ELEVEN®

Leadership Team

Our leadership team has been plucked from the highest levels of both corporate business and advertising agencies. We understand both sides of the sales and marketing canyon because we’ve climbed up and out–and lived to talk about it.

Tony Hessburg

Founder + CEO

Tony Hessburg is a business-focused, strategy-minded marketing executive with 25 years of experience providing forward-thinking marketing, branding, digital transformation, and channel management for global brands. Before founding a marketing and interactive agency, he worked in corporate roles in motorsports and alpine sports. He has launched numerous brands, products and software applications. He has successfully disrupted traditional business and commerce models.

Highlights + Client Portfolio

  • Architected and piloted an international med-tech academy providing commercial diligence and market preparedness assessments on novel innovations as a feeder program for investors and global med tech brands
  • Developed and managed worldwide marketing, branding and public relations programs for Polaris
  • Key role in migrating the Polaris brand to a new, younger demographic
  • Managed US operations for Swiss-owned Palmer Snowboards and facilitated in growing the brand to the market share leader in the premium price point snowboard category
  • Wide range of marketing and product management including skis, snowboards, optical lenses and personal watercraft
  • Administered UX/UI of Oracle/ATG, Demandware, and Magento e-commerce initiatives for several global brands including UNICEF, Laura Mercier, and Nyakio
  • Managed front-end development and technical support for numerous e-commerce platforms and custom retail channel applications including for Deluxe Corporation, Finish Line, Hallmark, JBL, Kohler, Lumens, Ranger Boats, Reliable, and Trek Bikes
  • Managed professional athlete relations for Polaris, Palmer and Hart
  • BS Applied Economics with a focus in socioeconomics, international trade, and market analysis. Wall Street Journal Achievement Award recipient for academic distinction

Alex Denholm

VP of Client Services

Alex Denholm brings over 20 years of agency experience, specializing in managing client relationships to drive results through strategic brand and technology initiatives. Previously, Alex co-founded an agency in New York City with offices in London and Yerevan. He has also been instrumental in launching multiple start-ups, including development houses, social media platforms, and video-on-demand services. His collaborative approach spans across diverse cultures and job functions, reflecting his commitment to delivering excellence regardless of project size or scope.

Outside of work, Alex enjoys spending time with his family—Jennie and their mischievous dog, Toad—while learning the piano at 40 and battling Toad’s recent digging efforts to grow grass in the yard.

Highlights + Client Portfolio

  • President Emeritus of the Advertising Federation of Minnesota
  • Co-founded an agency with offices in New York, London and Yerevan
  • Recipient of the Best of Show for Business-to-Business campaign in Minnesota
  • Annual keynote speaker at the University of Minnesota
  • Boston Scientific
  • Tetra Pak
  • Inspire Medical Systems
  • Hayward Industries
  • Duke Cannon
  • Google
  • YouTube
  • US Army
  • Clinique
  • Seiko
  • Bulova
  • Macy’s
  • DIRECTV

Victoria Seals

VP of Commercial Strategy + Transformation

Victoria brings more than 20 years of healthcare and medtech experience. Most recently, she served as District Sales Manager – ENT at Medtronic, leading field teams within a specialized surgical landscape. She previously held the role of Sales Enablement Manager at Boston Scientific and spent over seven years at Coloplast in sales training and clinical education leadership roles, where she built and scaled multi-modal education platforms designed to strengthen competencies, support launch excellence, and drive measurable performance.

Her career also includes institutional account leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk, and Bayer, providing a comprehensive understanding of hospital systems, specialty sales, and formulary access.

Outside of work she loves traveling and watching her kids plays sports!

Highlights + Client Portfolio

  • Led several initiatives that lead to Presidents Clubs trips for teams
  • Created the Strategy, tactics and implemented multi-nation education platform for Coloplast
  • Created and launched Podcast channel for the US that ended up having
  • Created and launched multi-national training program
  • Strategized new way to launch products with marketing that led to $1m in sales the first 2 months

Brent Leland

Senior Business + Technology Strategist

Brent Leland is a thought leader and consultant who has spent the last 25 years driving transformation in fast-growing, complex manufacturing, retail, and consumer products companies. He chaired the advisory board of Advancing AI Wisconsin, was the CIO of Trek Bicycle and held various finance, supply chain, engineering, and IT roles earlier in his career for Spectrum Brands (formerly Rayovac), Hewlett-Packard, Loral, and General Dynamics. Additional previous clients include Sub-Zero Wolf, Milwaukee Tool, Fiskars, Johnson Outdoors, and Stoughton Trailers.

