Our People

Rodney Payne
Co-Founder & Executive Director

Rodney has been involved in tourism marketing through social media since 2005. As the founder and executive director of Think! he is responsible for overseeing all client services; from training courses and developing strategies to campaign implementation and community management.

Rodney earned a Bachelor in Commerce (Management/Marketing) and in Law with Honors. Rodney focused on Intellectual Property law and was awarded a scholarship to study International Law and Environmental Law at The University of Oregon.

Ben Vadasz
CRO & Director of Business Development

Ben has extensive marketing experience in Australia, USA & Canada. Ben joins Think! from a sales and marketing role with one of the largest tour operators in the world. Ben’s focus is on building strategic relationships and business development.

He earned a Bachelor of Technology and a Bachelor of Business & Economics (International Marketing).

William Bakker
Chief Strategist

William Bakker has been a key member of BC’s tourism field for over 10 years and is considered a leader in the world of digital destination marketing.

William created the digital strategy for Tourism BC related to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. His opinions on the direction of social media marketing in the tourism industry are widely respected globally. William is a well-recognized keynote speaker and is invited to speak at a wide variety of tourism conferences worldwide.

Aaron Nissen
Strategist and Problem Solver

Aaron is a digital native, who in his 11 years of experience, has worked on just about every kind of web project imaginable. Aaron was formerly the Director of e-Strategies for Travel Alberta where he managed an annual budget of 3.8 Million. He has served 3 years on advisory committees for Canada e-Connect and Online Revealed Canada.

As part of Travel Alberta’s Management Committee, Aaron shared responsibility for setting the organizational strategy. He was responsible for building digital strategies that considered both internal and external stakeholders. Aaron has extensive experience working with large DMO’s, Governments, and consortia partnerships.

Holly Cuny
Magic 8ball

Holly built her first website in 1995 and hasn’t been offline since. She has been developing digital strategies and implementing online communication specifically for the tourism industry for the past five years, working for Think! and Tourism British Columbia in that time.

Her expertise is strategies for approaching international markets and diverse cultures, gained from jobs in Europe and North America at multinational corporations, publishing companies and start-ups. Having worn nearly every hat in the online world over the past 15 years, she’s likely to have an answer for most challenges, or at least know where to find one.

David Serino
Strategist & Educator

Dave leads our office in the United States. He developed “How Social is Your DMO?” a tourism focused social media ranking systems. He has presented at more than 85 travel industry conferences. He launched the Social Media in the Tourism Industry Symposium (#SoMeT). Dave is also a featured presenter in the Certified Destination Management Executive Program [CDME] sponsored by DMAI.

Isabel Mosk

Strategist

Isabel leads our office in the Netherlands. She joins us from the Netherlands’ Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC) where she started in 2007 as a marketing consultant. In 2009, she made the jump to being an online consultant and started focusing on social media, online campaigns, trends and development.

While at the NBTC, she established the Innovatielab – a joint initiative between the NBTC, HSMAI Netherlands and NHTV Breda University.

Helen De Faye
Client Services Manager

Helen brings a diverse range of experience from the tourism industry to the team and has a passion that is reflected in our customer service.

Helen is responsible for our internal processes, supporting customer service and business development.

She earned a Bachelor of Commerce (Management/Marketing) with an international focus from the University of Victoria.

Joel Marc
Manager of Implementation & Production

Joel brings ten years of experience managing the implementation of marketing projects for clients in technology, entertainment, architecture, tourism, and hospitality. Joel’s focus at Think! is to channel all the pieces of a project into a successful campaign, while keeping the design and development teams calm and cool in the process.

Joel is hands-on and collaborative, with an exceptional ability to navigate data-centric and creative decisions. He brings an excellent balance of technical and strategic insights to deploy projects that achieve remarkable results. Joel has attended Sauder School of Business, with study in business and marketing.

Robyn Hanson
Senior Community Manager

Robyn has been an active participant and frequent contributor to online travel communities since 1998. She has been one of the most active members on TripAdvisor since 2005, posting over 3500 times and has since been awarded their Destination Expert designation.

She is a recognized expert on social media use for tourism operators and has been invited to speak at several conferences.

Robyn has worked for Tourism Vancouver, West Trek Tours, and Vancouver Whale Watch and freelances as a photographer in her spare time. Robyn earned a B.A. in Geography from the University of British Columbia.

Phil Moad
Web Development & Community Management

Growing up Phil Moad traveled to a small town in Mexico each winter with his family. This gave him a very different education than was offered at the time, which was almost entirely earned through distance learning, and online education.

Being taught through distance learning he found his passion for the internet and online trends very early on. This passion lead him to the New Media Design and web development program at BCIT, where he easily decided he wanted to specialize in Social Media and online trends.

Karen Brackett
Client Services Manager

Karen is a seasoned project manager with almost ten years’ experience in digital agencies. She is the primary point of contact for clients at Think! and works alongside our clients at every turn to ensure all campaigns are executed flawlessly, on time and on budget. Karen studied communications at Camosun College and has translated her organization and problem-solving skills into a client service methodology that is apparent in every project she manages.

Dana Stasyk
Community Manager

Dana Stasyk grew up doing artist trade shows and volunteering with a local community involvement club. These activities gave her extensive hands-on experience in customer service, sales, and leadership. She completed a two-year Public Relations program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University that gave her practical, theoretical and hands-on knowledge about marketing, communications and media relations.

Paul Cubbon
Training Designer And E-Marketing Consultant

Paul Cubbon is an instructor in the Sauder School of Business whose specializations include eMarketing. He currently teaches in undergraduate, MBA and executive programs and has been a member of the full-time faculty since 2005.

Paul has designed a large number of eMarketing courses since 2000, and is a pioneer in his use of different approaches to engage learners more effectively.

Paul has worked across a variety of industries and brings a wealth of real world experience to his courses. Over the last 10 years, he has trained well over a thousand people in internet marketing, and his students continue to be sought after by employers. Paul holds a B.A. Honours degree from Oxford University, and an MBA from Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada.