Principals
Karena K. Dillon
President
Karena Dillon possesses a distinguished retail marketing career in the personal skin care industry. For Focus 21, manufacturer of professional hair, skin and body products, Karena directed educational and point-of-sales product marketing. As a manager for the GAP personal care division, she played a key role in launching the new personal care line at the GAP worldwide flagship store in San Francisco. She also directed distribution and retail sales for Clinique, a division of Esteé Lauder. Her marketing background also includes skin care salon and restaurant development, food service management and business marketing consultation. Karena is actively involved with all agency clients. Her strategic market planning and trade show development have helped Agency clients earn numerous product recognitions and surpass sales goals. She is responsible for the development and implementation of plans, procedures and operational issues for Baker Dillon Group client projects. In addition to overseeing the entire client services department, she manages many of Agency’s key corporate clients. Karena is president of the Consultants Association for the Natural Products Industry (CANI), a non-profit group promoting marketing services to health and food manufacturers nationwide. A member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, Karena holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in health sciences from California State University, Fresno.
Sheldon Baker
Senior Partner
With more than 25 years of creative management experience, Sheldon Baker has developed and directed a wide-range of corporate marketing programs, celebrity promotion and product branding. Originally launching the firm in 1986, he merged his firm with Karena Dillon, and formed the Baker Dillon Group. Previously, Sheldon was affiliated with several well-known marketing and retail sales organizations including Edelman Worldwide in San Francisco, and Montgomery Ward and CNA Insurance in Chicago, developing advertising and public relations strategies. As senior partner with the Baker Dillon Group, he has directed programs that have generated millions of dollars for agency clients. Sheldon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Columbia College in Chicago, the premier marketing and arts educational institution in the U.S. Under his direction, the Agency has received top marketing communications awards from the Los Angeles Marketing Association, San Francisco Press Club, Peninsula Press Club and San Francisco Bay Area Publicity Club. He is past president of CANI and the San Francisco Bay Area Publicity Club.
The Group
Charaighn M. Sesock
Publicity and Public Relations
Charaighn has a diverse public relations and marketing communications background which incorporates over 12 years of working in both Public Relations agency and in-house positions and spanning a multitude of industries including healthcare, food and wine, hospitality, entertainment and music, travel, consumer and high technology. Throughout her career, she has directed and implemented numerous PR programs comprising product launches, media tours, image enhancement, corporate messaging and positioning, crisis communications, special event coordination, trade show management, community relations, advertising and collateral development.
Michael Zap
Internet Architect
Michael directs the Baker Dillon Group Internet team. Combining design and programming experience, Michael oversees technical projects and coordinates the development of Client web sites plus Internet promotion and web, social and viral marketing. He created a series of interactive brain teasers and puzzles for the Kyowa Hakko Cognizin.com and SetriaGlutathione.com web sites, redesigned the Kyowa-USA.com site and created a web site for the Consultants Association. Other recent web projects include Hill Country Food Consultants, The Janka Project, iPraxic.net and LesaffreHumanCare.com.
Ron Wren
Broadcast Advertising and Promotion
Ron has worked with the Baker Dillon Group over a 30-year span writing and developing advertising campaigns for a variety of clients in the food, dietary supplement, financial, travel, automotive and other industries. His work includes story writing and placement in national consumer and a trade publication, planning and moderating focus groups, and frequently provides voice-over radio and TV announcing for clients. Ron has traveled the world producing and directing the 39-week PBS-station series, "Backroad Adventures." Prior to entering the marketing field, he was a television announcer-director, the Advertising, Promotion and Publicity Director of ABC-owned KGO and KGO-TV in San Francisco, and later the Public Relations Director of Westinghouse TV's KPIX-5, also in San Francisco. Ron is also a nationally-published freelance magazine writer and private pilot.
Dean Titus
Graphic Design/Print
Dean comes to Baker Dillon Group with over 23 years of graphic design and print experience. He leads a team of talented artists as well as digital and offset printing professionals. For the last 10 years Dean has assisted clients with the launch of new products and brands through logo development, collateral and package design and the printing of promotional materials. With his vast understanding of various printing technologies, Dean has helped clients solve their marketing challenges in a timely and efficient manner.
Sara Lovelady
Copywriting
Sara, a.k.a. Wordgirl, has worked as a natural products copywriter for 14 years, including seven years as copywriter, brand manager and marketing director for Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems and seven years as a freelance writer. She has written copy for over 100 brands of natural supplement, food, body care, and clothing lines and has published articles in numerous consumer and trade natural health magazines and web sites.
Richard Townsend
Video Marketing
Richard, a San Francisco native, is an Emmy Award-winning television news videographer and director. For more than three decades, Richard has taken part in various aspects of television news creation. For over 10 years he was with ABC-TV as a bureau chief in Moscow, Russia, producer and videographer in Peking, China, and head of technical operations for KGO-TV in San Francisco. His television credits also include news coverage for the Voice of America and United States Information Bureau.
Michael Mustacchi
Photographer
Affiliate
Robert Forbes and Associates
Robert Forbes and Associates (RFA) became a Baker Dillon Group (BDG) affiliate firm in 2009 to offer BDG clients a new and expanded marketplace for their products in Australia. RFA offers reliable regulatory and technical advice to suppliers and manufacturers of complementary medicines, dietary supplements, OTC medicines, cosmetics, personal care products and foods in the Australia marketplace. Established in 1993, RFA is Australia’s leading consultancy in the field of complementary medicines, with an international client base of over 500 companies. A team of degree qualified scientists and herbal medicine graduates provide a comprehensive range of services, with every project rigorously checked and cross checked to in-house procedures. Robert Forbes is managing director of Robert Forbes and Associates and has been involved in the complementary medicine industry for nearly 30 years. He has been a regulatory affairs consultant since the late 1980s. Robert is currently President of the Association of Therapeutic Goods Consultants in Australia and Vice President of the Consultants Association for the Natural Products Industry in the US.