at every level, from the individual to the organization and larger community. She brings experience from GuideSpark, Cascade Insights, and Blue Chalk Media. Ava is also a former Teacher Advisory Board Member for the Holocaust Center for Humanity.
Ava is also a professional opera singer and deeply passionate about history, social activism, and representation.
ANGELA EKSTOWICZ
Head of Business Operations
Angela supports engagements from initial scope to discovery, to deliverables and production. She brings a passion for active listening, information synthesis, and logistics coordination. Previously, Angela held a variety of executive assistant and program management roles in the fields of insurance, healthcare, and banking.
A self-avowed casserole-making queen, she loves to tailgate for the Green Bay Packers. A midwesterner at heart, she enjoys life with her husband, three kids, a dog and two cats.
CJ PENSO
Executive Communications Lead
CJ is the Executive Communications Lead and Senior Writer at Storied. A firm believer that everyone and everything has a story, she specializes in transmuting “dry” information into narratives that capture and engage.
She brings to Storied years of experience in research analysis, political advertising, speechwriting, and community outreach. Past clients have included Silicon Valley giants, sitting U.S. Senators, and community activists. She has a BA in American Politics from Oberlin College.
When not at work, she can be found gardening, making rude embroidery, or eating her way through whatever city she’s currently in. Mostly, she’s just grateful she’s made a career out of the things she was always in trouble for in school: talking to people, telling stories, and refusing to do calculus.
STEPHANIE TENG
Design Lead
Stephanie is the Design Lead at Storied, building design as a function and bringing strategic narratives and process deliverables to life as cultural artifacts. She manages the design stack to support our branding, marketing, and learning and development efforts.
Before joining Storied, Stephanie was a Senior Designer at Activision, providing creative solutions across the company spanning internal communications, events, marketing, brand systems, in addition to supporting franchise teams including Crash Bandicoot and Call of Duty. Prior to the entertainment industry, Stephanie spent nearly a decade in consumer insights at Kantar, serving all insight divisions with marketing campaigns, client deliverables, business pitches, and data visualizations.
Placing purpose alongside creativity, Stephanie loves forging not only aesthetic but also effective pieces to support internal and external groups. When away from the Adobe Creative Suite, she is also a certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor, hiking enthusiast, and an avid aficionado of movie trailers.
PAULINE THAI
Qualitative Strategy Lead
As the Qualitative Strategy Lead at Storied, Pauline supports the Client Operations and Insights teams with the design and execution of research and consulting projects. Fascinated with understanding the attitudinal drivers behind human behavior, she believes that storied-driven research is key to solving complex strategic problems.
A former painter turned management consultant, she is deeply interested in the intersection of design, storytelling, and business strategy. Before joining Storied, Pauline worked as a management consultant in ZS Associates’ London office where she focused on developing strategic marketing solutions and conducting global market research for large pharmaceutical clients. She holds a BA in Art, Asian American Studies, and Entrepreneurship from UCLA and an MPhil in Business Management from the University of Cambridge.
Outside of work, she can be found at the gym, obsessing over new music, or attending an art-show opening.
CHRISTINA ALFONSO
Client Services Coordinator
Christina is the Client Services Coordinator at Storied, supporting the Client Operations team in consulting, research, and training.
Before joining Storied, Christina served as a Project Manager for Lucy Environmental where she found a calling in supporting project execution and a premier customer experience. Having worked in an array of spaces from retail to Human Resources, she has a passion and excitement for people, systems, and team-minded problem solving in business.
Outside of the office Christina spends her time in acting class, loving any and all animals, and cheering her Oklahoma Sooners on to their next victory.
ERICA NORD
Executive Assistant
Erica supports our CEO and Founder, Michael Margolis. She brings a passion for providing high level assistance and support to executives and their teams.
In previous roles, Erica held a variety of accounting-based and executive assistant roles in the fields of CPA/consulting firms, construction, manufacturing and education.
Erica is a San Francisco 49ers fan and loves dining out, going to the gym and spending as much time outside and with her family as possible.
