Board of Advisors
Bruce Butterfield, Chesterfield, MO
Bruce…
* serves as Petalwink’s book agent, as well as being on the advisory board.
* has his BA degree cum laude in English from Amherst College, where he wrote his thesis on E.B. White’s children’s books and became an All-New England baseball pitcher; went on to earn an MA in Teaching with highest honors from Harvard University.
* managed one of the world’s largest children’s book publishing programs at Golden Press; became VP/Publisher for Scholastic Inc. and later joined Pearson PLC where he became President of the UK-based international Longman Publishing Group and expanded his role in educational publishing from K-12 schools to college and adult education.
* joined Viacom/Simon & Schuster as President of Prentice Hall Regents, the world’s largest American-owned global publishing company specializing in English language instruction for preschool through adult ed. Bruce is considered an international leader in the communications, publishing, and education fields and has dedicated his career to making education fun, successful, valuable and accessible to everyone.
* he has strategically allied with such global companies as ABC, CBS, Collins World, CNN, CTW (Children’s Television Workshop), Disney, Hamlyn, HRB/Raytheon, Mondadori, NY Times, LCA (Licensing Corporation of America), Otto Maier Verlag, Purnell, PBS, 3M, and Warner Communications/Time Inc.
* Fun facts: Bruce loves tennis, continues playing baseball in the International MSBL (World Series in AZ), does distance running (half- and full-marathons,) and is an avid reader and big Abe Lincoln fan – with two of his most favorite books being The Wind in the Willows and Team of Rivals. His greatest love is his family—his wife, Karin, his two children, Liz and Tim, both now in college, and the family miniature long-haired dachshund, Danny.
Bruce’s favorite ice cream is chocolate chip (a great compromise between having to choose chocolate or vanilla). His favorite flower is the water lily because of its beauty, ability to live and survive so gracefully moving on the waters, and its endurance. He firmly believes that “success cannot be measured in business titles, money earned, or public acclaim, but only comes from service to our fellow men and women by listening to that ‘still small voice’ of God within that guides us all to do more, help more, love more.”
David Johnson, St. Louis, MO
* is a senior creative with over 16 years of experience; his overall focus has been in both design and creative strategy for versatility in execution and communication.
* currently serves as the Vice President / Creative Director at NGAGE acting as both the design and ideation lead for the agency. He represents the creative leadership at NGAGE, heading the creative team and establishing the agency aesthetic in tandem with his team of design and copywriting professionals.
* was a senior level creative at Momentum Worldwide Interactive, St. Louis, acting as the interactive creative lead on projects for several B2B and B2C international brands including: Microsoft, Anheuser Busch and Intel. Other brands he’s lead projects for include: Bausch & Lomb, ADT Security, Brightpoint, Inc and the Athlete’s Foot. His work has been awarded numerous Addy awards.
* has also lectured on the subjects of design, web design and effective web communication at Syracuse University and at business conferences.
* Fun facts: David has a beautiful, talented wife and an adorable school-aged daughter.
His favorite flavor of Ice Cream is Black Raspberry and his favorite flower is a plum blossom. His special talent is “a pretty solid impression of both the Karl Childers character from Sling Blade and Sesame Street’s Elmo.”
Kimberly Smith, Highlands Ranch, CO
* is an accomplished entrepreneur and businesswoman with more than 14 years experience in the real estate and corporate housing industries.
* started AvenueWest Corporate Housing, Inc., ranked #94 on Inc. Magazine’s top 5,000 real estate companies nationwide, a multi-million dollar company that provides furnished corporate housing and property management services to upscale business travelers in Denver, Colorado Springs and San Francisco. AvenueWest was named the “Fastest Growing Woman Owned Business in Colorado” by Colorado Biz magazine, was awarded the 2003 Emerging Business of the Year award from the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and today reigns as the largest corporate housing property management company in Colorado.
* launched CorporateHousingbyOwner.com (CHBO), the first-of-its-kind online portal that connects private individuals offering fully furnished rentals with corporate housing seekers. CHBO has received national acclaim and credibility after being featured in USA Today and on The Today Show on NBC in October 2008.
* is an elected member of the Board of Directors for the Corporate Housing Providers Association (CHPA), the primary trade organization for corporate housing. was named one of three finalists in the real estate and construction category of the Denver Business Journal’s prestigious Outstanding Women in Business award in 2007 and was recently featured in Denver Woman magazine as an outstanding businesswoman and mother.
* works with numerous organizations and nonprofits. She hosts an annual fundraiser for an organization called “Dhaka Weaves of Nepal,” and has spent time mentoring children (she was named the Daniels Fund Scholarship 2004 Volunteer of the Year) and supporting other women entrepreneurs through ideas and social networking.
