Founding Partners

Robert Goodyear // Managing Partner and Co-Founder

Robert Goodyear leverages more than seventeen years of strategic planning and creative direction in the communications industry. As Managing Partner, Goodyear maintains the standards of excellence guiding all creative and tactical efforts in the execution of our strategic vision.

Prior to co-founding Brand Up, Goodyear spent many years at various Young & Rubicam companies, most recently as Vice President, Director of Strategic Planning at Y&R's Wunderman agency. He managed the development of products and services – both online and traditional – to extend and enhance the brands of Fortune-500 clients, including Land Rover, Jaguar, Lincoln/Mercury, Mattel, SONY and many others.

Before its 2001 merge into Wunderman, Goodyear served as Vice President, Director of Interactive Production for the Y&R interactive practice Brand Dialogue. His team built enterprise-scale sites, campaigns and interactive products for clients including Lincoln/Mercury, Clorox Brands, Brita, SONY Consumer Electronics, and Taco Bell.

Prior to Brand Dialogue, Goodyear designed, built and managed Y&R's Wunderman Cato Johnson production studio, servicing all Y&R Irvine clients with the development of electronic and traditional advertising. As a former Y&R Chicago Designer, Goodyear developed advertising and branding materials for clients including Sears, Norwegian Cruise Lines, H&R Block, Monsanto, Kraft Foods, Citibank, Taco Bell and Equal.

Before joining the Y&R companies, Goodyear owned and operated a successful design consultancy, conceiving and producing corporate identity systems, advertising and collateral solutions utilizing traditional and internet technologies. He also successfully reengineered workflow systems for many publishing and technical clients to maximize their integration with the then-emerging Internet and with database-driven project management systems.

Goodyear followed his undergraduate studies in Journalism/Mass Communications at the University of Florida with graduate studies in Economics and Management at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of numerous articles on media, branding and technology and co-author of several books including The Web Professional's Handbook.

Robert Goodyear
Managing Partner
Tel: 949/542-7001
robg at brand [dash] up dot com

Bryan MacGillivray // Managing Partner and Co-Founder

Bryan MacGillivray is the Managing Partner for Brand Up's Account Services team and is the primary point of contact for strategic account management and client relationship communication.

MacGillivray has spent more than a decade crafting customer focused customer relationship management (CRM), direct marketing, and interactive work. As a result, his team produces work that combines the power of branding with the results of strategic targeted communications. In this role, he acts as advisor and/or relationship manager for all client engagements.

He has worked in a variety of relationship marketing areas; primarily working with Fortune-500 companies in an effort to help transform and refine the way they communicate with their customers. MacGillivray has extensive experience in business process analysis and reengineering, eCommerce and Web site development, direct marketing strategy and measurement, and CRM across all channels.

Prior to Brand Up, MacGillivray led client relationships in the role of Account Director at both Global Beach and Mullen Advertising, Director of Client Services at Type T and Senior Manager at Digitas. His clients have included Jaguar, General Motors, Dunkin' Donuts, Nextel, and MBNA America. He holds a B.A. from Norwich University, a fine Military College in the rolling hills of Vermont.

Bryan MacGillivray
Managing Partner
Tel: 617/505-4490 Ext. 502
bryanm at brand [dash] up dot com

Chris Hughes // Chief Technology Officer

Chris eats, sleeps, and breathes technology. As Brand Up's "head geek", Chris uses his diverse technology background to design and develop solutions that meet both client and customer needs.

Chris has held technology leadership positions in a variety of industries operating in both domestic and international environments. Most recently Chris was the Director of Web Development at Tiltware, where he managed a team that developed software to manage customer analytics, business intelligence, and random number generation for a large online global gaming website.

Before working in online gaming, he was the Technology Director at a boutique agency and worked as a software consultant with Handspring, Microsoft, Multiactive, Macromedia and Deloitte. Chris studied Math at Oxford and Computer Science at UCLA.

Chris has recently been featured on Slashdot.com, engadget.com, digg.com and gizmodo.com. He is currently gathering fame and fan mail from recent feature stories in the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

Latest nerdnews from Chris: Hacking the iPhone (ALREADY!)

Buster O'Connor // Creative Director

Buster O'Connor directs the planning and execution of design programs for identity, print, video, web and conceptual illustration. His clients have included established technology companies such as Hewlett-Packard Company, Iomega and NCR as well as newer technology start-ups. Beyond technology, O'Connor creates and consults for a broad spectrum of business categories from healthcare, real estate to publishing and entertainment. O'Connor is frequently tapped as a participant and creative team consultant in branding, naming and creative session projects with clients such as First USA Bank, Equifax and Pepsico.

O'Connor is a member of The American Institute of Graphic Arts, and has had his design work recognized nationally through competition and the critical design press.

Tricia Heath // Art Director

Tricia develops the visual design and conceptual direction of client projects ranging from Print and Direct Marketing pieces to Website design and Online Marketing presentations. Tricia has spent more than five years crafting print, interactive and collateral communications at our Florida office before making the move to Southern California. Tricia's work reflects her strong conceptual background and belief that tasteful design should not hinder effective communication. Tricia most recently served as the lead art director for the redesign of Boz Spirits' www.267.com website.

Some of her recent projects include projects for Hughes, Lennar, The Vue and Disney. Prior to joining Brand Up, Tricia received her degree in Design from San Francisco State University.

Roger Austin // Research & Analytics

Specializing in direct mail, polling, strategy and tactics, Roger Austin helps Brand Up clients by strategizing and targeting consumer direct response communications. After serving as the Political Director and Legal Counsel for the Republican Party of Florida from 1989-1992, he moved into the private sector and started his own firm in 1996. Between campaign cycles Austin is also working on his Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Florida and is writing his dissertation on the topic of campaign finance reform.

Austin is a featured speaker in Luanda, Angola and Marrakech, Morocco helping emerging and recovering countries embrace democracy and representative government. He is also a featured speaker/guest lecturer at various campaign schools, public policy conferences and at the University of Florida.

Austin received his Bachelor of Arts in History, Juris Doctor, Master of Arts in Political Science and is expected to receive his Ph.D. in 2005.

Michael Carter // Senior Software Engineer

Michael Carter is an Open Source evangelist who brings numerous new technologies to Brand Up. He helps us quickly leverage Open solutions to fit client and customer needs, fast.

Before working at Brand Up, Michael was the CTO at Idealistics Inc. where he architected distributed database software for the social services sector, from the ground up.

Michael has spent the past four years consulting for schools in the Claremont School District in Claremont, CA. He works closely with teachers, students, and administrators, utilizing modern web technology to empower students, allowing them to choose the direction of their education.

Michael earned a Computer Science Degree from Pomona College, and has since stayed in touch with the academic world. He frequently attends conferences and presents regularly in user group meetings at Caltech and USC.

He is the founder and lead developer of the Open Source project Orbited. His innovative work is on the cutting edge of Internet technology. With each new development, Michael daily expands the horizons and capabilities of the World Wide Web.