COREY ROSENBERG
Senior B2B Copywriter
Corey is a seasoned copywriter/content specialist with 15 years of experience humanizing and growing technology, SaaS, and B2B brands by strategizing and producing copy and concepts which inspire.
He’s previously worked at Yelp, Linkedin, Google, BBDO, and Saatchi & Saatchi. As a copywriter and content partner for diverse tech companies—he specializes in writing cross-channel marketing assets for SaaS, B2B, and startup brands.
His freelance clients include Dolby, Genentech, Cisco, Zuora, Babbel, United Way, and The Mayo Clinic. Corey has also taught multiple courses at the Miami School of Advertising.
ROBERT RICHMAN
Culture Architect
Robert is a culture hacker, and was Culture Strategist at Zappos. He co-created Zappos Insights, an innovative program focused on educating companies on the secrets behind Zappos’ amazing employee culture.
Together with CEO Tony Hsieh, Robert built Zappos Insights from a small website to a thriving multi-million dollar business teaching over 25,000 students per year. Through his work, Robert has been helpful for improving the employee culture at hundreds of companies.
As one of the world’s authorities on employee culture, Robert is a sought after keynote speaker at conferences around the world and has been hired to teach culture in person at companies like Google, Toyota, and Eli Lilly. He has pioneered a number of innovative techniques to build culture, such as bringing improv comedy to the workplace.
Robert graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in film, as well as from Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program. He is a member of the Transformational Leadership Council, and he is based out of San Diego (though he’s on the speaking tour most of the time).
KEVIN RAICH
Creative Director, Writer, Director
As a multidisciplinary filmmaker and creative leader, Kevin has brought an inspired vision to iconic global brands like Apple, Google and Facebook to drive engagement, generate growth and create positive cultural impact.
Kevin created the nation’s most impactful day of charitable service in U.S. History (40 million Americans engaged, over 1 billion media impressions) with a campaign for the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. He also wrote and co-created the global launch film to kick off the transformation of nearly 500 Apple retail stores worldwide – Today at Apple; which won highest Activation honors at Cannes Lions. Kevin also has worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Kevin holds Graduate Degrees in both Advertising and Spiritual Psychology, amplifying his capacity to connect brands and consumers through shared values.
His passions include human-centered storytelling, transformational experiences, and radically ambitious ideas.
TIM GARY
Web Development
Tim’s Bio
MONICA REED
Executive Coach
Monica Reed, MD, MSc is an accomplished senior healthcare leader with 30 years of experience. She established her professional reputation as a physician, speaker, author, hospital administrator, and senior executive at AdventHealth, where she served as CEO of Celebration Health, Regional CEO for AdventHealth South-Central Florida Market, Chief Medical Officer at AdventHealth Orlando, and Chief Learning Officer for AdventHealth Central Florida Region.
Dr. Reed completed her medical degree at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Later, she received a master’s degree from Oxford University in organizational and individual change as well as certification in life and leadership coaching. Her thesis was a forward-looking analysis on the increasingly complex environment of the healthcare industry and the skillset leaders need to remain agile in their strategic decision making.
Dr. Reed recently established the Reed Consulting Group, a company that takes her successful experience in multiple aspects of healthcare and focuses on partnering with people that seek creative, deep, and effective change for themselves, their colleagues, or organization.
In recognition of her accomplishments, Dr. Reed was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare in 2008. In 2013, she was awarded the Central Florida Urban League’s Cornerstone Award for Healthcare Empowerment as well as the AdventHealth Crystal Angel Award for her impactful leadership. In 2014, she was named one of the Top 5 Citizens of Central Florida by the Orlando Sentinel. In February of 2018, Dr. Reed was acknowledged by Mayor Buddy Dyer and the City of Orlando as the first African American physician-administrator and chief medical officer of a major health system in Orlando’s history.
In addition to her innovative healthcare leadership, Dr. Reed has been on the national stage as a medical news reporter for NBC and ABC affiliates in Alabama and Florida, respectively. She is the author of The Creation Health Breakthrough, a book focused on 8 principles of healthy lifestyles. Dr. Reed’s passion for impact through partnership with people, organizations, and industry has enabled profound organizational paradigm shifts that generate measurable outcomes while providing a deep sense of meaning and purpose.
