About Us

Caryn Komensky , Creative Director & Principal

Caryn brings a wealth of creativity, experience, ability and enthusiasm to the table. She is highly regarded for her creativity and insight into solving business communications, sales and marketing challenges. Caryn’s proven marketing ability, combined with up to the minute appreciation of on-line metrics and measurability provides current, fluid, cost efficient marketing best practices.

Caryn offers a unique perspective given over 25 years of experience on all sides of the marketing and communications spectrum. She began her career with advertising giant Doyle Dane Bernbach in New York working on Stroh Beer, Hershey and Volkswagen accounts. Caryn later became National Marketing Manager for Encyclopaedia Britannica in Chicago, Marketing Manager for the Jewish Community Centers in Chicago, and the Chicago Director of Marketing for UNICEF’s Greeting Card Division. Caryn holds a B.A. Communications from New York Institute of Technology. She is currently an active member of the Somerset Hills YMCA Marketing and Rebranding Committees and the Morris NJAWBO Marketing Committee. Caryn’s extensive experience offers a unique perspective to all factors in the marketing mix.

Peter Birnbaum, CMO & Managing Member

Peter is a business and marketing strategist specializing in the ever changing arena of integrated marketing. Over his professional marketing career, he brought unique perspective to his roles in new product development, B2B and B2C marketing, database marketing, business development, training and building sales organizations. Early in his career he was in involved in on-line banking, product profitability and customer service centers.

Peter is responsible for several industry “firsts” including one which earned an American Marketing Association EFFIE for most effective marketing campaign. He has held senior marketing positions with The Bank of New York, PricewaterhouseCoopers and New York Life Investment Management. He has a BA in Economics, an MBA in Management, several industry certifications is a member of the eMarketing Association.

 

Caryn Starr-Gates, Content & Account Services

  Caryn Starr-Gates is a professional copywriter whose career spans more than 30 years. She creates promotional copy for marketing materials, newsletter columns, articles, press releases, print and online ads, radio and TV spots, and website and social media content for Gladstone Marketing Group.

Her experience includes writing retail fashion copy for regional and national department stores; promoting the launch of CNN, the world’s first 24-hour cable news network; ads and TV and radio spots for Anheuser-Busch, Ralston-Purina and ABC Television; ad campaigns and new product concepts for a diverse array of packaged goods products (including kids’ cereals, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, dog food), banks and Turner Broadcasting. In recent years Caryn Starr-Gates has written extensively for lifestyle, education, life safety, food service, financial, retail, and professional services clients.

Caryn is an active member of the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (Bergen chapter 2010 Business Woman of the Year), the Business Marketing Association-NJ, Association of Women in Communications/NJ, and NJ Creatives. She volunteers for several non-profit organizations and was awarded 2011 Volunteer of the Year by Jewish Family Service of North Jersey for her service in the agency’s Meals- On-Wheels program.

 

Meg Walters, Graphic Design

  Meg is an art director and senior-level designer with over two decades of graphic design experience. Specializing in establishing corporate graphic identity, Meg creates visual solutions for a wide variety of Gladstone Marketing Group clients. She works in tandem with GMG’s marketing staff to effectively create graphic ideas that inspire, inform and captivate.  Meg’s design work includes business image branding, logo design, web design, advertising, as well as sales and marketing collaterals. She is an experienced graphic designer, package designer and art director for healthcare advertising. Clients include GSK, Novartis, M&M/Mars, Mead Johnson, Ortho-McNeil, Bayer & Ethicon. She holds a BFA from Syracuse University.