Always
Onward
Committed to a relentless pursuit of excellence, our team is always learning, always listening, always refining and always growing. We value service, integrity, creativity and innovation. We view every project as an adventure and every client as a partner.
We work hard and play hard. When we’re not immersed in our work, we can be seen training for marathons, IRONMAN races and multi-day cycling events; escaping to the wine country; and plotting our next travel adventures.
Our team of experts delivers the right talent and expertise to meet client needs.
Leadership
Steve Dobbins
FOUNDER & CEO
With more than 20 years leading marketing and communications teams and working directly with CEOs and business owners, Steve Dobbins has a passion for brand building, compelling content, audience engagement, purpose-driven business and growing dream teams.
A passionate leader, lifetime learner and eternal optimist, Steve believes in the power of business to transform lives and create a better world for us all.
Trained as a journalist, Steve has used his love for words, imagery and the storytelling process each step along his career. His leadership journey has taken him around the world, working in more than 30 countries and wearing many hats, from small business owner and entrepreneur at Spin Creative (1997-2009) to chief marketing officer for YPO (2007-2014) and, most recently, senior vice president of member engagement at Vistage Worldwide (2014-2016). He launched the Dobbins Group in August 2016.
Steve has completed 10 AIDS Life Cycle events, five marathons, the Malibu Triathalon, and one IRONMAN 70.3. .
Jason Leon-Baptista
COFOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Blending a love for the creative side of business with strong experience in analytics and strategy, Jason Leon-Baptista co-founded the Dobbins Group and serves as President. In his role, Jason oversees business development, strategic planning, and internal operations.
Jason has an MBA in management and entrepreneurship and a bachelor’s degree in economics and business. He heads the Dobbins Group’s marketing technology and innovation group.
A lifelong serial entrepreneur and consummate creative, Jason has founded/co-founded four companies. In addition, he previously served on the marketing team for the Dialog Group, an award-winning strategic marketing firm in Austin, Texas, and served on the board of Mama’s Kitchen, a San Diego-based non-profit providing nutritious meals to persons living with critical illnesses.
An IRONMAN finisher, Jason believes that with a solid vision, hard work and perseverance, anything is possible.
Sherry Whittemore
CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER
Passionate about storytelling, compelling content and lifelong learning, Sherry Whittemore has blended her expertise in marketing and communications with education. Sherry launched her career as a journalist who segued into magazine publishing, marketing, PR and executive communications before earning a master’s degree in educational leadership.
With extensive experience in diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) and professional development programs, Sherry’s leadership and learning journey expanded into executive education where she has spent the past 10 years building executive education and lifelong learning experiences for the world’s leading chief executives at YPO and Realcomm. Sherry specializes in helping business leaders humanize the corporate world through purpose-centric business practices, developing employee potential through DE&I and coaching programs, designing business leadership curriculum, implementing in-person and digital learning experiences, content strategy and storytelling.
As Chief Content Officer at the Dobbins Group, Sherry helps businesses develop standards, systems, and best practices for brand strategy and content marketing. She ensures content is on-brand, consistent and optimized for the user experience. Sherry also creates leadership and professional development programs for the C-suite and their teams. In the past 20 years, Sherry has founded three multi-cultural education non-profits in two different countries.
Our Core Team
Neal Bryant
DIRECTOR, CLIENT SERVICES
With more than 20 years of experience in global marketing and communications, Neal has partnered with CEOs and creatives worldwide to articulate innovative and inspirational campaign strategy. Her passion for creative problem-solving, visual storytelling and production management has been realized in almost every aspect of the marketing and communications business.
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Neal began her career as manager, retail marketing and brand development for Levi Strauss in San Francisco before moving on to produce award-winning corporate event promotional print and video campaigns for several global brands such as Williams Sonoma, Gap, Adobe Systems, Oracle and Electronic Arts (EA).
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Family inspired a move to Dallas where Neal served as director, marketing and special events at Preferred Restaurant Management Group for two years before joining YPO as director of global event marketing. During her nine years at YPO, Neal honed her talents in global marketing strategy, campaign development, visual branding, digital and print publication management, video production management and data-driven content analysis.
Mindy Noonan
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
Mindy Noonan is a trusted communications partner to leadership teams and CEOs around the world. Her background in journalism, corporate, event, crisis and litigation communications has aided clients for more than 30 years.
Whether she is leading a global communications team, writing a crisis/communication strategy or coaching leadership teams, Mindy brings an attitude of partnership and an approach that instills trust and builds confidence.
