Kurt Guenther – President & CEO
Kurt believes in the power of storytelling to help people dramatically improve their lives and their legacy. He is most committed to helping empower the generation now entering adulthood because it is the generation that must clean-up after the baby boom to survive. It’s a generation that has shown willingness to rethink the rules. Kurt’s commitment to social change includes several years serving in the ministry, working with young people and with criminal offenders. He is a founder of doingsomething, Washington Bus, the Win-Win Network, and FUSE. Kurt had served on the boards of John Hay Elementary, Washington Environmental Council, Washington Conservation Voters and FUSE.
Before founding GuentherMedia, Kurt worked for GMMB, a leading political and public affairs firm in the nation. It is part of Fleishman-Hillard, which is the largest PR company in the world. There were 16 employees when Kurt started in 1987, and today there are more than 200. While there, he worked on strategy, film, video, and print as well as media relations for national and statewide candidates and causes. This included working as the creative coordinator for the successful Clinton-Gore ’92 presidential bid. Kurt was also responsible for the first-ever branding and ad campaign for AmeriCorps as well as TV and print for Johnson & Johnson. He opened and ran the Seattle office of GMMB for three years before opening his own firm in 2004.
Kurt attended Occidental College and Boston University, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Seattle with his wife, two teens and Ty the Wonderdog. Email Kurt
Sam Holman – Associate
Sam’s passion for message strategy was ignited at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon where he majored in Psychology. His degree emphasized the multifaceted roles of influence, persuasion, belief formation, and cognition. Sam is excited to put his studies into action at GuentherMedia, by helping clients tell stories that stick. Outside of work, Sam enjoys baseball, hiking, cooking, and is a strong supporter of the movement towards living sustainably. Email Sam
Collaborators
Christian Hansen (Shooter, Editor)
Christian is a cinematographer/artist based in Seattle and New York. He works with clients all over the world and is well respected not only as a filmmaker, but also as a director and graphic designer.
Christine Winckler (Web Strategist, Designer)
Christine is a Seattle-based freelance web designer who specializes in WordPress. She earned a degree in Community, Environment and Planning at the University of Washington, and enjoys using her technical skills in support of work that makes a difference.
John Jeffcoat (Shooter, Editor). John’s first collaboration with GuentherMedia was in 2004, helping produce an award-winning ad for the Government Accountability Project that brought national coverage to problems with the Hanford clean-up. John also directs feature films and has developed his movie, “Outsourced” as a television series, now on NBC.
John Wyble (Collaborator) John and Kurt first worked together in 1996 when John was a client and Political Director of WCV. John is partner at WinPower Strategies, brings extensive knowledge of state politics and considerable Northwest campaign experience to our firms’ collaborations.
Megan Griffiths (Producer, Shooter). We’ve joined up with Megan, also known as The Cine Chick, on numerous projects, with exceptional results. Recently, she shot the Equal Rights Washington ad with us. Megan is a star in her own right, having led or worked on many independent films, including the recent national hit, “Hump Day.”
Pete Droge (Composer). Pete’s work can be heard on the soundtracks of top TV series, movies and his own CD. Fortunately for us, Pete lives on Vashon and is partial to efforts to make things better.
Sean Porter (Shooter). Sean has shot some of the prettiest work we’ve done and some of the most edgy. He divides his time between Seattle and NYC, but continues to give us local rates that reflect his commitment to the cause.
