has been a champion of cause—and the voice for its intended effect—for most of his career in integrated marketing and communications.
He’s a savvy storyteller who understands what client stories to tell—and how to tell them—in an authentic context that resonates with the audiences who matter. He’s a master at bringing together disparate parties with different priorities who find common ground—and then offers them innovative solutions to one another’s communications challenges.
Stan ran as the youngest Independent candidate ever for Travis County Sheriff in Austin, Texas as a university student. He did not win, but the widespread media coverage he generated fundamentally altered political dialogue within top levels of local law enforcement—and resulted in a changing view of the rights of minorities within the community. The young, idealistic change agent brought this same kind of bridge-building vision and determination to his career launch in a remote part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, co-founding and serving as chief fund development officer for the first rehabilitation workshop for people with disabilities in the history of Western North Carolina.
No matter what the industry or sector, Stan has always relished the role
of media and marketing frontiersman. He’s continually proven an extraordinary knack for finding—and then nailing down—the “sweet spot” for any product, idea, service or cause. Ever the intuitive pragmatist, Stan operates from the equation that 1 + 1 = 3 (or more). Call it synergy, innovation, leverage or efficiency, Stan is known for combining win-win objectives with edgy trend research and the right mix of resources, talent, timing and effort that time and again exceed the sum of the parts.
With a product placement strategy that’s now standard marketing methodology, Stan put together a high-end automaker with a major image challenge and a mainstream publishing house to launch an unknown novelist’s first pulp fiction tome to sell cars and books to the same target markets. He’s been able to convince a Hollywood distribution company that its unknown feature film about an international artist with cerebral palsy would actually sell hundreds of thousands of tickets to 45 million people with disabilities. Why? Because the sharing of real life, communal experiences will compel audiences to pay for admission into the movie theatre.
Long before “green-went-vernacular”, Stan turned his attention to building acceptance within mainstream journalism for sustainability, social responsibility and triple bottom line concepts and practices. He initiated a series of publishing projects for one of American publishing’s most conservative business magazine icons that ultimately succeeded in contributing to changing the perception of a limited, specialty niche into standard business practice—as well as making the early case that “green” is a double entendre for revenue generation.
Occasionally, Stan is able to catch his breath, exhaling into a strong commitment to youth mentorship. He’s taught in M.S. Integrated Marketing Communications, Brand Advertising and Strategic Marketing programs at Golden Gate University, Academy of Art, and San Francisco State University.
So you see, it continues to be Stan’s life mission to serve as the squeaky wheel that gets the grease—and to support the kind of cultural sea change for industries and organizations that advances the quality of humanity and the planet.
(photo: Audrey Dempsey)
