Team Bios

Stepheny McGraw
Dan McKee
Rose Marie Cleese
Laura Dearborn

STEPHENY McGRAW
Director, Business Development

What began as a love of meeting people and writing their stories for a small town paper in Massachusetts, evolved over 25 years into a career for Stepheny McGraw in sales to Silicon Valley start ups and as OEM account manager for proprietary products for some of the world's largest companies, such as NEC and Kodak.
   Most recently, she has provided lead management services for Digipede Technologies and business development for Happy About/Super Star Press. She has also been a partner in Westfield Importing, a furniture business with manufacturing facilities in China.
   Since the start of the new millennium, Stepheny has focused her activities on non-profit and community organizations in her hometown of Palo Alto. After completing the Leadership Program in 2001, she became involved in the successful ballot measure to refurbish and rebuild the city's storm drain infrastructure and now serves on the Storm Drain Oversight Committee. She also serves with Victoria on the board of Achievekids as liaison to the new honorary board. In addition, she was chosen member at large for the Wells College Alumnae Association in Aurora, New York and closer to home serves on the Steering Committee for the Midtown Residents Association in Palo Alto.
  And, like Ellen, Stepheny loves anything in, on, under or next to the water.

DAN McKEE
Art Direction / Interactive Design

Dan McKee is an award winning designer and has worked with Ellen Rudy over a decade developing corporate identification, print and web communications and collateral. He has worked extensively in the areas of technology, product, and business to business communications. Dan's clients have included Netscape, Checkpoint Software, IDG Communications, HP, Gilroy Foods and InfoWorld. Experienced and highly skilled in concept design through implementation through printing, Dan has worked on major identity and collateral projects involving complex design solutions and tight production scheduling and coordination. He particularly enjoys collaborating on projects that require multi-disciplined artists, illustrators, writers, photographers and web programmers.
   Dan has a Bachelor Fine Arts from Bowling Green State University, and studied at Studio Art Centers International, Florence Italy.

ROSE MARIE CLEESE
Copywriter

Rose Marie Cleese works on many accounts with The Hayden Group, always going the extra mile to deliver marketing materials that boost both a company's image and its top line. She is a veteran copy director/copywriter/marketing creative consultant located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
  Rose Marie’s clients have ranged from business-to-business and consumer and e-tail companies to mainstream book publishers to universities. She has steered projects from concept through copy to completion--projects that include website content, direct mail brochures, brand messaging statements, promotional e-mails, fact sheets, FAQs and Q&As, annual reports, newsletters, print ads, and even a billboard or two.
  She has built a reputation for creating copy that is attention-getting, focused, engaging, and extremely effective in achieving the desired goals.

LAURA DEARBORN
Production / Production Management

Laura has been working with Ellen and Victoria for the past 8 years, first at Halleck, then at The Hayden Group. She has managed full campaigns for us from estimating through production art, direct marketing fulfillment and collateral and booth production.
   Laura is a production specialist with 20 years of experience. It's all about the details for Laura and once a project is taken under her umbrella, it is brought from design to distribution with care and finesse.
   A graduate from the University of Colorado, Laura started her career at Michael Patrick Partners in Palo Alto, CA. She learned the ropes from the bottom up, starting as an office manager and bookkeeper, advancing to production art and management. Stepping out on her own in 2000, Laura has been working as a freelance production specialist for a variety of clients, working directly with corporations and contracting with agencies.
   Past projects have included work for Brocade, Fujitsu, Spieker Properties, Shea Properties, Colliers International, Ditech Networks, Portola Valley School Foundation, and Pacific Rim School.