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. With more than 16 years of experience, he has helped brands like Amazon, Sonos, Samsung, Microsoft, BarkBox, ZocDoc and Getty Images 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' “15-to-Watch” list in 2010.
Shabazz Larkin
Creative Director
A multi-disciplinary artist and writer, Shabazz’s work ranges from pop-culture prophet to social entrepreneur. As a creative director, Shabazz has won recognition from Cannes Lions, Clios, One Show, Effies, and many others. He has worked with an amazing quiver of clients like Google, Sony, Smirnoff, Macy’s, Ford Motor, and the Obama Foundation to tell their stories. Most recently, Shabazz has been illustrating children’s books and chasing his kids around his house in Nashville.
Lydia Voles
Chief of Staff
As Chief of Staff, Lydia brings 30 years’ experience of conceptualizing and implementing marketing and communications programs for both the public and private sectors to Confidant’s client roster. She was previously a Senior Vice President at Widmeyer Communications, a Finn Partners Company.
Kait Fund
PR Strategist
With an expertise in business storytelling, Kait has worked with top executives and behind the scenes players at Amazon, BARK, BMW’s ReachNow, Shake Shack and others to sharpen and promote their stories. Prior to Confidant, she spent six years developing and executing media relations and thought leadership campaigns at Weber Shandwick. Kait has completed four New York City Marathons and is currently learning French.
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.
Ashlinn Romagnoli
Account Management
Ashlinn is our team glue, keeping us on goal always. Previously, she had stints at Nashville's GS&F, and Wolf & Wilhelmine NYC, working on clients like Nike, NOLS, Grey Goose, Bridgestone and Sony. Her experience spans Account Management, Project Management and Production, as well as a Masters in Sociology from London School of Economics. Her personal philosophy is Read, Write, Run.
Renée McDonald
PR Strategist
Renée has a breadth of communications experience for clients across the tech, consumer, entertainment, travel and fintech industries. She has managed PR campaigns and launches for fast-growing startups and Fortune 500 companies, including Amazon, BMW's Reach Now, Facebook's Messenger, PwC, L'Oréal, Canon, Avant and goPuff. Born in Jamaica, Renee holds a bachelor's degree from UNC Chapel Hill and master's degree from Boston University. She joins Confidant following previous roles at Golin and 5W PR.
Alan Keane
PR & Integrated Media Strategist
Alan Keane is an integrated media strategist with more than 10 years of experience leading and building award-winning consumer and corporate PR campaigns for brands like Absolut Vodka, Chobani, Casper, Nespresso and Warner Bros. Prior to joining Confidant, Alan was Vice President in Weber Shandwick’s Integrated Media group that specializes in earned, owned, and paid media strategy and execution.
Jeanne Templeton
PR Strategist
Jeanne's work in PR has spanned massive companies like Amazon, Motorola, InterContinental Hotels Group and The Weather Company, as well as rapidly growing startups like BarkBox, Castle & Key, Musicbed, Zocdoc and OnePlus. Prior to joining Confidant, Jeanne was at Weber Shandwick where her work spanned media relations, consumer media events, and mega product launches. She began her career with internships in entertainment PR and cable news and has a master’s in PR from New York University.
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.
Emily Horneman
PR Strategist
Emily’s experience in PR has spanned technology, consumer, corporate and B2B brands such as Amazon, Twitter, Canon, Atlassian, Telstra and Acast. Prior to moving to Brooklyn to join Confidant, Emily spent more than three years executing integrated communications campaigns at Ogilvy PR in Sydney, Australia.
Rachel Quinlan
PR Strategist
Rachel’s sweet spot lies at the intersection of technology and consumer brands with deep experience building campaigns for Amazon, Canon, Mastercard, American Express, Ancestry, SONOS, Getty Images, Squarespace, Samsung, Lenovo and Verizon. Based in Los Angeles, Rachel held previous roles at Weber Shandwick in NYC and Sydney and Ogilvy in Sydney.
Nicole Farin
PR Strategist
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.
Kathy Dalley
PR Strategist
Kathy's award-winning work telling meaningful corporate stories includes campaigns for global tech giants like Amazon, IBM and SAP; cybersecurity startups like White Ops; and large consumer brands like HARMAN, The Weather Company, McGraw-Hill and Liberty Mutual. Prior to Confidant she held roles at Ogilvy, Text100 and PAN Communications.
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.