• Department management - C-Suite liaison

• Team leadership - direct reports and project groups

• In-house and agency experience

• Creative strategy and prioritization

• Brand stewardship

Jack of all trades, master of none,

though oftentimes better than a master of one

I used to shy away from the term jack-of-all-trades because I admire specialist so much. Working with people executing their craft leaves me in awe. At some point I recognized that I was a specialist in my own way. I had become an expert generalist. I found out that's really a thing. It validated my approach to work and I now embrace that philosophy. I stay involved enough with the work to understand it and to have a level of credibility with those doing the heavy lifting, but allows me to see how all of the pieces work together and to provide a vison and game plan for the bigger picture.

CREATIVE OPERATIONS

• Process development and implementation

• Business affairs - Legal, Finance, Contracts, SOWs

• Capacity planning, workload balancing

• Creative resource management - freelance, agency

• Reporting and analytics

• Agency and vendor management

• MarTech - PM Tools, DAM, Templates

• Campaign planning and oversight

• Execution: strategy through delivery

• Creative briefs, project briefs, tactical plans

• Timelines and budgets

• Production management - print, retouching, editing

• Photoshoot, video shoots and TV

• Radio, outdoor, retail, wayfinding

• Digital, website, social

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Pete's experience and ability to manage through change and evaluate issues from all sides makes him a valuable leader

LEADERSHIP

"I always know where to put the ottoman." - Norm

In an episode of Cheers, Norm's career takes a turn from accounting to interior design. He's reluctant to acknowledges his "curse" of always knowing where to put the ottoman. Like most creative project managers, I didn't intend to follow this career path. I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in journalism and fully expected to be a writer. However, my curse was always knowing the path for getting things done and how to bring people along.

Experience

MANAGER, MARKETING OPERATIONS & CREATIVE SERVICES

Children's Minnesota | September 2017 - Present

• Lead the creative staff within Brand Marketing, which has included designers, copywriters, videographer and photographer as well as the project management and administrative support teams.

• Oversee a bench of independent contractors and agency partners.

• Implemented and maintained new project management software and a
  digital asset management (DAM) system.

• Direct the day-to-day department operations related to process, business affairs, resourcing, capacity planning and an individual array of creative projects.

SENIOR MANAGER, CREATIVE OPERATIONS

Best Buy | July 2015 - June 2017

• Led the project management and creative resourcing team, leveraging a revitalized in-house creative department along with strong agency partners such as Grey and Wunderman.

• Maintained a project workload focused on digital advertising and drive-time campaigns, which required cross-functional coordination, heavy video production support and photography, as well as broadcast (TV & radio), in-store, direct mail and social.

• Oversaw major integrated drive-time campaigns including back to school, Holiday and spring launches

• Primary project management liaison with business affairs and legal for SOWs, contracts and risk mitigation for advertising content.

MARKETING SERVICES MANAGER

Holiday Companies | July 2014 - June 2015

• Piloted a new role that oversaw all projects in the department.

• Implemented new workflows and processes for cyclical marketing that cut routing time in half.

• Streamlined efforts for pre-defined advertising periods as well as unique initiatives and product launches.

• Created new reporting tools, routing methods and workload management plans.

• Interfaced with franchisee and corporate locations to assess needs and provide support.

GROUP HEAD, BRAND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Olson/IFC Next | June 2010 - June 2014

• Supervised brand advertising project management team.

• Managed integrated campaigns from strategy through production, primarily for Bauer Hockey and the University of Minnesota.

• Executed print, retail, outdoor, broadcast, video, online and social media deliverables.

• Developed SOWs and managed budgets, vendors and staffing support for all projects.

• Helped evolve the operational infrastructure of an agency that grew from fewer than 100 employees to nearly 700 over a four-year period.

Pete is one of the best project managers I have ever worked with. He consistently performed above expectations, redefining the role of a project manager at Best Buy. Because his coworkers respected his capabilities and commitment, Pete’s role evolved to include giving valuable input on strategic direction and tactics, significant and effective brand stewardship, and sharing responsibility for examining creative recommendations to determine their strategic strength and execution viability. Pete also has a real skill for developing process, helping refine the way we created advertising and marketing communications at Best Buy. In addition, Pete is great to work with; proactive, extremely accountable, collaborative and funny. I truly enjoyed working with Pete and I believe he would be a valuable asset to any organization - Jeff Bender

Career Highlights - Campaigns & Projects

Bauer Hockey - Own The Moment

At Olson, we were tasked with concepting a new brand campaign for Bauer Hockey—one that ultimately evolved beyond marketing into such an ambitious concept that it came to define Bauer’s very identity. After months of brainstorming, strategy sessions, and focus groups, we landed on Own the Moment, a platform so powerful that Bauer even named its retail stores after it.

