About Us: The Winkler Group Team

Agnieszka Winkler, Founder
Agnieszka’s 30 years of entrepreneurial drive, general management, marketing and advertising experience led to the founding of The Winkler Group, focused on helping companies get more financially quantifiable value for their marketing spend. Prior to this, Agnieszka founded TeamToolz, Inc., a marketing collaboration/workflow software company which was acquired by Artesia Technologies, a leading digital asset management company, in the fall of 2001. TeamToolz software was named one of the most innovative products of the year by Seybold.

Prior to founding TeamToolz, Agnieszka was founder and CEO of Winkler Advertising, a leading San Francisco advertising agency, which was also acquired. Her clients included global 100 companies such as Sony and Hewlett-Packard.

During her agency days, Agnieszka served as Western Region Chair of the American Association of Advertising Agencies and was a member of the National Board of Directors of the 4A’s, among many other industry associations.

Agnieszka has received numerous awards, including: Best Woman in Advertising sponsored by McCall's and ADWEEK; Ad Age's 100 Best and Brightest Women in Marketing and Advertising; Who's Who in Finance and Industry; Ad Age's 25 Women to Watch; Who's Who of American Women; The International Directory of Distinguished Leadership, Outstanding Graduate of the Leavey School of Business, and numerous others.

She currently serves on the Board of Directors of IP Locks and was a board member of two NASDAQ listed companies, RenoAir until its acquisition by American Airlines and SuperCuts until its acquisition by Regis, Inc. Agnieszka also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Santa Clara University and the Board of Directors of the Committee of 200.

Agnieszka has a BA, MA, and received an MBA from Santa Clara University in 1981. A frequent keynote speaker at industry meetings globally, she is also the author of the internationally acclaimed book, Warp Speed Branding: The Impact of Technology on Marketing published by Wiley and subsequently translated and published by Wiley in China in 2000 and in Turkey in 2003.

A student pilot and a certified scuba diver, she most enjoys travel to areas of the world that are off the beaten path.

Kay Dryden, Business Development
In addition to 30 years as a practicing attorney, Kay Dryden has substantial experience in executive management, management consulting, and business development. As a managing partner of marchFIRST, a global Internet professional services company, Dryden managed business development and provided strategic consulting services for Fortune 100 financial services companies.
Over a 14 year period, Dryden served as general counsel for three companies. As senior vice president and general counsel of Lucasfilm, Ltd., she handled negotiations for the early Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, and managed the commercialization of technology originally developed for the Star Wars films, resulting in technology spin-offs such as Pixar.

When Dryden worked as senior vice president and general counsel of Charles Schwab and Company, she participated in its management buy-back from BankAmerica Corporation and IPO. She helped launch many of the signature financial services, including Schwab One and Schwab’s proprietary mutual funds, advised executive management and the board, handled regulatory and legislative initiatives, and was responsible for compliance and internal audit for the broker dealers. She is a registered securities principal, registered options securities principal, and registered financial and operations principal.

As senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Del Monte Foods and director of a number of its foreign subsidiaries, Dryden advised the parent board and executive management on matters relating to re-examining the corporate structure, evaluating the potential for an IPO, negotiating the sale of the company, divesting non-essential business units, and refinancing and restructuring its $600 million debt.

Throughout her career, Dryden has served on numerous boards of both non-profit organizations and professional organizations, and is presently on the boards of the San Francisco Art Institute (vice chairman), the Foundation of the City College of San Francisco (treasurer), and the San Francisco Zoo.

Dryden is a graduate of Barnard College and Columbia Law School, and has participated in the Stanford Executive Program. Dryden currently serves on the Board of Directors of Golden Gate Bank, is a mother of twins, and enjoys tennis, skiing and travel.

Jan Soderstrom, Consultant
Jan Soderstrom has had extensive and diverse experience managing global marketing and branding for both consumer and technology companies. As Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for 3Com Corporation, she developed an entirely new master brand strategy that helped unify the company.

Prior to 3Com, Soderstrom held several senior level positions at Visa, including Executive Vice President of Marketing for Visa International and Senior Vice President of Advertising and Marketing, where she directed a long running, award winning advertising campaign that produced major image and business gains for Visa, brought the Olympic Games sponsorship to Visa, and built a fully integrated marketing program.

In addition, Soderstrom has also held key marketing positions for The Gap, Atari, Hughes Airwest and Sunkist, has served on the boards of the Ad Council and Illuminations, and has chaired the Association of National Advertisers.

Soderstrom holds a BS from Arizona State University and an MS in Consumer Research and Business Administration.

Carl Yankowski, Board of Directors
Carl Yankowski is a prominent entrepreneur, executive, and brand-builder with a successful track record across a variety of industries including technology and consumer packaged goods. His marketing experience started with Procter and Gamble and continued with Memorex Corporation where he was Manager of New Products and Acquisitions. Carl furthered his career with the Pepsi-Cola Company, where he expanded Mountain Dew dramatically, and helped launch two-liter plastic bottles, in addition to fueling the successful Pepsi Challenge brand campaign. As General Manager of Marketing with the General Electric Company, he helped lead the recovery of the ailing small appliance division, and the establishment of the “We Bring Good Things to Life” theme.

Carl served as President and COO of Sony Electronics for four plus years during which he grew and diversified the U.S operation. In addition to driving digital change and profitably igniting revenue from $6 billion to $10+ billion, he helped increase the ADR value over two times. During his term with Sony, his teams planned and led the successful launches of CDMA phones (with Qualcom), and the VAIO and PlayStation lines.

Among his additional accomplishments were the development and initial implementation of a turnaround for Reebok as CEO. As CEO of Palm Inc. he spun-off Palm from 3Com in the most highly valued tech IPO in history(at time of pricing), and one of the top 5 in any category. At Palm, Mr. Yankowski expanded the global category, brand, and awareness over 200% in the first 15 months, to $1.5 billion in annual sales and a $2 billion run-rate. Brand awareness simultaneously grew from low double digits to over 65%.

Carl received simultaneous degrees in electrical engineering (B.S.E.E.) and management (B.S. Management) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), holds a number of technology patents, and serves on the boards of several public and private corporations, as well as MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. He is also a member of the Visiting Committee of the MIT Media Lab.

To help you identify your most pressing challenges and biggest opportunities for value creation, contact: moreinfo@TheWinklerGroup.com