Our Team
Corey Lillard
Chief Beautification Officer
University of Illinois (Engineering)/Columbia College (Film)
Corey’s path to cinematography stemmed from his deep passion for photography. Originally a graduate of the rigorous U of I school of engineering, Corey made the shift to cinematography immediately after receiving his degree. A variety of successful narrative and documentary film projects confirmed his new path from day one. His credits include films such as When To Die, Newton Minow: An American Story, Our Place, PBS, QVC, Sears, Claire’s, and Pandora. His work on a recent independent film, “The Grove,” won critical acclaim and awarded “Best Thriller of 2016” at the Los Angeles film festival. Corey also directed photography for the feature length film “Banana Season” to be released later this year.
Terry Jun
Chief Amazement Officer
Principal, Director, Writer, Post
MA, University of Illinois
As an award winning filmmaker and creative director, Terry has developed commercials, narratives and documentaries that focus on the human condition and emotive issues; the core of brand relationships. His career experience spans consumer, business, and government in translating brand objectives into human factors. Terry’s direction and production experience ranges from live action and animation to special effects on the client-side.
With degrees in Industrial Design and User Experience from the University of Illinois at Chicago, he is able to translate intuitive human actions into customer-driven business solutions. Terry is always in search of innovative perspectives and developing the human narrative. Designing multimedia, graphics and concept art for over a decade, Terry’s expertise spans a myriad of disciplines. He is a seasoned professional behind the camera who also utilizes his skills in a variety of synergetic ways to effectively close the gap of the storytelling experience. His projects include the award winning documentary Today We Saw the Face of God, The Red Line, and The Ghosts. He has been awarded numerous Telly Award for this work in industrial education pieces for companies such as Allstate, LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Stryker, AM General, Astellas and the Office of Economics and Manpower Analysis (OEMA) West Point.
Therese Fenning
Idea Sherpa
MBA University of Colorado
Most recently from Follett Software Corporation, Therese brings a broad range of experience to our clients. Her career positions have ranged from client-side marketing manager & director to agency-side account manager, serving industries as diverse as insurance and financial services to technology.
As a certified executive coach, Therese has worked with business leaders to bring clarity and help them make confident decisions to reach their desired goals. Therese is instrumental to our interview process.
Therese provides our clients with expertise in brand and marketing strategy, message development, rebranding, product marketing and content creation for inbound and outbound marketing campaigns. Her background also includes public relations and media management experience.
Karen Valdez
Sorceress, Financial Strategy
Karen specializes in helping financial services organizations create new possibilities in mature markets. Combining creative thinking with business acumen, she is able to create something from nothing—a solid market position for a new product or a winning program to drive results. She is a proven marketing professional with more that 25 years of experience building strategic marketing plans to expand markets and improve sales, while continually improving profitability. A talented strategic director and implementation leader, Karen addresses the holistic picture by fully integrating product, sales, and distribution to drive success. Karen\’s deep understanding of consumer needs and producer practices enables her to create marketing, communication, and sales tools that address consumer preferences while engaging producers. Her work is on the leading edge of the dynamic shifts in the defined contribution market – empowering customers around retirement decisions. Her work helps create customer-focused marketing strategies that turn products that are sold into products that are bought.