Michael Lengel
Senior Marketing Manager, Social
Michael is an Ohio transplant, trading the rust belt and long winters for 300 days of sunshine in the beautiful, dynamic city of Denver, nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Michael studied journalism, psychology and neuroscience at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His background is in journalism, writing for local and regional dailies, Morning Edition and All Things Considered for an NPR affiliate, digital production and design for FourFourTwoUSA, managing content, social media and content strategy for various Denver startups, and contributing music for various art installations, projects and film. Joining a nascent Sympoz team in the fall of 2010, Michael has enjoyed the challenges and excitement of a startup, driven by the passion and inspiration of the Craftsy community.
Beyond Craftsy, Michael enjoys running, yoga, an unhealthy amount of playing/watching/attending soccer matches, and recording shoe-gaze music with Distant Correspondent. He is the proud owner of the most adorable pointing griffon you could ever hope to be slobbered by, Ezra — the 45 pound lap dog.
Chris Hawksley
Director of Business Development
Path to Craftsy: Boston > Chicago > Atlanta > San Francisco > Denver
Last summer: Hiked Half Dome and The Grand Canyon
Morbid curiosity: Goings on @ Neverland Ranch circa 1988-2009
Don’t leave the house without: Sunglasses and lip balm
Stupid human tricks: Snap my toes, and stick my shoulder blades out (not at same time)
Embarrassed to admit: I dig my girlfriends cat.
I’d walk through broken glass for: A Cubs World Series Championship!!
Kirk Moore
VP, International and Category Expansion
Kirk believes Craftsy is the most exciting intersection of crafting and computing since the invention of the Jacquard loom. Prior to joining Craftsy, he was a consultant with McKinsey & Company where he accumulated many frequent flier miles and hotel points. Kirk holds a BS in computer science from Northwestern University and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.
Nicole Askari
Creative Director
Nicole is the product of a San Francisco flower child and an Iranian immigrant fashionisto who looks just like the Dos Equis guy. She moved to Colorado in the mid 90s and came to the conclusion that Colorado is pretty freaking awesome. It took a failed attempt at pre-med and some dabbling in Interior Design to realize her true calling – getting paid to design pretty things all day long. She graduated from The Art Institute of Colorado with a BA in Graphic Design, picked up skiing, got married and together they adopted their cat Buttercup and dog Tokio, a Parti-Pomeranian.
In addition to her most recent freelancing endeavors, Nicole has spent the past 6 years as an award-winning Designer and Art Director for some of Denver’s most well-known companies and is absolutely giddy to now be part of the Sympoz/Craftsy team.
Nicole has a passion for music and would be happy to make you a mix tape of her current favorites. She also has an unhealthy obsession with Depeche Mode that started sometime around 1st grade. She loves fashion (thanks Dad!), shopping and everything Swedish. In her spare time, Nicole designs and creates modern, fused glass pendants.
Holly Traut
Senior Email Marketing Manager
Madison, WI born – Austin, TX raised. You’ll hear an occasional “y’all” slip every now and then, but other than that, I was worthless at Keeping Austin Weird (I like country music- every time I say that a hipster loses his skinny jeans!) Since I try to disassociate myself with Texas (especially being here in Colorado amongst anti-Texan/Californian sentiment) I spend most of my free time eating cheese, stalking Clay Matthews, running, skiing, mountain biking and finding any excuse to dress in costume. I’ve lived all over the place- San Diego, Madrid, Scottsdale, Washington DC, and now Denver! (My favorite so far!) I graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in Spanish and in one of those “ology” fields. I absolutely love it here, and am thrilled to be a part of the Craftsy team.
Oh, and GO PACK GO!
Kevin Kovach
Business Analyst
Kevin Kovach has finally returned to his home state of Colorado after going to college in Connecticut for math and graduate school at Columbia for statistics. He enjoys hiking, trash talking inferior football teams, eating sushi, and playing the Super Mario theme song on ukulele. Has been called the James Dean of his family, but is unsure what exactly that means.
