Presence Marketing/ Dynamic Presence

Lisa Gargas
Sales Manager | Grocery Division (Presence Marketing)
Lisa Gargas came to Presence Marketing directly from Whole Foods
Market Southwest where she gained just under ten years’ experience.
Lisa was part of the WFMSW Regional Team for one-and-a-half years
before becoming a Regional Grocery Team Leader at the original Austin,
Texas location. Lisa was part of the task force charged with transitioning
the WFM headquarters store built in Austin. When Lisa became Regional
Team Buyer, she created and ran the Local Forager program that
researched and placed exceptional local products. Lisa parlays an
extensive marketing / media background and amazing connections within
the field that will help her bring attention to your brands in her role as
Grocery Sales Manager for Presence Marketing Southwest. Prior to her
new role, Lisa worked on the Dynamic Presence Southwest team for
one-and-a-half years, focusing on Whole Foods Market Southwest
(WFMSW) Regional and Houston accounts.

Melissa Clark
Sales Manager | Nutrition Body Care | Grocery Division
(Presence Marketing)
Melissa desired to have an active role in an industry that made a
difference not only in her own life but for others as well. In 2003, Melissa
made the decision to become part of the Presence Southwest family so
that she could live true to those passions. She started in the marketing
department where she gained significant knowledge about natural
distributors. A year later she advanced to become the NBC/Grocery
Conventional Key Account Executive. She spent over 2 years fine-tuning
her skills in this capacity and is now the Nutrition and Body Care Sales
Manager. Melissa graduated with a BA from the University of North Texas
in 2000 and quickly moved with her musician husband to Austin, the live
music capital of the world. So of course she loves listening to live music,
spending outdoor trail time with her two boxers and indoor cuddling time
with her cat.

Ethan Sonne
Sales Manager | Grocery Division (Dynamic Presence)
Ethan has worked in the natural products industry since 2001. Prior to
entering the industry, Ethan worked in outdoor retail in Colorado and New
York. It was in New York where Ethan first was introduced to natural
products as the Vendor Relations Manager for an internet start up. As a
director of purchasing Ethan oversaw buying of leading natural brands.
After moving from New York to Oklahoma, Ethan started his natural foods
experience in earnest as a category buyer for Akin's and Chamberlin's
Natural Foods. In addition, he started a journey of vegetarianism (thanks
to his wife, Emilie) which has ultimately led to years of joyful veganism.

After 3 years as a buyer and a desire for a change of pace, Ethan
joined Kayser Sales and Marketing as a territory manager. The job was a
good fit and Ethan has been in the brokerage world ever since. When an
opportunity to move to Austin became available, Ethan jumped at the
chance. Now Ethan, his wife, 3 dogs and two cats love Austin and their
adventure in Texas.

Jill Kayser
Sales Manager | Nutrition Body Care | Grocery Division
(Dynamic Presence)
Jill Kayser began working in the natural foods industry in 1987 while
attending college at the University of Texas – Austin. She studied many
languages – Russian, French, Arabic, and Spanish – and had hoped to be a
spy. Her roommates were natural foods eating hipsters, leading her to a
job as a cashier, and later, as a buyer at Wheatsville Co-op. She went
on to work on an organic farm and then to Whole Foods Market in
Houston – the Shepherd store – now Kirby. She moved to North Carolina
with a team of Whole Foods folks and opened the Raleigh Wellspring store
for Whole Foods after WFM purchased the chain. She was the books, cards
and magazine buyer. Her sister called her after a year or so there and
told her she had added a supplement line to her young brokerage and could
use some help. Jill moved back to Austin and worked alongside Lorraine
for 6 years, then left to work at HEB as a category manager at their
headquarters. Jill started there managing the specialty dsd grocery items
and later helped open Nature’s Harvest – store within a store – now
called Healthy Living. She later changed desks to manage supplements,
both natural and mainstream, as well as first aid, diet, and nutritional
beverages – at the time, a $90 million desk annually. She left HEB after
several years and went to work first for Alliant Food Service in
Procurement as Perishables Buyer, then later to Stubb’s Legendary
Kitchen as Logistics Coordinator for the barbecue sauces.

Having warmed desks as a broker, retailer, distributor, and manufacturer,
Jill’s education was complete as she returned to Kayser to help Lorraine
and bring her knowledge back to the table. She promised to develop the
personal care side of Kayser, as Kayser was known at the time for its
strength in grocery. Jill currently is the brand manager for the Dynamic
Presence SW HBC lines. She also is responsible for WFM national deal
paperwork for both NBC and grocery. She makes headquarter calls to WFM
SW, WFM National, HEB headquarter call, Central Market headquarter call
for HBC, as well as store calls to local accounts.

Jill is married to Didier, a talented machinist, and has two lovely
children, Josh, 17 and Brianna, 13. They have a dog, two cats, koi fish,
and a salt water aquarium.

Keith Mortensen
Conventional Grocery Director of Sales
(Dynamic Presence)
Keith started working in the grocery industry at age 15 for Rylander's
Grocery. He worked for them for just under 10 years in several departments
including checker/ sacker, produce, general merchandise, frozen, dairy,
grocery night stocker and finally as receiving manager. Keith left grocery
retail to work for Gourmet Award Foods as a territory sales
representative. During his 14 years with GAF he called on several
different chains including Albertson's, Safeway, Apple Tree, Winn Dixie
and independents. His last five years with GAF were spent selling to
Village Market (Albertson's) in West Lake Hills , Texas. The store
included a Natural Foods store within a store and Tree of Life was their
distributor. Keith worked both TOL and GAF houses and in the process
gained knowledge about the Natural Foods industry. He sold frozen,
dairy, bulk, grocery, body care and supplements.

His next adventure was with Kehe Food Distributors in the Austin, Texas
market as sales supervisor. He held this position for 5 years and was
responsible for 25 sales reps, 2 sales assistants and 2 merchandisers. His
area generated over 600,000.00 in weekly sales.

In October of 2007 Keith went to work for Kayser Sales & Marketing as
Director of Grocery and is now part of the Dynamic Presence Southwest team.

Keith and his wife Sandra and 2 children, Nicholas age 13 & Alyssa age 8,
live in the hill country with their 2 Labs, 2 cats and lots of other wild life.

Ed Boissevain
Marketing Manager (Presence Marketing)
Ed joined Presence Marketing in the Southwest in 2000, fresh from an 8
year stint with Whole Foods at the Southwest Distribution Center, where
he served as a buyer. He started in the natural foods industry with a
co-op produce wholesaler in Minnesota in 1978, and doesn't miss the
frozen tundra, or the frozen veggies.