Our Team

Full-time Team Members

Nate Brusa
Senior Copywriter

Michael Calobrisi
Junior Motion Graphics Designer

Sarah Togni
Junior Art Director

Brittany Murphy
Account Manager

Nicole Blue
Junior Digital Developer

Kristin Rolfe
Digital Designer

Kathy Phelps
PR Director

Zack Clark
Creative Director

Welcome Lauren
Lauren Pallas is the newest member of our media team. She joins us as a media strategist. Before joining PHG, Lauren was a senior digital marketing producer at a digital organization in Central New York. She also gained experience in media sales at iHeartMedia. She is a Google Qualified Individual with certifications in Google Search and Google Video Ads. Lauren has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute.

Welcome Bethany
Bethany Merlin joins us as an assistant account manager. Prior to joining PHG, Bethany was a marketing coordinator at Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty in Boston. She has a bachelor’s degree in marketing communication from Emerson College.

Welcome Kathy
Kathy Phelps joins the PHG as a public relations director. She previously worked as the assistant director of donor engagement at the Monroe Community College Foundation. Prior to that, she worked at another Rochester agency in a variety of public relations roles, including working as the vice president of special events and as a public relations supervisor. She has a master’s degree in strategic marketing from Roberts Wesleyan College and a bachelor’s degree in organizational communication from Keuka College.

Our Partners

Doug Pinckney
Doug knows what it's like to be a client because he's been one. Prior to co-founding Pinckney Hugo Group, he spent nearly two decades in senior marketing positions that took him all over the world. This has given him a unique perspective that allows him to be uncommonly effective in solving marketing challenges. Also, he's pretty good at the golf thing.

Chris Pinckney
Chris likes to create great work that works. He oversees PHG's award-winning team of creatives in making sure everything our agency does is not only amazing—but effective. Before PHG, Chris worked as a senior creative for agencies in New York and Connecticut. Before that, he carried cement.

Aaron Hugo
Aaron is our clients' secret weapon. He creates and executes strategies designed to make our clients happy and their competition miserable. With both agency and client-side marketing experience, Aaron has worked on everything from small startups to the biggest brands in the world. In short, he makes things happen.

Syracuse HQ

The Courtyard

Our private courtyard makes a great spot for a meeting, lunch, and the occasional hotdog eating contest.

Employee Lounge

The employee bar and lounge offers a place to relax and get social— offline, that is.

Conference Room

It would take 63,069,600 of our conference room tables to reach from the Earth to the Moon. (It still wouldn't be long enough to handle some of our all-staff meetings.)

Our Culture

PHG at Google HQ

Being a Google Premier Partner means we can pretty much drop by their understated NYC digs anytime we want to.

Summer Party

The team celebrated summer on a perfect night overlooking the city of Syracuse. We raised our glasses—and a few ping pong balls—15-stories high on the newly opened rooftop terrace on the Barclay Damon building.

PHG Committees

Whether it’s making PHG a better place to work, learn and eat bagels—or helping out in our communities, we have plenty of ways for the team to get involved.

Changing things for the better

In 2016, Michela Hugo discovered an unmet need in our community. As a result, we worked with her to start the CNY Diaper Bank. We are deeply committed to this cause, and so far we’ve been able to distribute over five million diapers to local families in need. Yup. Five million.

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