Highlights + Client Portfolio

  • Strategic Assessment Leadership – Led several strategic initiatives at Sub-Zero Wolf including a Customer Experience Digital Transformation, Supply Chain Roadmap, BI Roadmap, and NPD Current State Assessment.
  • Thought Leadership – Presented at many events and led executive workshops focused on leveraging disruptive technologies and innovative growth strategies.
  • Technology Leadership – As Trek Bicycle’s first CIO, led a multi-year technology transformation bringing them into the modern era. Developed strategic technology roadmaps and served in interim leadership roles for a variety of clients.
  • Entrepreneurial Experience – Founded two consulting companies focused on innovative and technology-enabled growth strategies. Led a retail Point-of-Sale (POS) software company called Ascend in use by over 1,000 independent bike dealers. Adopted operating principles from successful software companies (agile, crowd-sourced innovation, etc.) to achieve the top market share in the US bike industry.
  • Analytics & Insights – Extensive experience both as a hands-on analyst and as a solution builder. These included scenario planning, predictive modeling, retail analytics, BI roadmaps, and leading analytics teams.
  • M&A, Integration Leadership – Led significant portions of IT and finance integrations for several large acquisitions as Spectrum Brands grew from a $300M North America battery company to a $2.6B global consumer products company.
  • Brent holds an MBA from Stanford and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida and is a certified Vistage speaker.

Rebecca Laird

Director of Finance + Operations

Rebecca Laird has fifteen years of experience as a project manager in both client-side and agency roles. Throughout her career, she has dedicated her time and responsibilities to elevating standards, processes and digital tools used for effective, on-time, on-budget project delivery. Her willingness to collaborate with internal and client stakeholders enables a workflow that is realistic, achievable and encourages transparency.

Beyond her professional endeavors, you will likely find her playing a board game, riding her Triumph Bobber on scenic byways, or trying out a new craft brewery.

Skill Highlights / Certifications + Client Portfolio

  • Certified Scrum Master
  • Certified Scrum Product Owner
  • Recipient of the Best of Show for Business-to-Business campaign in Minnesota
  • Arctic Cat
  • BASF
  • Boston Scientific
  • Hayward Industries
  • Inspire Medical Systems
  • Schwan’s
  • Target
  • Tetra Pak
  • trū Shrimp
  • Vidscrip
  • Walgreens

Noelle Mohs

Director of Digital / Media

Noelle is a digital marketing strategist with a proven ability to translate complex products and services into connected, high-performing marketing systems. Her experience spans B2B, B2C, and B2B2C environments, with a focus on healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, clinical research, and medical device organizations.

She specializes in building full-funnel strategies that align brand, demand generation, and digital experience — ensuring marketing efforts are not only creative, but measurable, scalable, and tied to business outcomes. With deep expertise in marketing automation, segmentation, and customer journey design, Noelle brings a modern, data-driven approach to engagement, conversion, and growth.

Prior to joining ELEVEN, Noelle led consumer marketing initiatives at UnitedHealthcare and Optum, where she developed omnichannel campaigns to support engagement, care navigation, and enrollment, while contributing to the rollout and market activation of new products and services. She previously held progressive digital marketing roles at Medpace, where she led B2B digital strategy and demand generation initiatives, advancing marketing technology and supporting global growth, and began her career agency-side developing integrated digital strategies across a diverse client base.

Outside of work, Noelle is either on the lake, trying a new restaurant, or planning her next trip — with her husband and goldendoodle never far behind, and a run or Pilates class somewhere in the mix.

Client Portfolio

  • Architected and executed full-funnel digital marketing strategies across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C environments, aligning brand, demand, and customer experience to drive measurable growth
  • Led marketing automation and MarTech initiatives (including HubSpot, Salesforce, Adobe, and CRM integrations), improving scalability, personalization, and performance tracking
  • Delivered measurable performance improvements, including 7.8% YoY increase in lead generation, 200% increase in paid media-attributed leads, 75% reduction in cost-per-lead, and 60% of leads attributed directly to marketing through enhanced tracking models
  • Developed and optimized omnichannel campaigns across SEO, SEM, paid media, email, and social—driving engagement, conversion, and audience growth
  • Supported the launch and market activation of new healthcare products and services, translating complex offerings into clear, high-performing go-to-market strategies
  • Built and scaled thought leadership platforms, including LinkedIn newsletters with 80K+ subscribers, increasing brand visibility and engagement
  • Led website strategy and optimization initiatives, driving significant gains in traffic, engagement, and user experience
  • Experience across healthcare, biopharma, clinical research, and medical device organizations, with a strong understanding of regulated marketing environments
  • Guest Lecturer, Farmer School of Business; Bachelors degree in Interactive Media Studies (Marketing), Miami University

Käri Niessink-Takai

Director of Project Management + Production

With over two decades of experience in agency operations, project management, production, and talent leadership, Käri is a trusted expert in aligning creative excellence with operational rigor. She has led high-performing, multidisciplinary teams across global markets, overseeing complex workflows, multimillion-dollar budgets, and large-scale staffing plans to ensure projects are produced and delivered on time, on budget, and at the highest level of creative quality. Käri excels at optimizing systems and processes to support creative ambition—streamlining execution while safeguarding the integrity of the work. Her leadership bridges the gap between creative and operational disciplines, fostering collaboration, enhancing client relationships, and cultivating environments where talent thrives and great ideas are brought to life with precision and impact.

