About Us
Ken Byers
Co-Founder / Brand Strategist
Ken leads the Confidant Nashville office and the agency’s brand strategy team. Prior to starting Confidant, Ken worked in house at Sony as a founding member of the brand experience team, where he led many award-winning campaigns, including multiple recognized at CANNES, the EFFIE’S and the ONE Show. Before that, he spearheaded dozens of integrated campaigns at Ogilvy & Mather New York for brands like Motorola, Ford, Miller, Morgan Stanley and DuPont.
Garland Harwood
Co-Founder / PR Strategist
Garland leads Confidant’s New York office and the agency’s PR team. He has spent most of the last two decades helping brands like Amazon, Sonos, Samsung, Shake Shack, BarkBox, ZocDoc, Getaway and others tell their stories through PR and integrated marketing campaigns. Previously, Garland was Senior Vice President at Weber Shandwick. He was named to PRWeek’s “40 Under 40” list in 2013 and PR News’ “Rising PR Stars” list in 2010.
Richard W Kluver
Creative Director
Richard is a creative director that has developed campaigns for brands like Sony, MasterCard, adidas, Red Bull, GE, Infiniti, and Oakley. He joined Confidant after stints at BBDO NY, CP+B, Deutsch LA, and acclaimed boutique, Archrival. Richard began his career working with Volkswagen at Grabarz & Partner in Germany and later held roles at McCann New York where he created award winning campaigns for Sony and Mastercard.
Lydia J. Voles
Chief of Staff
Lydia brings more than 30 years’ experience of conceptualizing and implementing integrated marketing and communications programs for both the public and private sectors to the agency's client roster. She was previously a Senior Vice President at Widmeyer Communications, a Finn Partners Company. When not working, she can often be found with a good novel, preferably with a dirty martini close at hand.
Andy Izquierdo
EVP, Corporate Reputation
Andy’s corporate reputation and public affairs experience encompasses a variety of industries and companies, most notably Waste Management, KFC, PetSmart, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, and Sound Transit. A Washington, D.C. native, Andy brings more than two decades of government relations and advocacy experience, having also worked as a Congressional press secretary and Embassy spokesperson. A first-generation Cuban American, Andy is fluent in Spanish and has considerable media and policy experience on issues impacting the nation’s Latino community.
Marie-Sophie Lantin
EVP, Consumer PR
Marie-Sophie is a seasoned brand marketer with over 20 years of U.S. and global experience building and protecting brands across sectors, with a deep focus in food & beverage, CPG, beauty & personal care, and lifestyle. She is passionate about developing creative communications programs that authentically engage consumers, reinforce differentiation and deliver business results. Previously, she was EVP, Brand Solutions at BCW, where she led the development of integrated communications strategies for some of the world’s biggest consumer brands including E. & J. Gallo Winery, Hellmann’s, Colgate, Tom’s of Maine, Walgreens, P&G @ Walgreens, and No7.
Alan Keane
Vice-President
Alan is an integrated media strategist with experience leading and building corporate and consumer campaigns. He spearheads corporate and sustainability storytelling for clients including Amazon and Shake Shack. Prior to joining Confidant, Alan was a Vice President in Weber Shandwick’s Integrated Media group, guiding clients including Absolut Vodka, Chobani, Casper, Nespresso and Warner Bros.
Renée McDonald
Senior Director
Specializing in corporate comms and CSR, Renée has helped shape strategy, executive leadership storytelling and D+I campaigns for companies such as Amazon and L'Oréal. She has worked with both Fortune 500 companies and fast-growing startups, including Facebook, BMW, Cannon, PwC and Birchbox. She joined Confidant following roles at Golin and 5W PR. Born in Jamaica, Renee holds a bachelor’s degree from the UNC Chapel Hill and a master’s degree from Boston University.
Suzy Sammons
Group Account Director
Suzy leads Confidant Nashville client service team and helps to guide the strategic process for the agency. Prior to joining Confidant, she operated her own consultancy and spent a couple of decades with major agencies like TBWA\Chiat\Day and 180LA where she led top accounts across a range of categories. Suzy also has held senior positions in non-profit media organizations, and shares her passion for great storytelling as a board member of The Children's Literacy Project.
Eric Walters
Graphic Designer
Eric is a graphic designer working on a range of clients at Confidant including Sony, Amazon, Path and Solidago. He brings a broad range of experience, including campaign and content development, retail expertise, UX and social. Prior to joining Confidant, he worked in house on the Sony Electronics North American creative team leading and developing brand creative for a suite of products.
Hannah Lovell
Art Director
Hannah is a creative strategist, designer and illustrator at Confidant working on a range of brands including Sony, Amazon, Birchbox and Shake Shack. Prior to Confidant she ran her own studio, Whoanelly creative, working with brands such as Halo Top ice cream, Smile Direct Club and Nusachi CBD.
