Trevor Hubbard

CEO & Executive Creative Director

Trevor founded Butchershop in 2009, in the middle of a recession and tech revolution. He has grown the company from a team of 3 in San Francisco to a globally operated company. As CEO, his vision keeps the agency out in front of industry trends, shifts in business models, and movements in culture and commerce.

His leadership has shaped Butchershop’s unique trajectory, where brand, customer experience, and organizational design cohere to help companies launch, grow, ideate or evolve. He has pioneered approaches to brand building for businesses with venture and private equity growth models, and has led creative solutions for some of Silicon Valley’s most successful IPOs and exits. He has helped both new founders and leaders within legacy companies invent products and build multi-million dollar commercial partnerships.

He believes the most powerful brands are built on simplicity, and have a singular story that ties their business, brand, and internal company culture together. “Simple is hard” is a Butchershop mantra and something he says often. It’s also a neon sign in our lobby.

Trevor has a background in documentary film, advertising, and systems design. After 20 years in the creative business, he still loves seeing a client’s face when we crack the problem, and fundamentally change their brand for the better.

Ben McNutt

Chief Creative Officer, Associate Partner

Ben joined Butchershop in 2015. Under his leadership, the agency has doubled its creative department, added services and capabilities, and moved into new B2C and B2B verticals. His background spans advertising, brand consulting, and design, in both strategic and creative posts. The integration is a distinguishing mark of Butchershop’s approach to crafting brands and experiences.

As head of creative, Ben partners with our clients to help them change trajectories, launch businesses, and find new customers. He’s helped Microsoft reach startups, Oculus explore social VR, At-bay define a new category, Zenefits get their reputation back, Good Eggs buck the marketing cliches targeted at moms, and Lightspeed act the part of a culture-shaping VC firm. His work has been recognized by numerous awards in advertising and communication design, including The One Show, Communication Arts, TDC, Drum, Telly and others.

Prior to Butchershop, he was Copy Director at Office when the agency received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. While there, he prepped the Whole Foods brand for Amazon’s acquisition and overhauled the Star Wars’ brand voice for the franchise’s reboot under Disney. He also developed content series for award-winning kids brand Wee Society, now published in book form through Penguin Random House.

Ben loves our crew’s special combo of head and heart. “The crew is thoughtful with strategy but audacious with creativity. People here talk about emerging technology and the latest Virgil drop. Data science and DJs. SaaS and street fashion. I’ll drink that cocktail.”

Katherine Cambouris

Global Chief Operations Officer, Associate Partner

Katherine leads Butchershop’s business operations, company culture and communications. She joined the agency in 2014. During her tenure she’s overseen the organization as it has doubled in size. She has invented programs and practices to keep us performing at our best through rapid growth — all while maintaining our company’s family feel which clients greatly value.

Service is a hallmark of her program design. “Service to people is one of my core beliefs and something that gives me great satisfaction. What motivates people? What gets them to respond? I love asking questions and getting into the knitty gritty, reimagining, reinventing, then creating spaces for people to play.” Those spaces include programs like the Crew Mates mentorship program, La Creme speaker series, Stock Session performance reviews, and Beers + Briefs — all designed to make Butchershop a hub for growth, people, and ideas, inside and outside our walls.

Katherine is originally from New York (westsider) and a graduate of Vassar. Prior to Butchershop she spent 7 years in the fashion industry growing and selling high-end brands. A coastal straddler, she is a sponge of aesthetics and commerce, culture and trend. She brings art to organizational design.

Sara Cobaugh

Head of Strategy, Associate Partner

Sara leads the strategy department at Butchershop. In her tenure, she has expanded the team, introduced new methodologies and practices, and extended the range of strategic services we provide to clients.

During her 10+ years in the industry, she has developed strategies for more than 50 brands in both the B2B and B2C space. To her, every project is an opportunity to become an expert in a new vertical – from AI to grocery shopping to HR tech to travel and hospitality. Some of her recent clients at Butchershop include Zenefits, Good Eggs, Nike, and Lightspeed.

Sara works directly alongside company leaders beyond design and advertising initiatives alone. She helps companies, particularly those in complex industries with new business models, focus on what’s most important and find clarity in the complexity as they grow, evolve, or change business trajectories.

Sara holds degrees from James Madison and VCU Brandcenter. She began her career in traditional advertising, but left that world because her skills and philosophies didn’t fit neatly into the old agency model. She’s most comfortable in fast-paced entrepreneurial environments, unburdened by bureaucracy and rigid process. She’s motivated to make sense out of chaos. It’s why she loves puzzles of all types, and in her spare time, even designs them.