Best Buy - Back to School

Children's Minnesota - Devoted to Kids

The campaign spanned nearly every medium: national and local, print, TV, digital, in-arena activations, traditional retail, custom displays, contests, apparel, and more. As project manager, I had to pivot from coordinating the strategy foundation, concepting and creative development to leading execution and delivery, One of the most rewarding moments came when the unexpected happened—the NHL lockout.

Bauer had always built its marketing around professional athletes, even when targeting youth players. But with the lockout preventing the use of NHL stars, we faced a challenge: How do we fulfill our advertising commitments without the heroes our campaigns relied on?

As part of the strategy team, I helped develop a bold solution: shifting the spotlight to youth players. We kept the campaign’s concept, design, and messaging intact—only this time, local youth and high-school athletes took center stage. This required orchestrating a two-day shoot with local programs, coordinating gear logistics, and integrating user-generated content. The result? One of the most impactful campaigns seen in hockey marketing—one that resonated deeply with young players and reinforced Bauer’s position as the industry leader in what was becoming an increasingly competitive market. 

When I worked on the back-to-school campaign at Best Buy, my role had evolved from working in the weeds with a small, nimble and tight-knit team to navigating through a massive matrix organization full of groups that could be a little territorial and often had competing agendas. In addition, I was now on the client side, working with one of the top agencies in the nation.

The assignment was a tech-focused campaign leveraging celebrity spokesman Adam DeVine. The concept and creative direction came from the external agency, however coordinating all of the moving pieces for delivery happened through our in-house agency. But this time, instead of handling it all myself, we had a team of specialists and clearly defined departments. 

As the primary concept and design direction continued to evolve, the biggest challenge was ensuring all of the deliverables, which were on wildly different production schedules, maintained creative consistency. This was especially true when crossing delivery channels. Up until that campaign, there had not been a concerted effort to partner with the website team, in-store experience group and the circular.

The reason I consider this campaign a career highlight is not because it was successful (it was), but really because of how much I struggled. The operations of an integrated campaign had changed dramatically as emerging channels like social had to sync up with traditional channels like print. We could no longer just recognized each channel, give them a playbook and assets, have them execute independently and call that an integrated campaign. That caused a lot of friction and 

This redefined how I would approach all work going forward so I look back at this campaign and my time at Best Buy in general as a milestone in my career. 

When we attempted to update our brand guidelines to better represent the thinking and various messaging elements that had evolved, we struggled to ladder everything up to a single brand platform.

That's when the senior copywriter from my team stepped up and said she could solve this from within. I had to fight the urge to tackle this myself, but my job was to clear her path. It took more than a year and a lot of ups and downs to establish her as the indisputable expert of our brand, to get her voice to be heard and to redirect work from our agency partners, but we got there. And she hit it out of the part with a brand platform and manifesto that literally raised goosebumps and even generated a few tears. In fact, it was so successful that the rest of the creative team raised their hands and said we could execute the entire campaign. Our in-house creative department went from brand stewards to brand drivers. 

Brands I've Touched

• Barr Engineering

• Bauer

• Best Buy

• Black and Decker

• Capella University

• Cargill

• Carlson Travel

• Children's Minnesota

• Creative Publishing Int'l

• Deluxe

• The Edge Salon

• Ecolab

• Fairview Hospitals

• Gander Mountain

• Geek Squad

• General Mills

• Green Giant

• Hair Unlimited

• Holiday Companies

• Home Depot

• Life Time Fitness

• M Health

• Martha White

• Minnesota Wild

• Nationwide

• Nutrena Feeds

• Paper Magic Group

• Pillsbury

• Reynolds Metals

• Rosemount Engineering

• Target

• University of Minnesota

• Viracon

• Brand platform development

• Brand guidelines

• Campaign concepts and plans

• Logo development

• Logo systems

• Media plans

• Naming

• Research - Focus Groups

My most recent career highlight was less about what I did and more about what I didn't do.

As Children's Minnesota, we often get confused with other providers because people use the generic term "Children's" to describe their care providers. We partnered with top branding agency over the years and launched several tactics to differentiate ourselves with consumers while also refining our internal value statements and strategy as an organization.

Pete stepped up as manager
of the creative team, leading them to be more strategic and big-picture minded on their approach to work, which will make a huge impact on how we empower and unleash their talents, knowing they are doing it with a strong base of strategic alignment.

