Our Team
Partnering with Cray
While many of us have worked at large, traditional, name-brand agencies, One Degree is none of the above. So how would we ensure you get the service and support you need?
The simple answer is that we are built on a core team of senior talent with exceptional discipline-specific expertise required to crack the toughest strategic and creative nuts … to deliver all the branding and marketing expertise required by an ambitious client.
To steal a page from Cray: If you stack up a host of Dell/Intel boxes, you achieve solid performance and redundancy, but, only a certain level of computing power. In the same vein, tough marketing challenges require more than a deep bench of mid-level executioners. Instead, One Degree is designed for complex problems. Our senior leadership team not only lead but execute the lion’s share of our projects.
One Degree is also a modern marketing firm. We leverage technology and long-standing, proven freelancers and partners — regardless of location — to allow for “parallel processing” while minimizing overhead and delivering the highest quality work at a lower TCO.
Betsy Sperry, Partner, GTM Strategy
Betsy began her career in rather traditional fashion at Ogilvy New York and then JWT San Francisco. Since then, she’s kept pace with the rapid evolution of the advertising industry, working in the early days of interactive marketing for Microsoft, climbing the b2b learning curve for Sun, Intel and SGI, and deploying increasingly innovative and viral efforts for global brands, such as Nokia, Symantec, BMW, and SanDisk.
She has been asked to lead strategic client engagements, a digital agency (Beyond Interactive), an integrated media unit (MediaCom), and several full-service agency offices (McCann and Grey, both in San Francisco).
In 2008, she was ready for another challenge. She returned to Stanford, her alma mater, to join their Global Entrepreneurial Marketing teaching team. Sitting (literally) at the intersection of Stanford’s School of Engineering and Silicon Valley, she worked as a mentor to Master’s students and start-up founders on successfully taking products to market.
Soon after, she and Mike launched One Degree to offer a leaner, more sophisticated brand marketing alternative, free from the overhead of old-school models. In 2015, they moved the company seat to Seattle, while continuing to provide nimble solutions leveraging the best talent wherever it may be.
Betsy picks up teaching Entrepreneurial Marketing at the University of Washington, Seattle, in January.
Mike Sperry, Partner, Creative Director
Mike’s first love was design. But after completing his studies in Graphic Design and Fine Art at the University of Washington, he parlayed his creative skills into a career in advertising.
Over the next three decades, Mike has been equal parts wrist and brain behind award-winning design, art and creative direction for agencies small and large, clients local and global in Portland, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco. Mike’s portfolio includes traditional, digital and direct for Nike, Henry Weinhard, Schwab, Intel, VeriFone, Sun, Sprint, National Semiconductor, Dell, Tandem Computers, Digital Equipment Corporation and Techtronix, among many others.
Well before the masses, Mike and a partner founded a branded content firm where they executed innovative work for Fireman’s Fund, Skyy Vokda, the Reno/Sparks Convention & Visitor Authority and Pinnacle Systems. Mike is an amateur photographer and filmmaker, and most recently an uncontrollable blogger in the form of his alter-ego, the die-hard Chicago Cubs super-fan, Joe Schlombowski.
Mike has a strong belief in the business advantages to be gained through great design, and approaches marketing with the conviction that it should be completely integrated, customer-driven, wholly interactive, and distinct. As Creative Director and mentor to his teams, Mike shares his fanatical commitment to strategy as well as his passion for all things beautiful.
Ari Nave, Brand Planning & Research
Ari Nave is an anthropologist by training. He focuses on human cognition and cultural systems, looking to bridge the gap between academic research and practical applications. As a researcher, Ari taps into human behavior to solve business challenges and improve clients’ performance.
From cognitive anthropology to behavioral economics, Ari makes sure that companies are taking full advantage of the current techniques for informing and shaping experience design, marketing & branding, and product development.
Ari previously ran strategy departments for R/GA and Grey in San Francisco. He managed teams of account planners at Deutsch and has also worked at Ogilvy & Mather, FCB, and mcgarrybowen. Clients have included Capital One Labs, PNC, American Express, JPMorgan Chase, BNY Mellon, Mars, Levis, Nokia, WellPoint, SanDisk, Purina, Microsoft, JCP, Stanford Hospital, LucasArts, and others. In his free time he collects bugs. (Fancy bugs.)