Ashley Botros

Account Director

Working with us means you’ll first share a conversation with Ashley. As our Account Director, she’s responsible for fielding and onboarding new clients. With over a decade of brand marketing experience, she has a comprehensive approach to building successful project plans and great client interactions.

She works diligently to bring clients in at certain business cycles who are ready for bigger things. If a company is poised to launch, grow, or reinvent themselves, Ashley brings her mission-critical perspective to help clarify the targets and the overarching business goals for each project.

Ashley’s pursuits outside of work are often oddly paired, like surfing and knitting. But it’s why she fits in so well. To her, the team’s eclectic energy feeds into her passion of bringing great people together to do great things. She sees it as a way for her to leave a mark on the creative landscape.

Ashley graduated from Colby College with a BA in Sociology. She’s also the recipient of 2017’s BIA Marketing Director of the Year.

Ian Ernzer

WGI Program Director

As WGI Program Director, Ian pilots initiatives that strengthen our internal culture and provide opportunities with the external organizations we engage with—the combination of which establishes an agency at the center of culture and commerce.

Ian has over ten years of experience and has worked with Fortune 500 companies in a range of B2B and B2C verticals. Throughout his tenure, he’s evolved from a designer building thoughtful, mature brands for companies like Okta, Juvo, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, to helping build proprietary initiatives like the Butchershop Cultural Manual and The World’s Greatest Internship. His dedication and vision for the WGI program has garnered 5,000+ applications in its two years operating, and has resulted in engaging over 12 global agencies that forged unexpected partnerships as well as created unheard opportunities for a new generation of emerging creatives. He believes Butchershop is a rolling stone that gathers no moss, always building up its internal team and their influence outside the office walls. “We might be a little smaller than other agencies,” he says, “but we’re really good at creating big opportunities.”

He believes there are only two mistakes in life: not starting, and not going all the way. Since high school, Ian’s been carving his own path, teaching himself how to program and design websites, opening a clothing line, and managing his own restaurant. He feels this life experience has put him right where he’s supposed to be—helping companies find their place within markets and individuals within their company culture.

Dania Jimenez

Communications Director

Dania creates a common language for how people talk about Butchershop out in the world. A classic overachiever (Enneagram 3) and compulsive consumer of content, she brings a decade of experience in brand building and communications strategy to the crew. Dania has shaped the thought leadership and media relations for a diverse array of brands from publicly traded real estate companies to award-winning digital agencies, luxury hospitality retreats to fast-growing CPG wellness products. If there is a sharper way to say it, Dania will find it.

Narrative drives her day-to-day. “For better or worse, we’re shaped by the stories we see shared in the world. I’ve always wanted to tell stories that make people feel excited, motivated, inspired, hopeful and seen. I like challenging my world view with compassion, even though I can have a definitive opinion about almost anything.” Dania joined Butchershop in 2020 at a critical time for the crew to get loud about everything from The Clarity Project to the launch of the WGI Talent Network to the opening of Butchershop Europe.

Dania hails from Los Angeles and requires near constant sunshine and water like a houseplant. She has a BA in Global Studies from UC Santa Barbara and can recommend your next favorite book within five minutes of meeting you.

Nina Mueller

Global Program Director, Butchershop Europe

Any and all creative we produce begins and ends with Nina. Bringing 10 years of experience as an organizational leader at multiple agencies to architect how we look at problems, solutions, and efficiency within our company.

She’s fluent in German, and spent 3 years in Product Marketing and E-commerce at Europe’s largest printing organization. Her global mindset has evolved our method of delivering and executing on creative, and has grown our client relationships at home as well as abroad.

Nina thrives under pressure. An athlete at heart, she sees agency life as pushing her to unlock her best performance, which translates to enabling our teams to produce their best work for our partners. “Seeing ideas generated within our walls come time life is a proud moment,” she says. Nina sees Butchershop as constantly evolving at a fast pace, without compromising its essence. “We’re different than we were 2 years ago,” she remarks, “but we’re still Butchershop.” Some of her landmark projects are Zenefits, Related’s The Avery, Nike Career, and Haufe Global.

Nina received a Bronco Bench athletic scholarship to Santa Clara University on the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Team. She was named All American at the Junior Olympics, and was ranked as top 20 college recruits in the nation.

