Team Bios

Creativity, brains and dedication all under one roof. Meet the people that make it happen.

Lisa M. Tollner
President and CEO

Lisa Tollner is a leading branding professional, with more than 20 years of brand development and marketing experience. Lisa has helped solve key challenges and launch more than 100 products and companies, including Packet8, Interop, Centric Software, Counterpane, Trumeta, and America Italiana. Before founding Cintara, Lisa worked for War, Foote and Rose Advertising, and served as Marketing Director for ArgoSystems. She has held several executive-level consultant roles for companies in technology and consumer goods.

A successful entrepreneur, as well as a lecturer on strategy and branding, Lisa founded Tollner Design Group in 1982, to focus on corporate identity, graphic design, and marketing communication services to the growing needs of companies in Northern California. By the end of its first decade, TDG began to expand its capabilities and geographic reach to meet the needs of its clients nationwide in the development of collateral, advertising, direct mail, and multimedia. In May 2000, Tollner Design Group merged with NameTrade, becoming Cintara. The merger expanded the agency’s offerings to include naming, branding and, soon thereafter, public relations.

To highlight one of her successful ventures, Lisa lead a fledgling organization and industry gathering from 1990 to 1996, consisting of 120 networking specialists. This gathering was called Interop, which grew to become the largest industry event with over 60,000 attendees. Interop became one of the most studied and respected trade events in the industry, and many similar shows tried to replicate it. Interop was the first event of its kind to be sold for $80M to Softbank Ventures, and then again for $160M to Ziff-Davis, before finally becoming Networld+Interop. It continues to be the largest and most important event in the networking technology industry.

Lisa is a member of American Advertising Association (AAA), American Institute of Graphics Arts (AIGA), Business Marketing Association (BMA), Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE), and Golden State Capital Network (GSCN).

lisa@cintara.com

Creative Services
Christopher Canote
Creative Director

Christopher Canote’s keen sense of creativity is sharpened by his 14 years of design and communications experience. Chris specializes in interactive media, corporate identity and design. He has won numerous awards for excellence including national gold ADDYs, gold awards from the Western Art Director's Club, the Summit Gold award, DESI awards from Graphic Design:USA and an International Entertainment Graphics award. Chris has also had work featured in How Magazine and American Corporate Identity. Some of his clients have included Adobe Systems, Hewlett-Packard, British Telecom, Cadence Design Systems and Symantec. As Cintara’s creative director, Chris maintains the highest level of design integrity and guides the design teams toward excellence by ensuring that assignments stay true to their goals and objectives.

Prior to Cintara, Chris worked for several South Bay agencies, and an independent consultant for large corporations. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Visual Communications from San Jose State University and is a member of the AIGA, ACD, WADC, ADAC, the San Francisco Creative Alliance and BMA.

chris@cintara.com

Creative Services
Rachelle Orosa
Senior Art Director

Rachelle Orosa has more than a decade of design experience and has received many national and international awards for her creative expertise. Rachelle has contributed to creative assignments for clients like the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe. She designed the event themes and promotions for Xcert International’s successful 4-city tour, and contributed to the successful brands of Packet8 and Breakkers Island Vodka.

Rachelle helps to lead creative teams and support the creative director in ensuring success of the final creative product. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Design from the University of the Pacific and is a member of AIGA, WADC, ADAC and the San Francisco Creative Alliance.

rachelle@cintara.com

Creative Services
Vince Lee Dominguez
Art Director

Vince Dominguez has 10 years of experience, which includes a diverse background of print, video and interactive design. As a Multimedia Director for Archipelago Productions, a subsidiary of Harcourt Brace, he designed and produced college content CD-ROMS. He spent two years at Flying Beyond Inc. as the head of video production and promotion, where his work being featured at Conferences for Hitachi, Denali Solutions, NetManage, Differential, and AboveNet Communications. Before joining Cintara, he was Director of Design at Aptimus, formerly known as XMarksthespot, in San Francisco, working on business-to-business and e-commerce development, direct mail campaigns and video production. Vince consulted as a brand strategist for Diesel Design in San Francisco. Vince holds a BS in Visual Communications from San Jose State University.

vincent@cintara.com

Naming Services
Michael Weissenfluh
Regional Manager, Northwest

Michael Weissenfluh has more than 20 years in business and financial management, and understands the critical importance of marketing from a revenue-generating perspective and the inherent importance of the branding as an integral element of a company's overall market value. Prior to joining Cintara, he was a CPA for several successful entertainment organizations, as well as a Business Manager advising in negotiations, long-range planning, ROI analysis and promotional opportunities. He has taught college level accounting, finance, marketing, general business and computer applications both in the classroom and online. Michael has written numerous published articles and is currently writing "Rock Brand", a book on the evolution and etymology of Rock Band Names and how they have (or have not) capitalized on their brand equity, and a textbook on Marketing Finance.

