Know how many U.S. Presidents there have been since 1999? Three. Know how many Presidents of Preston Kelly in that same era? You guessed it, one. Chuck Kelly. Chuck started out at Foote Cone & Belding in Chicago and Bozell in Minneapolis. That’s when he learned that you don’t need big overhead to make big ideas… just the opposite. You need independent thinkers in a highly collaborative environment.

Your brand is Chuck’s brand. Chuck’s brand is your brand. Like peanuts and butter. That close. Chuck’s been strategic lead on accounts like Roundy’s, OfficeMax, Medtronic, 3M, and Piper Jaffray. He’s revitalized NHL ticket sales, refereed international mergers and acquisitions, and re-branded a national restaurant chain.

Chuck is past Chairman of Worldwide Partners, sits on the YMCA Board of Directors, runs a 4-minute mile (give or take a minute or a mile) and maintains a golf handicap of 10.

Chris joined Preston Kelly in 1999 after 20 years as writer and creative director at four major agencies. Chris’ dream is to build the most iconic creative work in the country. As far as this writer is concerned, he’s doing it.

Clients like Target, OfficeMax, Frontier Airlines, Sub-Zero, Wolf, Medtronic, U.S. Bancorp, Johnsonville Sausage, Taco John’s, Pure Fishing, Coleman, Little Tikes, Minnesota Zoo, and the Colorado Rockies Baseball Team would agree.

Awards include: nine Gold Effies, multiple Cannes Lions, One Show, Clios, Communication Arts, Radio Mercury Awards, Museum of Modern Art, Radio Broadcasters Hall of Fame, High School Prom King in a green tux—ha!—snuck it in here.

Chris grew up in Colorado. He loves climbing up mountains and skiing down them. In fact, he’s climbed all but one “fourteener” in Colorado. (In mountain talk that’s over 14K feet. Just Googled it.)

At some point along the way, iconic ideas have to turn into iconic work. Beth is the person in charge of making that happen—and wow is she good at it.

During her 10+ years with us, Beth has developed custom processes, checks and balances critical to achieving the highest production standards from start to finish. With Beth, you can be sure all of your brand work will be produced with relentless attention to detail.

Beth is also the head art buyer at Preston Kelly, combining negotiating savvy, resourcefulness and taste. Before joining Preston Kelly, Beth implemented direct mail programs for Allianz, AIG, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Chase and Wachovia. Don’t know if you’ve ever produced direct mail, but it’s not easy. Trust and believe.

In conclusion, without Beth this copywriter wouldn’t have much in the way of a portfolio. Thank you, Beth. You rock.

Maybe you don’t know Peter, but he knows you. Peter knows what you do online. Where you go when, how you navigate sites and how much of your workday is spent on Facebook (yikes!).

Peter has been with Preston Kelly for more than 20 years and a student of interactive for even longer—which is hard to believe. Had Al Gore even invented the Internet by then? In addition to being our Creative Director – Digital, Peter has also led art direction for Mall of America, HealthPartners, Medtronic, Sub-Zero, Wolf and Baldwin Hardware. He weaves traditional media strategies and storytelling with digital seamlessly.

Before Preston Kelly, Peter was an art director at Campbell-Mithun and Colle+McVoy and worked on everything from Cinnamon Toast Crunch (delicious) to seed corn hybrids (not quite as delicious).

At home, he’s got a British-style garden worthy of Windsor Palace. When it’s not frozen over by Minneapolis winter.

Kim is our controller in every sense of the word. Financial control is a given—budgets, forecasting, profit margins, contracts, keeping us out of hot water, all of that stuff.

But she also takes care of us. When you go down to her office and maybe you have a question about your health plan or ESOP, and let’s say you’re not very good with that stuff, no problem. Under control. Whole agency, under control.

But it’s not just what Kim does that’s amazing, it’s how she does it. For example, when that person with the ESOP question asked Kim about it, did she snicker? No. She smiled and said, “Don’t worry, most people find this pretty confusing.” Whew!

When she’s not keeping things under control at Preston Kelly, Kim spends her time traveling, hiking, and learning healthy gourmet cooking. (Is that even possible?)