Jessica Penaflor

People Experience Manager

While everyone is hard at work, Jessica’s harder at work. As People Experience Manager, she’s the expert of anticipating what each team member or client needs to get work done.

The gears of Butchershop don’t turn without her help. Her contributions have streamlined how we operate logistically and culturally as an agency. With family in advertising, Jessica grew up around the agency environment. She’s motivated by creative types, and loves the combined freedom and structure the industry provides. To her, Butchershop’s culture is “something that sets us aside from other creative agencies,” and she sees an opportunity to contribute to its evolution.

Jessica is a Bay Area native, and graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in Recreational Parks & Tourism.

Sara Grossman

Senior Strategist

As a Senior Strategist, Sara’s goal is to truly understand the people involved on a project and in a market. Working with complex creative ideas and crafting unique commercial solutions are areas she has a tremendous talent in.

Sara believes everyone has unique and similar qualities, that when cross-examined properly can lead to unlocking the right strategic roadmaps for brands. She says, “I tend to sift through the details, storylines, and motivations of whoever I meet searching for the thing that makes them make sense to me.” Dabbling in performance and writing, she gained a door into the mindset of creatives—but it was her stint as an inventor that showed her she could excel at positioning brands. It’s because of this she believes she was destined to end up in some kind of creative field.

A Stanford University grad, Sara’s familiar with working around capable people. The trust Butchershop puts into any crew member to bring an idea into the mix is one of its most valuable assets, she feels. Outside of work, she performs as a standup comic and improv artist. It helps her stay original and nimble.

Lauren Miller

Brand Experience Strategist

Lauren (AKA “Lo”) sits at the intersection of strategy and design. As Brand Experience Strategist, she translates brand identities into digital experiences with a keen eye for understanding the flows between objects, humans, and information. Her ability to balance small details with high level story threads puts her in the seat of defining that sweet spot for brands as they grow, launch, or evolve.

After some time in operations and client management, Lo moved into the creative landscape after realizing she loved engaging within the space of human behavior, problem solving, and uncovering business value. She fundamentally believes that good design is at the core of good business, and her wide range of experience—from product design to working at the UN and tech startups large and small—means her aptitude for dissecting problems and turning them into impactful solutions is a skill that’s been thoroughly tested. Easily bored by normal, she prefers the experiences and ideas that “scare the shit of out her.” It’s part and parcel of her curious nature to break things down and figure out new ways to put them back together. “I crave that moment where clients are able to see the spine of the story rising up,” she says. “That moment of recognition and excitement of the possibilities that can unfold—it’s like the early stages of falling in love.” She appreciates the entrepreneurial spirit in Butchershop’s DNA, and that people are game to experiment without fearing the unknown.

Lo received degrees in Environmental Studies and Sociology from Middlebury College, and holds an MA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University. An adventurer at heart, she’s spent months in the Patagonian wilderness and has hitchhiked the Kalahari desert. It’s safe to say you’ll rarely find her at home.

Myles Soderstrom

Producer

Myles is the man who gets production projects off the ground and taken to high quality reality. Previously, he worked at Subjekt Objekt, a visual-production house in Portland, building content for outdoor brands like Smith Optics. Prior to that, he was at Coal Headwear in Seattle, producing everything from video content to catalogs.

Myles is motivated by the opportunity to create truly memorable work, and is always willing to put in the extra hours. Operating with a DIY attitude, an average day for Myles could mean sourcing international filming permits or building a photoshoot schedule for a global crew. Whatever it is, he’s unafraid to get his hands dirty and is an expert at wearing many hats to get the job done. During his time at Butchershop, he’s had the chance to work with clients like Mountain Hardwear, Uber, and Nike—the last of which took him around the world, organizing a photoshoot spanning seven countries.

Myles is most excited about new clients, new experiences, and amazing coworkers. A few of his favorite things are black coffee, light beer, medium-sized dogs.

Dan Aguinaga

Associate Creative Director

Dan’s the bridge between a great brand and a complete stranger. As Associate Creative Director, he brings a high level of creative output on projects through a constant interest in the uninteresting, where he’s able to uncover powerful meaning for brands.

A New York native, he prides the city as being a major influence in his perspective and work. It’s where he honed his expertise in mining human truths that everyone can relate to. “As long as I can remember,” Dan says, “I’ve had a creative mind.” He saw copywriting as an opportunity to connect with people through shared insights, which he conveys in a colloquial and relatable style. He sees Butchershop as a group of smart people who never rest on their laurels—making the process fun and the work better.

