Our Team

Amy Ahern

Senior QA Engineer

Amy has been testing software for over 10 years in start-up environments. Her past experiences in QA include work at Authoria, Intranets.com, Webex and Citrix. Prior to working in technology, Amy worked as a waitress, secretary, and fisheries biologist. Amy holds a BS in Biology/Marine Studies from Salem State College, and has several certifications that no one cares about. She is currently pursuing her Master's in Project Management from Northeastern University.

In her free time, Amy enjoys fishing, horror and sci fi movies, reading, sewing, gardening, maintaining her husband's Paul Stanley costume for his KISS cover band, keeping her daughter busy, and quality time with her Xbox and Wii. In addition, if you're in the Boston office on the first Monday of the month, Amy will make you crepes.

Yaser Ahmed

Client Services Manager

As a member of BSD's Client Services Team, Yaser helps our clients develop, deploy, and manage their online initiatives. Before joining BSD, Yaser was a project manager at Ashoka Innovators for the Public, where he produced Web sites and managed the development of online initiatives and programs, including a new constituent relationship management database. Yaser has also worked as a consultant for various government and commercial clients, providing business intelligence to improve their operations.

Yaser hails from Ohio and received a B.S. in business administration and management information systems from the Ohio State University. It is no surprise then that he is an avid football fan. Yaser currently resides in Washington, DC, where he spends his spare time frequenting the hot spots that the District has to offer.

Leah Borkin

Client Services Manager

As a member of BSD's Client Services Team, Leah assists our clients through the design, development and maintenance phases of their online projects. Prior to Blue State, Leah worked as an Account Coordinator at Fenton Communications, the nation's largest public interest communications firm, where she provided media relations support and engaged in social media efforts for various clients. She also worked as a Production Designer at Core Industries, a strategic interactive marketing, design and development firm in Brooklyn.

Leah received her B.A. in Communication Arts and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin and attended la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She grew up Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is an avid college basketball fan. Leah happily resides in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Eric Bull

Content & Distribution

Eric Bull is a member of Blue State Digital's content and distribution team. There, he writes and plans content for a number of BSD's clients, and oversees blog and communications outreach strategies. Eric came to BSD from Wal-Mart Watch, where he served as the Wal-Mart Watch Press Secretary and Communications Director.

He has a background in online communications and field politics, and holds degrees in Economics and Political Science from the University of Florida. Among Eric's interests are travelling, hitting game-winning home runs for the BSD Online Tools softball team and watching Gator Football collect national titles.

Ben Bullock

Director of Analytics

As our Director of Analytics, Ben works closely with Blue State Digital clients to define digital strategy based on the interpretation of data. Ben joins us from Google, where he was a Metrics Analyst responsible for developing, presenting and implementing data-driven recommendations to top Fortune 500 partners in the entertainment industry. His expertise in web analytics, search marketing, multi-variate testing and data analysis has helped to improve clients' online performance in the corporate and non-profit sectors.

In his spare time, Ben enjoys getting lost in the streets of New York City on his bike, practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, spending time with his fiancée and getting chased by his puppy, Rocco.

Ben has a BA in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (and bleeds Tar Heel Blue).

Kathleen Callaghan

Advertising & Promotion

Kathleen joined the DC advertising team in June 2009. As a Strategist, she incorporates her past two years experience working at Google Inc in Boston. At Google, Kathleen acted as both Account Manager, as well as Optimizer within the Agency and Small Business verticals. She provided consultations, strategy, and proposals to enhance clients AdWords advertising campaigns.

Kathleen also attended the Tuck Bridge Business School. This program provided rigorous training in accounting, finance, managerial economics, marketing, and strategy through coursework taught by MBA faculty.

Kathleen graduated from Connecticut College with a double major in Government and Psychology-Based Human Relations, with a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies. She also studied international marketing abroad in Cork, Ireland.

A Salt Lake City native, she loves Diet Coke, the Utah Jazz, and staying busy with her new kitten.

chino

Director of Motion Graphics

chino comes to Blue State Digital with 10 years of design and animation experience for film, television, web, mobile, and outdoor audiences. Before joining BSD, chino was responsible for creating motion graphics for the Obama campaign's New Media Video team in Chicago. Before he left New York to join the campaign, he was Group Creative Supervisor at Draftfcb Healthcare where he managed the agency's motion graphics team. He has also had similar roles at the Food Network and The Walt Disney Company in California. chino's clients have included Pfizer, BMW, MTV Networks, Porche, Comcast, Estée Lauder, and the ACLU. He holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in Film, Video and Computer Animation from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

chino lives in Harlem with his fiancée and is the developer of the most comprehensive directory of motion graphics in the world, the Motion Design Directory (motiondesigndirectory.com).

Jay Ciruolo

Senior UI Developer

Jay works with the software development team to help maintain a consistent design and user experience behind the BSD Online Tools. Jay comes from a background in web application design/development for non-profits, small businesses, and higher education institutions.

Jay graduated from Rochester Institutue of Technology with a degree in New Media - Interactive Development.

Lyndon Anthony Co

Director of Finance

As Blue State Digital's Director of Finance, Lyndon oversees financial operations, planning and reporting. This includes implementing financial controls, managing cashflow, maintaining banking relationships and overseeing client billing. Prior to joining BSD, Lyndon was Finance Director at Digital Mandate and took a significant role in the organization's financial growth until its sale to RDC.

Lyndon also held a variety of leadership positions in strategic consulting, finance and corporate administration at HNW, Change Technology VC Partners and IKON Office Solutions. Lyndon received a dual degree (BS in Finance and Marketing) from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. He is a longtime resident of midtown Manhattan. Lyndon spends his spare time riding his motorcycle and hitting the mud and dirt with his Landie.