Kevin is thrilled to be a part of the Sympoz and Craftsy team, and will soon be a proud owner of a Husky or Lab when he finally makes up his mind on which to get.
Lisa Ly Pohlman
Digital Designer
Lisa is a transplant from the midwest. After graduating from Iowa State University with a BFA in Graphic Design, she moved to NYC and interned with a studio specializing in branding, sustainability, technology, and social purpose. Upon returning to Iowa, she worked full-time as a designer for a non-profit and served at a local cafe for kicks.
In May 2011, the mountains of Colorado beckoned her, and she moved to Denver on a whim. After a year of exploring the local art scene, she is now excited for her latest role as graphic designer on the Sympoz/Craftsy team.
In her spare time, Lisa designs for her small side business XO & CO, plays with her Craftsmen 8×10 table-top letterpress, attends indie music concerts, practices yoga, and climbs. As a side note, she likes her coffee black and is always in the mood for treats.
Blair Madole
Marketing Assistant
Blair graduated with honors from the University of Colorado with a B.S. in Journalism, a B.A. in Political Science and a certificate in International Media. She has a score of jobs cluttering her resume, ranging from working with law firms and oil companies (it’s not her fault, she’s from Texas) to writing for the weekly newspaper in Boulder, CO, and analyzing shopper behavior for WhiteWave Foods. Yeah, it took her a while to discover what she really loved doing—being creative in a fun and productive work environment.
Blair’s favorite things in life are her runty golden retriever named Toby, her Global kitchen knife and pretty much anything fuzzy. She loves to read, ride horses, cook and drool over online menus. She is also a knitter, albeit a poor one, so it is a good thing she discovered the helpful classes at Craftsy.
Katie Puza
Outreach Marketing Manager
For someone who loves the ocean as much as Katie, Colorado seems like an odd place to land. After living in four time zones over the course of a year (Hawaii-Aleutian, Eastern, Pacific, Eastern again, and finally Mountain), that’s exactly what happened. Katie moved to Denver from South Carolina in 2007 and hasn’t looked back.
Since Katie moved to Denver, she’s done everything possible to ignore the fact that she has a BA in Political Science from the College of Charleston, instead finding her business feet in the world of marketing. Though she misses her days editing an online magazine for bail agents and bounty hunters, she’s excited to be working with the fantastic Craftsy team.
Katie is a self-described “aspirational crafter” and spends the weekends inevitably but enthusiastically botching DIY projects. In her spare time, she likes to read, do yoga, and cheer on the Carolina Gamecocks (don’t get her started on where the real USC is). She is particularly fond of the Oxford comma, her KitchenAid mixer, and her two dogs.
Rebecca Robertson
Marketing Assistant
Rebecca grew up in the sunshine state where she enjoyed surfing, wakeboarding, climbing, and attending live concerts. Her adoration for music (and for watching The OC) brought her all the way to California where she got her start interning for Warner Music Group and Live Nation. Rebecca graduated from the University of Florida with a BSBA concentrating in marketing as well as a minor in Mass Communication Studies.
Upon graduating, Rebecca decided to book it to Denver in hopes of experiencing four seasons as opposed to one 95-degree season sprinkled with hurricanes. After yet another internship in online marketing, she hopped aboard the Craftsy train and that brings us to today.
In her spare time, Rebecca enjoys watching horror movies, sampling lobster mac n cheese wherever it is offered, and you guessed it, attending live concerts. She hopes to get a giant dog in the near future, which she will more likely than not name Eddie Van Halen, Sid Vicious, or a combination of the two.
Nick Linkow
Junior Copywriter
A native of Massachusetts, Nick moved to Colorado in 2007 to attend The University of Denver and hang out with his grandma. In 2009, Nick was lucky enough to spend a semester abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, where he came face-to-face with Great White sharks, Chacma baboons, and his healthy infatuation with Rooibos tea. Nick graduated from D.U in 2011 with a B.A in English.