* Fun facts: Kimberly currently resides in a Denver suburb with her husband and two wonderful sons. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is anything that has a coffee base and something crunchy in it. “Besides Petalwink,” she says, her favorite books are: Children – A Time to Keep by Tasha Tudor; Novel – A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute Business – How Good People Make Tough Choices by Rushworth Kidder
If she were a flower, she would be a traditional blue Bachelor Button.
The family pet is a tom cat named Gobi. Kimberly’s special talent is architectural photography.
Ryan Sage, Los Angeles, CA
* is a writer, producer and director in Hollywood, currently working at ABC writing and producing the on-air marketing campaign for “Dancing with the Stars” and ABC comedies.
* wrote, produced and directed various promos for such shows as Heroes, Chuck, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh at NBC and Kids’ WB!, where he won numerous awards for his work.
* was a key member of the marketing team that produced the on-air campaign for the 2008 Olympics, the most watched TV event in history.
* recently produced and edited an official selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, the short film, Boutonniere starring Wendi Mclendon-Covey (Reno 911) and Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, Heroes).
* received the best comedy pilot and best screenwriting awards for his independently produced pilot, As Seen on TV–which starred George Wendt, (Cheers), Seth Peterson (Burn Notice, Providence), and Angela Sage Larsen (who eventually was edited out, although she still made the “deleted scenes” section of the DVD!)–at the Independent Television Festival in Hollywood, California.
* Fun facts: Ryan is a newlywed and a new dad to a six year old son. He and his dog Matilda are adjusting to family life just fine. If he were a flower, he’d be a weed, but the pretty kind with a flower on top! His favorite book is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and his favorite ice cream is chocolate. Oh, and he’s Angela’s little brother.
Sarah Tipton, O’Fallon, MO
* is a risk control manager and safety engineer with 15+ years’ experience in production/manufacturing environments (from foods to metal working shops). Travelers Companies, Inc. (safety engineer for business insurance clients; extension of underwriting dept)
* performed risk assessments for business insurance underwriters while providing safety recommendations to the client to control employee injury exposures.
* specializes in workers’ compensation cost containment, industrial ergonomics (assessments + training), public speaking, marketing, OSHA compliance, industrial hygiene and is certified by the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission and Texas Department of Insurance.
* as risk control field manager, strategically deployed risk control services across 4 states; managed & oversaw 7 – 10 loss control consultants in all areas of risk assessment and performance management.
* volunteers actively in promoting productive ideas, supporting individuals, educational institutions and community projects.
* participated on National Science Foundation Research Grant Project.
* Fun facts: Sarah is mom to two school-aged children, Andy and Molly, and is zookeeper for an unnamed wild frog, now caged and three random fish (also unnamed). Her favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip, which she will probably be eating while she reads her favorite book: the one in her head that she hopes to write! If she were a flower, she would be a stargazer lily. She has a special talent as a cake decorator.
Jennai H. Bachus, Evergreen, CO
Jennai…
* is owner and president of WhizBang Organizing and Design; consults on all aspects of business, business re-structuring from the ground up and developing systems to maximize efficiency and productivity for her clients.
* has expertise in creative solutions, designing systems for a multitude of industries – financial, philanthropic, artistic, technological, residential, schools and more.
* has experience in team building, management training, client relations, interior design and resort management for various Fortune 100 clients.
* is on the Board of Advisors for a financial consulting firm in Denver and Evergreen, Colorado.
* served on the board of the Pagosa Springs Arts Council for many years, worked closely with Colorado For the Arts and The Gates Foundation to bring theater, music and art to the communities of Southwestern Colorado. She also serves as the chair of various committees and is a constant volunteer for the non-profit Montessori school in Evergreen, Colorado.
* Fun facts: Jennai has been married to her best friend and husband, Matt, for 17 years and they have two amazing girls, aged 5 and 3, who think Petalwink lives in their back yard and love to shout at the top of their lungs, “I’m Glad To Be Me!!” Most of the time, that is just great; but in the middle of Target it can get a little embarrassing. Jennai’s favorite ice cream is New York Super Fudge Chunk. There is even a little ice cream dance that involuntarily pops out whenever any is served. Her favorite book? Petalwink of course! She also enjoys anything by Barbara Kingsolver and David Sedaris. If she were a flower… it would be tough to choose between a daisy and a wild rose. So – maybe on odd days she would be a daisy because they make her smile and on even days she’d be a wild rose because when you’re riding a horse through the Wyoming countryside they are not just a surprise burst of pink, but they smell like beauty. She says the smell of sage brush, Wyoming wind and wild roses…is heaven. Their family pets include an Australian Shepherd named Cricket, two goldfish named Diva Mae and Spotty Jane and one Beta fish named LuLu.