Cameron Corda

Director of Production

Cameron heads up BSD's California offices from San Francisco. He is our most expert user of the BSD content management and user-generated content tools, and spends his days immersed in the software, looking for new ways to creatively use its capabilities for our clients.

Cameron joined BSD in 2005. Prior to that he was an early BSD client, leading Web site development for America Coming Together (ACT). He studied at UCLA, the school with the most national championships in the country, and is a fervent Bruins fan, which occasionally gets him in trouble in the Bay Area.

Risa Emmling

Design & Production

Risa develops Web graphics, video, site plans, and information architecture documents for BSD client Web sites during the planning and implementation phases. She previously worked as a freelance graphic designer, animator, and video editor.

Born in Naples, Italy, Risa holds a B.F.A. in digital art and animation from George Mason University. She is a Redskins fan, a camper and hiker, and enjoys Washington's live music scene.

Russ Fagaly

Client Manager

Russ specializes in online outreach, research and strategy at Blue State Digital. He joined BSD in early 2008 after working on the research staff at the John Edwards for President campaign. Before that he worked as a research analyst at Wal-Mart Watch, a consumer watchdog campaign that challenged the world's largest retailer to become a better employer and corporate citizen.

Russ holds a B.A. in history and political science from the University of California, Davis. He is originally from coastal San Diego, California. His ideal evening involves a spicy burrito and watching his beloved Padres defeat the Dodgers.

Brendan Gaffney

Strategic Planning & Research

Brendan Gaffney joins Blue State Digital as a researcher and strategist after working as the research director at Wal-Mart Watch. As research director, Brendan helped spearhead the effort to make Wal-Mart a better corporate citizen by writing reports, producing website content, and conducting employee outreach. Prior to his work at Wal-Mart Watch, he was a media analyst at the Thunder Road Group during the 2004 Presidential Election and a research analyst with America Coming Together. Brendan has also worked for the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Brendan holds a BA in History and Political Science from the George Washington University. A Massachusetts native, he resides in Maryland.

Naomi Geller

Advertising & Promotion

Since joining BSD out of the NY office, Naomi has led the creation of the company’s banner advertising programs. Naomi came to BSD with an extensive background in the financial, communications and luxury verticals having worked with top-clients such as Nokia, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy and the Royal Bank of Scotland. In 2005 she worked with MTV.com in the development of tracking solutions for concepts such as Road Rules Reunion.  

Naomi graduated Magna Cum Laude from New York University with a B.S. in Communications and is currently working towards her M.A. in Media Studies at New School University. Naomi is based out of BSD’s New York City office.

Teddy Goff

Supervising Client Manager

During the 2008 general election, Teddy directed all state new media operations for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, overseeing everything from email and blog programs to online organizing strategies in more than 25 battleground states.  During the primaries, he served on President Obama's mass email team, writing and editing fundraising, recruitment, and messaging emails and developing communications and segmentation plans.  Immediately prior to joining BSD, Teddy worked for the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Project, where he oversaw the creation and launch of the Obama Administration's new WhiteHouse.gov.  He also has extensive experience as an editor and copywriter for print and Web.

Teddy graduated from Yale University with a degree in English and Political Science and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Nicole Haber

Email Programs

Nicole works with BSD's strategy team to serve a diverse client base. Primarily a copywriter, Nicole works to implement creative online communication strategy in media including email, web page content and blogs. In addition to preparing content, Nicole contributes to the overall message plans and research that BSD performs for clients.

Prior to joining BSD, Nicole wrote emails and worked as an online organizing associate for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign. She also served as Deputy Finance Director on the Eric Massa for Congress campaign. Additionally, she worked for Congressman Steve Israel and Senator Charles Schumer.

Nicole hails from New York and holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. 

Chuck Hagenbuch

Director of Software Development

Chuck leads the software development team, building the core of the company's tools and working with new technologies. He brings years of experience writing with web applications and software libraries to the job of growing the company's software to new uses and broader scale.

Prior to joining BSD, Chuck worked for Zend Technologies, providing professional services to many prominent companies, including Google, PayPal, and Portugal Telecom. He founded the open source Horde Project in 1998 and remains active leading its development.

Chuck holds a B.A. from Williams College. A Boston transplant, he enjoys Boston sports except when they take on his native Philadelphia. In his copious free time, Chuck plays volleyball, is a percussionist, and enjoys baking.

Andrew Hearst

Director of Content & Distribution

Andrew joined Blue State Digital in March 2009. In January 2009, he served as a key member of the small team that launched the redesigned White House website. During his diverse media-industry career, he has consulted on web content strategy at The Wall Street Journal, contributed articles to Vanity Fair and The New York Times, and served as the managing editor of two magazines, including Lingua Franca, the National Magazine Award-winning (and now defunct) publication about intellectual trends in academia. In the mid-'90s, he worked on the staff of The Voyager Company, an early pioneer of electronic books and literary CD-ROMs. He is passionate about the intersection of design, content, technology, and process.

From 2006 to 2008, Andrew was the online editor at Vanity Fair, where he was responsible for all aspects of VF.com. During his tenure, he edited original work by such notable contributors as James Wolcott, Gay Talese, and Madonna. He also conceived and produced videos, slide shows, blogs, and other web-exclusive content. He is now a V.F. contributing editor.

Andrew graduated from Columbia University in 1991 with a degree in English. He lives in Manhattan's East Village and is the proprietor of the culture blog Panopticist.

TJ Helmstetter

Client Manager

T.J. came to Blue State Digital in December 2008 straight off the campaign trail. In the last election cycle, he co-managed communications and fundraising on a long-shot, "red-district" congressional race that exceeded all Beltway expectations, raising over $1 million and scoring press hits in national outlets ranging from Time Magazine to ABC World News.

