Maureen Taylor – CEO/President

Maureen Taylor has worked with Fortune 500 leaders for more than 20 years. She began her career as a teacher of rhetoric and communications during her graduate work at San Francisco State University, and then developed skills in content development, management training, and career guidance while working in New York City. She has worked with a number of senior executives including leaders from Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Cisco, Network Appliance and Google. Maureen’s customers not only develop disciplines for communication and leadership, but also a renewed passion for their work.

In addition to her work with customers and running SNP, Maureen finds time to regularly teach undergrads about marketing and business communication at the University of San Francisco, a local Jesuit university, serving as Executive in Residence at the University of San Francisco School of Business.

A native San Franciscan currently residing in Mill Valley, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Maureen spends much of her free time on long, arduous bike rides, running through the Marin Headlands, or planting flowers and vegetables in her vibrant garden. She’s been spending more and more time of late watching her two teenage children surf, with her eldest enjoying her freshman year in college

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Renn Vara – General Manager

Renn’s background includes serving as a Congressional aide on Capitol Hill, working with street kids in New York City and more than a decade creating public and commercial broadcasting. Renn has been developing innovative corporate media since the early 1990’s from the first worldwide internet webevent with Silicon Graphics in 1996 to launching social media communication systems today.

Renn leads SNP efforts with non-profit projects including San Quentin Prison, the United Way of the Bay Area and many other worthy programs throughout the Bay Area. And somewhere he finds time to co-teach business courses with Mo at the University of San Francisco, a local Jesuit university, serving as Executive in Residence at the University of San Francisco School of Business.

When Renn’s not creating corporate media or teaching presentation and media skills, he’s running the Marin headlands, playing his piano or chasing down his and Mo’s two college bound kids. Be sure to check out his MoreThanTalk blog on Corporate Media.

Renn talks about corporate communications

Joe Mullen – Vice President of Sales

Joe began his professional career in the non-profit sector, working as a county coordinator for young adults. He then moved into his first sales role with Simmons-Boardman Publishing in New York City, where he sold advertising space for several trade magazines.

That sales experience brought him to SNP in 1998, where he sold billboards for the public radio program Beyond Computers. As SNP’s business model grew with customer needs, Joe’s natural ability to interact with customers led him into broadcast and consulting. He worked his way up through the company to SNP’s VP of Sales.

Dave Imperiale – Vice President, New York

Dave started his career in New York City working for Rolling Stone Magazine. After serving as an assistant editor, he was ready for a change and headed west to San Francisco where he joined SNP in 1999.

He first started as an Account Manager, where he focused primarily on the broadcast portion of the business, developing SNP’s Talk Radio programs. Dave’s journalistic perspective helped refine corporate communications.

In 2001, Dave escaped to St. John, USVI, where he applied his writing talent and wrote his novel. Dave is an avid Yankee fan and a proud New Jersey native. He stays active with his roots in the fact that he co-produced an independent film in NYC, which was premiered at the 2004 Tribeca Film festival.

Randall Van Nostrand – Vice President of Training

As one of SNP’s earliest employees, Randall has worked closely with Maureen Taylor and co-founder Renn Vara for over 10 years. She brings to the job a history of small and entrepreneurial business management, customer service experience and a former life in the theatre.

Randall is committed to seeing those she works with grow and reach new levels of success. A co-designer of many of the classes SNP teaches, she enjoys the creative process and is always on the lookout for new material to augment SNP's training programs. In her spare time, Randall performs with a local dance company called the Don’t Quit Your Day Job Dancers (aptly named) and hikes the hills of Marin with Hershey, the wonder dog.

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Mary Beth Maines – Vice President, Business Development

Mary Beth’s experience spans from Fortune 500 companies to small start-ups. She spent over 12 years at Microsoft, most recently as Director of HR in the product side of the company where she was responsible for both employee and executive communication coaching. Maines’ was also the co-founder of Real Card Studio – a successful custom stationer which created invitations for over 300 retailers and event planners in the US and abroad. In addition to development experience, Maines has a background in the broadcast industry – a discipline in line with SNP’s journalistic approach to telling the corporate story.

Mary Beth is passionate about ensuring the success of her clients but when she is not at work, you can find her making jewelry, reading the latest novel, or planning a trip to a distant place.

