Our Team
Meet the humans helping brands be better.
Stephen Parks,
Founder & CEO
Seasoned domestic and international CPG professional with products launched into over 75 countries and total sales exceeding $500 million dollars. In both retail and direct selling structures, he specializes in consumer-packaged goods – marketing, market strategy, management, online and e-commerce, sales, and product development for personal care, hair care, fragrance, and nutrition/weight-loss categories.
Stephen thrives on creating, directing, and managing talented teams with a gift for defining & refining branding, brand building, and cross-functional integrated marketing driving sales. Both his corporate positions and prior consulting agreements have honed marketing strategy and product lineups, streamlined operations, and provided platforms for exponential growth.
He has been an industry resource for turn-arounds – especially MLM and celebrity.
Occasionally he has been known to be a little “prescient.”
Howard Warner
Sales & Revenue Guru
Highly successful industry veteran with a specialty and expertise in NA and Global markets including sales, sales strategy, revenue, and marketing. Howard has lead teams across multiple categories with Procter & Gamble, Bumble and Bumble, and most recently was the Chief Sales Officer for Pierre Fabre Group, the 2nd largest dermo-cosmetics company in the world.
Howard has over 20 years of experience in luxury, prestige, and the professional beauty category including, skincare, haircare, luxury fragrances, and color cosmetics. His primary focus has been customer business development, external sales, sales optimization and efficiency, shopper-based design, and trade marketing mastery.
Additionally, he has opened and managed channels in mass and masstige such as Ulta Beauty, Nordstrom, Sephora, Bloomingdales, Bluemercury, and many pure-player retailers.
Regardless of the channel or the organization he can evaluate, develop, map, and optimize sales organizations for both internal and external.
Gretchen Rider
Packaging & Product Development Goddess
Highly experienced and analytical brand executive with expert proficiency in creative new formula and product and package development. Having been an industry leader for 30+ years, Gretchen has developed and launched products in highly successful companies such as Procter & Gamble, Herbalife, Intelligent Beauty, Stila, Guthy-Renker, and KDC One.
She has been instrumental in creating compelling package designs for the global marketplace cross-category (personal care, wellness, color cosmetics, fragrance) with her expert understanding of product development that drives sales. Her leadership is directly responsible and associated with some of the largest launches in beauty industry history.
Gretchen has worked in leadership roles in brands and companies from 2M to 2B, and launched products into over 75 countries.
Christopher Schaaf
Operations & Organizational Ninja
Solution-driven executive with 18+ years of experience in operations management and P&L business leadership. His expertise includes personnel management, business process improvement, and vendor relations.
With a proven track record of leading diverse teams and exceeding performance targets, he always fosters a positive culture in growing and fast-paced work environments.
Adept at cultivating relationships with stakeholders and driving organizational growth, Chris also focuses on the cost effectiveness and impact of operational functions, efficiencies, and their impact on the overall revenue of a company.
Categories include personal care, adult, CBD/cannabis, devices, and includes a full FDA facility build and certification.
Tiffany Taian Bashoura
Product Development Aficionado
Highly educated (MBA Business Administration) and experienced product manager with a demonstrated history of working in the personal care industry. She is skilled in product innovation, product development, manufacturing processes and supply chain.
Her product development and keen eye for current and on-the-horizon trend includes all categories of beauty and CBD, for both global and domestic products. She has been instrumental in defining and delivering effective product with cost-effective formulations and manufacturing. This included full product management from ideation to market delivery within a billion-dollar brand.
Kevin Holden
Founder & Marketing Mentor
With 25+ years of marketing experience in brand, creative, and digital, he has launched over 300 brands for entertainment, lifestyle, and live events companies. 17+ years was spent at NBC Universal driving digital creative, marketing strategy, and all brand launches. Regularly considered a trailblazer his direction transformed and constantly evolved the delivery of digital (including NBC Must-See TV, rebrand of Bravo, etc.), lead the introduction of video technology to Spelling Television, streamlined Freeman (the leader of live events), as well as being a global marketing leader for Amazon.
His brand and digital expertise includes Brand Strategy, Brand Development & Architecture, Brand Transitions, Digital Product Development, Strategic Roadmap Planning, Budget Forecasting (100M), Media Planning & Buying, Digital Strategy, Social Media Strategy, Data Research & Analysis, Website & App Development, Marketing Automation, Demand Generation, and Content Marketing on a global scale.