Prior to the campaign, T.J. worked on the ground to advance LGBT civil rights. While at Garden State Equality, he organized marriage equality proponents and experts to testify to the state's Civil Union Review Commission that "civil unions don't work"; the Commission broke ground with its official finding that New Jersey should enact full marriage rights.

At the start of his career, T.J. held a two-year fellowship and full-time internship with People For the American Way. There, he helped a small team scale up the Young People For program in its second year, recruiting students from across the country and working closely with partner organizations to help strengthen youth outreach efforts among progressives.

A recent transplant to DC, T.J. might be found on Amtrak's Northeast Regional trains heading back to New York.

Leigh Heyman

Director of Information Systems

Leigh manages the team that ensures reliable performance, security and sustainable growth for the company's server and network infrastructure. His expertise covers most aspects of UNIX system management, and he approaches his role with the holistic view developed from years of experience, including infrastructure design and network security.

Before coming to Blue State Digital, Leigh was a system administrator at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he was a member of the team that designed and built an innovative computing and networking infrastructure for the Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center.

Leigh holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. Outside of work, he is a U.S. National Rowing Team member and has won two national championships in rowing. In previous careers he sailed "Tall Ships" and worked as a chef.  He occasionally referees ice hockey in the wintertime and also knows way too much movie trivia.

Phillip Holmes

BSD LA Director

Phillip has experience in all aspects of new media, on-line communication, branding, public policy, political campaigns and online grassroots community building.

He draws from more than 10 years experience crafting and integrating communication strategies that engage, empower and connect diverse and highly targeted constituents to candidates, causes and hot button issues.

Phillip comes to BSD after starting online departments for two nationally recognized political and policy shops in Southern California. He also worked on the 2007 California gubernatorial campaign, where he created the online communication strategy for Proposition 87, an alternative energy initiative where developed innovative online strategies that earned national media attention for its creative and cost-effective tactics.

Phillip leads BSD's Los Angeles office and specializes in film, sports and cause clients.

He and his wife, surfboards, and iPod live in Los Angeles.

Matt Ipcar

Design Director

Ipcar comes to us directly from his role as Design Director for the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Project, where he was in charge of developing information architecture and visual design for Change.gov, the newly redesigned WhiteHouse.gov, and other Transition projects, both online and off. From July to November of 2008, Matt worked for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, serving as the new media team's rapid response design director. There, he produced and launched high profile, quick-turnaround projects like Fight The Smears.com, KeatingEconomics.com, the Obama-Biden Tax Calculator, and the Obama for America (OFA) Record. He also designed site graphics and renovated sections on BarackObama.com, designed OFA Headquarters signage, and helped on numerous print projects.

Before the campaign, Matt was Design Director for Fenton Communications, the country's largest communications firm exclusively serving the non-profit and public interest sector. His clients included Amnesty International, The Humane Society, CARE, Americares, UNHCR, and Moveon.org, among others.

From 2004-2007, Matt was Principle Designer in the New York studio of frogdesign, the global strategic creative consultancy, leading interactive projects and doing hands-on user interface and visual design for clients such as MTV, The BBC, Vonage, Barnes & Noble, Virgin Mobile, and Microsoft. Matt also has a background in news photography and has covered human interest and conflict stories in Iraq, the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt, Nicaragua, Uganda, Mississippi, and New Orleans.

Matt holds a degree in environmental planning and design from the SUNY at Buffalo School of Architecture, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife Michelle

Steve Jacobs

Email Programs

Steve joined the NYC email team in 2009. Prior to that, he produced an investigative news segment for NY1 - CNN's NYC affiliate - a job that regularly took him to such far-flung regions as the Bronx and Staten Island. After two and a half years of navigating city and state bureaucracy - not to mention what felt like all of NYC's roads and highways - Steve decided the best way to effect real change was by writing emails for BSD.

After graduating from Harvard with a degree in History and Literature, Steve had his first real introduction to politics thanks to a year-long stay in Paris. He enrolled in a Master's program in film theory at the Sorbonne, but his campus was barricaded by student protesters for the bulk of the year. Instead of learning French film terminology, he learned politically charged slogans and instead of studying the auteurs of the New Wave, he got a crash course in Jacques Chirac, Dominique de Villepin, and Nicholas Sarkozy. He never earned that Master's degree, but learned more from Paris than he ever would have gotten from the Sorbonne.

Steve is originally from New Jersey and he still loves Paris, but New York City will always be his hometown.

Sam Jeffers

Deputy Director, London

Sam works in BSD's London office, where he helps to plan and implement online campaigns for BSD's European clients.

Sam joined BSD in December 2008. Before joining the company, he ran Worklesshard.com, designing and developing webistes for major UK music clients. He has a first class degree in International Relations from LSE in London and a Master's in Public Policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard.

Ferol Jones

Director of Technology Planning

Ferol heads up the Technology Planning group at BSD which is comprised of the core competencies of product management, UI design, and project management. Her group is responsible for outlining the product roadmap and providing product/project plans and UI consistency for the development of BSD's suite of online tools.

Ferol's previous technology experience includes management positions in the online dating/social networking, online gaming, and project controls sectors. She started her career as a project manager in the construction industry, focusing primarily on public works/infrastructure projects throughout the Northeast.

Ferol holds a B.A from Wellesley College and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). In her spare time, she enjoys dancing Argentine Tango, motorcycle touring, and is always in the middle of at least one home renovation project.

