Who We Are
You're in Good Company
We wake up thinking of our clients
What you are creating, leading or reshaping as a client is what we are thinking of as well. When we do our best work, we are really acting as members of the same team. And like a great team, we are here to succeed, which means we will provide constructive thinking, we will challenge the status quo and we will do all of it with the goal of helping your organization succeed.
Our Founders
Each firm that NPG invests in has special expertise that can create value for our clients. We may all match each other in passion, of course. When we talk, we like to think of what problem you are trying to solve or what opportunity you have ahead of you. We can then recommend the right team, which often includes more than one firm. It is your needs as a client that drive our action.
Founder and Global CEO, The Next Practice
CHRIS FOSTER
A global business & communications leader, investor, adviser and strategist. Chris brings 20+ years of experience in senior roles at Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Y&R to help define what’s next.
Learn MoreFounder and President, The Next Practice
COLIN FOSTER
Founder, digital transformer, analytics lover, integrated marcom strategist. With two decades in global roles both client and agency side, Colin has led many organizations through massive change.
Learn MoreFounder and CEO, The Next Solutions Group
RAY KERINS, JR.
Prior to joining The Next Solutions Group as CEO, Ray was communications, government relations and foundation lead in the U.S. for one of the world's largest agriculture, consumer and healthcare companies. He brings strong global and regional experience in reputation management, corporate reputation, and crisis/issues management.
Learn MoreFounder and CEO, Ringer Sciences
YASH GAD, PHD.
A data science leader who has helped companies create industry-changing technology innovation pipelines in healthcare, marketing, and retail.
Learn MoreFounder and CEO, Matchfire
CHRIS NOBLE
With more than 20 years of experience running high tech startups, Chris built a career around identifying, championing, and executing new ideas. Chris guides Matchfire in helping brands do good in the world. He has broad experience in creating and launching new businesses, marketing campaigns, and products - including the ability to take existing products and chart new directions, or to start it all from scratch.
Learn MoreFounder and President, Matchfire
JOEY LESLIE
Joey brings over 20 years of award winning experience creating and managing unique social good campaigns for major entertainment studios, large national charities and dozens of Fortune 500 companies. He’s directed online and offline cause campaigns that have raised over $100 million for non-profits across the United States.
Learn MoreFounder, Matchfire
BRIAN POWELL
Passionate leader of design thinking to unlock profit that’s more purposeful and purpose that’s more profitable. He’s directed multifaceted teams in a courageously collaborative approach to deliver business and marketing solutions for iconic companies and organizations. From insights and innovation to consulting and creative, he’s paired his entrepreneurial spirit with a consistent drive to build brands that make better things and make things better. Advisor to social enterprise startups, and guest lecturer on marketing with meaning.
Learn MoreFounder and CEO, Brain + Trust Partners
TIM HAYDEN
With 20+ years of marketing and business leadership experience, Tim has founded several new ventures and been a catalyst for transformational progress for some of the world's largest brands.
Learn MoreFounder and CEO, RocketSauce Media Labs
DAVID PIERPONT
An entrepreneur, thought leader in performance media, David has worked with top brands across verticals, developed technology and digital solutions for government, non-profits and political campaigns.
Learn MoreFounder & CEO, RocketSauce Media Labs
JULIA THUMAN
With deep agency and in-house leadership experience across industries, Julia relentlessly focuses on solving client’s business challenges via new and innovative media strategies that drive results.
Learn MoreChair, NPG, The Next Solutions Group and 104 West Partners
BOB PEARSON
Advisor, Author, Professor, Entrepreneur. Built two top-50 media companies, led comms at Dell & Novartis, professor at UT, lecturer U.S. State Department, advisor to media and software companies.
Founder and COO, NPG
MICHAEL GEHB
With years at network agencies leading finance & operations across digital strategy, budgeting, ops management, E-commerce and advertising, Mike is now ready to shape what’s next. Prior to The Next Practices Group & the MedicAlert Foundation, Michael was the vice president of finance and operations for global marketing and advertising company, Omnicom Group Inc.
