About the Team
Marieke Hensel
(@hensel)
Marieke (pronounce like Eureka) lived and worked in Brazil, Romania, the US, and in the Netherlands – where she was born and raised. She got started in Search Engine Optimization in 1998, Search Engine Marketing in 2005 and Social Mediain 2004 and currently runs the team and educates her clients on what is needed to generate more leads or sales online.
Marieke is an internationally published co-author of BusinessWise, a collaborative book for small companies with large ambitions. BusinessWise was the #2 bestselling business book on Amazon.co.uk in May 2007. Her latest book is – ‘Next Up: Essential Social Media Strategies for Auto Dealerships’ that she co-authored with Kathi Kruse. She is listed in the VIVA400 for 2009 & 2010 in the Netherlands. A ranking, like the Forbes500 that lists the 400 most successful women in the Netherlands, compiled by Viva magazine.
In the rare moments when she’s not developing winning strategies for her clients or speaking at events, she is playing Settlers of Catan at her weekly-hosted board game nights.
Rutger Hensel (@rutger)
A former 747-400 pilot for the Dutch airline KLM, is now Chief Operations Officer at Branding Personality. His favorite part of working for Branding Personality is overseeing all the geeks and helping them make a positive impact for clients and generating great results. He also enjoys GeekBeerNight where we wrap up the week as a team on Friday’s after work sampling new beers each time. When Rutger isn’t overseeing operations, he is playing games on his Xbox or develops his own apps.
Maks Surguy (@msurguy)
Jordan Marquez (@leakingjournal)
Jordan is our Social Media Strategist here at Branding Personality. After professionally tweeting and blogging himself on Facebook and Twitter, Jordan began managing social media and journalism departments for entertainment and fashion companies after graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2008. As an avid writer, reader, and Los Angeles sports fanatic, Jordan enjoys all outdoors activities, producing blogs, tweets and journal entries on a daily basis, and watching SportsCenter more than any sane man should. Jordan just completed his Certificate in Journalism at UCLA Extension classes, and one day plans on publishing a novel, a memoir, and a collection of short stories.
Miguel Aguilar
Miguel Aguilar is a web developer working for Branding Personality. He was born in Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico and came over to the States when he was 11 years old. Ever since he was a kid he was always fascinated by computers. His first official job as a web developer was working with a start up company which would organize music events. While working there, he realized how much he loves programming. In the evening hours he is attending Fullerton College and wants to attend UCLA to finish his Bachelors Degree in Computer Science. When he’s not programming, Miguel is playing or watching soccer which he is very passionate about, relaxing at home listening to alternative rock, or spending time with his two beautiful children.
Mike Ahuja
Mike Ahuja is our Search Engine Optimization Specialist.
Caitlin Tom
Caitlin Tom is the social media intern, and supports Jordan Marquez in researching awesome content to be posted for several of our clients. From the age of 5 until the end of high school, she was an avid dancer in ballet, jazz, hip hop, modern, and contemporary. Seeing that she was constantly feeling nostalgic of those days, Caitlin is now currently taking a Dance minor along with her Media and Cultural Studies major at the University of California, Riverside, where she is set to graduate in June 2013. She is a self-proclaimed foodie who loves trying popular (and student budget-friendly) food spots and trends. Someday she would like to experience working in a television studio and a live-event.
Lori Johnson (@ElleJisAwesome)
Lori is passionate about quality customer experiences and providing consumers with educational, entertaining, and informative content. She is Branding Personality’s blogger. Lori has an MA in French from CSU Fullerton and an MBA from Chapman University with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship. Her favorite thing about working at Branding Personality is the awesome and intelligent team. She loves traveling, reading, running, and golfing. One day she hopes to have 2 teacup pigs.
Pim Hensel
Pim likes to make everybody happy and wanted a job at our office, so he became our Chief Happiness Officer. He loves to offer you a drink if you are working hard and sometimes even gives a tip of his own hard earned money, as he feels you deserve it when you are working so much! His traits of kindness and empathy shine through in his work. He likes to help people out with whatever you need. When he is not working he loves to play at home with one of his brothers. He loves playing with lego’s and is not old enough to drive.