Diane Kaplan

Quality Assurance Manager

After a previous life in philosophy, Diane has spent the past 9 years testing software.  Her two previous roles involved building new QA teams, first an offshore team in India (where she got to stay for several months), then locally growing a dotcom's first QA group from scratch.  She's building out the QA process at BSD, and will be growing the team in the coming months.

Diane has a BA in philosophy from Binghamton University, an MA in philosophy from University of Rochester, and multiple CS certificates from Boston University.  In her spare time she loves the outdoors, music & dancing, and playing sports.

Gabe Karp

Design & Production

Gabe joined Blue State Digital in June 2008 and is responsible for the website development and content management integration of many of Blue State Digital's technology client websites.

Prior to BSD, Gabe spent five years as a freelance web developer. His work experience also includes stints in the communications bureau of Rochester, New York's city hall, digital content production for RealNetworks, special project assistance for MSN.com, and field work for the Democratic National Committee. Gabe graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.A. in political science.

Alex Kellner

Deputy Director of Content & Distribution

Alex performs online strategies for a variety BSD’s clients. He is one of the firm’s primary content creators, writing blog posts and other web content. Additionally, Alex executes innovative online outreach and messaging plans, research and other strategic goals for a variety of issues and along multiple channels.

Prior to joining Blue State Digital, Alex was a research assistant at The Institute of Politics, Democracy & the Internet focusing on issues in e-government and digital leadership. He also worked at Verizon’s PolicyBlog, Gannett Corporate Communications, The AARP Bulletin, Microsoft and Rep. James McGovern’s office. Alex has written for several publications including, Euonymous: an E-Anthology of First-Year Writing and the Politics and Technology Review, and has edited many others.

Alex holds a B.A. in political communications and Master's in political management from The George Washington University. Originally from Central Massachusetts, Alex is an avid Boston sports fan and enjoys cooking and arguing about politics in his spare time.

Josh King

Software Engineer

Josh is a developer in the Boston office. Josh came to BSD after co-founding a Y Combinator startup. Prior to that, he worked on data mining research while studying for a computer science degree at Rochester Institute of Technology. Outside of work Josh enjoys playing online games.

Lowell Kitchen

Software Engineer

Lowell draws on his many years of experience to help maintain and develop the BSD Online Tools. For almost a decade, Lowell has taught technology courses and worked with technology firms to develop award-winning Web sites. His experience includes Web development for several higher-education institutes, nonprofits, and for-profit companies.

Lowell studied computer science at the University of Georgia before moving to Massachusetts. All of his spare time is spent tending to a tropical greenhouse in his backyard.

Casey Klurfeld

Director, Communications and External Affairs

With a decade of experience in public relations, lobbying and business development, Casey directs the company's PR and media relations efforts and provides communications support for BSD engagements. Based in New York, she also plays an active role in business development efforts, with a focus on developing strategic partnerships for the company.

Prior to joining Blue State Digital, Casey was Vice President in the New York office of Freud Communications, a London-based PR and communications firm. While at Freud, she directed strategy development, positioning/messaging, campaign execution and crisis communications for a variety of high-profile corporate and non-profit clients.

Casey served in a marketing and business development role at the Advisory Board Company, a Washington, D.C.-based healthcare consulting and best practices firm. For several years, she was a government affairs consultant with the Downey McGrath Group, a bi-partisan firm, and also worked in the Los Angeles office of CarryOn Communications, a consumer PR firm. Casey has political campaign experience as well, working as a field advance coordinator in Pennsylvania for Kerry-Edwards '04 and as a campaign coordinator for Rep. Maurice Hinchey's '98 successful re-election campaign.

Casey holds a B.A. in American Studies from Cornell University. She resides in New York with her husband, Jason, and son, Bennett.

Gene Koo

Senior Client Manager

Gene's diverse career across law, professional development, and academia focuses on how the Internet can strengthen society. Prior to joining Blue State Digital, Gene was a joint Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction; there he launched the Legal Education Commons, which enables law professors to share teaching resources, and Hub2, which empowers neighborhood residents to participate in urban design using 3D visualization. Gene's research includes how video games can strengthen ethical and civic behavior; he also wrote extensively on the Internet's role in the 2008 Presidential election.

In 2004 Gene co-founded the Center for Legal Aid Education, which provided vital skills to poverty lawyers across the United States using online tools. From 2002 to 2006 Gene managed MassLegalServices.org, which enabled legal aid attorneys to share vital information, and MassLegalHelp.org, which educated consumers on how to advocate effectively for themselves.

Gene is a 2002 graduate of Harvard Law School and 1997 graduate of Harvard College. His passions include grassroots organizing, bicycle commuting, and video game criticism.

Thaddeus Kromelis

Content & Distribution

As a member of Blue State Digital's content and strategy teams in New York, Thaddeus writes, edits, and produces content for a broad range of clients. He also assists in crafting recommendations for an organization after a communications assessments.

Prior to joining BSD, Thaddeus cut his teeth during a six-year stint as an editor for Conde Nast. His last tour for the magazine publisher was as a founding editor of Domino (and he swears he has nothing to do with the folding of that much-loved magazine).

He has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Nation.com, and House & Garden, as well as a list of commercial clients he's not at liberty to divulge. His non-profit experience comes from a variety of places, most notably the Brennan Center for Justice and The Nation magazine.

Dave Leichtman

Client Services Manager

Dave is responsible for technical training and client education. He makes sure our clients have the information necessary to make the best use of our tools, and he ensures that our employees have all of the necessary skills to effectively serve them well. Dave has extensive experience with online communities and project development as well as a wide-ranging technical background. Previously, he was vice president of a Web consulting firm that helped universities and small cities create online communities. He has also served as an assistant to the Vice President for IT at the University of Oklahoma, and as director of online communities there and at William and Mary.