Scott Tibbels – Vice President, Central Region

Scott brings a variety of business experience and knowledge to his leadership role developing the central US region for SNP. Scott’s background includes working with well known speaker and teacher, Zig Ziglar.  While with Ziglar, Scott sold and delivered performance improvement programs and consulting services winning several sales production awards. Scott later moved into a management role with a Dallas based consulting firm successfully developing their sales channel.

When Scott is not focused on SNP’s customers, he loves to spend time with his two kids in Austin, mountain bike in and around Austin, or golf on the many courses the Central Texas region has to offer.

Dr. Art Bell – Director of Leadership Thinking

Art Bell is a well-known author, professor, and consultant.  At SNP Communications, Art directs “think-tank” activities focused on solution-driven strategies, helping SNP clients get from where they are to where they want to be in a straight line.

Art holds his PhD from Harvard and is Director of Program Strategy and Professor of Management Communication for the MBA and Executive MBA programs at the University of San Francisco.  He is the author of 47 books on management, communication, and business strategy, including Business Communication (Wiley, 2007), You Can’t Talk to Me Like That! (Career Press, 2005), and Butterflies Be Gone (McGraw-Hill, 2008).  On the personal side, Art plays occasional jazz piano gigs in the Bay Area, does specialty carpentry for the stars (e.g., Victorian fretwork for Streisand), and writes a humor column for a newspaper in Marin, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

Shubha Kumble – Director of Products & Services

Shubha joined SNP after her stint as the chief Bangalore correspondent for an advertising and marketing news magazine. Given her experience, she started at SNP with a focus on broadcast and consulting services. She enjoys working on executive talk radio programs and building communication architectures that are audience focused. Over the years, Shubha has also specialized as a personal communication and management coach to some of Silicon Valley's top executives.

One of Shubha’s long-term goals is to return to her roots and design public speaking programs for high school students in Bangalore. SNP co-founders Maureen and Renn have promised to support this effort, perhaps even visit as guest speakers.

Rita Chan – Director of Media

Rita came to SNP after spending more than 10 years working as a producer and journalist in television news. She's the recipient of several awards including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Local Newscast.

Rita's experiences in journalism and ability to craft a compelling story made her a great fit at SNP, where she now uses those skills to help executives and organizations better tell their stories and reach their audiences.

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Sarah Jaycox Hartong – General Manager, Eastern Region

Sarah came to SNP from the non-profit world, where she wrote, directed, produced and managed for the performing arts.  Most recently, she was a management consultant for the development and operation of performing arts centers.  In this role, she developed business plans and needs assessments, while managing teams of architects, designers, politicians, and artists towards the opening of new arts centers.

Once Sarah decided to support the arts by buying a ticket rather than as a career, she joined SNP Communications to open and run the New York office.  In this role, she works both as an account director and the General Manager of the office. 

Sarah holds a Masters degree in Arts Administration from Northwestern University and a BA from Colgate University.  She has lived in New York for nearly a decade and in Brooklyn for half of those years.  However, at heart, she’s still a displaced Minnesotan: she continues to root for the Twins and Gophers, and she refuses to admit feeling the cold until it falls to at least 10 degrees.

Porter Felton – Director of Production

Porter’s experience runs the gamut in the field of Film and Media.  His experience includes stints at Fox News, Pixar, KRON-4 (formerly NBC), and Q-Media Enterprises (a subsidiary of HBO in San Francisco).

Porter attended the School of Film and Television at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in production with a minor in business.  His professional experience has allowed him to reside in interesting locations like New York City and Bucharest, Romania, but his original roots are here in San Francisco where he’s come full circle.

Porter leads the SNP Productions team staying on the cutting edge of media and technology while adhering to the core values of SNP; focus on the audience, respect for content, and finding the best fit for the culture of each customer.

When Porter’s not spending late hours with customers, you might find him enjoying his passion for automobiles.  His life long appreciation for the art of vintage vehicles (rebuilding them) and modern automobile technology is one of his favorite indulgences outside of the office.

Meet the Production Team.

Bobbi Madsen – Director of Finance

Bobbi has been in the finance industry for over seven years. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Bobbi began her career as an accounting department supervisor for a non-profit organization before she switched to insurance, spending five years with Farm Bureau Financial Services.

Ready for a change of scenery, Bobbi headed for the West Coast and landed in San Francisco as SNP's Controller. Bobbi enjoys spending time with family and friends and the occasional trip back to the Midwest . The Huskers will always be her favorite team, and keeping up with the Big12 in college football is an ongoing passion. GO BIG RED!