Sales & Marketing
Jason Walker
Jason has been working in the promotional products industry for over 10 years. The first half of his illustrious career was spent as a distributor - so he gets your business and what you do. He founded Creative Merchandise in 2003 with the intention of bringing that distributor experience to the service provider side. As a lover of all things gadget and technology related, the evolution into web development seemed natural. Jason primarily handles sales now, and is usually the person you will talk to when interested in finding out more about our product.
Jason spends all of his free time catering to the every whim of his wife Joy and daughters, Mia & Julia. During the rare moments when both are asleep he can usually be found sitting in front of a television. Odds are he's playing video games or watching something ultra dorky like Battlestar Galactica. If you're ever in the "JapanTown hood" where he lives stop by for a serious whooping in Halo 3 or Rock Band.
RC Williams
Born and raised in San Francisco, RC has an insane passion for building relationships and helping people.
While the actual origin of this is not exactly known (due to the lack of technology in the 1800's), many think it
may come from the four winters he spent in Minneapolis and living all over the country.
RC brings a wealth of communications, sales and new media experience from a career in broadcast, including building and managing
relationships with Yahoo!, MSN, Google, ESPN and Starwood Hotels. As his passion lies with helping people, numerous past clients
still ask RC for advice for their campaigns...and yes, RC still helps!
When not working, you'll find RC hanging out in the huge metropolis of Oakley, CA (near the San Joaquin Delta) with his fiance, two kids and their 1 year old Lab-Rottie Lucky. Other locales include Las Vegas, The Caribbean and the gym. Other passions for RC: Pro and College Football (49ers and Hawaii Warriors if you're sending gifts), Pro Basketball (Utah Jazz), practicing for the Sr. Pro Bowlers Tour (still a few years to go) and watching Mixed Martial Arts as much as possible.
Customer Support
Irvin Hubler
Irvin Hubler is your first contact whenever you have a question or need something done. He hails from Oregon, a graduate of the University of Oregon, and has a strong back ground in service. He joined Creative Merchandise in February 2008.
Irvin lives in the colorful Lower Haight area of Hayes Valley, in San Francisco, with his girlfriend and their cat, Lester. If you stop by, he will invite you in for a Manhattan, no doubt, and a game of chess.
Supplier & Customer Relations
Esther Shepherd
Proud to be raised in the majestic state of Idaho, Esther had the unexpected opportunity to grow up in the fast paced concert promoting industry. This path began at the tender and impressionable age of 19. She began as a runner/intern and quickly demonstrated a passion for all facets of the promoting business moving into various roles including: marketing and promotion, producing, public relations, and talent buying for A-list artists and Olympic athletes. These live events took place in amazing scenic backdrops all over the northwest and Midwest regions ranging from outdoor amphitheaters, large scale festivals,ski resorts, to indoor arenas, clubs, and theaters.
Esther's strong desire for building relationships guided through listening, connecting, and collaborating is a passion and joy. In both personal and business, she focuses on her love of the human condition bringing together a beautiful marriage of her studies in Psychology at BSU integrated with over 12 years of client centric business mentality. She enjoys booking music on the side, yoga/meditation, drinking a nice glass of red wine, tipping back a nice micro brew, provocative conversation, snowboarding, reading, watching Boise State football, engaging in theater on occasion, watching films, LOL at Kathy Griffin's witty humor, enjoying live music to soothe the soul, and analyzing thought processes.
Web Developers
Samantha Stoller
Samantha wears many hats at Creative Merchandise. From web programming and database development to graphic design and working her magic at tradeshows, there's never a project too big or too small. One of the founding members of CM, Samantha is responsible for the core system that is in place today and continues to develop the software with the same dedication and critical eye that led Creative Merchandise to success.
Samantha was born in London, England and at the ripe old age of ten moved to America with her family. She spent several years in Arizona and since has lived all over the United States, currently residing in San Francisco. The jack-of-all trades' attitude she brings to Creative Merchandise clearly carries over into her personal life as well. Besides keeping up with her piano playing, Samantha enjoys building amateur model rockets and practicing the art of origami. During her “off-time”, you can find Samantha cooking trendy vegetarian meals for her loved ones and tending to the many needs of her button-nosed cat, Kylie.
Casey Cambra
Casey Cambra is from Sebastopol originally, now residing in San Francisco. Casey holds a Merchandise Marketing/Management degree from FIDM. As a self-taught programmer and designer, Casey enjoys putting his progamming and design skills to work building real-world applications.
Casey lives in the Lower Haight neighborhood with his cat Oscar, and can be found many evenings drinking Boddingtons at The Homestead. At work Casey is either working on building new features or fulfilling custom programming requests.
Marco Segreto
Marco Segreto grew up in Geneva, Switzerland before moving to Marin County where he attended high school and now resides. After entering San Francisco State University as an art major, he narrowed in on graphic design and ultimately earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design. Marco has a passion for art and computers, so it was only natural that he took an interest in web design while studying at school. Marco further enriched his studies while living and working abroad in Italy for the last 4 months before joining the company. Outside of school and work Marco enjoys playing and watching soccer on the weekend, and playing guitar.
Marco blends his creative and technical skills in his work and can function as both a web designer and developer. This provides him with the unique ability to not only design a website for a client but also to handle the programming aspect. His job at Creative Merchandise deploys these skills as he not only assists clients with custom design and development but also helps the Creative Merchandise team develop new project ideas.
Graphic Designers
Ben Young
Ben Young defines himself as a "Jack-Of-All-Trades" when it comes to multimedia design.And after 13 years of doing it, it's a safe bet he's seen it all. He has worked as a graphic designer, 3D animator, videographer, director, producer, writer, actor and interactive developer.The Masters degree from Academy of Art San Francisco – one of the best in the country – certainly laid the foundation. His favorite previous clients include Intel, GE, Rocket Dog and AutoDesk.
Ben is a perfectionist and neat freak with a "dark" sense of humor. Perfect for fitting in with the rest of the Creative Merch crew.He lives on Telegraph Hill in North Beach which requires hacking and slashing his way through mobs of tourists to get to and from work. His hobbies include abstract figure painting, traveling and hiking. His personal ads also typically include "enjoys long walks on the beach".
System Administrators
Brian Koloszyc
Brian has been in the field of information technology since 1999, and has worked at a variety of institutions, ranging from Seattle Children's Hospital to the independent game studio Gas Powered Games. He enjoys the continual flood of knowledge and new technologies, and strives to increase his skill set to match the onslaught. At Creative Merchandise he is responsible for all things relating to system administration as well as giving a helping hand wherever the need may fall.
He is originally from Massachusetts, and received a BA in English and Philosophy from UVM. After spending seven years in Seattle, he has settled comfortably into his new life in San Francisco. Brian spends most of his free time reading literature, working on fiction, watching movies, playing guitar, watching the Mariners, and being buried beneath whatever creative project satiates his current fascination.
Shane Wadleigh
Shane has been working as a Systems Administrator for over a decade and has been with Creative Merchandise since day one. Shane and Samantha attended university together at Hampshire College where they forged an unbreakable bond. When it came time to find a trusted person to manange our machines and keep things running smoothly, Shane was an obvious choice.
Shane hails from the East Coast and currently resides in Toyko, Japan. Beyond creating secure environments keeping our systems hacker free, Shane enjoys creative writing, photography and the art of fine whiskey.