Dave is an active Arlington Democrat and is very active in Virginia politics. He was a head volunteer organizer for the Webb for Senate campaign and continues to spearhead volunteer organization efforts in Virginia. He holds a B.S. in physics, computer science, and mathematics from William and Mary, and a M.S. in physics from the University of Washington.

Henri Makembe

Client Services Manager

Henri Makembe is a client services manager at Blue State Digital. Prior to joining Blue State Digital, Henri was an account executive at DCI Group specializing in blogging, social networks, advocacy tools, web development, programming languages and databases. Previous to his stay at DCI, Henri was the director of web technologies at Be the Change, Inc - an organization whose mission is to craft a bold and innovative policy agenda rooted in the practical experience of social entrepreneurs and civic leaders. Henri has also served as the director of operations at Cary Silverman for DC Council - Ward 2, web developer at the National Association of Home Builders, and as senior developer at Doceus Inc.

A native of Cameroon, Henri grew up in Maryland and has his undergraduate degree in criminal justice from the University of Maryland College Park and an MBA from the University of Maryland-University College.

Matthew McGregor

BSD London Director

Matthew joined BSD in September 2008 to set up our London office.  He has over ten years experiences of political campaigns, both in party politics and in advocacy campaigning.

Matthew's experience includes work for Ken Livingstone's 2008 Mayoral campaign, for trade justice advocates War on Want, for TULO, the coalition of Labour supporting Trade Unions, and others. In 2006-7, Matthew managed Jon Cruddas' deputy leadership campaign, which won Channel 4's prestigious 'Political Campaign of the Year' award. He has worked with campaigns in Sweden, France and America. As well as running online campaigns, Matthew has extensive press experience, developing media strategies for campaigns. He has had articles published in the Guardian, FT, Independent Mirror and New Statesman among others.

Matthew holds a B.A. from the University of Sheffield.  Although he enjoys work, he'd always rather be watching Norwich City

Bob McKee

Lead Software Engineer

Bob is a software engineer on the company's infrastructure team. Before joining the infrastructure team, Bob spent nearly two years working on Obama's campaign website, my.barackobama.com.  During the campaign Bob went from the role of developer to team leader.  As team leader he managed and guided the development of a team of talented engineers recruited from across the United States.

Bob enjoys hockey, volleyball, and photography in his free time.

Katy McKegney

Business Development Associate

Katy McKegney joined Blue State Digital in early 2009 as a member of BSD’s Washington D.C. based Business Development team. She comes to BSD with a background in public relations, having worked on social marketing campaigns for numerous government and non-profit clients.

A Northern California native, Katy graduated with a B.A. in Global Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and spent a year studying politics in the French Alps. An avid snowboarder and soccer player, Katy lends her athletic prowess to the BSD Online Tools softball team.

Shana McMahon

Content & Distribution

Having joined BSD in January 2009, Shana works with BSD's content team tracking client and news clips for the most up to date information.  Originally from Connecticut, Shana graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.A. in International Politics and International Economics.  Currently she is pursuing a master's degree in PR/Corporate Communications from Georgetown University.  Outside of work, she is an avid fan of Uconn basketball fan, enjoys most sports and loves to travel any chance she gets.

Lauren Miller

Director of Email Programs

If you subscribe to progressive e-mail lists, chances are you've read Lauren's work. Since joining BSD in 2005, Lauren has developed online communications, outreach and social networking programs for more than 75 clients, including the Democratic National Committee, Senator Ted Kennedy, Wal-Mart Watch, and Americans United for Change. In addition to serving as BSD'S chief copywriter, Lauren develops programs for BSD clients on social websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Previously, Lauren served as State Volunteer Coordinator for the California Democratic Party, and worked in their communications department during the 2004 election cycle. She holds a B.A. in political science and Middle Eastern and North African studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Stephen Muller

Director of Video -- Washington, DC

Stephen oversees all of BSD's video production in Washington, DC.  He has professional experience in every step of the production process: scripting, shooting and editing. His understanding of Youtube allows him to take full advantage of every video's viral potential. 

Stephen attended The Dodge College of Film and Media at Chapman University.  While going to school full time he spent his weekends working on indie short films and music videos.  After graduating he spent several months in Lebanon photographing the country's political unrest. In May of 2008, he joined Barack Obama's presidential campaign and became the director of rapid response video for the general election. 

Stephen's experiences in both fiction and documentary story telling give him a balanced approach to video development and production.

Murali

Design & Production

Murali oversees much of BSD's design and creative work. He draws on over seven years of experience in Web-related ventures at firms including Mobilestop.com, Strax and Inecta.

Prior to joining BSD, Murali was a producer/composer at Audacity Recording, where he developed original music for television and radio. He also worked as a program associate at M+R Strategic Services. At M+R, he analyzed the efficacy of Internet campaigns for clients such as Tobacco-Free Kids and Oxfam America and helped develop optimization strategies.

Murali holds a B.A. in music composition from New York University. He is a published composer and a competitive cyclist.

Emily Murphy

Project Manager

Emily joined Blue State Digital in January of 2009. Prior to joining BSD, she worked as an online organizer for Barack Obama's campaign in Chicago. A Mandarin Chinese major who graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, Emily has spent time living and working in China, even taking a brief hiatus from the Obama campaign to work at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. As project manager, Emily works with the creative delivery team and client managers to ensure that every client gets the love and attention it deserves. Emily resides in the West Village, where she enjoys proximity to both water and Magnolia cupcakes.

Craig Nuttall

Lead Software Engineer

As a web application developer, Craig draws on his many years of experience in producing dynamic web tools to leverage the latest technologies and produce useful and interesting applications.

