How We Do | Mod Op

How We Do

We’re made of folks who hail from all over and arrived here from every walk of life. We’re made of countless perspectives and a ridiculously rich wealth of experience. We’re made of curiosity over the status quo, work ethic over laurel-resting, and desire over fear. We live to make big ideas come to life. And when it comes to charging toward new possibilities, we can’t be stopped.

The Builders

People

Eric J. Bertrand

Chief Executive Officer

Eric is CEO of Mod Op, a full-service digital marketing agency that combines senior-led talent with AI-enabled tools to deliver smarter outcomes with fewer resources. Through strategic acquisitions, he’s positioned the company as a future-forward platform agency offering integrated, end-to-end capabilities. This growth trajectory earned Mod Op recognition on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing companies, placing it among the fastest-growing U.S. agencies.

An independent agency thought leader, Eric regularly shares insights on the evolving brand–agency landscape through industry media and speaking. He has appeared on The Digital Fix Podcast (2026) and the Leader Generation Podcast (2025), will be a featured speaker at the 4A’s Decisions event in Boston (2026), and is the author of Getting Digital Done, a practical guide for executives navigating digital transformation. He holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies from NYU and a BS in Business Administration from Bryant University.

Tessa Burg

Chief Technology Officer

Tessa has led both technology and marketing teams for 15+ years. She initiated and now leads Mod Op’s AI/ML Pilot Team, AI Council and Innovation Pipeline. Tessa started her career in IT and development before following her love for data and strategy into digital marketing. She has held roles on both the consulting and client sides of the business for domestic and international brands, including American Greetings, Amazon, Nestlé, Anlene, Moen and many more.

Tony Cannon

Chief Financial Officer

As Mod Op’s Chief Financial Officer Tony oversees all the financial activities of the agency. Tony is a seasoned financial executive with over 32 years of experience, including more than 20 years as a Chief Financial Officer. Tony plays an integral role guiding the digital transformation and creative initiatives unique to Mod Op with sound financial stewardship. In addition, Tony’s leadership has been pivotal in steering Mod Op through a period of significant growth via mergers and acquisitions. Tony began his career at Arthur Andersen, LLP and jumped into advertising in 1998. A trusted member to the executive team, Tony continues to play a key role in shaping the financial future of the organization.

Aaron Sternlicht

Chief Growth Officer

Aaron has led campaigns and brand projects for clients such as Nike, Ubisoft, Fender, EA SPORTS, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, 2K Games, Reddit, LEGO and many others. In his diverse role, Aaron has also leads new business projects, provides creative leadership and manages comprehensive campaigns across digital, social, TV and outdoor channels.

Prior to founding Mod Op, Aaron spent 10+ years managing marketing for the gaming, sports and entertainment industries where he applied his knowledge of innovative technology and immersive experiences to every integrated campaign.

Steve Red

Co-Chief Creative Officer

The founder of Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners, acquired by Mod Op, Steve touches virtually everything that goes out of the agency door from a creative and strategic perspective. He believes people are smart and advertising should be too, and that the only real martini is made with gin. Someday … long after his teenagers aren’t teenagers anymore, he’ll settle down and start painting again, which is what his dad says he should have done all along.

Steve O’Connell

Co-Chief Creative Officer

Steve stalks the halls of our creative department and shepherds ideas to greatness over a bar he keeps at an unconscionably high level. In a prior life, at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Steve crafted campaigns for the likes of MINI, IKEA, Virgin Atlantic, Schwinn and truth, to name a few. He also founded an agency, STICK and MOVE. And has won enough Clios, Pencils and Lions to require their own bookcase. Oh, he also just started learning how to play the guitar. Sort of.

Miles Dinsmoor

Chief Production Officer

Prior to launching Mod Op in 2011, with a vision for bridging brand strategy with digital execution, Miles was a founding partner at both BIGSMACKtv and Concrete Pictures where he devised campaigns for high-profile entertainment industry clients like ESPN, CBS SPORTS, HBO, Discovery Communications, DIRECTV, and Comcast. Other career highlights include founding an original “ambient art” channel (moov) during the heady days of early HD, and contributing to “the future of advertising” for the Steven Spielberg film Minority Report, helping to craft the vision for how such brands as Lexus, American Express, Reebok and Pepsi would appear in the year 2054 (making a cameo appearance in one of them as Guinness Man)…

Stuart Goldstein

Chief Operating Officer

As an experienced operations leader with over 20 years of success, Stuart can captain any ship. From start-up to heavyweight, Stuart has helped agencies and organizations pave their path to greatness. His expertise has been instrumental in driving growth and fame for renowned clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Oreo, Coca-Cola, American Express, Novartis, Diageo, eBay, GlaxoSmithKline, Time Warner, and Marvel, among others. And somehow, he still finds a way to drop a joke and take life one day at a time. As long as it fits the brief.

