LEADERSHIP TEAM
Smart people are our process. Our clients get the benefit of our extensive brand experience and deep understanding of consumers – from retail to financial to B2B. If you want to work with a group that's smarter, leaner, faster, and more passionate about positioning your brand in today's cluttered, competitive marketplace, contact us today.
John
Gatesman
Partner, President
John Gatesman - Partner, President
John is the kind of professional most clients expect to run their business - a top flight veteran with heavy retail and consumer experience supported by exceptional strategic planning and account management skills. He has led strategic brand development for a diverse portfolio of accounts, some of which include GlaxoSmithKline, Shop 'n Save, Cub Cadet, Swedish Match, Pittsburgh Penguins, K Mart, PNC Bank, 84 Lumber, Eat 'n Park, and Milton Bradley games including Disney and Sesame Street licensed products. John began his career with Ross Roy Detroit after being selected as only one of six nationally into their highly renowned Executive Management training program. He eventually moved on to management positions with Ogilvy, Doner, and Ketchum before joining Mellon Financial as Senior Marketing Manager where he helped direct an extensive brand repositioning effort. Prior to joining GatesmanMarmion+Dave, John was with Brunner Pittsburgh where he served as part of the agency management team. He recently completed a four year term on the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross. John currently serves as President of the Pittsburgh Advertising Federation and is an Advisory Board Member with the Variety Children's Charity.
FRANK
MARMION
Partner, CEO
Frank Marmion - Partner, CEO
Frank spent time in broadcast media management before co-founding Spectrum Group Advertising and eventually Marmion Advertising in 1987. Well regarded as one of the leading professionals on the Pittsburgh advertising scene, Frank's reputation is unmatched for steadfastness, hard work and having a penchant for the big idea. He's actively engaged in planning and management for clients such as Joy Mining, Courtesy Suzuki, and ReCathco. Frank is involved with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Pittsburgh Ad Federation, and a number of charitable organizations. And don't listen to him about his golf game. Frank has been ranked among the top 10 Best Executive golfers in Pittsburgh 2 years running by the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Dave
Kwasnick
Partner, Creative Director
Dave Kwasnick - Partner, Creative Director
Respected as one of advertising's top creative minds, Kwasnick's work has been recognized by some of the industry's most prestigious award shows including Communication Arts, Kelly Awards, Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Obies, Webby Awards and National Addy's. During his 17-year career, he has spearheaded campaigns for national brands such as Wrigley's Eclipse, Spearmint and Juicy Fruit gums, Coors Brewing Company, Stolichnaya Vodka, Zippo Lighters, Quest Communications and General Mills.
Kwasnick's career started in Pittsburgh at Ketchum Advertising before carrying him to Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis and venerable Chicago agencies DDB, BBDO and FCB Worldwide. During his time at BBDO, he created "Hardware," a boutique agency housed within the walls of its parent company that allowed clients to push the limits of creative and challenged brands to swing for the fences. In 2004 Kwasnick returned to Pittsburgh to lead Brunner's creative department as Vice President Group Creative Director. While there he helped develop the agency's most recognizable work including "The Lost Weekend" campaign for Cub Cadet Lawn Tractors, Zippo lighters "75th Anniversary" efforts and CONSOL Energy's highly successful and on-going "America's On Switch" campaign.
Shannon
Baker
Partner, Director of
PR and Social Media
Shannon Baker - Partner, Director of PR and Social Media
Shannon Baker is a highly experienced and award-winning public relations professional who has guided clients through national media tours, event production, social media and issues management. Her expertise in media relations has garnered valuable relationships with top national media where she has a proven track record of successfully placing clients with news outlets like Fox News Channel, Good Morning America, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
She leads the department in all facets of Public Relations and Social Media including research, planning, and account management encompassing technology, consumer, nonprofit and business-to-business agency clients.
Baker is also instrumental in leading regional and national Social Media efforts for the agency including work for clients EQT, UPMC, SHOP 'n SAVE, Quaker Steak & Lube, Hofbrauhaus and Qdoba Mexican Grill. For Qdoba, she directed the highly successful Qdoba 'Lucky Burrito' social media campaign. The viral campaign helped generate a cult following on Facebook and achieved publicity on a local, regional and national level in the media including client placements on ESPN, MSNBC, USA Today, NHL.com and was also the focus of a feature story in Advertising Age.
Most recently her award-winning public relations and social media team earned client, Quaker Steak & Lube®, national recognition for its social media strategy and program management having been named Best Social Media Company in the B2C category by Business2Community, an Advertising Age Power 150 Blog. In addition, based off of the Entrepreneur Franchise 500 List, Quaker Steak & Lube placed in the Top 100 of FranchiseHelp.org's list of Best 2011 Social Media Companies.
Shannon is an active member of Women in Communications, Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project and the Public Relations Society of America.
Linda
Nawrocki
Director of Interactive
Linda Nawrocki - Director of Interactive
With more than 15 years of experience in the digital space, Linda brings an exceptional background to the interactive practice at GatesmanMarmion+Dave. She is a highly passionate interactive marketer and an avid defender of the
end user with deep skills and experience ranging from online strategy, web programming, information architecture, email marketing and search engine optimization.
Linda leads our specialized team of innovators, problem solvers and brand development specialists to establish interactive marketing solutions that work hard for customers. Her portfolio of expertise includes online strategy and execution with consumer, financial, B2B, government and non-profit brands which includes winning multiple Webby Awards for her work. Her background encompasses experience with a variety of Fortune 500 companies including Sherwin-Williams, GE, Moen, Sallie Mae, The Cleveland Clinic, Highmark Healthcare, Parker Hannifin, Kaufmann Foundation, and HSBC. Linda also spent time in Washington D.C. as a digital consultant to the Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, The Department of Energy, and The Federal Trade Commission.
Most recently, Linda was a Director with Rosetta Interactive in Cleveland, OH, a Publicis agency ranked among the top 10 digital firms in the country. As an active member of the digital community, Linda has spoken at multiple events and industry conferences on topics ranging from email marketing, effective online marketing and social media for business verticals.
Kathy
Oldaker
media director
Kathy Oldaker - Media Director
Kathy oversees media efforts for our diverse range of agency clients. In her 20+ years in the business, she has deep experience planning and buying virtually every type of media, from a National broadcast level to regional and local level initiatives. An expert at turning information into insight, Kathy has led the development of many highly successful strategic media campaigns that encompass traditional, digital, and sponsorship tie-ins with the accolades and awards to back it up.
Kathy began her media career at BBDO New York, planning and buying for national brands such as GE and DuPont. She eventually relocated back to Pittsburgh, working at Mullen and Ketchum on regional giants Mellon Financial and PNC Bank. She then went client side working at ATT Wireless as the Director of Advertising overseeing a $100MM media budget with responsibilities of managing national media planning and buying efforts across several agencies. While there, Kathy played an instrumental role in the $60MM launch of ATT's GoPhone. Most recently, she held management positions at Brunner and Initiative Media, an Interpublic Group media management agency. As Vice President, Director of Media Planning and Buying at Brunner, Kathy spearheaded the development and execution of a national multiplatform program with ESPN and Cub Cadet, which repositioned their newly launched i1000 tractor to a brand new target audience. Most recently at Initiative, she guided the national media efforts of EDMC's network of 50+ Art Institutes.
Kathy graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Advertising and a Minor in Business Administration.