In 1995, Craig co-founded NetWay Internet, a regional Internet services provider. There, he oversaw most aspects of the day-to-day business with a heavy focus on technology, until the corporation was sold in 2004. Craig also volunteered for phpBB, a popular open source project, and eventually became a Team Leader.

Craig holds B.A. degrees in both computer science and philosophy from the University of Massachusetts. Originally from Norton, MA, he still participates in several open source projects, enjoys most sports and is an avid computer gamer.

Laura Olin

Email Programs

Laura Olin is a member of Blue State's email team. Prior to joining BSD, she managed website content and social media strategy for the liberal advocacy group People For the American Way and created web content for the Center for American Progress. Before getting into online strategy, she aided fair housing litigation efforts at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. Olin received a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.Sc. in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics.

Nick Parrott

Content & Distribution

Nick joined BSD London in January 2009 and specialises in research and planning, as well as working with clients on campaign strategy and communications. He has over ten years of campaigning experience, working for a range of progressive causes and candidates. Prior to joining Blue State Digital he worked for NGOs as a parliamentary campaigner as well as for Labour MPs. He had previously worked on Jon Cruddas' Labour party deputy leadership campaign, as well as for trade unions, public sector clients and campaigns including the Trade Justice Movement, Christian Aid and ActionAid. He has also worked as a writer/editor and is an accredited journalist. Nick stood for parliament in his home town of Kingston in 2005.

Nick has a BA in History & Politics from the University of Warwick. When he isn't working or volunteering, he can often be found on a windswept terrace watching local non-league football team Kingstonian.

Andrew Paryzer

Client Manager

Andrew helps develop, launch, and manage new online strategic initiatives for BSD clients from our growing New York office. He draws upon his past experience managing political campaigns and working as the director of accounts and sales at Basex, a technology research firm.

Andrew grew up in New York City. He left to obtain his B.A. in history from Pomona College and then to work on political campaigns in New Jersey, Iowa and Florida. He is happy to be back in New York, helping BSD grow.

Lauren Peacock

Client Manager

Lauren is a client manager based in our London office and brings experience from the NGO sector, where she specialised in fundraising and direct marketing.

She has worked for leading NGOs including the international development charity Oxfam, where she was responsible for securing high value legacy donations. More recently she worked for the Mental Health Foundation where she managed all aspects of their marketing programme to recruit and retain individual supporters. Earlier in her career Lauren worked for the BBC, advising on copyright issues relating to the sale of BBC programmes worldwide.

Lauren is a Law graduate from Oxford University. In her spare time she is a semi-professional dancer.

James Pepin

Lead Software Engineer

James came to BSD from PCF Inc., where he was Senior Web Software Developer working to build everything from Web 2.0 applications to high performance multi-threaded server applications designed to integrate SAP R/3 with legacy systems using Microsoft's .NET platform in a mixed Windows/Unix environment.

James holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y.

Gregor Poynton

Client Manager

Gregor works in Blue State Digital’s London office as a Client Manager bringing a wealth of campaigning experience from his previous role as an Election Strategy Manager for the British Labour Party.

Specialising in campaign organisation and strategy, he has previously worked as a researcher in the Political Unit of the Labour Group of Members of the Scottish Parliament and for Catherine Stihler, Member of the European Parliament.

Gregor holds a BA (Hons) in Politics from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He originally comes from Falkirk, Scotland and in his spare time enjoys playing rugby union and watching Scotland win at football and rugby – unfortunately he doesn’t get to see it too often.

Rachielle Purvis

Design & Production

Rachielle designs and develops Web and MySpace content for BSD clients. She has been creating Web sites and user interface functionality for almost a decade, since the day her father brought home copies of Photoshop and Dreamweaver and she got hooked. Before joining BSD in 2008, she owned and operated AquaBoogie Design Studio, where she earned a reputation for bold, aesthetically pleasing design and clean, functional code.

Rachielle is an accomplished cook in her spare time; for many years, she aimed to open a restaurant, and she still might.

Andras Radics

Senior Performance Engineer

Andras comes to BSD from a background in operating systems, computer architecture and Unix systems and applications programming.  He's worked on parallel processing, programmed computer graphics, and wrote the code that runs a chain of photo kiosks in malls, restaurants and amusement parks across the country.

Andras holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and a Master's in Computer Science.

Seth Reznik

Director of Client Services

At Blue State Digital, Seth's responsibility is to launch new projects and maintain relationships with our clients. Prior to BSD, Seth served as a project manager at Kintera, Inc., helping national and international organizations to meet their fundraising and volunteer goals. He also worked in the online communications and fundraising department at America Coming Together, where he coordinated Internet operations in over fifteen state offices and assisted in Web site design and online messaging strategy.

Seth has a B.A. in economics from Northwestern University, and originally hails from New York. Outside of the office, he develops his own web designs and operates a documentary film production company.

Allison Rockey

Email Programs

Allison joins the email team in the DC office.  As an Email Associate Allison crafts messages and provides strategy for a diverse range of clients. 

Prior to joining the team at BSD, Allison worked in the non-profit sector -- most recently as Director of Communications for a leading progressive religious organization.  Allison brings 5 years of experience in integrating online strategy with traditional print communications to her work at BSD.

As a yoga instructor and a vegetarian, Allison is interested in wellness and the positive effects healthy living and responsible choices can have on our world.

Megan Rollins

Email Programs

Things had been downhill for Megan after she peaked at the age of 9, appearing as Michelle Tanner's "friend" in an episode of the TV series Full House. But, in the summer of 2006, with the help of an inordinate amount of Venti Starbucks Coffees and dumpster chic clothing, Megan was revived and joined the Los Angeles staff of the Huffington Post. It was there that she learned her most valuable life skill: how to comb through the vast realm of the internets.

