Ed Stahl

Owner – Hospitality Guru Ed is a Partner and Co-Owner of Pathfinder Innovation. Ed is a travel and resort marketing guru; from his days managing the Sheraton Luxury Collection and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, to his work in recent years marketing Stowe, Vermont as a year round, upscale, family destination. Ed is a global brand builder, loyalty program insider, and a published leisure marketing expert. He has traveled the world studying other cultures and weaving the local culture into the hotel guest experience in global markets. From his various Vice President titles of Marketing at Wyndham and Sheraton and Epsilon Data Management, Ed has been a leader in consumer driven innovation and loyalty marketing from the beginning. He brings a strong client and global perspective to Pathfinder. Education: The Citadel Charleston, S.C. Business Administration.

Laura

Graphic Designer Laura is a graphic designer and a whiz in Excel. A graduate from Northeastern University with a BS in Business Administration. She works with Pathfinder on graphic design and on data assignments. In her free time she is a terrific artist and dedicated golfer.

Qi

Data Analytics Qi has so many advanced degrees we lose track, but her Doctorate from Columbia University in statistics has helped Pathfinder many times over the past 10 years merging and modeling large data sets, creating segmentation models and other important algorithms for clients such as CVS, Lindt Chocolate and Walmart. Qi has a cat and two young sons that keep her running.

Josée

French Moderator & Multi-Lingual Translator Josee is a French moderator and translator for Pathfinder’s international projects. She is also a Principal of Auracom International. She holds degrees in Business Administration and French Civil Law. She worked in Tokyo as an International Business Consultant earlier in her career. She loves to ski – so much so that she married her ski instructor and now has two college age sons.

Karen Stahl

Owner, Strategy & Design Thinking Expert Karen Stahl is Owner and President of Pathfinder Innovation, an innovation and marketing strategy consultancy in Concord, MA. Karen’s expertise is consumer and market driven innovation: from her global advertising agency experience at DDB Needham and Foote, Cone & Belding, her client marketing experience from Coca-Cola USA, and research consulting perspectives from Pathfinder. Karen delivers significant insights to all her clients because she implicitly understands that human behavior is not predictable; therefore it must constantly be observed and studied. In recent years, Karen and her team’s innovation engagements have ranged from customer experience work in beta sites for Starbucks in Seattle to Dubai to understand the marketplace desire for cultural authenticity in a new age economy. Karen’s assignments have been exhilarating and groundbreaking: from determining the IPO launch positioning for Genworth Financial to global customer experience work for the Dorchester Collection Hotels, London; as well as patiently stewarding the evolution and success of the Extra Care Card for CVS/pharmacy over a five-year period. Karen and her team have accomplished the nearly impossible for clients many times over. From the “whirlwind” retail innovation engagement for the #1 investment firm in the US to the development of the urban prototype retail store for the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, Pathfinder provided the marketplace vision for the future. Karen teaches as an adjunct professor at Boston University in her spare time, works with the Boston Entrepreneur’s Group of the University of Chicago Booth, and enjoys time in Stowe, Vermont and Jackson Hole, Wyoming on snowy weekend days. Education: MBA: University of Chicago Booth Chicago, IL Marketing & International Business BA: Franklin & Marshall College Lancaster, PA Economics

Sharon

Sharon is a true consumer insights guru and brand strategy expert. She has shared her insight skills with clients during her time at the Monitor Group, Boston, Lippincott Mercer Consulting, Pathfinder Innovation, and more recently Vistaprint. She is now back working with Pathfinder, lucky us! She is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Syracuse University. She has two girls who recently graduated from college and she has a secret desire to someday open a tearoom in Nantucket!

Laurie

Moderator & Innovation Expert Laurie is a packaged goods maven trained at Leo Burnett after getting her MBA at the University of Michigan. She is an innovative moderator, an amazing story teller and has worked with Pathfinder for over 10 years on everything from Welch’s to Fidelity Investments. She loves to ski and has her second office in Aspen, CO where she also vacations with her daughters.

Beth

Psychologist & Innovation Expert Beth is a Middlebury grad but also an MBA and is a licensed psychologist. She is an expert moderator and a quantitative master, having done it all on all Pathfinder’s major accounts from Walmart to Fidelity Investments and The Dorchester Collection. Beth escapes to her lake house in New Hampshire when she has any free moments with her husband and college age daughters.

Kirby

Videographer Kirby is a hard-working, creative videographer and video editor having completed over 12 Pathfinder projects in the past 18 months. When she is not shooting or editing video, in the winter she is one of the top ski and snowboard instructors at Stowe Mountain Resort, VT.