Our Team



Elsie Maio (Founder)

"Her unique combination of rigorous business modeling and passion for the social role of business makes her a pioneering reformer with immediate business value."  

-- John Elkington, founder of SustainAbility and Maio&Co SoulBranding client

Elsie Maio is on a mission – to empower high performing businesses to profitably align with the well being of humanity. Since 1983, she has been touted as a practical visionary in the field of brand strategy – helping clients get ahead of emerging global trends in business and society, long before it became fashionable. Since the late 1990s, Maio&Co pioneered SoulBrandingSM - a multifunctional approach to merging The Golden Rule with high performance business practices. Today, Elsie publishes and speaks frequently on the practical benefits and applications of the emerging business paradigm she defines as, Humanity, Inc.SM,  in broadcast and published media and as keynote at global conferences, foras, and other events. She participates in all client engagements.

+ Download bio of Elsie Maio (PDF file l 69K)


Nancy Birnbaum

Nancy is a seasoned agent of fruitful change – as a market strategist and as a business leader for the past twenty years. On a day to day basis, her laser-like facility to cut to the heart of the issue with incisive humor sparks team creativity and quick client understanding. She has been an essential part of the Maio&Co team since 1997. Prior to that, Nancy ran Young&Rubicam Canada.

 

 



Sybille Klotz

 

Sybille grew up in product design and new media and employs both quite naturally as tools for strategic consulting from her office in Berlin. She builds the brand as a system empowered by the vibrancy of its connections -- through product, communications and other resonant experience points.   Some of Europe's best known companies live the branding systems she designed: Audi, BP, RWE/Thames Water, Schering, Siemens Mobile, Bluewin, Europcar and VivaCell and T-Systems MMS.     We are lucky to be counted among them: Sybille counseled Maio&Co on its own values-led positioning.

 

 


Ruth Otte

A hands-on megabrand-builder, Ruth has ignited and orchestrated the growth of some of the most consistently vibrant brands in the world – including the Discovery Channel and MTV – as well as brands in children’s media, health care, environmental services and other sectors. The Discovery brand became a leading media brand and innovator of 'edutainment' during Ruth’s nine year tenure as its president. She attributes much of Discovery’s success to its values-based culture of trust, integrity and mutual respect.


Doug Smith

Douglas K. Smith is a management guru who insists on practical results. He is described as one of the world's  "most effective management consultants” in the book “High Impact Consulting”. But most important to us, Doug is a strong advocate for aligning organizations with the human interests of their members. He is the author most recently of  the book, On Value and Values: Thinking Differently About We In the Age of Me, as well as numerous best-selling, definitive books on high-performing teams, innovation and managing for results.


Jeannette Tanguay


Jeannette is a highly disciplined market research specialist with a passion to illuminate undiscovered stakeholder preferences – and translate these into meaningful branding and organizational insights for our clients. She has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research and deep experience in B2B markets across a wide range of sectors.  She most recently co-authored a groundbreaking study, “Perspectives on Algorithmic and Electronic Trading in Canada."