Tom Feegel
PrincipalTom Feegel, founder of Brand Neutral, has nearly 15 years of experience leading successful strategy consulting firms and capitalizing on new media to create and sustain competitive advantage for his clients.
In 1993, Tom founded NetResponse, an award-winning interactive business strategy consulting firm that advised dozens of Fortune 500 companies on the strategy, development, and launch of their digital services and offerings. With over 120 consultants and industry experts, and offices in Washington, DC, New York City, and San Francisco, the firm helped develop several of the most successful early Internet brands, many of which still thrive today.
When NetResponse was acquired in 1998 by the global interactive services firm iXL, Feegel became the President of the Strategy Consulting Practice of iXL. He led this business unit through 2001 from New York and London. Subsequently, Tom joined the founding executive team of Akimbo, the leading IPTV digital video delivery service, as the Vice President of Strategy. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Draper Fisher Jurvetson were primary investors.
Joshua Stempel
Senior ConsultantJoshua Stempel brings to Brand Neutral a rich background in organizational change and knowledge management. Josh's expertise is in handling systematic change within an organization while ensuring ongoing communication, stakeholder development/learning, and business growth.
Josh has played a key role in developing Brand Neutral’s Environment 2.0 methodology. He also co-authored the white paper “The Prius Effect” and is working on a book based on the Environment 2.0 concept.
Previously, Josh designed and marketed e-learning professional development programs at the post-graduate level. He received his MBA from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and his B.A. from Brown University.
Richard Mintz
Senior ConsultantRichard Mintz has 15 years of experience developing relationship marketing and customer advocacy programs that leverage customer constituencies and internal stakeholders to support institutional change. He has worked as an advocacy and fundraising consultant for corporate, nonprofit, and public service clients, in campaigns that include direct mail, print, and electronic components. As a senior consultant for iXL, Rich advised Fortune 500 clients on how to integrate electronic programs into their marketing initiatives.
He has also worked as a community organizer, supporting neighborhood commercial redevelopment, adaptive reuse, and New Urbanist development. From 2001 to 2003, he owned and operated a neighborhood bookstore, Peachtree Highway Books, in a historic brick commercial building in Atlanta's Candler Park neighborhood.
Rich received his A.B. degree from Harvard College and studied at UCLA.
Elif C. Beall
ConsultantElif Beall brings a rich and varied background in business consulting and sustainability to Brand Neutral. She is a LEED Accredited Professional through the U.S. Green Building Council, and was part of the Live Earth Green Team responsible for greening the world-wide concerts in July 2007, and an author of the forthcoming Live Earth Green Guidelines for the Live Entertainment and Events Industry (Second Edition).
Elif received her J.D., with Honors, from the George Washington University Law School with a focus on international business, and is licensed to practice law in Hawaii. Prior to her law practice, Elif lived and worked in Istanbul, Turkey developing and leading seminars for multi-national corporations in the areas of effective communication and team-building.
Julie Hayes
AnalystAfter more than a decade in the entertainment industry, Julie felt it was time to commit her entrepreneurial spirit to a new model of business, where profitability and success includes planet and people. An accomplished writer, she co-wrote and marketed comedy for Showtime, Paramount Pictures and the Robert Evans Company before turning her attention to sustainability-driven businesses, focusing on marketing and PR materials that added humor and accessibility to the fundamentally serious topic of global climate change. Julie was born and raised in Los Angeles, and has a degree in English literature from the University of Southern California.
Jenny A. Montgomery
AnalystJenny graduated from Brown University with a BA in European intellectual history specializing in 20th-century thought. She later attended Berklee College of Music, concentrating in jazz improvisation and composition. Her interest in issues around authenticity in business and the environment led her into an exploration of trends in socially responsible investing, social entrepreneurship and new business models inspired by the triple bottom line. In 2004 she was hired by the Annenberg Foundation to research alternative uses of corn for the Not a Cornfield Project LLC in downtown Los Angeles created by the artist Lauren Bon. Sustainability issues raised by this project led her into researching new paradigms in renewable and distributed energy as well as studying the challenges of urban sustainability globally. Her experience with tracking the integration of new energy systems as well as trends in government policy issues bring a valued expertise to the Brand Neutral team. Jenny can also speak some Mandarin.
Malissa Ponce
AnalystMalissa earned an MBA in sustainable management from Presidio School of Management in San Francisco. She also has a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Malissa’s background experience comes from working in the public sector in the area of social service, where she discovered her passion and skill for facilitating positive change. After years of working with individuals on a micro level, Malissa has positioned herself to facilitate transformation on a macro level.
Malissa is passionate about changing the face of business to create a new infrastructure in support of the next industrial revolution – the sustainability revolution. Malissa believes that she will most effectively contribute to this goal by helping large corporations manage organizational change. She has a particular interest in strategic planning, organizational change and business development for entrepreneurial ventures. Additionally, Malissa seeks to weave the thread of community throughout her work by advocating for the goal of Green For All: building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.
Nicholas Graham
Brand StrategistNicholas Graham is the CEO of 100 Minute Company and founder of the wildly successful Joe Boxer brand.
Nick changed the face of fashion when he turned his “little” underwear company into one of America’s most popular lifestyle brands. Possessing a penchant for the irreverent, he drew upon his graphic design background to create a line of boxer shorts with unexpected, bold, and humorous designs. Under his direction, Joe Boxer quickly developed a loyal international fan base, growing the company into one of America’s most recognizable brands. He has earned several of the top fashion industry awards as well as advertising’s coveted CLIO. The Joe Boxer brand is credited with informing fashion trends for years.
Nick is now bringing his successful creative philosophy to other businesses through his 100 Minute Company, a full-service brand development and strategic planning company that specializes in the retail sector. The 100 Minute Company creates company-owned brands for key retailers, such as JCPenney and the Federated Department Stores. Nick has partnered with Brand Neutral to bring creative, stylish, and fun branding strategies to the environmental marketing sector.
