David is a founding member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and co-wrote the Ethics Code for the industry. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCLA with a degree in Political Science, winning UCLA’s prestigious CAPPP Fellowship. He went on to serve as Assistant Director of Television Services for the White House, where he worked closely with key government figures including former president Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Vice President, Al Gore.

After leaving public service, David worked for several leading PR agencies, developing his digital marketing and guerilla outreach expertise before starting DEI in early 2000. Additionally, David has completed USC Business School’s FasTrac program, balancing his corporate experience with a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Hapkido and world travels.

Karen is an award-winning marketer with more than 20 years of experience in brand development. During her 18-year tenure as VP, Brand Strategy & Advertising at Showtime Networks, she oversaw a $40 million yearly budget and spearheaded the network’s highly successful re-launch.

Karen also built the interdepartmental teams, managed the Agency of Record and respective vendors, as well as established industry best practices. After leaving Showtime, Karen ran a successful branding and marketing consultancy for several years, working with a wide range of clients from dot.com startups to large companies. Karen now runs DEI’s New York office, and has been instrumental in developing relationships with the likes of Chrysler, Safeway and GSK.

As SVP Strategy, Planning and Operations, Chris oversees every aspect of the agency’s operations, from team development and talent acquisition, to identifying services and opportunities to best serve our clients. Before joining DEI, Chris served as a Managing Director at Ferrazzi Greenlight (FG) where he advised and trained sales and marketing organizations on better relationship development. Prior to FG, Chris was Director of Strategy at Roll International, where he led multiple business teams on strategic growth projects in various consumer-based food and beverage companies. He is intimately familiar with regulated industries having spent 6 years working in Washington DC on Capitol Hill and as a lobbyist. Chris grew up in the Northwest and was Valedictorian at Pacific University. He received his MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

Over the past several years, Tyler has directed the strategy and execution of nearly 20,000,000 online conversations, and is the account lead for mainstay clients such as Kraft, Safeway and Motorola. She has also developed several successful social media campaigns for the likes of NBC, Sony and 24 Hour Fitness and has been instrumental in helping lead the company into new areas of digital outreach.

Tyler began her career at DEI as a Marketing Associate, and based on her outstanding track record and affinity for client management, was quickly promoted to Campaign Manager and then to Senior Director. Prior to DEI, Tyler was an account executive for a popular online magazine.