Reema Vyas, Communication Strategy
Reema brings 20+ years in senior Strategic Planning experience from top advertising agencies in New York and San Francisco including McCann, TBWA/Chiat/Day, Ogilvy, and Deutsch. She was co-head of the McCann SF Strategy and Planning department and oversaw strategy for the entire Microsoft business. She has worked across a broad range of categories including technology, healthcare, packaged goods, retail and liquor.
Reema looks to fuse art and science to inspire simple yet sophisticated ideas that transform businesses and enrich people’s lives. Her efforts have brought clarity and humanity to brands such as HP, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Pfizer’s Zryrtec, Zoloft and Aricept, Publisher’s Clearing House; Grand Marnier, and Lenscarfters among many others.
Reema’s believes that exacting research combined with sharp instincts, intuition and a keen interest in the human condition are vital to effect in-market results. She graduated from Colgate University with a dual degree in Chemistry and Philosophy/Religion.
Kate Murphy, Engagement Manager
Over a career working with and for some of the world’s toughest tech marketers, Kate has consistently focused on producing measurable results. In fact, she specializes in doing so in some of the in fastest-paced, and resource-lean environments.
Prior to working with One Degree, Kate led global consumer advertising for Microsoft responsible for strategy, go-to-market planning and competitive advertising for brands including Surface, Windows, Office 365 and Lumia. While at Microsoft, Kate was credited with reinvention of its master brand with the award-winning campaign “Empowering us All” showcased in Super Bowl XLVII and XLIX. Kate also led Strategic Media Partnerships managing Microsoft’s global media portfolio and partnerships totaling over $1B. Upon joining Microsoft in 2004, Kate served as the Director of Global Advertising for the Online Services Division. She began her career at ad agencies, including BBDO, JWT, McCann-Erickson and Grey.
Michael Bettendorf, Senior Writer
Michael began his career at a small advertising agency in Miami called Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where he worked as a copywriter on accounts including The Miami Herald, Royal Crown Cola and the Florida Marlins.
Four years later he joined J. Walter Thompson/San Francisco to work on the agency’s signature California Lottery account, and Sprint Telecommunications, working on numerous occasions with Sprint spokeswoman Candice Bergen and helping Sprint become a powerhouse in the telecom industry.
For the next decade Michael worked at McCann-Erickson as a leader on the Microsoft account, working directly with Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and other top Microsoft executives on multiple projects while specializing in creating Microsoft communications for enterprise audiences including I.T., Software Developer, and C-Suite customers.
Since 2009, Michael has been a freelance creative consultant at One Degree, Wieden + Kennedy, Twitter, Salesforce, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, JWT/NY, and other leading agencies and companies across the country. Throughout his career he has worked to elevate top-tier brands including P&G, Chevrolet, Bloomberg Media, Apple, and Nest.
Mike Litchfield, Senior Writer
Mike’s writing career began in an 1826 school-house in Vermont. His favorite tool wasn’t a pen or a computer but a sledgehammer, whose great grunting arcs resolved in satisfying explosions of horsehair plaster and wood lath. He was demolishing its walls, and in the process of renovating that old post-and-beam beauty, reinventing himself.
Never having built (or unbuilt) anything himself, he began haunting lumberyards and hardware stores, hoping the guys behind the counters would answer his questions. They did, and he listened. And learned. In fact, not long after completing the schoolhouse, he landed a contract for a first book on home renovation and helped launch Fine Homebuilding magazine.
Mike’s entry into advertising was similar. With the high tech boom just beginning, he moved to the Bay Area needing something to do. Although he was innocent of any advertising experience, he was hired by a creative director who figured that if he could write about houses, he could probably figure out technology. His first accounts were Memorex and Microsoft, three years before it went public. Banks, beer and biotech followed and before long, he was working at some of the best agencies in San Francisco and New York, on accounts like Intel, IBM, HP, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Compaq, National Semiconductor, Tandem Computers, Digital Equipment Corporation and Quantum.
Erica Kozocas, Production Manager
When it comes to production, Erica rules the universe. She began her career in traffic, but in 20+ years has worked her way up the ranks of the agency business, eventually becoming a partner in one of them. She has been a part of many award-winning campaigns and plays a key, collaborative role on the One Degree team.
Perhaps most notable is Erica’s can-do attitude, ensuring successful ensuring successful outcomes on projects that might otherwise not see the light of day. One year, to promote Mpact!, a new product from Chromatic Research, she created 10-foot exclamation points and had them bolted to the roofs of custom painted Las Vegas taxi cabs during Comdex.
