Barrett Prelogar
Innovation Instigator. Idea-a-minute creative genius. Ebullient and
effervescent leader. Classically trained musician. Barefoot water-skier.
Part-time yacht designer. Inveterate dreamer. Father of three, who are more
important and more talented by far than he.
A serial entrepreneur (having founded three of his first companies while still
in college) ‘Bear’ prefers the challenges and inspirations gleaned by
consistently taking the “road less traveled.” One of those early companies,
Winntech, went on to generate more than $200,000,000.00 dollars in revenue
selling Bear’s designs, ideas, and inventions during its first fifteen years in
business! Bear laughs that he had, in fact, sold more than $30,000,000.00 of
products borne of his own creation before he was old enough to rent a car—and
used to have to come up with all kinds of excuses why his clients needed to pick
him up at the airport. In fact, nobody cared how old he was—because his
inventions and ideas were inevitably industry game-changers.
A renegade in all aspects of his life and work, his relentless pursuit of the
extreme has propelled him around the globe—working with venture-funded startups,
billionaire tycoons, staid Fortune 500’s, Saudi conglomerates, and even the U.S.
Air Force—designing, innovating, and patenting fresh ideas. His work in
emotional branding, environmental design, product development, and technology
has been featured in hundreds of magazines and books, recognized with countless
awards, and garnered several patents.
Bear frequently participates as a speaker and panelist at wide variety of
industry trade events and innovation conferences around the world where his
indefatigable personality and gritty no-nonsense communication style, peppered
with real-world case-studies and clever insights, inspires large audiences to
expect, reach for, and achieve, MORE.
When he isn’t traveling for business, you can find him in his home
studio—writing and recording music. Bear cites his life-long study of
classical piano, finger-style and flamenco guitar, and world percussion as
having a “great influence” on the way he approaches problem solving. “Each
time I write a new song, I have no idea how it is going to turn out. But the
process is the same. I play around with different key and time signatures,
oddball tunings, various melodies and chord progressions, different ways to get
sound from the instrument, whatever. And pretty soon, a theme develops. Then
I finesse it, —work with it over a few days, weeks, or sometimes even months.
Finally, I have a finished product that is really unique and innovative—and I
feel sated. Writing music, or designing something fundamentally new from
scratch, is really the exact same discipline. Once you stumble upon the
initial inspiration, just work it! Relentlessly overcome the obstacles that
present themselves along the way, and eventually you’ll triumph.”
Can
innovation really be that simple and straightforward? Bear swears it is, and
his twenty years of industry-leading success stories ‘bear’ testament to that
theory. . .
Brian Harvey
Part fitness freak, part creative director, part architect, part industrial
designer, part project manager, part Eastern philosopher, part work-a-day mule.
A native of mother England, and later a transplant to Arizona, Kansas, Bahrain,
Mexico, and back to Arizona, —Brian’s leathery skin (some say he looks like a
human Shar Pei) tells the story of a man whose world-travels and hands-on
involvements have provided three or four lifetime’s worth of experience. But
add to that a maniacal work ethic and you can multiply his experience gathering
another two-fold.
Though just rounding the bend on 50 years of age, his 30 years of hard-fought
battles to create projects that others considered “impossible” (including
several in inhospitable countries where absurdly tight time lines, regulatory
and import hurdles, or inappropriately low budgets stacked the odds for success
staunchly against him) have conspired to simultaneously earn world-wide acclaim
while making him inevitably the wisest man in the room. His deep forehead
wrinkles, therefore, are justified!
Brian leverages his intense passion for learning, his insane pension for
introspection, and his outright obsession with self-improvement to gain insights
into each and every new client opportunity that comes his way. He LITERALLY
finds a way to ‘climb into his clients shoes’—adopting the business, the
culture, the brand, the message, —whatever—as his own. In so doing, he takes
it ALL personally, and becomes the ultimate advocate for the cause. And it is
exactly this determination that ensures that his creative work is as much
substance, as it is art. Brian knows that designing something “pretty”, is
“pretty easy”. Rather, it’s more about the fundamentals—build new ideas on top
of a sound foundation, and reserve aesthetics as the final adornment that draws
a crowd.
To work alongside Brian designing or inventing something new is akin to going to
the gym and working with a personal trainer who has been paid to make you sweat.
He rigorously challenges assumptions, preferring to examine every detail and
‘prove’ that the team is fishing in the right hole. His cautionary outlook
stands in stark contrast to his unabridged creativity. Time and time again, in
a room full of wildly-creative practitioners from myriad design, engineering,
and business disciplines, it is Brian that rigorously stitches together the
pieces which eventually solve the riddle.