Former colleagues describe Mindy as quick witted, patient, fastidious, adventurous, strategic, empathetic, steadfast, resolute, detail-oriented, creative and resourceful.
Mindy’s passion for journalism began in high school and carried through college at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned a master’s degree in liberal arts from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and studied at the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain. She is a fierce advocate for neurodiversity and children with learning differences.
Michèle Foster
PUBLIC RELATIONS & CONTENT MARKETING
Michèle Foster is a veteran business developer who helps companies thrive by crafting a winning value proposition, attracting the right customers and boosting revenues. Her experience spans more than 20 years and six continents.
She started her career in Latin America, helping the global public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller (now BCW), build their network in the region. She began in the agency’s burgeoning Mexico City office and then launched their Buenos Aires and Bogotá operations before relocating to New York. While at Burson-Marsteller, Michèle advised blue-chip clients including DuPont, AT&T, Tetra Pak, Xerox, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and many others on matters ranging from government relations and crisis communications to product launches and market expansion.
After obtaining her MBA in finance and international business, Michèle went to the former Lehman Brothers in New York as an investment advisor to high-net-worth individuals. She later returned to Mexico City as a turn-around CEO for GCI (now Cohn & Wolfe), where within 18 months she increased operating income by 43% and operating margin by 272%.
Since that time, Michèle has served as consultant on branding and content marketing. For YPO she built their first global public relations platform and developed and launched the YPO Global Pulse, a quarterly indicator of CEO sentiment that has been featured in top business media around the world.
Benjamin Mathes
VIDEO PRODUCTION
Benjamin Mathes began his video production and acting career 25 years ago. On film, television, and stage he has worked with Academy Award-winning directors, actors and producers. Benjamin has served as Head of Production for Hollywood’s Seine Pictures, with his films internationally released and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Benjamin founded CRASH ACTING studio and his students have won or been nominated for Tony, Emmy, Grammy, and Ovation Awards. Benjamin has also served as an acting coach for Warner Brothers, HBO, and currently Netflix. Internationally, he runs acting retreats in Ireland and acting workshops in Lima, Dublin, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Benjamin is the author of four books detailing and investigating the creative process. He is also the founder of Urban Confessional: A Free Listening Movement, currently operating in more than 80 countries and having been featured in more than 70 national publications including the Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Fast Company, and The Big Think.
Michael Johnson
WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
Dedicated to helping clients elevate their brand through dynamic, compelling and agile web design and development, Michael Johnson has been building, designing, coding and modifying innovative web solutions and products for 15+ years.
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Michael specializes in website design, is certified in SEO, and enjoys building proprietary websites and applications to solve client needs and grow business. Michael has both product and project management experience and specializes in responsive web design, graphics optimization, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Bootstrap.
Jan Bryza
GRAPHIC DESIGN
With more than 20 years’ experience in the worlds of graphic design and marketing and communications management, Jan Bryza has a passion for visual storytelling. She has won more than 50 industry awards for her work.
Jan began her career with the former Dallas Times Herald where she spent seven years as the design manager for its feature sections. When the Times Herald folded, Jan was snatched up by YPO where she spent seven years leading its design team, serving as art director for its magazine and managing a variety of global marketing projects.
Jan joined Steve Dobbins at Spin Creative in 1999 and later became full owner of the boutique marketing group. She has worked with myriad clients on projects as diverse as logo design to event marketing and branding. Her work has taken her around the world, building relationships with clients and vendors in more than 30 countries.
Joseph Gerard Seaman
GRAPHIC DESIGN & MULTIMEDIA
An Emmy award-winning creative director, graphic designer, photographer and videographer, Joseph has more than 15 years’ experience leading creative teams on a diverse range of projects.
With a passion for the creative process, Joseph has deep experience in visual design, web design, video production and animation. His clients have included SWIMS, NBC Universal, L’Oreal, VH1 and Essence. He’s worked in New York City, Los Angeles, Berlin and Paris.
Caroline Dickman
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Caroline Dickman has worked with some of the best brands in the American South: Charles Faudree, Ackerman McQueen and Social Revolt Agency. Charles Faudree was a world-renowned award-winning interior designer, recognized as one of the top 10 designers in the U.S. At Ackerman McQueen Caroline helped develop and execute multimedia content to build client brands, and at Social Revolt, an award-winning, minority-owned marketing and advertising agency, she created digital solutions to support brand strategy, development and design.