Kait Fund
Senior Director
With a wealth of experience in strategic planning, thought leadership development, business storytelling and project management, Kait has counseled clients spanning a broad spectrum of sectors, including operations and logistics, direct-to-consumer brands and startups, tech and travel. Her work at Confidant spans campaign rollouts, issues management and ongoing media relations. Prior to Confidant, Kait developed and executed media relations and thought leadership campaigns at Weber Shandwick. When she’s not at work she runs marathons, speaks French, and collects (and drinks) bourbon.
Matt Luzuriaga
Senior Director
Matt’s career in public relations has spanned corporate communications, integrated marketing campaigns, executive visibility, thought leadership and trade show support for large global brands including Amazon, MINI USA, Sharp Electronics, BMW and ExxonMobil. Before joining Confidant, Matt managed top agency clients and spearheaded consumer and B2B client campaigns at Peppercomm. Prior to Peppercomm, Matt held roles at some of the world’s largest public relations agencies, including Edelman and Weber Shandwick.
Jeanne Montone
Senior Director
Jeanne has led campaigns for established companies like Amazon, InterContinental Hotels Group and The Weather Company, as well as rapidly growing startups like BARK, Rare Beauty, Getaway, Birchbox, Castle & Key, ZocDoc and OnePlus. Prior to joining Confidant, Jeanne was at Weber Shandwick where her work spanned media relations, consumer media events and global product launches. She began her career in entertainment PR and cable news, and holds a master’s degree from New York University.
Nicole Farin
Senior Director
Nicole’s corporate and consumer PR experience spanning retail, food and beverage, travel and lifestyle brands includes work with Shake Shack, BarkBox, Getaway, Tanger Outlets, Eataly, The Macallan, Campari, Beyond Meat, SOREL Footwear and Constellation Brands. Prior to joining Confidant, she held roles at HL Group, M Booth and R\West.
Katy Byers
Director of Finance
Katy leads financial management, client reporting and business operations within Confidant. Prior to joining she was a founding member of financial services company, Gatemore Capital Management. Over the course of 13 years she established the foundational financial and client reporting systems and maintained and scaled the operation across both the US and European markets.
Rachel Quinlan
Senior Director
Rachel’s sweet spot lies at the intersection of technology and consumer brands with deep experience building campaigns for brands like Amazon, Canon, Mastercard, American Express, Ancestry, SONOS, Getty Images, Squarespace, Samsung and Lenovo. Currently based in the UK, Rachel is a Texan who has lived and worked in NYC, Sydney and Los Angeles.
Kathy Dalley
Director
Kathy's award-winning work telling meaningful corporate stories includes campaigns for global tech companies like Amazon, IBM, SAP, Baidu; cybersecurity startups like White Ops; large consumer brands like HARMAN, Viacom, McGraw-Hill Education and Liberty Mutual;,and exciting new brands such as Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Prior to joining Confidant, she held roles at Ogilvy, Text100 and PAN Communications.
Jessica Rosa
Senior Manager
Jessica is an award-winning public relations and communications professional telling brand stories through integrated campaigns, with expertise in experiential activations and event management. Her experience spans both B2B and B2C in the aerospace, legislative policy, philanthropic, lifestyle, beauty, sports, food and beverage, professional service, technology and entertainment industries. Prior to joining Confidant, Jessica led earned initiatives at Mintz + Hoke.
Emily Rodriguez
Senior Manager
Emily is an award-winning public relations strategist bringing integrated campaigns to life for brands across lifestyle, food and beverage and entertainment for clients including Amazon Sustainability, Banza, Getaway and BARK. Prior to joining Confidant, Emily led earned initiatives at Weber Shandwick for brands including, among others, Anheuser-Busch, Danone, Unilever and more.
Ally Stoll
Senior Manager
Ally is an accomplished public relations professional with diverse experience across both consumer and corporate initiatives. Her storytelling and strategy expertise has come to life through award-winning campaigns spanning technology, food & beverage, beauty, lifestyle and entertainment industries. Before joining Confidant, Ally led public relations initiatives in both agency and in-house capacities.
Hobie Fund
Top Dog
Hobie has worked with some of the biggest dog brands on the planet in a career spanning more than five human years. He's been featured in The New York Times, a national television ad campaign for BarkBox, and in print and online ads for multiple local NYC businesses.
Merging Marketing & PR
Your brand is a publisher, which means you’re telling your story all the time. The nucleus of Confidant merges marketing and PR. We’re at our best when we build a long-term approach to inform day-in, day-out story-telling and content creation.
1. DISCOVER
We interview your team. We interview your customers. We conduct primary research. Secondary research. Whatever uncovers the truth.
2. PLAN
Marketing communications planning ranges from traditional brand positioning and messaging identification to touchpoint planning, stakeholder messaging and go-to-market planning.
3. BUILD
We provide the steady core that can drive creative and production and we engage our network of creators and technologists to customize the right team for your project.
4. MEASURE
We are adamant about setting goals. Our work is only as good as the outcomes we achieve.
5. ADAPT
We are a learning organization looking for clients who are also learning organizations. Plans are good, but we're prepared to adapt strategies real-time if success requires it.
Dedicated Core. Custom Contributors.
Our core team works with you throughout the five phases of development. Along the way, we tap our network of creatives and technologists, customizing a team to the work at hand.