TMG CREATIVE TEAM

DREW MATTHEWS
President / Creative Director

YVONNE MOLL
Digital Marketing Specialist

CLAIRE THESSEN
Mixed Media Graphic Designer

DAVE SKINNER
Sound Design Composer & Audio Engineer

DEBBIE BROWN
Office Manager

EMMA PALMER
Mixed Media Graphic Designer

BILL CRAWFORD
Photographer & Drone Pilot

DREW WAS BORN in St. Louis and raised at the geographic (and psychographic) confluence of America’s cultural melting pot where the Mississippi meets the Ohio in Smalltown, Missouri, USA. His family has lived and prospered in the area as successful entrepreneurs in an unbroken line for over 260 years.

A midwestern upbringing was fortuitous, giving Drew a unique perspective on how to communicate and market to many people, cultures, accents, values, traditions, and histories that all mushed together in the area.

BOYHOOD WAS NORMAN ROCKWELL IDYLLIC and filled with Schwinn Stingrays, Man From Uncle, go-carts, Mercury Hurricane Super 10’s, boats, canoes, planes (both balsa and real), motorcycles, and assorted racing green British Leyland products in need of constant repair, a Fender Mustang, Wah-Wah pedal, Bandmaster amp, and a couple truckloads of Tri-X coursing through a Pentax rounded out the inventory. A garage band that was best left in the garage occupied time. A black and tan hound dog of questionable provenance provided companionship and one bazillion cousins provided a built-in compound of friends.

Family farmland had three large ancient native American mounds for creative adventures, campouts, arrowhead hunting, discharging firearms, horseback riding, blowing up Vienna sausage, tooling around on a vintage Massey-Furgeson, and other mischievous endeavors lying outside the boundaries of parental oversight.

UNIVERSITY TRAINED UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF DR. FRANK PAONI — University was a fortuitous time that provided the truly privileged opportunity to learn from the acknowledged master of marketing and marketing psychology in the world at the time, Dr. Frank Paoni, whose Ph.D. in psychology and marketing genius propelled Anheuser-Busch and others to worldwide stardom. Drew left with two degrees, psychology and marketing.

THE MATTHEWS GROUP OPENED on January 5th, 1987 with no clients, no equipment, no employees, and no money. The family handbook on how to be a successful entrepreneur was lost for the first few years until things got dialed in. In addition to The Matthews Group, Drew has had the pleasure of working for and starting the first in-house agency at Hart Hanks Corporation, teaching at Texas A&M University, and one agency gig.

LIFE REVOLVES around his undying passion for the creative business, two daughters, one seal point snowshoe Siamese cat, a sailboat, Instagram, and his ever-patient and equally creative wife.

TEXAS A&M RESEARCH GENETICIST — Yvonne’s genetic research skills made her a prime recruit for Texas A&M where she spent 17 years as a biochemical geneticist doing gene mapping research.

DIGITAL MARKETING EXPERT & DATA SCIENTIST — In an unusual twist of fate, Yvonne’s opinion was sought out on structuring some complicated A/B testing for digital marketing platforms for TMG, she liked the work so much that she began taking advanced training and certification in digital marketing. Today, she works for TMG as the Director of Digital Marketing as a strategist, programmer, and analyst.

Currently, she holds the following certifications:

• CERTIFIED GOOGLE ADS SEARCH MARKETING SPECIALIST
• CERTIFIED GOOGLE ADS DISPLAY CAMPAIGN SPECIALIST
• CERTIFIED GOOGLE ADVANCED ANALYTICS
• CERTIFIED GOOGLE YOUTUBE CAMPAIGN SPECIALIST
• CERTIFIED GOOGLE SHOPPING ADS SPECIALIST

SAILOR, GARDNER, YOGA ENTHUSIAST, PAINTER, ENVIRONMENTALIST — Yvonne, is the mother of two exceptional women, Aynsley and Taryne who both revel in their mother’s accomplishments as she does in theirs. Yvonne’s weekends find her in Kemah at the helm of her classic American Catalina sailboat, charting a course across Galveston bay. Raised on a classic midwest picture-perfect dairy farm, Yvonne has a strong connection to the land and wildlife. She is an avid gardener and is well-versed in environmental issues as well as the science of raising her own organic food. The winter months find her sequestered away in her art studio doing watercolor and oil paintings while listening to her ever-expanding collection of contemporary international techno/dance music, nordic bands, with a peppering of pop and hyped-up chill music.

THINK CSI LAB SCIENTIST, MEETS RESEARCH GENETICIST, MEETS ARTIST. YVONNE MOLL BRINGS NEW LIFE TO THE DEPTH OF BIG DATA AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF DIGITAL MARKETING SCIENCE FOR CLIENTS OF TMG.

Yvonne Moll is one of the quiet, enigmatic individuals that harbors a truly great scientific mind coupled with the exploratory freedom of an artist. Digital marketing for TMG clients has advanced exponentially under Yvonne’s creative and scientifically disciplined eye. Clients love her approachable style and ability to evaluate extremely complicated data to create powerful digital marketing campaigns based in science and math. Yvonne’s unique combination of science and mathematical research training and experience brings to the table skills unlike any other digital marketer.