He has participated in over 300 branding projects and has managed successful campaigns for clients across the US and internationally. Michael has a BS in Business Administration, a MBA/TM (Technology Management) and is currently working on his Ph.D. in Marketing.

michaelw@cintara.com

Naming Services
Laura von Merveldt
Naming Account Manager

Laura von Merveldt brings a background rich in linguistics as well as international study. She coordinates a variety of branding and naming projects and assists clients in finding truly unique and brandable names. She has been involved in projects ranging from the health care business, education, banking and software. Prior to joining Cintara, Laura taught Business English in Prague, Czech Republic. Her job entailed educating business people involved in marketing, design, law firms, retail and banking institutions. Additionally, Laura lived and studied in Berlin, Germany and brings experience and working knowledge of the German language. Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

lvonmerveldt@cintara.com

Naming Services
John R. Palacio
Brand Strategist

John Palacio has over 20 years in marketing management and business strategy. He supports Cintara clients with strategic brand consulting and account services, marketing and business consultation, and coordination with creative and strategic teams.

Prior to Cintara, John headed marketing departments for Mosaic Soft, a producer of knowledge management software for e-commerce, and Integrated Data Systems, a virtual reality software provider. John developed an International Marketing program for Mainland Chinese under the auspices of the University of California. He has taught industrial, college and online courses in electronics, video engineering, virtual reality and sales and marketing. And as an expert in the convergence of computers and video products, John has been a consultant to such organizations as IBM, JPL, Pixar, SGI, and Walt Disney Company.

jpalacio@cintara.com

Naming Services
Kristin South
Senior Linguist

Kristin Hacken South has over 12 years of linguistic experience, and follows a venerable tradition of Egyptologists interested in names: it was the great Champollion who first decoded hieroglyphs by deciphering the names of Egyptian royalty from the Rosetta Stone. While Ptolemy may not be the perfect product name for the information age, Kristin finds her study of antiquity useful in her current linguistic excavations.

Now located in Utah, near the vast linguist resources of the BYU, Kristin creates and analyzes company and product names for Cintara clients around the world. She has an MA in Near Eastern Languages from Yale University.

ksouth@cintara.com

Account Services
Joan K. Meyer
Director of Account Services

Joan brings 12 years of brand development, marketing and client services experience to Cintara, where she manages every facet of the client’s relationship, from client needs analysis through project supervision. Throughout the process, Joan consults with her clients, offering suggestions on ways to optimize their marketing strategies. Joan has supported successful clients including Hewlett-Packard, Adobe Systems, Iomega, Logitech, ADP, Cypress Semiconductor, and Packet8.

Before joining Cintara, Joan developed new business opportunities and managed technology accounts at Oak Ridge Public Relations. Prior to Oak Ridge, Joan worked for Ralph Lauren and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she specialized in branding, merchandising, and customer service. Joan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Near Eastern Studies with a minor in French Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Joan is proficient in both French and German.

joan@cintara.com

Account Services
Christine K. Caballero
Account Manager

Christine Caballero brings to Cintara a strong background in customer service and vendor management, both skills that support her position as an account manager. She overseas client account, projects and manages print/vendor relations.

Prior to joining the Cintara team, she worked for 2 years as an account service representative for the Hertz Corporation in Burlingame, California, where she was responsible for generating new business and maintaining relationships with leisure and tour travel accounts. Prior to that position, Christine served as a marketing coordinator for Planetweb Inc. in Redwood Shores, California. In addition to her administrative and marketing expertise, she brings several years of event planning experience.

Christine is a Hawaiian native, and received her education from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, with an emphasis in Elementary Education and Sociology.

ccaballero@cintara.com

Jacob Vega/Canote
Interactive Designer

Jacob has 13 years of experience focused on interactive and interface design. His work on Logitech, Packet8, and America Italiana has contributed to their online revenues and success. He held positions with Apple Computers and NASA providing product branding, interface design and creating some of the internet's first websites.

In 1995, San Jose Children's Musical Theater and Apple Computers developed a web-based program for sick and disabled children called Convomania. Jacob designed and managed the website where they hosted discussions and produced a musical about being a sick and disabled youth. He also designed and operated the multimedia used in the performances.

Now, Jacob can be found providing design and multimedia expertise to local theater groups Teatro Visíon, Tabia African-American Ensemble, and San Jose Multicultural Arts Guild as well as artists, bands, and venues.

jacob@cintara.com