Brad VanAuken is president and founder of BrandForward, a brand strategy consultancy with clients throughout the world. Previously, Brad was the VP of marketing for Element K and director of brand management and marketing for Hallmark Cards, Inc. During his tenure as Hallmark’s chief brand advocate, Hallmark rose to 4th in the EquiTrend national quality brand ranking and Hallmark received the Brand Management of the Year award. As a brand management and marketing expert, Brad has appeared in ADWEEK, CNN, Entrepreneur magazine, Forbes magazine, Fox News, HLN, Inc. magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, NPR and The Bloomberg Money Show. He has been a guest lecturer at many universities including Harvard, Stanford and Northwestern. He wrote Brand Aid, which many business schools use to teach brand management. He authors www.BrandingStrategySource.com, recognized as a Top 50 Branding Blog by feedspot. In 2008 and 2009, Invesp identified him as one of the top 100 marketers.