JUDY GOLDBERG
Leadership & Learning
Judy is the founder of Wondershift LLC, a firm focused on results-driven transformation, helping leaders to shift their businesses and employees to be more successful, productive, strategic and present.
With over 30 years of experience, Judy is a highly respected and renowned influencer in this sector. Her clients are varied across industry, location, and size. The majority of her business is acquired through direct personal recommendation, a testament to her high-quality design and delivery.
Judy partners with clients to embrace cognitive diversity through the use of Emergenetics, and with a whole brain approach, will design and deliver live and virtual leadership experiences, team retreats, coaching circles, strategy sessions. She also moderates and hosts meetings, panels, and conferences.
Judy delivers in a warm, engaging and human way. Her insatiable appetite to learn means that she always brings new concepts and fresh thinking to her work.
Previously, Judy was the Executive Director of Leadership & Organisational Development at Sony Pictures Entertainment in London and, before then, she led the International Learning & Development function at Discovery Networks International out of London. When she is not traveling or exploring, she calls New York City her home.
LOLA OMOLOLA
Community-Building
Lola builds communities that change people’s lives. Through her global Facebook Groups community, FIN/Female In, she has mobilized close to 2 million women to prioritize the actualization of their personal potential and works with audiences and organizations, to strategically build high-performing digital and offline communities.
With a higher education in journalism and two decades of experience in radio, TV and digital projects, Lola knows what truly drives human communication; to improve understanding, collaboration and meaningful connection.
Lola Omolola has been recognized by Sheryl Sandberg and Melinda Gates. When she’s not on a speaking tour or nurturing highly-engaged communities, you will find Lola in Chicago, USA where she lives with her husband and their two daughters.
NOAH HUSSIN Filmmaker
Noah bio
SANDRA WELLS
Senior Advisor
Sandy is the founder and director of the Institute for Mindful Living. Currently, a well-kept secret in the world of coaching, she has the reputation for being “the coach’s coach.”
Sandy has spent thirty years illuminating dreams, dissolving considerations and prototyping desirable futures with individuals, couples and organizations. She is a black belt listener with a passion for experiential learning design and expertise in asking a better question.
Regular yoga practice is her lifestyle and her photos and poetry collection compete for GB on her hard drive. In her own words, Sandy came to Story U, “To combine all the tributaries of my story into one river that expresses who I am, how I care, who I can help and why all of the matters…”
JENNIFER ST. CLAIR
Sr. Consultant
Jennifer St. Clair has been at the epicenter of digital entertainment for nearly 20 years. She’s worked with creatives and entrepreneurs in the transformation of the industry. Her experience spans entertainment, digital media, and technology. She’s worked at entertainment studios, start-ups, PR agencies, and in-house at media and publishing companies. She has a passion for working with creatives and entrepreneurs bringing bold, ahead of their time ideas to market.
Jennifer has held senior roles at companies with a vision to transform their industry including Complex Media, Participant Media, and Redbox Instant by Verizon. She was senior vice president of Communications for Complex Media where she led the external and internal communications for the company and was the communications architect for ComplexCon, the company’s groundbreaking annual festival. She’s also held roles at Paramount Pictures and mPRm Public Relations.
MARINA TETERYAN
Service & Experience Design
Marina is a seasoned human-centered designer and innovation facilitator with a specialty in service design and experience design. She teaches service design, facilitates workshops internationally, and gives talks and serves on panel discussions for a variety of industries. As an advocate for design and innovation, she hosts the world’s first service design podcast called Why Service Design Thinking, which is downloaded in more than 100 countries. She gives back to the community as an executive producer of the Los Angeles edition of the Global Service Jam and a co-founder of the Los Angeles Service Design event series.
Marina holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Design Management at Parson’s School of Design (The New School) and is currently authoring a book on sustainable design strategies. She believes that the world would be a better place if everyone worked by the principles of service design, lived by the principles of jazz improvisation, and used ergonomic standing desks.