Jean Kouremetis

Chief People Officer

As Mod Op’s Chief People Officer, Jean oversees global HR strategies that drive company performance and goals. She is laser-focused on the continuous, scalable development of Mod Op’s talent acquisition, employee engagement, and organizational growth efforts. Jean plays a critical role in shaping Mod Op’s company culture by leading seamless acquisition integrations, cultivating a collaborative work environment, and ensuring efficient operations. Jean draws on her previous experience in HR, business management, and operations in academic, corporate, and creative organizations as well as start-ups and non-profits. She has a BA in Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an MPA in Management and Policy from the NYU Wagner School. She lives with her family in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Jonathan Murray

Co-EVP, Transformation Consulting

As Chief Strategy Officer at Mod Op Jonathan leads our strategic client engagements leveraging his decades of experience driving companywide transformations at several global brand name organizations. His unique blend of modern platform business model, data strategy, platform architecture, and software engineering experience makes him the ideal partner for CEOs, Boards and other senior client stakeholders needing to deliver growth in a world of data and AI driven business disruptions. Before joining Mod Op Strategic Consulting, Jonathan held the positions of Chief Technology Officer at The New York Times and Warner Group Music preceded by a sixteen-year executive career with Microsoft.

Carla Mote Red

EVP Creative

After managing the Pacific Bell account, while at creative powerhouse Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, Carla joined RTO+P (acquired by Mod Op) to handle the Comcast account, where she guided brand efforts, new product launches and all communications around their acquisition of AT&T. These days, Carla oversees agency operations and account management. She also readily admits to having a potty mouth, and has an ongoing love affair with a 4 lb. revolutionary named Gnitt.

Shannon Sullivan

EVP, Audience Growth & Performance

With more than 25 years of experience with a specialty in the Technology B2B industry, Shannon Sullivan is a go-to leader for strategically finding and reaching target audiences to create preference for, engage with, and become customers for our clients. As the Executive Vice President of Paid Channel Marketing at Mod Op, she develops marketing strategies for the digital world with an audience-first approach and leads a team of 25 that executes with a focus on ROI. She uses her extensive knowledge and expertise to help businesses—big and small—get noticed. From global tech companies to smaller up-and-comers, Shannon helps businesses successfully connect with people and grow their online presence in the paid environment.

Chris Harihar

EVP Public Relations

With deep expertise in business and tech media relations, Chris counsels clients at a high level while maintaining hands-on involvement in media relations and content strategy. He has developed and run highly successful programs for leading B2B and tech brands, from Verizon Media/Yahoo and DoubleVerify to Signal AI, IDG (now Foundry) and WeTransfer.

Len Gilbert

Co-EVP, Transformation Consulting

With more than 25 years of experience, Len helps companies strategically use data and technology to innovate, grow, launch new products, stay competitive, and future-proof their businesses against the risks of digital disruption. Keen to find new opportunities for growth, Len enjoys addressing even the most complex business challenges. Before joining Mod Op Strategic Consulting in 2015, Len was the VP and Head of Business Development & Channel Sales at Yodle, a provider of SaaS platform-based customer acquisition and CRM solutions. Before that he was VP, Head of Directory Products & Customer Experience at LexisNexis and Vice President of eBusiness Development at The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Laura Stevenson

EVP, Data and Marketing Automation

A seasoned marketing executive with over 25 years of advertising and marketing expertise, Laura Stevenson helps clients create innovative, high-impact, and results-driven journey and ABM/ABX demand generation strategies, including adeptly mapping content to align with sales funnels and customer stages. She has previously held corporate roles at Verizon and collaborated with a diverse set of companies such as Nissan, BlueJeans by Verizon, Alkami, and SAP. She excels in leveraging the latest tools, technologies, and industry best practices, ensuring next-level marketing effectiveness.

Derick Schaefer

EVP, Technology

Derick is passionate about the creation and execution of customer-centric business strategy using technology and process as enablers. He has 25+ years of experience in the industry, most recently working as Chief Technology Officer at Trintech Inc. before joining Mod Op Strategic Consulting. Derick has also been VP of Engineering & Information Security at Digital Insight, as well as VP of Engineering and Product Management at NCR. Derick was the founder of a successful startup called Synthesis and worked at The Microsoft Corporation for over a decade.

Liz Holden

EVP, Experiential

Liz is an experiential leader with 20+ years guiding brands from strategy through execution across design, production, and integrated program delivery. A core focus of her work is interactive experiential technology — the purposeful integration of digital tools and emerging tech to elevate attendee experience, improve accessibility, and extend value beyond the moment. She ensures technology choices serve the story, the audience, and measurable outcomes — without adding friction.

Susan Baraczek

EVP, Client Partnerships

Susan is EVP, Head of Client Partnerships at Mod Op. Classically trained at Ogilvy and Leo Burnett, she spent 12 years across London, New York, LA, and Korea launching products like the Motorola Razr and building global Samsung campaigns. At RTO+P, she led work for Stanley Black & Decker, FOX Networks, and others before earning a role as Associate Partner. Today she leads Mod Op’s Client Partnerships group, weaving human creativity and data intelligence into every client engagement.

Adam Leaventon

EVP, Commercial Strategy & Business Affairs

Adam came to Mod Op by way of Cornell, Penn Law, a couple of large New York law firms and a detour through PUMA. Roundabout path to an ad agency. But it turns out the job is the same— get smart people excited about something they haven’t decided to care about yet. As EVP of Commercial Strategy & Business Affairs, he’s been connecting new relationships, protecting old ones and building the infrastructure that makes the work possible— for over 13 years now. When he’s not here, he’s somewhere in Philly chasing pre-war baseball cards and vintage sneakers, convinced the next one is the one.

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