A lifelong lover of all things literary, Nick is still waiting to wake up from the lucid dream he’s having: the one where he gets to write for a living, at a company with an awesome product, fantastic customers, and spectacular employees. Don’t you dare pinch him.
Amy Retureta
Graphic Designer
After getting her Associates in Photography from the Art Institute of Colorado and shooting anything and everything, Amy decided to return to school from which she recently graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design from Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. She is super excited to be joining the Sympoz/Craftsy team where she’s sure to find plenty of inspiration for her future creative endeavors!
Amy’s passion is to seek out new experiences and incorporate many different art forms and interests into her daily life. The most exciting part of design for her, is allowing the project to inform the process and seeing an idea come to life on the page. Executing a project with a high level of craft and bringing a sense of playfulness to each design is her goal. The end product of a design is not simply an artifact. It has the ability to create community, solve problems and inspire feeling in its viewers and participants.
In her spare time, Amy can be seen knitting, sewing, drawing, singing, working in the theater or out playing in the forest with her family!
Kenneth Chombah
Email Developer
Kenneth hails from Kenya and enjoys the 300 days of Sunshine that the Centennial state has to offer. He is drawn to the scent oil paint mediums and has been known to stare endlessly at large blank stretched canvases.
Caroline Wood
Marketing Assistant
Caroline grew up in Austin, Texas where she acquired a love of Tex-Mex cuisine, an obsession with Friday Night Lights and an affinity for being weird. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in Economics and a healthy love of costume parties. While she’s happy to discuss supply and demand curves, her marginal utility increases much more quickly when she gets creative.
In June 2012, Caroline moved to Denver to join the Craftsy team. As she frequently passes time cooking, painting and tackling DIY projects, she could not miss the opportunity to work with a whole crew of Craftsy people. After almost giving up on knitting due to an impossible, white-yarn-on-white-background how-to video, she is thrilled to have found a better way to help other crafters while improving her own skills!
Mike Daecher
VP Marketing
Mike recently moved to Boulder, CO after finger weaving his way across the USA on an epic road trip with his wife and two sons. He’s now expanding his interests in the fiber arts by learning to crochet woodland animals for his 8-year-old son, who introduced the family to finger weaving in the first place. Thanks Finn!
Originally from Pennsylvania, Mike graduated from Dickinson College with a B.A. in Political Science and certification in Secondary Education. Online education is one of the main reasons he started working on the internet almost 20 years ago, first at the University of Texas at Austin and then at New York University. For the past 13 years he worked at About.com, where he started as Education Editor and later became part of the executive team, heading up the Content and New Platform teams.
After traveling around the world, and living in California, Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania, Mike is now happy to call Colorado home, and indulge his passion for vintage motorcycles, mountain biking, film photography, baking fruit pies, and spending quality time with his family.
LisaAnne Logan
Director of Marketing
Details to be provided
Riva Bakal
Director, Category Expansion
Riva is so excited to be part of the Craftsy team and bring other great categories onto the platform. Her 5th grade teacher (who taught her knitting) would be proud to know that she’s finally moving beyond a basic scarf with all of her newly acquired knitting skills.
Friends and family will admit that Riva has a borderline unhealthy addiction to travel. Her insatiable wanderlust has brought her to 40+ countries. She just returned from Myanmar and the Maldives, and in the photo on the left, she’s hiking Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand’s South Island. When she’s not planning her next adventure, she’s sculpting and block printing, going to hear her favorite indie bands, or searching for the best gourmet ice cream on the planet.
Prior to Craftsy, Riva was the Product Manager and Head of Mobile for hotel search engine Room 77. She led the design, development and marketing efforts for their iOS and Android applications – building the mobile business from the ground up. Prior to that, Riva spent several years at Deutsche Bank as a technology investment banker advising and financing enterprise software, financial technology, and IT services companies.
She has a bachelor’s degree from MIT and an MBA, with High Distinction, from Harvard Business School.