Tactics I've Delivered

• Brochures

• Catalogs, booklets

• Circulars

• High-end custom pieces

• Packaging

• Magazine, newspaper ads

• Book publishing

Branding, Concepting & Strategy

Direct Mail

Digital & Social

Photography

Broadcast

Outdoor

Sales Support & B2B

In Store & On Site

• TV

• Radio

• Custom landing pages

• Digital advertising

• Product website

• Social - organic

• Social - paid

• High-end custom pieces

• Loyalty mailers

• Postcards

• Product catalogs

• Seasonal promotional

• Events

• Headshots

• Lifestyle

• Portraits

• Product

• Sports

Videography

• Event coverage - livestream

• Long form

• Storytelling

• Product

• Short form

• Sizzle reels

• Sports

• Testimonials

• Training

Print

• Celebrity appearances

• Custom retail displays

• Display signage

• Price kits and signs

• Special events

• Wayfinding

• Window clings

• Bathrooms

• Billboards

• Gas pumps

• Guerilla marketing

• Ice rinks

• Vehicle wraps

• Branded merchandise

• Conference material

• Sales kits

• Sell sheets, tech/spec

• Trade show booths, graphics

Case Studies - Processes & Systems

I was hired to set up processes at Children's Minnesota, not just for creative services, but for the entire Marketing Communications department, which consisted of creative services, consumer and provider marketing, social, internal communications, pubic relations and the website.

It became apparently quickly that it would be impossible to tell each channel how to execute their specific work, so the focus had to be on points of intersection. We had strong individual contributors who knew how to get work done on their own, but it seemed harder to partner within our department than outside of it or outside the organization for that matter.

Most importantly, we were missing an opportunity to gain strategic and messaging alignment. We had cases where the one team was working with the same internal client as other teams, and none of them were aware of the other work. We went to market with misaligned messages and zero efficiencies in our processes. Our teams were sitting a few feet apart.

Complicating things was the fact that our team functioned as both a proactive strategic partner with comprehensive business objectives and a service center to help keeps the lights on and respond to operational needs and urgent situations. Everyone in the organization is authorized to submit a marketing request.

We needed a hub through which all work would flow, even if it was only for visibility.

• Process mapping: understand the processes of all channels and establish a general workflow that can be used for all.

• Agency model: implement clear ownership of care areas and business units with support similar to account management.

• Roles vs job titles: since many people wear different hats, it was critical to define process by the role in the process versus people's job titles.

I had two stints at Best Buy and during my first tour, I was one of the lieutenants of a manager whose mission was to nail down the creative process. After she left, I took a lead role in that imitative. Some highlights from the entire initiative include:

• Elevating "traffic" function of 20-person team as equal to strategy, account management and creative.

• Lean Six Sigma and PMP training
  for project management leaders.

• A new suite of forms: Project initiation, creative briefs, change orders, production orders.

• Standard timelines, time-budget worksheets and workflow documents

• Best-in-class onboarding.

• Reference library for approved legal disclaimer language, releases and other business affairs content.

My Best Buy manager hired me over to Olson and we implemented similar processes. Working with a large, experienced, extremely high performing group of creative project managers, the process updates were more complex and advanced:

• Project management pocket guide with processes, and timing built in.

• Agency-caliber strategy and creative briefs, SOWs with more robust operational considerations built in, comprehensive post-mortem documentation and archiving process.

• Capacity planning meetings and documents with PM team, production studio and creative leaders.

• Improved digital asset management for vast photo library.

• Cross-platform training and adoption of Jira for all project managers.

In a newly created position, I was tasked with developing processes and building in a level of accountability that was missing in some areas. This was a conservative environment that was a bit resistant to change. While the changes were not complex, implementing them was:

• Comprehensive audit of processes, workflow and systems.

• Annual planning calendar for cyclical deliverables such as events and holidays.

• Collaborative proofing system of weekly circular and monthly mailers that cut routing time in half.

• Tweaks to direct-mail delivery production and delivery, which saved thousands of dollars each month.

• Status document and meetings with social and marketing team members.

• Weekly progress reports for the director and vice president of marketing.

Pete is constantly evolving systems to make them the best that they can be. He doesn't leave a system that
works "ok" - he wants it to work great for the entire group. He doesn't just think about his department,
he thinks about all of MarCom and all of the organization when we wants to make systems better.

• Requests: Created a simplified request form to initiate the process without filling out a full brief. This minimizes the barrier of entry and reduces unhelpful information since most requests do not come from experienced marketers.

• Triage: Developed a central intake process to assess and assign every request, reducing the amount of swirl that happens when work crosses multiple channels or business areas.

• Projects meeting: Set up weekly projects meeting with department leaders as final arbiters for accepting, prioritizing and assigning work.

• Content meeting: Started organically by the channels to align work and messaging.

• MarTech Tools: Implemented industry-specific project management and digital asset management tools.

• Analytics: Developed a reporting mechanism for measuring volume, identifying where we spend our time and recognizing the source of most requests.