SHARNA FABIANO
Facilitator
Sharna Fabiano is an artist, educator, and certified life coach. With an MFA from UCLA and twenty years of teaching and community building experience, she brings insights from her arts background into the business world to help teams become more connected, collaborative, and creative
AMEEN HAQUE
Storytelling Trainer
Ameen Haque is the founder of Storywallahs and a story coach. He has helped business leaders, scientists, entrepreneurs and teachers tell their stories better. Starting at Ogilvy, Ameen has worked for over 20 years in Advertising, Marketing and Brand Strategy Consulting in a range of firms like McCann-Erickson, Madura Garments, Ogilvy and Futurebrands. His work in consulting, advertising and theatre has helped him understand human nature and how to influence it. Ameen loves telling stories to children and playing Table Tennis. Check out Ameen’s website for more.
ALISON NORRINGTON
Cross Platform Storytelling
Alison Norrington is a writer & producer, Founder & Chief Creative Director of storycentral, a London-based entertainment studio that incubates and develops ground-breaking IP with global partners in film, television, animation, publishing, advertising, branding, theme parks, Virtual Reality and gaming.
Alison is Conference Chair for StoryWorld Conference, Exec Producer of the Virtual Reality Thread for Children’s Media Conference, is a two-time TEDx speaker and has presented at a number of entertainment and media conferences worldwide. She is featured on the BAFTA Guru series and is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, The Writers Guild of Great Britain, Women in Film & TV and the Romantic Novelists Association.
Her mantra is ‘be relevant, be genuine, be credible’.
TANE HUNTER
Futurist & Storyteller
Tané is a cancer researcher, bio-informatician, and science communicator. He’s a co-founder of Future Crunch, as well as a data analytics startup, Lighthouse. He holds a Masters in Bio-Informatics from the University of Melbourne, and has worked for the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital diagnosing rare genetic diseases. He is currently completing his PhD at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, using molecular biomarkers in DNA and analysing them using artificial intelligence to improve treatments for people suffering from cancer. He’s also a former US mountain biking champion and an avid sailor.
ANGUS HERVEY
Futurist & Storyteller
Angus is a political economist and a journalist specialising in the impact of disruptive technologies on society. He was the founding community manager of Random Hacks of Kindness, a global initiative from Google, IBM, Microsoft, NASA and the World Bank to create open-source technology solutions to social challenges. He was also the first editorial manager for Global Policy, one of the world’s leading international policy journals. He holds a PhD in Government and a Masters in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics, where he was the Ralph Miliband Scholar from 2009 to 2012.
DONNA LICHAW
Story Coach & Trainer
Donna is a speaker, author, and certified professional coach. She empowers technology, product, and marketing leaders to make an impact in their organization, industry, and world at large. Whether working with innovators at startups and nonprofits, or trailblazers at companies like Apple and Google, Donna has spent her career helping people build the stories of their own success—one story at a time. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, son, and crooked dog, Ralph.
You can connect with her on the web at donnalichaw.com, on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
PETER ECONOMY
Thought Leadership
Peter Economy is a best-selling business author, ghostwriter, developmental editor, and publishing consultant with more than 100 books to his credit (and more than 2 million copies sold). He is an expert at helping his clients translate their stories into the written word.
JESSE FINKELSTEIN
Thought Leadership
Jesse Finkelstein has spent her entire career in books. She is co-founder and principal at Page Two, a strategic firm. Prior to launching Page Two, Jesse held several management
roles at publishing houses, including that of COO of D&M Publishers and Associate Publisher at Raincoast Books. She holds a publishing degree from Simon Fraser University and is adjunct professor in publishing at the university. She serves on the board of Creative BC, an organization devoted to supporting the growth of creative industries.
PAMELA SLIM
Learning Design
Pamela Slim is a book author, community builder, consultant and former corporate director of training and development at Barclays Global Investors. She focused her first decade in business on creating and delivering training programs for large companies such as HP, Charles Schwab, 3Com, Chevron and Cisco Systems.
Since 2005, Pam has advised thousands of entrepreneurs as well as companies serving the small business market such as Infusionsoft, Progressive Insurance, Constant Contact, and Prezi. Pam partnered with author Susan Cain to build and launch The Quiet Revolution and the Quiet Leadership Institute.