In 2007, when Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President, Megan took a position with Evolutionary Media Group to work on the grassroots visibility campaign. There, in partnership with Shepard Fairey, she distributed over 100,000 stickers and posters throughout swing states and co-produced a gallery at the Democratic National Convention and Presidential Inauguration called Manifest Hope—a celebration of the artistic grassroots movement surrounding President Obama. (It will be another two years before Megan can go to sleep without seeing the red, white and blue image of HOPE burned into the back of her eyelids.)

In August of 2009, Megan joined the staff of Blue State Digital, where she pairs her experience in marketing and online strategy as an email associate. She plans to remain with the company until Bob Saget requests her appearance on the reunion episode of Full House. No word yet on when that will air.

Dominic Roter

Business Operations

Dom works in BSD’s London office assisting with business development, sales presentations and associated research.

Prior to starting at BSD Dom has gained experience in an eclectic variety of organisations including an international trading company, numerous ad agencies and most recently a non-profit organisation.

He has an undergraduate B.A (Hons) in History and International Relations and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He is a proud supporter of The Arsenal.

Andrew Rothman

Email Programs

Andrew executes online strategies for BSD's diverse set of clients. As one of the firm's primary copywriters, Andrew develops content on a wide range of issues for multiple channels, including email, blogs, and Web sites. He also contributes to the creation of innovative online outreach and messaging projects that promote engagement and participation among the general public.

Prior to joining Blue State Digital in January 2007, Andrew worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Before that he served as the associate editor of Jest, a political and social satire magazine. Andrew hails from New Jersey and holds an A.B in political science from Duke University.

Chris Royalty

Director of Video -- New York City

As a member of Blue State Digital's video production team, Chris Royalty works in every aspect of contemporary digital video – shooting; editing; motion graphics design; DVD authoring.

Prior to joining BSD, Chris worked in online video for the Barack Obama campaign.  Over the course of the primary and general election, he edited countless videos, designed DVDs sold in the online store, coordinated video production teams in battleground states, and single-handedly posted hundreds of videos to the official Obama YouTube channel.

Chris holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Richmond and a masters degree in fine art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Chris was born in Kentucky, grew up in North Carolina, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Adam Ruff

Political Business Manager

Adam Ruff serves as our Political Business Manager, empowering campaigns of all sizes in utilizing Blue State Digital's tools and strategies to effectively come to terms with the power of new media.

He comes to Blue State having spent the last election cycle serving as Gary Trauner's (WY-AL) Campaign Manager. In 2007, he honed his skills organizing Story County for the Edwards campaign in Iowa. Having also served as a Field Director for a Congressional and a Communications Director for an Attorney General race, Adam is curious to know what these 'weekend' things are.

A recovering attorney, he holds a J.D. from The University of Michigan Law School and has practiced in Seattle, Washington and Washington, DC. Adam loves DC, but will continue to lobby for a Jackson Hole office.

Kyle Rush

Design & Production

Kyle is a front-end web developer on our production team. Before coming to BSD in 2008, he worked as a freelance web designer/developer where he picked up his affinity for WordPress, jQuery and Twitter.

Among Kyle's biggest struggles are staying caught up with his RSS feed subscriptions and dealing with DC weather (originally from southern California). As a front-end developer his biggest hope is that someday standards compliant browsers will dominate the browser market share. When not developing, he likes to read, learn other languages, run, and play basketball.

Katharine Segal

Client Manager Associate

Katharine is based in our London office, where she supports the Client Managers in delivering integrated online campaigns to our European clients.  She joins us from the digital interactive agency OCC, where she specialized in the charity and education sectors.  Katharine also brings experience of the public sector, having worked in the communications team at the Department of Health.

Katharine is a Politics, Philosophy and Economics graduate from Oxford University.  More importantly, she is a committed campaigner, online and offline.

Ryan Seggel

Supervising Client Manager

With a background in marketing and communications, Ryan helps develop, launch and manage strategic initiatives for clients from BSD's New York office.

Prior to joining BSD, Ryan led PR campaigns for a variety of health care clients.  His work included strategic counsel for consumer and professional initiatives, message development, issues management, media strategy, patient advocacy and coordinating third-party partnerships.

Earlier in his career, Ryan served as Special Assistant to Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD).  He also served as a staff assistant for Congressman Rob Weygand (D-RI) and worked on the Congressman's U.S. Senate Campaign in 2000.

Ryan received his B.A. in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

Adam Shapiro

Advertising & Promotion

Since joining BSD our of the D.C. office, Adam has been instrumental in leading search engine marketing strategies and implementation for BSD’s political based clients.  Prior to joining BSD, Adam worked at AOL where he developed search engine optimization strategies for AOL Music.  He has also developed web strategies and performed research for the National Association for Environmental Management (NAEM) and Hiram Monserrate, New York City Council. In 2007, Adam travelled to China where he performed research on the relationship between energy and developing economies.

Adam is a graduate of George Washington University with a Dual B.A. in Political Science and Economics and is based out of BSD’s Washington D.C. office.

Mark Skidmore

Director of Advertising and Promotion

Mark's expertise is in search engine marketing, display advertising and social media advertising. In early 2008 Mark built Blue State Digital's advertising division and has since delivered campaigns to over 65 clients in major industries and sectors including corporate retail, political campaigns, labor unions, trade associations, advocacy organizations, non-profits, cultural institutions and publishing companies. Clients include: the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, The Carter Center, The United States Olympic Committee, ServiceNation, The Prince of Wales' Rainforest Project and the award winning campaign "Truth Fights Back" for Senator John Kerry's 'Campaign For Our Country.'