Ed Legum
Retail people, process, and profit expert, with a specialization in consumer
electronics and wireless telecom. Published business-book author with six
current titles available in print. Blues Harp player. Eastern Philosopher.
Teacher. World Traveler. Grandfather.
Ed is like a senior statesperson. He’s just been around forever, and knows
where all the bones are buried. His kind, calm, and rational approach to
problem-solving leaves everyone he touches inspired and simultaneously humbled.
Ed has a manner—in his speaking, in his writing, and even in his movements, that
is just graceful. There’s no wasted effort, and he’s ready, willing, able, and
eager to teach you the secrets.
His detailed diagnoses of the myriad problems and challenges that often face a
retail business are amazingly acute, and are informed by keen and well-honed
insights gleaned over his 40+ year career. Ed helps unearth the impediments to
success, and then assists you in killing them with a blowtorch. Certainly—he
looks a bit like a nutty science professor, so the role suites him
perfectly!
Spend a couple hours with Ed and you’ll quickly realize why businesses around
the world—including over 50 wireless telecoms (such as Sprint, AT&T, NexTel,
Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.)—utilize his training and business development
strategies. In short, it is his ability to distill complex messages down into
bite-size chunks that ANYBODY can understand and implement that makes him so valuable.
He is literally a master of the retail craft.
Martin Ortiz
What do you get when you
cross Italian and Argentinean genes, educate him at the renowned Facultad de
Arquitectura Urbanismo y Deseño in Cordoba, Argentina, and then transplant him
to Miami’s design district to soak up all things ‘cool’ for a decade or so
before becoming serious about actually earning a living? Well, you get a design
Rock Star whose laid-back approach to business and life are a refreshing and
calming influence in boardrooms and design charrettes that are often filled with
over-caffeinated type-A dragons vying for attention.
Martin’s demeanor
is so laid back, sometimes you have to wonder if he’s breathing. And he’s so
quiet, you might wonder if he speaks. Thankfully, he is very much alive, and has a
distinct design point of view. But he doesn’t pipe up until he’s pretty
confident that he’s got exactly the right answer. Then, with a level of talent
bordering on ‘idiot savant’, he just ‘whips it out’ with stunning elegance,
simplicity, and taste.
Martin is the designer all of the rest of us
aspire to be in our next lives. And we are truly and honored to work alongside
him. Don’t be surprised at all one of these days when (despite his best
efforts to avoid it) he winds up incredibly rich and famous for one of his
iconic product or furniture designs. Hey—at least we can all say “we knew you
when. . .”
Dave Warner
B.S. Electrical Engineering. Digital audio engineering specialist with safety and
quality experience such as IEC 60601 and FCC part 15. Named inventor on patents
for Acoustic Reflectometry Calibration. Heavy Metal Drummer. World’s most
unlikely wakeboarder. K-State football fanatic extraordinaire.
Though
all of us are chicken to say it to his face (Dave is 6’-5” tall and pushing
270#—but who’s counting), most everyone would agree that basically Dave is one
of the biggest geeks on planet earth. And that’s why he’s indispensable—because when you need to go deep in the technology trenches, Dave is your
guy.
Dave’s methodical and pragmatic approach (to nearly everything, but
especially to technology) may be a bit unnerving to the wild - eyed creative
maniacs in a room—but becomes an important and practical counterbalance. That
given, Dave is anything but a naysayer. Rather, his basic outlook is that
there is likely a ‘way’ to accomplish nearly anything given the right
implementation of technology. And he’s got just the right demeanor and
fortitude to assemble a disparate team of think-tankers, inveterate tinkerers,
and subject-matter experts to ensure a successful and timely outcome to even the
toughest technology challenges.
Kirill Miniaev
Junior Art Director and Designer. Rock cellist. Autocross aficionado. Russian. Learner. Doer.
A recent graduate of Yale University (B.A. Art), Kirill is a multidisciplinary designer, with interests and capabilities spanning the graphic, motion, animation, web, and 3d spectrums. But don't get him started. Kirill's interested in everything—willing to try his hand at anything once and then continue that something for the rest of his life.
When he's not hawing away at legitimate design work, Kirill enjoys helping his dad build an amazing portable/electric cello beyond anything that this world has every seen, rocks out to classical instruments playing unconventional music, works with a few friends on ridiculously cool startup ideas, races cars in Autocross, snowboards, windsurfs, wakeboard (attempts to, with thus-far dismal results), lives, breathes, and hopes to change the world around him. What can he say—he's young, with fire in his blood and brains in his head. He's got nothing better to do.
Noah Smith
Software Guru. Pipe Smoker. Philosopher. Insomniac (sleeping is a crutch!)