• Change management: Rolled out the process with training material and office hours. Solicited input to make improvements.
  
  

• Project management: Extended oversight to live projects.

• Sub-processes: Added "process-on-a-page" document for operational sub-processes.

• Planning: Developed robust annual calendar built around cyclical needs.

• Ongoing management: Understand that it's not a set-it and forgot-it process. Every day the process requires a human touch and oversight.

• Integration: As org-wide applications, technology and procedures evolve, ensure that process and tools remain relevant and accessible.

• Evolve. Upgrade and pivot away from what worked in the past when prudent.

Phase 1 - Realignment

Phase 2 - Intake

Phase 3 - Activate

Phase 4 - Expansion

Phase 5 - Operations

• 103% increase in engagement approval rating for "systems and processes for getting work done efficiently."

• External efficiency agency recommended zero changes during recent audit and noted remarkable operational effectiveness.

• 75% drop in routing time

• 1567 requests processed annually (21% higher than other users in our industry)

• 112 campaigns completed (112% higher than industry standards)

• 1849 projects completed (41% higher than industry standards)

• 8630 tasks completed (40% higher than industry standards)

Results

Pete has taken his strength of being an Operations maven to new levels this past year. He took processes that were not optimal and was very thorough at understanding all the moving pieces, from intake to vendor management of all swag, among many other "smaller" processes, and then creating better ways to get things done. He did major Mktg Operations improvement processes (and started other ones still in the works) while keeping all the internal stakeholders engaged and soliciting input on what will be the best solutions for all. Big process improvements with major buy in from all stakeholders, that's a win!

I greatly appreciate how Pete has refined the marketing and communications intake process over the years to be a powerhouse of efficiency.

Business Affairs

• Agency management

• Vendor management

• Creative resource management

• Contracts and SOWs

• Budget oversight

• Claims, disclaimers and disclosure curation

• Intellectual property stewardship

• Risk management

• HIPAA, PHI, PII compliance

• Photo and video releases

Professional Skills

• Windows and Mac OS Platform

• Adobe InDesign, Acrobat, Photoshop, Premiere Pro

• Microsoft O365, Teams, Word, Excel, Powerpoint

• Writing, editing and proofreading

• Project management software

• DAM applications

• Lean Six Sigma training

• PMP training

• Agile training

• PROSCI certification

• Project management for healthcare classes

• Healthcare leadership training

• Crucial Conversations

• Change management training

• Inside Out Coaching

• Art of Facilitation

• Best Buy Pillar Award

• Olson Brickie Award

• Children's Minnesota Silver Kudos

• National Agri-Marketing Gold Award (Nutrena)

• Effie (as part of Bauer team)

• Graphic Design USA (Children's Minnesota)

• Creative Operations feature

• Creative Operations panelist

Professional Training

Professional Recognition

• Team management, development, coaching

• Project, campaign management

• Process development and implementation

• Change management

• Capacity planning/forecasting

• Internal/external client relations

• Asset management

• Department administration

Professional Expertise

Away from Work

I am married with three adult sons. As recent empty nesters, my wife and I sold our house and moved into a great apartment near the airport with the intention of traveling more. We haven't done enough of that yet, but that's still the plan.

I sometimes wish I wasn't such a stereotype of a middle-aged, middle-class guy from the suburbs, but that's me. I love to golf and follow sports. I'm a total homer, so the Twins, Vikings, Wild, Timberwolves and Gophers. My boys played sports growing up in Bloomington, and I was actively involved in those programs. In fact, I was inducted into the Bloomington Sports Hall of Fame in 2022 for some of the leadership roles I had administering various programs over the past 20 years, particular hockey. Of course, I am fluent in speaking sports metaphors.

I'm also a pop culture buff and love keeping up with the latest TV, movie and music trends. I'm totally the guy who sees an actor in one show and proceeds to tell my wife all of the other things they've been in, even though she truly does not care.

I've been runner since high school, completing a couple marathons, a few halfs and a bunch of 10Ks and 10 milers. I do some biking and most recently been focused on hitting the gym. I'm a vegetarian and try to follow a plant-based diet entire, but I have a weakness for pizza, beer and anything sweet.

I'm a bit of a dilettante when it comes to creative projects outside of work. Like a lot of creative project managers, I have enough ability to impress a few folks outside of the industry, but never had the chops or commitment make a career out of it. I've freelanced as a writer, proofreader, photographer, videographer and even a designer. But mostly I do it for fun. Here are a few video projects I've created.

Kennedy Hockey Player Introductions

Kennedy Hockey Seniors

Kennedy Hockey Action

Quinnipiac Lacrosse

Minnesota Wild Practice

Player Recruitment Video