CRIME LAB SCIENTIST — Yvonne started her science career working in Missouri State Crime Laboratory doing cutting-edge genetic research that could be applied to rape crime cases. She developed the ability to bring science, intuition, math, and technology together to solve vastly intricate problems. She was the woman in the white lab coat on the cutting edge of the gene mapping research that was later widely adopted into the paternity testing used in criminal cases today.

MUSICIAN, COMPOSER, & AUDIO ENGINEER. Dave Skinner is an extraordinary polymath with many talents, not the least of which is his fast-growing second career as a songwriter, movie soundtrack composer, professional live & studio session musician, and sonic logo designer.

Dave and our Creative Director, Drew Matthews, reconnected a few years back when Dave came in to talk about launching his music career. It was a beautifully fortuitous event as friendship was formed and several projects later, Dave is The Matthews Group’s Musician & Composer in-residence. We couldn’t be happier as he is an exceptional talent.

When Dave is not writing for his clients, performing, or flying around the country on the film festival and conference circuit, he is busy writing sonic logos for The Matthews Group, and creating original music and audio soundtracks for videos.

CLIENTS LOVE DAVE’S AFFABLE, UPBEAT STYLE and ability to take the complication out of sound design and bring it into an approachable reach in building audio brand experiences. A state-of-the-art sound studio was recently constructed where you will find Dave composing, recording talent, and further educating himself in the latest and greatest of sound design and production.

BORN IN ODESSA, TEXAS. Debbie has worked various jobs such as at Southwest State Bank for 8 years, an Office Manager at J.R. Beadel Transfer & Storage Co. for 8 years, an Office Clerk at Nathan’s Jewelers for 2 years, and a Manager at Brownwood Janitorial & Fire Extinguisher Co. for 17 1/2 years. Debbie married Tony Brown, moved to College Station, Texas, and joined The Matthews Group team in 2014.

She enjoys dancing, classic country-western music, and classic 50s, 60s, and 70s rock n’ roll.

DEBBIE ENJOYS SPENDING TIME WITH HER FAMILY, and is a huge fan of her grandson. He plays soccer and baseball, and she enjoys going to watch him play!

HER FAVORITE THING IS CRUISING! Debbie goes on a cruise every year with 13 of her lady friends from Brownwood. She enjoys being on the ocean and touring different places each year. Her favorite place to cruise is Cozumel!

EMMA GRACE PALMER, ‘EGP’ for short, is our Mixed Media Designer wonder woman. She effortlessly moves between marketing formats wielding her creative eye for design and positive spirit into every project she touches. Graphic design, photography, videography, web design, social media all have a comfortable home in her capable hands. Emma’s can-do attitude brings joy and life to projects and sets a positive tone for client and team interactions on a daily basis. When she first started at The Matthews Group, we needed an extra to play the role of an inmate, she willingly jumped into the first available orange jumpsuit and hopped in front of the camera. When it comes time to pitch in on a project, she is always ready to set aside her work and help others be the best they can be. Emma’s creative style is original, fresh, and fun-spirited, just like her. She pulls from her many diverse interests, including filmmaking (watch for her latest short film at a theater near you), skateboarding, rock climbing, contemporary dance, and much more. We love having Emma on the team and know you will be in good hands with her on your projects. Go Emma!

Claire Thessen, exudes the inquisitive nature of an impassioned graphic designer. She is always on the lookout for that magical point where design and function meld together to communicate an emotion in the most uplifting of ways.  A product of Texas A&M's Visualization program, Claire, brings the artistic flair of her hometown of Austin into her everyday life to create magical designs blending color, shape and form into inspiring visual storytelling. Curious and always on the hunt for style in her own life and professionally, Claire is also the graphic design chief of A-Line, the award winning graphic design student publication that has become a must read for the fashion industry and beyond.  Life is fun and full and exciting with Claire onboard, we think you will like her, too.

BILL CRAWFORD, also known as the ‘Photo Ninja’, a nickname given to him from the crew of the international research vessel JOEDIS Resolution where he was a ship photographer documenting research, people and life around the globe. Previous to his maritime adventure, Bill owned CNC Photographics where he gained the well-deserved reputation of bringing out the best in the people he photographed including U.S. Presidents and visiting world dignitaries.
Bill is a licensed pilot (as well as drone pilot) and has photographed complicated air to air shots from both fixed wing and helicopters. Bill who has a Bachelors of Science in Photography is a lighting genius. Working for hours and days before a shoot to think through every component and get the setup perfect before the first photo is taken.
An accomplished inventor, Bill has designed and manufactured game changing scientific photographic equipment to make the previously impossible, possible. But most of all, Bill is an affable, gregarious, fun and talented man that can turn the average into the spectacular. His energy and enthusiasm know no bounds and when combined with his quick wit and easy laugh, make him a formidable and in demand photographer for any assignment. We are a better agency for having Bill on the team.