Prior to Blue State Digital, Mark managed digital advertising for Nike in 12 countries throughout Europe and North America, working with brands such as NIKEiD, Nike Football, Jumpman23 and the Nike Store EMEA. Previously, he was co-founder of the white-label social networking platform Ventwork.com where he led marketing and design.

Mark is a frequent speaker on digital advertising and communications and has appeared at Search Engine Strategies, the Politics Online Conference and was the 2009 keynote speaker at the eMetrics Summit in San Jose. His thoughts and work appear regularly in a wide range of publications including the New York Times, Forbes, the National Journal, Advertising Age and Media Post.

Mark is a graduate of New York University with a B.A. in Fine Arts; and is a member of both the Google Advertising & Analytics Professionals programs.

Dan Slimmon

Linux Administrator

Dan came to BSD in June of 2007, after graduating from Wesleyan University with degrees in physics and mathematics. In college, he worked as a physics research assistant, building intuition on an OpenMosix research cluster, and as a computer lab technician. Through these experiences he developed a deep interest in Linux and computer internals, and ended up spending a lot of his free time not partying like a normal college student but honing his skills with Linux. By the time he came to work for us, he had become an adept Linux user, and since then his administration ability has continued to grow at quite a clip.

When not messing with computers, Dan can usually be found playing his favorite video games, which include the Mario Kart, Mega Man, Super Smash Brothers, and Metroid series. He has also been known to irritate and confound his coworkers by putting some, shall we say, unconventional rock on the office speakers.

Sara Smith

Executive Assistant

Sara Smith joined Blue State Digital in July of 2009. Based in NY, Sara works with the business development and strategy teams from every office to ensure that the needs of our ever-growing client base are met.

Prior to BSD, Sara worked as a research associate for Global Action on Aging (GAA), a non-governmental organization with consultative status at the United Nations. She continues to write weekly blog editorials for GAA and contributes original research pertaining to political, legal, and social issues of older persons in NY.

Sara graduated cum laude from New York University with a double honors major in Anthropology and Middle East and Islamic Studies. She continues to study Arabic and enjoys reading about Levantine history, politics, and culture.

Chris Stelmarski

Client Services Manager

As a member of BSD's Client Services Team, Chris helps teach our clients all of the new and interesting ways they can use our technology to engage and empower supporters. For the past two and a half years, Chris has worked in our strategy and communications team, providing communications and production support for a variety of clients, including Obama for America, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Wal-Mart Watch and Americans United for Change. Additionally, Chris has produced a number of online ads and videos that have been featured on major news outlets like CNN, MSNBC and the BBC.

Prior to joining BSD in January 2007, Chris worked in the communications department of Sherrod Brown's winning Senate campaign in Ohio. Born  in Germany and raised in Ohio, he holds a B.A. in political science from American University.

Derek Stewart

Business Operations

Derek is the only employee of Blue State Digital from Vermont. Derek graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in political science and a background in finance. While attending school Derek was running a residential electrical company out of Burlington, Vermont called Specialty Lighting and Electric, which focused on high-end residential remodels.

Derek oversees the company’s operations that include managing the employee growth and office construction projects over the last year. Other responsibilities include managing BSD’s HR and IT departments. When Derek is not working you can find him on the golf course or cycling around town.

Rhiannan Sullivan

Business Development Manager

Rhiannan works in BSD's London office as our Business Development Manager. She works to identify new business in the UK, as well as working across the business to ensure campaigns are implemented & delivered for BSD's UK & European clients.

Rhiannan joined BSD in November 2009. Prior to this, she worked in the product licensing, film promotional and brand extension arena after graduating University. In these roles she represented a range of clients including major film studios, corporate & FMCG brands and TV properties. She has worked for The Licensing Company, ITV and The Science Museum, London.

Rhiannan has a BA in Philosophy and English Literature from the University Of York.

Dan Thain

Senior Strategist

Dan joined BSD London in December 2008.  He previously worked as the British Labour Party's e-Campaigns Manager and played a central role in numerous local and national campaigns.  Specialising in email strategy, video content and message development, Dan has worked with the most senior figures in the British Government and regularly wrote email and DM copy for both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

He helped found his first dot.com at the age of 17 and following a short lived love affair with XBOX was briefly Europe's highest paid professional videogamer.  As a keen cyclist, he once attempted to cycle from his parents house in Norfolk to Portugal.  He didn't make it.

Dan holds a first class degree in Politics and Business Studies from the University of Liverpool and an MA in Intelligence and International Security from King's College London.

Matt Thompson

Director of Business Development

Matt helps bring new clients into the BSD family the right way by proposing the proper combination of Web Design, Online Tools, and Strategic Services to give each initiative its best chance to succeed.  Prior to joining BSD, Matt managed the Federal Highway Administration's Knowledge Sharing Initiative, which included the development and deployment of knowledge management websites. Matt has also worked with the Department of Health and Human Services to strategize and implement their department-wide Enterprise Architecture.

Matt is a native Upstate New Yorker with a B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology from James Madison University. When not working, he likes to go camping on the Maryland shore, check out live music, play softball, and strum the guitar. 

Scott Zumwalt

Supervising Client Manager

Scott manages client engagements for a number of BSD strategy clients while drawing upon his background in strategic messaging, outbound email, online fundraising and video.

Prior to his arrival at BSD, Scott most recently served as the Online Director for Kay Hagan's successful U.S. Senate campaign in North Carolina.  He previously directed the online communications for Hillary Clinton's Iowa and Oregon operations and for two years worked in coordination with BSD in executing new media strategies for Tom Vilsack's political organizations.

Scott graduated cum laude from Georgetown University with a B.A. in political economy.  Scott originally hails from Chappaqua, NY and in his free time enjoys running around DC and watching the Yankees win.