Founder and CEO, CHANGEx
JOHN MCNEEL
Forged by two decades in leadership roles at global network agencies, John has been a pioneer in the social purpose space at in/PACT, a scalable giving platform that links purpose to purchase.
Learn MoreCo-Founder and CEO, Boundless
KERRY HILTON
Kerry founded the company in 2001 and has helped transform the agency into one of the leading medical marketing firms in the country. During the past 21 years, Kerry has recruited top-tier talent to lead Boundless into its third decade, encouraging boldness in its leaders and striving to inspire everyone. He has been recognized by PharmaVoice Magazine as one of its top 100 inspiring individuals.
Learn MoreCo-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Boundless
FRANCESCO LUCARELLI
Francesco exemplifies the Boundless value of “embrace challenge." During his more than 25 years in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, he has overseen product launches and developed results-driven strategy in a wide variety of leadership roles.
Learn MoreCommercialization Strategist
Steve Mitchell
Steve brings a rich and varied 35 years of strategic planning experience in marketing and medical affairs to Boundless. He has worked with more than 50 companies in dozens of therapeutic areas, guiding performance-enhancing strategy in all phases, from early compound development through product maturity. His deep expertise includes clinical development and launch planning, identifying in-licensing opportunities, and guiding the intricacies of mergers and acquisitions. Steve has a truly Boundless enthusiasm for helping organizations of all sizes reach their target markets and exceed their goals.
Learn MoreCEO – FUSE Health Inc.
Stephanie Frisina
With a urologist father and nurse mother, you could say Stephanie was born into healthcare. Her deep experience on both the industry and agency sides, driven by an insatiable curiosity, has honed her proven talent for uncovering client needs and fostering teams to create successful solutions that engage and inform a variety of audiences.
Learn MoreChief Medical Officer – FUSE Health
Marcia Bos
As a clinical pharmacist, Marcia saw firsthand the role that smart communication plays in improving healthcare delivery. Marcia coaches her team to always listen for the insights that give healthcare professionals the confidence to change how they practice, as new care pathways are built by sharing data and clinical experience.
Learn MoreFounder & CEO, 104 West Partners
Patrick Ward
Patrick’s career spans from New York to Silicon Valley to the past two decades or so at the helm of 104 West in Denver. He has used innovative communications models to help launch now-common technologies like home printers, digital photography, anti-malware software and mobile games, as well as leading edge tech like AI, X-reality and quantum computing, among others. He has worked with major brands, including Twitter, Cisco, HP, NTT, Mastercard, Dropbox and Canon, and innovative disruptors like Two Bit Circus, Webroot, Mojo Vision, Vimeo/Magisto, SEEQC and Digital Chocolate—and many others. He has been called one of the most influential tech PR execs in the world (Hot Topics), no matter how hyperbolic he thinks that is.
Learn More
BOUNDLESS LIFE SCIENCES GROUP
Creative campaign development and omnichannel execution are just the start at Boundless. We offer a broad catalog of strategically focused, analytically driven services.
BRAIN + TRUST PARTNERS
A strategic consultancy, empowering brands to compete at the speed of the customer and grow revenue.
CHANGEx
At CHANGEx, we are relentlessly determined to put more purpose back into corporate purpose: radically focused, tangible and authentic, measurable and accountable.
FUSE HEALTH
Within the field of healthcare communications, our passion and efforts are focused on promoting a critical analysis of the path forward in a particular therapeutic area.
MATCHFIRE
Matchfire is an award winning digital marketing and design agency specializing in purpose-driven work.
The Next Solutions Group
Protecting and advancing reputation, our team has a broad range of experience in business, government and journalism.
RINGER SCIENCES
We are a data science and analytics consulting firm that works with companies of all sizes and across industries to help them leverage data to make informed business decisions backed by research.
ROCKETSAUCE MEDIA LABS
We are an innovative media services agency that meets the customer where they are, delivers content that people want and makes it easy for them to return over and over again.
THE NEXT PRACTICE
We are a team dedicated to unlocking the potential energy that exists at the intersection of Purpose, Analytics, and Human Creativity.
104 WEST PARTNERS
104 West creates strategic, informed communications programs for innovative companies, their technologies, products, people and ideas.