Movie nut (the only way to trick an over-active mind into relaxing!)
When Noah was eleven, his father challenged him to mathematically plot the course of a traveler who wakes up and starts following the sun at dawn and walks in pursuit of that sun until sunset, only to sleep, and repeat the next day. Noah solved the riddle by writing his first piece of code, and the rest, of course, is history... (you can still see the program in action at www.sunfollow.in)
In fact, though he had been a very serious musician in
his youth and all the way through college, —he finally made the decision (much
like a monk makes a solemn commitment to God), that his pursuit of interests
outside of software development were distracting him from true enlightenment.
Hence, he abandoned everything else—and dedicated his life to becoming “one with
the software gods.”
While all this sounds, frankly, utterly
ridiculous—we can assure you that his passion and study of the craft is exactly
this disciplined. Simply put, Noah likes to think of software development as
actually being ‘media development’—meaning it has an audience, and should be
written as though people will hang on every last line of code in the same way a
movie buff critiques each frame of cinematography.
Like any true
developer—Noah is a ‘nerd for everything’—meaning, he’s not at all tied to any
particular coding language and rather prefers to constantly update his skill set
so that he is comfortable working with nearly any programming team and across
myriad development environments.
Steve Klein
Interactive user-experience maven/Lion tamer. Literally.
When Steve isn’t writing the juicy code
that powers award-winning interaction experiences for the web and in-store
kiosks, he volunteers (often more than 40 hours a week) managing the largest
‘big cat’ refuge sanctuary in the Midwest. This 6’7" "statue" of a man may look
imposing, but his personality is all kitten, and he is as clever as any cat out
there. Steve’s passion for these exotic animals is palpable, and despite the
constant struggle of attracting visitors and donors whose revenues enable the
park to feed and house these animals (most of whom have been taken in after
their original “owners” lost interest and/or abandoned them), he manages to
remain eternally upbeat and optimistic.
We’re not entirely sure when
Steve sleeps. Caring for the animals and conducting educational tours nearly
every day of the week would be a full-time occupation all by itself. But,
certainly, those volunteer heroics wouldn’t put food on the table for Steve, or
the animals. Thankfully, like the cats, he is nocturnal. And during the wee
hours of the morning, Steve really hits his stride—churning out delicious
interfaces that are engaging, inventive, and consistently award-winning.
Though he demurs under the spotlight, make no mistake: Steve secretly loves
being king of the jungle, and cracks a wry smile each time he is presented with
a new challenge to overcome.
So far, we’ve never found one that could
best him, but we’ll continue to try—just to keep his teeth sharp and his
instincts finely honed. Grrrrrrr.
John Jason Pieschl
Mechanical Engineer Extraordinaire, named inventor on multiple patents.
Digital animation artist. Custom Harley Davidson Chopper-builder. Heavy Metal
Bass player. Dedicated family man.
“JJ” is an anomaly. The kind of person we’re afraid to list on the website,
since nearly everyone we work for tries to steal him away from us already.
Way back when he was in high school (25 years ago, but whose counting. . .) he
developed an alternate and more efficient method for solving a particular
mathematical equation that was subsequently proved and is now taught in some
college algebra texts. His ability to solve the very most complex mechanical
design and engineering riddles is absolutely uncanny. But even freakier is the
fact that he is often able to do it all by himself in a matter of a day or
two—when teams of consulting engineers haven’t been able to do it in weeks, or
in some instances, MONTHS. No kidding.
Now stay the hell away from him—he’s ours! Got that? We found him first—over
16 years ago!
Patsy Prelogar
President. Detail maven. Foodie. Fitness freak (makes up for the foodie
problem. . . not to mention a drinky drink or two!)
Patsy has spent three decades in Sr. project leadership roles—including
several years with Sprint, and later with Winntech—where she lead the
successful integration of multiple creative, engineering, and manufacturing
disciplines in order to deliver massively complex projects around the world,
on time, and on budget.
As the senior principal at Bareskull, Patsy rides heard over an eclectic mix
of creative geniuses (or so they like to think) who, quite expectedly, might
likely lose their collective asses were it not for her rigorous attention to
the business of business.
Let’s face it. Creative people. . . aren’t necessarily the best folks to
handle the rigors of contract negotiation, project administration, budget
accountability, and time-management. Patsy drives the team like a pack of
sled-dogs at the Iditarod (thank goodness!)
But the fun doesn’t stop there! Patsy also drives our clients’ internal teams
with the same focused intensity—ensuring that critical milestones, external
client-supplied deliverables, and sign-offs are all executed timely.
Thankfully, this ensures that everyone is successful, all together!