Dan went to George Washington University where he received degrees in Marketing and International Business, as well as a Masters in Communication from VCU. He regularly performs stand-up comedy, tying his human insights into deeply funny perspectives that aren’t for the faint of heart.

Melanie Huff

Technical Project Manager

Melanie handles all things digital and complex. She has over a decade’s experience building custom websites, web applications and software for global companies, like Lexmark, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Sony. Her background as a full-stack developer allows her to understand the big picture through process, ensuring that business goals are aligned with project goals.

Melanie finds the gap between creative teams and development teams comfortable, viewing development as an opportunity to learn as well as teach. “What’s the most efficient, logical, timely, optimal solution?” she continually asks. It allows her to form and gain new solutions throughout every experience she builds. It’s led to great work like Lumiata, Sonato, Serif, At-Bay, and Okta.

Melanie has a corporate background, but prides herself on working here, where “weirdos like her thrive.” She holds a BS in Information Technology from Florida State University.

Shawheen Khorshidian

Brand Asset Manager

Shawheen brings a wide experience to his Brand Asset Manager, working in corporate branding for Levi’s and as a lead designer at an architecture firm. At Butchershop, he applies this unique perspective toward streamlining asset management for brands.

Fascinated by pop culture and communication, he sees identity and brand building as an opportunity to engage with larger cultures and audiences. Since joining Butchershop in 2014, he’s helped create brand architectures and visual strategies that introduce this greater dialogue—projects like Oktane, AppDynamics, and The Battery’s Electric Sheep experience. Shawheen sees Butchershop encouraging individuals to grow with a company, rather than at a company. He says, “this allows us to help people become the stars they’re meant to be.” It’s also why he leads our internship program.

Chandler Oseland

Designer

Chandler is a visual designer. He joined Butchershop as a 20-year-old college intern, and never left. He approaches design as a vehicle to create a very specific feeling for people – whether building a brand, digital experience, or campaign. 

Chandler was “raised by the internet,” as he says. He looks for combinations that should not go together, but work. To him, the extremes of music, fashion, art, and culture are where you find unorthodox solutions to complex problems. He’s applied this approach to a wide range of projects at Butchershop: At-Bay, Good Eggs, and The Worlds Greatest Internship, which was recognized by Awwwards Site of the Day. He believes Butchershop is an amalgamation of hyper-talented people with different paths but a common goal: to make unexpected work that actually works for our client’s business. 

Chandler studied design at the University of Arts London. Originally from Las Vegas, he has designed both slot machines and rave flyers. You’ll have to ask him which he prefers. 

Kyle Harrison

Visual Designer

Whether it’s constructing custom wooden packaging or redrawing fonts by hand, the Tyler School of Art graduate likes to get his hands dirty. Kyle brings a deep knowledge within UI/UX design, illustration, and animation, and prides himself on being both creator and problem solver.

Kyle obsesses over the details. No two projects are alike in his mind, which breeds a rapid style of learning and growth for him as a designer. “The more you know, the better you can take that knowledge and apply it to your work in the right fashion at the right time,” he says. There’s a leveling-up that takes place when he’s surrounded by the constant flow of new ideas and perspectives. He’s executed strong brand work on projects like Okta, Mountain Hardware, The Gotham Club, and Haufe.

He tried just visiting San Francisco, but he ended up with a job here before he could leave. He believes the best part about working at Butchershop is “the freedom given to pursue your own path.” When he’s not brand building, Kyle competes in video game tournaments.

Hampton Dunlap

Designer

Hampton is an expert in typography and motion graphics, and relies on his natural curiosity to continue studying emerging technologies in the creative field. Originally a self-taught designer, Hampton has always found himself captivated with visual culture and was motivated to earn his Master’s from the ArtCenter College of Design after considering the long-term effects of a career in economics. 

As a designer, Hampton draws from the worlds of art, history and science with the intention of shaping and contributing to culture in a meaningful way. Hampton treats each design challenge as an opportunity to flex his problem-solving muscles rather than as a surface-level exercise in aesthetics. With a meticulous eye for fluidity and vibrancy, Hampton has contributed to brand design across multiple industries, including hospitality, SaaS & technology, healthcare and communications. 

Born in Texas, Hampton’s story sounds like a classic American road trip, with stints in the South and Northeast for school, before finally landing on the West Coast.