Hailey Poehlman
Events Coordinator
I am fresh off the plane from Seattle moving to Denver just weeks ago. I grew up in Seattle with an appreciation for the outdoors (hiking, camping and boating) and of course the ever treasured sunshine (which I now see EVERY day!). I have a passion for sports, snowboarding (duh, why I NOW live in Colorado), wake boarding, Volleyball and of course my Kickball league. All of which have taught me what it takes to be a team player and how you always have a plan. All apart of my Office Management and Recruiting role at Sympoz. I graduated with a degree in Communications from Washington State University and spent some time working for Amazon. I have fallen in love with Denver and Sympoz! But still loyal Go Cougs!
Megan Mitzel
Senior Marketing Copywriter
Megan grew up in Baltimore (yes, she likes The Wire) and escaped to sunny North Carolina, attending UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. After graduating, she’s worked for startups with a focus on copywriting, marketing, and product management. Eventually her siberian husky declared her distaste for the southern humidity and insisted they move to Denver. Upon arrival, Megan learned she’s a terrible skiier but an excellent hot chocolate mixer. Megan is crazy excited to be at Sympoz helping creative makers earn a living doing what they love.
Inspired at an early age to craft, Megan grew up sewing imitation Beanie Babies with her grandmother’s guidance. Though, these days, she dabbles more in doodles, photos, and glass-cutting than thread.
Melissa Cocks
Marketing Outreach Assistant
Melissa has joined us all the way from Cape Cod, where she grew up by the ocean and never imagined she’d live in a land-locked state. Regardless, here she is, as happy as a clam! She recently spent a year living in Ireland and since then has been working on removing excessive ‘likes’ and Irish slang from her sentences.
To bring her European adventure to an end she backpacked the Mediterranean islands from the South of France all the way down to Sicily, working on a biodynamic farm, camping and getting into crazy mix-ups along the way. Her love of nature and her obsession with owls are borderline cause for concern and have resulted in her dragging friends and family to zoos all over the world.
Melissa now aims to dust off all of her craft materials that she abandoned since she developed wanderlust and is eager to inspire others to do so as well while working at Craftsy.
Marc Okeon
Director, Marketing Analytics
A native Floridian, Marc made Colorado his home over 10 years ago. He gladly traded humidity and hurricanes for 300-plus days of sunshine and fluffy snow. These days, the closest he gets to alligators is in the Denver zoo.
Marc has had an eclectic work history in merchandising, purchasing, financial analysis and marketing – in industries ranging from grocery to consumer electronics to ecommerce. He’s thrilled to be at Craftsy where we he hopes to expand on his one crafty pastime, brewing beer.
Marc spends his free time with his wife and two beautiful daughters enjoying everything that Colorado has to offer. He holds a bachelors degree in History from University of Florida and an MBA from University of Colorado at Denver.
Ashley Smith
Retail Marketing Associate
Ashley joins the team with more 16 years of experience in the quilting industry. As Director of Marketing with Possibilities (quilting/sewing book publishing), she was involved with everything from retail and wholesale operations, to publishing and fabric design. Having grown up in a quilt store (Great American Quilt Factory) Ashley has tried just about every craft you can think of—quilting, knitting, even stenciling (but that was waaay back in the 80s!)
In her free time, Ashley enjoys skiing, hiking, cheering for her son’s lacrosse team, and reminiscing of the day she met Bob Barker on The Price Is Right. She also spends plenty of time in the kitchen, cooking international cuisine and baking things that have far too much sugar. (Food tasters always welcome!)
Ben Mercuri
Interactive Designer
Ben most recently moved from Chicago where he graduated from a small art school with a BFA in Graphic Design. He spent part of his schooling in Florence, Italy where he fell in love with one of his many passions, photography. His favorite thing to do is create, whether he is designing something on his computer or woodworking in his garage, his creativity has to come out.
In his spare time he loves anything that involves being outdoors, but mostly climbing and hiking (or something else)
He is so excited to be a part of the Craftsy team and to learn more about the world of crafting.
Elsewhere