Pam is best known for her first book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur, along with her follow-up Body of Work: Finding the Thread That Ties Your Story Together (2014). Both were published under Penguin/Portfolio.
In 2016, Pam launched the Main Street Learning Lab in Mesa, Arizona, as a grassroots, community-based think tank for small business economic acceleration.
BRIAN KURTZ
Leeadership Development
Brian is passionate about harnessing design, entrepreneurship and storytelling to transform leaders, teams and organizations. He partners with executives at Fortune 100 multinationals to accelerate new ventures and drive strategic innovation.
Previously, as Chief of Staff to the Chief Technology Officer at Telstra, Australia’s largest Telco and Media company, he shaped and spearheaded strategies to advance the company’s national innovation agenda. His mandate included forming a world-class industry advisory board, producing multi-city Hackathons, and launching a groundbreaking new innovation lab in the heart of Melbourne, Australia.
He was recognized as a ‘Social Intrapreneur’ by the BMW Foundation for founding The League of Intrapreneurs Australia, a network of pioneers and innovators within leading institutions.
Prior to Telstra, Brian played a key role in the national expansion of Impact Hub Australia, the country’s foremost cross-sector coworking community comprised of entrepreneurs, tech startups, academia, corporations, NGOs and government innovators across three cities.
Brian is a global strategist with over a decade of experience in marketing, business development and leadership inside large corporations and lean startups. He has visited over 80 innovation labs on five continents and is a regularly featured speaker on Intrapreneurship and cross-sector collaboration. His favorite cities are Barcelona, Melbourne and Berlin.
MARTY KURTZ
Leadership Development
Marty accelerates high performance in senior leadership teams. As an executive coach, expert facilitator and consultant for 30 years, his work unlocks cross-functional collaboration and the potential of leaders to achieve breakthrough results.
Marty is the founder of Kurtz Consulting Group, Inc., an Organization Development and Executive Coaching firm operating in the United States and internationally. His engaging approach to Executive Coaching and Team Development enables clients around the world to leverage their workforce as a true competitive advantage.
Marty has guided major corporations through significant transformation efforts by creating a shared direction and ensuring strategic alignment through implementation. His applications of Senior Team Development are designed to cascade into the organization and solidify alignment of focus, results and culture.
Simplifying how clients work together, Marty has navigated matrix and complex organization structures for over 30 years. His work in creating productive tension across functions has supported the success of brand teams, account teams, innovation and product development on the local, regional and global levels. His industry experience spans consumer products, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, food, finance, and fashion.
As an executive coach, Marty creates a context for executives to develop a powerful identity and complementary skill sets. He gains the personal trust of clients to enable their readiness to accept and act on coaching.
Marty’s corporate experience includes the Warner-Lambert Company, where he directed Global Corporate Program Development. Before joining Warner-Lambert Co., he was the Director of Organization and Management Development for Automatic Data Processing. A sample of companies supported include Johnson & Johnson, Mars Inc., Novartis, Coach, Sara Lee, Campbell’s, L’Oreal, Chase, UBS, and Cadbury-Schweppes.
Marty gained a practical footing in organization development theory by graduating with honors from American University / National Training Laboratory’s (NTL) M.S. program in Organization Development. He has guest lectured at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Management and FIT’s Masters of Marketing program. Marty has also instructed “Team Leadership and Development” and “Organization Culture” in the Masters of Organizational Behavior Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has addressed professional conferences on a range of topics, including ‘Accelerating Team Development’, ‘Implementing Cross-functional Teams’, and ‘Conflict Management’.
Marty’s grandparents came to America as entrepreneurs and taught their family the value of hard work and dedication to a shared purpose. Today he lives in a Northern NJ lakeside community not far from NYC where he enjoys hiking, kayaking, camping and skiing. Some recent adventures have led him to the summit of Mt Whitney, shark cage diving in South Africa, and hiking the Inca Trail in Peru.
How Can we help You?
If you’ve got a big vision that needs a big story, we’d love to talk. We work with Silicon Valley icons, Fortune 500s, venture-backed startups, and social change-makers. Anyone disrupting their industry with a transformational vision.
