Philip Coppard
Principal, father, pizzaiolo, coffee-fanatic and bread-baker (click for bio +)
For the past 17 years, Philip Coppard has been the principal of Stormy Lake Consulting and leads the brand development practice. In what feels like a very long time ago, Philip earned a B. Comm. Honours with specializations in Marketing and Computer Science from Queen’s University.
Philip spent the first 15 years of his career at Ogilvy & Mather, a global communications agency, where he created a business-consulting unit rooted in the study of human behaviour.
Philip is a strategist and has developed a proprietary planning model that embeds the principles of design and change management into traditional strategic planning. Philip is a trained facilitator in the Simplexity method of Applied Creativity for creative problem solving and innovation.
Charlie Easton
Strategy lead, father, landscape painter, skier and ‘limey’ (click for bio +)
An astute thinker, an experienced brand strategist and an insightful researcher, Charlie started his career making tea for ad execs at MCBD, a start-up advertising agency in London, UK. Charlie's strategic thinking for clients such as Her Majesty's Government, The Metropolitan Police, Travelocity and Subaru helped MCBD win the coveted title of IPA Effectiveness Agency of the Year.
Charlie moved to Canada joining the Cossette network where his experience in developing robust strategic platforms and meaningful insights has helped many Canadian brands of varying sizes, including The National Music Centre, APTN and the Government of Alberta.
Charlie has a Bachelor of Arts Honours Economics with French from Durham University and Université d'Aix-Marseille.
Stephanie Jackman
Senior strategist, mother, explorer and localist (click for bio +)
Stephanie has spent the past decade building a ground-breaking business network called REAP (Respect for the Earth and All People) and starting a movement to green and localize Calgary’s economy. Today REAP’s community of 150 businesses represents $21 billion of Alberta’s economy, 4,300 jobs, $15 million in charitable donations and millions of tonnes of waste and CO2 diverted each year. Stephanie and Philip first worked together when they launched a business consulting division at Ogilvy that used a behavioural approach to solve business problems. Stephanie went on to help establish the account planning division at Venture Communications. She also ran her own brand consultancy, called Blueprint Brand Strategies, for 15 years.
Stephanie has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from Carleton University, a Master of International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a graduate certificate in Community Economic Development from Simon Fraser University. Her work in pioneering a more sustainable economy has been recognized by Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40, Calgary Herald’s 20 Compelling Calgarians, Pathways2Sustainability Leader in Commerce, the Calgary Nonprofit Innovation Award and imagineCALGARY’s Partner in Action.
Nicole Farris
Strategist, yoga teacher, nature lover and Jungian (click for bio +)
Nicole holds a Masters in Depth Psychology from California’s Pacifica Graduate Institute. There, she completed two intensive ethnographic research projects for Farm Sanctuary and the Santa Barbara Beekeepers Association, studying the interactions between humans and animals within animal welfare organizations and uncovering the unconscious, human-centric practices within.
After graduation, moved back to Canada to work at C&B Advertising as an Account Supervisor and Associate Content Strategist on accounts including Travel Alberta, Heritage Park and Graycon IT. With a passion for uncovering truths beneath the surface and a keen eye for detail, Nicole brings an innate understanding of behaviour, motivation and somatic experience to Stormy Lake that will fuel groundbreaking insights for clients across a swath of sectors.
Jason Thompson
Strategist, storyteller, artist, runner and dad (click for bio +)
As Stormy Lake’s resident storyteller, Jason does more than sit around a campfire telling ghost stories. With more than 20 years of television, video gaming, mobile apps, book publishing and advertising experience, he’s obsessed with innovating new ways of creating amazing narratives that are absurdly memorable and effective.
He has worked as a writer, story artist, animation director, animator and designer on productions for Disney Jr., Disney Interactive, Warner Brothers, CBC, Teletoon, National Geographic Kids and the Cartoon Network. As an artist and animator for Electronic Arts in England he created some of the first designs for the Harry Potter game series before the movies had been released. Imagine the pressure of getting Hagrid’s design right!
Jason was a Professor of Story, Animation and Gaming at Sheridan College for 12 years and was the founder of Sheridan’s Transmedia Storytelling Centre that bridged faculty and students from departments as diverse as dance and video-gaming to create amazing narratives.