Anton Gammershmidt

Communications Designer

Originally from Russia, Anton joins us after working the far corners of the globe—including the US coasts and New Zealand. His global experience has taught him the importance of trusting in the imagination for unique design solutions.

Anton’s a man of interests. He’s a self-taught artist and has rebuilt motorcycles, owned his own food truck business, and developed video games. He sees design as a visually universal medium he can channel his creative through to produce high-quality craftwork. “Controlling the chaos,” he calls it. You can see it on projects like Oktane, Zo, and Facebook. He sees Butchershop as one big family that’s always building each other up.

Anton’s talents and demeanor have earned him several nicknames, but his favorite is ‘Magic Man.’ He graduated with an MFA in Graphic Design.

Vada Ortiz

Designer + Photographer

Vada started as an intern and continues to impress as a designer. She sees design as an opportunity for any person to enhance their knowledge, skill, and understanding of the world we live in.

She finds beauty in the deep, but simple process of design—taking a few words to their highest possible level of meaning to craft brands that can speak to the world. With a background in photography, she’s expanded our in-house photo studio, giving her greater touchpoints on many different projects. She believes Butchershop’s biggest asset is its people. “I’m just excited to be a part of the Butchershop team as it reinvents itself and strives to become the best version of itself,” she says.

After teaching art and design at Tonbridge School in England and designing for nonprofit Project Resound in Rio de Janeiro, Vada has made her home with us in San Francisco. She looks forward to using every day as a chance to move closer to her highest potential.

Marc Hill

Designer

As a Graphic Communication major at Cal Poly, Marc often saw his classmates creating “beautiful work, but with no inner purpose,” he says. Striving to go beyond this kind of superficial work, Marc joined Butchershop as an intern in 2019. Now, as a full-time crew member, he continues to bring brands to life through thoughtful design that inspires action.

“Purposeful design is like a symphony,” he says. “Each element needs to play a part and be there for a reason. I came here to design as much for function as for beauty.”

The foundation for functional design is based in the human experience. He is fascinated by what makes people tick, brings people together, and drives people to act. “The better you know this,” he says, “the better able you are to create a design that delights while still feeling familiar enough to be palatable.” From Buzzcut to Databricks to Persona, he brings this balance to every project he touches.

Cody Beard

Senior Copywriter

Creator of the enigmatic voice of WGI, Cody came to Butchershop in 2014 as a Research Intern looking to make an immediate impact. With no formal background in the creative industry, he has since crafted an arsenal of skills and experiences that have driven him to become an influential voice within the company. As Senior Copywriter, he uses his well of industry experience to craft identities rooted a strong strategic POV and a brand truth that needs to be spoken.

During his time at Butchershop, he’s held several roles while contributing toward a number of landmark projects—Shipyard, Nike Career, Okta, and WGI to name a few. Ranging from Project Manager to Digital Producer and now Senior Copywriter, he prides himself on building verbal identities that leave a residue in someone’s mind, whether intrigue or novel ways of looking at the world. Having witnessed the multiple evolutions of Butchershop firsthand, he believes what makes it a special place is the continued unorthodox thinking that has remained throughout the changes—the methods, conversations, and people that make it a strange, beautiful place. “It’s the big idea thinking that roams around the office like a fog,” he says.

Cody received an MSc in Social Anthropology from The University of Edinburgh, and a BA in Philosophy from CSU Stanislaus.

Helsi Robino

Senior Project Manager

Helsi is originally from Lima, Peru, but has been in the Bay Area for over 20 years. Before Butchershop, she spent four years in sales, followed by three years at ROI DNA, a digital marketing agency, where she worked with clients like Amazon and Virgin America. She specializes in seeing the full lay of the land in regards to creative workflow, and works closely with the creative team.

She leverages her experience in client communications to manage complex, multifaceted projects with confidence, prizing a “work smarter, not harder” attitude. At Butchershop, she takes a strong initiative to bring new tools to our team’s process in an effort to continue to diversify our service offerings, and thrives on opportunities to help clients and organizations express themselves through brand, organization, and experience design. Since joining Butchershop, she’s delivered projects in verticals from Real Estate to Technology, from Venture to Outdoor Apparel. She sees Butchershop as an agency full of “true individuals” that bond and work with each other effortlessly.

Helsi is a runner—5k every day. She believes that it’s not only ok to be weird, but the best way to live is to surround yourself with more fun weird people.