In her off-hours, Käri focuses her energy and passion on family, traveling, writing, running, vegan cooking, and supporting and volunteering with numerous animal welfare organizations.

Client Portfolio

  • Automotive: Volkswagen, Infiniti, Lexus
  • Airlines: American, Cathay Pacific
  • Food & Beverage: Burger King, Dominos, Coke Zero, Sprite, Chateau Ste. Michelle
  • Technology: Microsoft, Geek Squad
  • Apparel & Sporting Goods: Nike, Pearl Izumi, Shimano, Bell/Giro, Buell. B-Cycle
  • Travel & Leisure: The Ritz Carlton, Hotels.com
  • Financial & Lottery: PIMCO, Barclays, MN Lottery

Trevor Foley

Director of AdReach Program + Tech

Trevor Foley brings more than 20 years of experience in program management and operations leadership at global advertising, marketing, and media agencies. He partners with executive teams to optimize enterprise operations and connect strategy to execution, with a record of measurable cost reductions, revenue growth, and process improvements across consumer, tech, healthcare, automotive, luxury, and entertainment categories. Trevor has guided cross-functional teams through major organizational change, integrated technology to drive efficiency, and built scalable systems and financial governance frameworks that hold up under pressure. His leadership balances financial stewardship with creative ambition, helping high-performing teams deliver on time, on budget, and at scale.

Outside of work, you'll find Trevor at the track racing motorcycles, on the mountain snowboarding, out on a hiking trail, or studying architecture and design. He's also a productivity enthusiast who has gotten deep into building AI workflows and exploring how AI tools can optimize the way teams operate. He's constantly listening to podcasts, testing new tools, and looking for ways to work smarter, not harder.

Client Portfolio

  • Automotive: Lexus
  • Travel & Hospitality: The Ritz-Carlton
  • Financial Services: HSBC Premier
  • Technology & Social: Apple, Snapchat
  • Streaming & Media: Hulu, Netflix
  • Entertainment & Film: IFC Films, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony Classics, Sony Pictures, Universal
  • Energy: Shell
  • Healthcare: UCI Health

Landon Hall

Executive Creative Director

Landon Hall has over 22 years of leading design and CPG experience. In addition, he has substantial experience in the food, consumer healthcare, and consumer electronics industries. His eye for smart and purposeful design has helped guide brands such as 3M, Disney, General Mills, Walgreens, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Duracell, Boston Scientific, Kroger’s, and more. He has been an ELEVEN Associate since 2013.

Client Portfolio

  • 3M Nexcare
  • Bass Pro Shops
  • Bios Lighting
  • CPG (Creative Partners Group)
  • Walgreens
  • Eyemart Express
  • Geneticure
  • HOYA
  • Insight Brewing
  • Memphis Grills
  • Boston Scientific
  • RQR
  • Sip Better Wine Club
  • Stigma
  • ZAGG

Jeremy Wolfe

Director of Technology

Jeremy Wolfe is a skilled senior developer, and a veteran at heading up full-stack tech implementations. After many years of tackling small web projects for friends and family, his hands-on experience eventually solidified as the foundation of a professional career starting in the early 2010s.

Over a decade in the industry has refined Jeremy’s expertise in numerous technologies, which serves as guidance in his role planning tech initiatives and leading development teams. At the same time, he continues to excel at building custom web platforms as well as integrations with existing systems, and refuses to ever stop learning.

Outside the office, Jeremy enjoys tinkering in the garage and traveling to places warmer than Minnesota. He can also often be found honing his shooting skills, as both an aspiring photographer and firearms enthusiast.

Client Portfolio

  • Aveda
  • Boston Scientific
  • Clarins
  • Deluxe
  • Eyemart Express
  • Finish Line
  • Geneticure
  • Hallmark
  • Harman/JBL
  • Hayward Industries
  • HOYA
  • Insight Brewing
  • Inspire Medical Systems
  • Kohler
  • Laura Mercier
  • Lumens
  • North Pole Engineering
  • NorthRock Partners
  • Ottobock
  • Protein Evolution
  • Ranger Boats
  • RQR Partners
  • Sever's Festivals
  • Sip Better Wine Club
  • Tetra Pak
  • Trek Bikes
  • trū Shrimp
  • Unlost
  • Vidscrip
  • World Gym