Global Innovator, certified Change Management and Transformation practitioner, strategist, managing partner, author, workshop leader, keynote speaker. Epic Pivot’s mission: make business a force of good in the world—and show organizations how they can thrive by embedding Purpose. Mixing human-centered design, insights, organizational design, and strategic methods, we provide a change framework for companies to make a positive difference in the world and do well by doing good. Epic Pivot has a robust 16-year history of providing world-class Insights, Strategy, and Innovation services for more than 300 corporate, non-profit, PE, and municipal clients (e.g. Claritin, Rheem, Jack Nicklaus, Kimberly-Clark, Discover) Leaders in human-centered design, innovation, strategy, and purposeful transformation. Epic Pivot builds on its 16-year history of providing B2B and consumer insights, growth and product strategy, and innovation consulting—and offers a new practice area: Purpose discovery workshops and Purposeful Transformations. “We were called into organizations to diagnose why their digital transformations were failing, and they were failing around 70 percent of the time,” partner Mark Levine. “We saw it wasn’t the technology. These organizations failed to inspire the people side of change as a real competitive advantage. The pandemic has shown that organizations are facing a crisis of culture and need to align their growth, products, and technology around a clear values-driven purpose.” Epic Pivot introduces this framework and methodology to guide organizations through purposeful transformation. “Organizations have come under pressure to redefine how they create value in the world,” says managing partner Michael Graber. “Epic Pivot offers organizations a path to exceed goals, better engage and inspire their employees, and better serve their clients, as well as the communities where they work—the whole value chain.” Epic Pivot: the Purpose People.

Selected Board of Advisor Member to provide innovation expertise and experience to GInI's accreditation programs, membership and certification curriculums to shape and evolve GInI moving forward.The mission of GInI is to help businesses all over the world become persistently innovative. It does this by training and certifying their staffs in world-class innovation practices, and by helping their organizations implement world-class innovation governance methods tailored to their particular needs and situations.

Yes, Design Thinking and Innovation can change the world for the better. Join the positive revolution.

Socialize the many outstanding innovation efforts in the business, social, and civic sectors. Write a weekly column that explores innovation methods and barriers, organizational culture, leadership, and growth mindsets.

Member of non-profit board.

The University of Memphis Department of Anthropology has been a key asset for the Southern Growth Studio since our founding. We look at the Department as a talent pipeline and understand the organizational boon and social good of this field of study. Many graduate students have completed their practicums with us. To give back I have accepted a three-year position on the Department's Advisory Board.

Hunter Fan is a long-standing Studio client. To help embed innovation into the DNA of the company, I accepted this interim, few-day-a-week, in-house role, for a year. Duties included making the company more consumer-centric, driving a strategic growth process with the leadership team, giving innovation a voice on the executive steering committee, making innovation real in most departments, training on tools and methods, leading several key innovation projects and mentoring the Hunter team and culture. Hunter is a great company that has the vision to reset the industry.

Member of the Strategic Advisory Board

Vice Chairman and Member of the Board for the Center for Southern Folklore.

Silicone Arts Labs invents and takes silicone-based health and beauty products to market. Dermaflage, a topical scar filler, is the flagship product. Several products are ready to launch and SAL has a robust RND pipeline. CMO position was interim--and I remain an owner through Southern Growth Ventures

Led corporate and product branding, user experience, marketing strategy, advertising, public relation, design, conference and event, product management, client loyalty, interactive marketing, and communication efforts for a high-tech, growth company in the mortgage software business. In this role, I managed a talented team of 12 people, outside vendors, and consultants, and act as the user and client advocate when leading new product idea sessions or leading the usability and design efforts of new versions of older products.Focus: make sure every marketing touchpoint resonates with the company's value and character, creating a leadership position in the market.

Lokion is an interactive boutique in Memphis, TN. Lokion acquired my skills and drive as part of the dissolution of Johnson|Graber. I managed the interactive design and content team, made user experience a key factor in the marketing mix, crafted many brand strategies, identity platforms, and go-to-market tactics for clients, and was responsible for finding and winning new clients. While at Lokion, we were awarded national and local Addy Awards, a Macromedia Flash Site of the Day, and Webby Worthy mentions. Clients included Smithsonian, FedEx, Viking Range, First Horizon, Memphis Grizzlies, International Paper, and others.

Principal of award-winning interactive and brand strategy boutique. With my partner, Roc Johnson, and our small staff we served many of the advertising agencies in the Mid-South with interactive work and branding, as well as a host of our own clients, including law firms, non-profits, REITs, an industrial construction firm, the Mid-South Fair, Memphis Redbirds, CNA Insurance, Service Master, Rhodes College, and many more.