Katia is to account direction what My Big Fat Greek Wedding is to industrial machinery videos… a million times more fun and possibly addictive. She spent the past seven years at Ideapark integrating consumer communications for General Mills’ main digital platforms and managing the overall digital experience on Box Tops for Education. The results had clients dancing and breaking plates. (The plate breaking was after she left for PK.)

Sounds good to us and pass the ouzo and Cheerios. Katia is a catalyst for constant change. While at Carmichael Lynch, she built community strategies for Harley-Davidson and A.G. Edwards. If the occasion calls for leather…

Before Minnesota, Katia was in San Francisco on BlueShield of California and worked in Chicago on major packaged goods brands too sugary to mention. Her first job after graduating from Purdue was in Singapore. You gotta meet her. Seriously.

98% of you are thinking, “Digital is so critical to my business, yet so not my expertise.” Yuliya’s got you covered: From information architecture and UX plans to tech assessments and platform launches.

Yuliya knows digital thought leaders are lifelong students. That mentality helped her recently launch two record-setting iOS app games, a patient education site for Medtronic, and a multi-channel, geo-targeted campaign and microsite for InSinkErator. Her work has won multiple Interactive Media Awards in the last two years.

Prior to Preston Kelly, Yuliya helped re-launch Optum’s e-commerce site ShopIngenix.com resulting in 48% more unique visits and a 32% lift in order size. She also managed a Hennepin County Medical Center brand re-launch that increased patient volume by 32%. Yuliya likes making numbers go up.

Since moving to Minnesota in 2002 as an exchange student from Ukraine, Yuliya has earned two degrees, acted as an interpreter for visiting delegations and fallen in love with tennis.

The most iconic campaign in the world is worth nothing if nobody experiences it. That’s why we have Scott. He makes sure everyone sees and engages with your brand―or, more importantly, the right people do. Scott is one of the country’s top connections directors, with recent “Media Plan of the Year” honors in competition against the nation’s media giants. Like Dahlgren and Goliath.

Have you stopped laughing at that last one yet? Scott’s experience includes Stagg Chili, Physicians Mutual, Pure Fishing, Roundy’s, Mall of America, YMCA, Be The Match, Sub-Zero, and 3M. His specialty is digging up added-value media opportunities and playing bigger than budgets would seem to allow. Again with the Dahlgren and Goliath.

Scott proved his never-say-die commitment to Preston Kelly when he broke both wrists in the same game while playing on the agency softball team. On the way to the hospital he kept asking, “Did we win?”

Like any PR pro, Denise wears lots of hats: media-relations specialist, online community builder, content creator, market expansion liaison and C-suite collaborator. But in Denise’s hat collection, that’s just the warm up. Want your company to be famous? Want to fly under the radar? Got a crisis? Done. Done. Not anymore.

Denise is currently creating best-in-class results for global clients InSinkErator and Elkay. Prior to PK, Denise was director of marketing and communications at United Properties, a senior account executive at Carmichael Lynch Spong and the recipient of multiple PRSA and IABC awards along the way. She prides herself on seeing the forest and each tiny needle on the tree. She likes knotty business problems and solving them in pine-fresh ways: on budget, on time and on message.

When she’s not coaching clients, Denise wears less-metaphoric hats coaching and cheering on her kids in softball, baseball, basketball and hockey. Huzaaahhh!

Is it okay to start a bio saying you wish you had that person’s brain? Mark’s original thinking and focused strategies have helped Preston Kelly do amazing things for Johnsonville, Taco John’s, Pure Fishing, HealthPartners and Medtronic, to name a few.

Here’s Mark’s average day: Wins “Best of Show” for Taco John’s, a Silver Effie for Johnsonville and a Gold Effie for HealthPartners and then writes all of our Twitter posts. (INSERT FROM LEGAL: That stuff didn’t happen on one day.)

Before Preston Kelly, Mark grew brands like Betty Crocker, Healthy Choice, Kraft, Land O’ Lakes, Pillsbury, Tropicana, Andersen Windows, Polaris and Norwest Banks. While at agencies like Campbell-Mithun, Leo Burnett, FCB and Martin|Williams―he realized bigger doesn’t mean better.

Take Mark’s current agency. (Ahem.)

In addition to focused strategies and original thinking for business and marketing, Mark’s brain also has a large “sports trivia” compartment. How lucky can one guy get?