Erica’s work includes countless print campaigns, collateral pieces, direct mail, promotional items, trade show exhibits, POP/POS and permanent displays. She brings a vast network of time-tested partners, allowing her to choose the ideal vendor for each project, whether it’s a tiny non-profit or as large as HP, Sun, Coors, GM, P&G, Disney, Allstate, Bank of America, Visa, IHOP or Blimpie.
Jesse DiFranco, Studio Designer
Jesse began his career in design and production when he co-founded a Los Angeles design firm specializing in music and movie packaging.
Eventually, the agency siren called to him and he joined Hal Riney & Partners in San Francisco. As Studio Director at Riney his work benefited a wide range of clients, including Discovery Channel, eToys, Hewlett-Packard, Saturn, Skyy Vodka, Sprint, The North Face, Webvan and 24 Hour Fitness.
Jesse’s skill and expertise led him to head up the Studio at Venables Bell & Partners, where he helped the fledgling agency bring order to the then newly acquired Audi business, as well as Intel, Barclays, ConAgra Foods, HBO and ConocoPhillips. Jesse brings 20+ years of experience in Studio Design and Management to One Degree, in addition to a solid reputation as a computer geek.
Christy Suh, Director Engineering
When we think of Christy, we think of a bridge — a bridge between creative direction and technical implementation, systems and platforms, concept and reality. In the world of development projects, technical development and implementation happens at the tail-end of a project lifecycle. Which means it also carries the burden of interconnecting anything and everything that has been done until that point.
Fortunately, Christy has the personality and the chops to do just that. She brings broad and deep experiences in the industry to equally ensure big-picture vision and meticulous execution. In her 15+ years of experience, working with companies such as Intel, Cisco, Autodesk, HP, Caterpillar and Sharp Labs, she has mastered a broad range of development technologies, platforms, and services as primary architect and technology lead on multidiscipline teams.
Whether it’s the update of a pre-existing system, the creation of new systems, or the convergence of separate platforms and services, she bridges all points-of-connection to deliver successful final products that are not just “beautiful code” but that simply work.
Eric Larson, Chief Technology Strategist
Eric started his career as the sole technical person in a fast moving digital training and marketing company. He was challenged with assignments that routinely expanded his interests and expertise. This led to unique and creative technical solutions, as well as the discovery of Eric’s passion — listening to people’s needs and goals, and then engineering the best possible way to achieve them.
Eric went on to lead a dynamic group of digital technologists as Director of Technical Services at CMD, a 120+ person integrated marketing agency in Portland where, through his mantra — start with the broad view, and then razor-sharp focus — he instilled the importance of total solutions over stand-alone technology or platform fixes.
Eric has provided a broad set of solutions and strategies to companies such as HP, Intel, Cisco, Nike, Tektronix, Electro Scientific Industries, Caterpillar, and many others. These include establishing technical marketing strategies, delivering detailed technical plans, and shaping streamlined business workflows. While the challenges, types of customers, and engagement scopes have varied, what remains constant is Eric’s unwavering ambition: to help people get their work done more efficiently and effectively.
Brent Westberg, Digital and Rich Media Designer
Brent has invested his entire career in interactive design. He was the first international student to gain admission to the prestigious European Superior School of Arts and the Technologies of the Image (E.E.S.A.T.I) in Poitiers, France, where he studied interactive visual concepting for a year before graduating from the University of Oregon with a degree in Fine Arts and Visual Design.
He entered his professional life at a mid-sized creative agency in the early ‘00s. In the subsequent 16 years he has been an independent creative, applying his keen eye and experience to help build creative departments at a pair of web design startups. In addition to One Degree, Brent has worked for a number of agencies in the Pacific Northwest, including Swift Collective, HAVAS Edge, and Razorfish.
His passion for digital is broad and he has been involved in designing websites, interactive demos, and online ad campaigns for brands such as Fisk Alloy, Intel, HP, Tektronix, Best Buy, Netflix, Beats by Dr Dre, Microsoft, Windows Phone 8, xBox, Bing, AT&T, Nike, Holland America Cruise lines, and Starbucks.
Away from the screen, Brent is an avid gardener, motorcyclist, and handyman, restoring the 1908 Craftsman he calls home.