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When your grandfather is a creative director, your mom is an art instructor, and your dad is a CPA, you have a pretty good shot of becoming a creative guy with a healthy respect for business. That’s Tim. Still the day-to-day leader of the agency, Tim is Riester’s founder and CEO and is focused on helping his staff and clients succeed. He is as much at home in a late-night brainstorming session as he is in a media planning meeting. Tim was named an Honored Entrepreneurial Fellow by the University of Arizona’s Karl Eller College of Business and Public Administration. And he was chosen as “Ad Person of the Year” in 2005 by the American Advertising Federation for his outstanding achievements and contributions to the Ad community.

Tim has a strong commitment to helping future generations. For this reason, he chairs the board for the A.T. Still University School of Health Sciences and sits on the boards of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Global Health Advocacy Incubator. As Alternate Governor of the Phoenix Rising FC professional soccer team, he has also made a commitment to supporting youth soccer leagues all across the western United States.

As Chief Strategy Officer, Mirja supervises research, strategic planning, and manages the integration of all services within Riester. She established the European method of brand planning and strategy at Riester when she joined the firm in 1997. Mirja’s experience is international and spans across many categories. Her interest in health and wellness has led to exceptional contributions to clients in the healthcare sector. This has included a campaign to prevent methamphetamine addiction among women that was licensed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; a national HIV awareness campaign for Gilead Sciences, and one of the nation’s most successful tobacco awareness, prevention, and cessation campaigns.

The American Advertising Federation named Mirja “2016 Ad Person of the Year”. She has also been recognized as the top Advertising Executive on Arizona Woman Magazine’s list of Leading Women in Business, and she has been called upon by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for her behavior change and social marketing expertise.  Mirja earned the German equivalent to a MBA from the University of Hamburg.

As Chief Digital Officer, Alan focuses on using technology to help clients on their path towards digital transformation. He leads a team of digital experts with the mission to deliver world-class user experiences for connected devices. Involved on a daily basis with Riester’s range of clients, he provides tremendous value to digital marketing programs with his depth of strategic experience in UX strategy, e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM), and mobile technology. His thought leadership is one of the reasons Forbes named Riester one of the “Top 100 Global Ad Agencies That Know Social Media and Google.”

Alan also immerses himself in the world of media, and collaborates with Riester’s Media Department to explore emerging opportunities for clients.

Paul has an extraordinary ability to improve every creative project he touches. His approach to collaborating with clients and colleagues is based on tremendous respect and appreciation for the talent and positive energy that can be harvested from everyone.

For more than 14 years, Paul has been creating and improving client campaigns for all forms of media at Riester. Throughout his career, Paul’s creativity has supported many national and regional clients including; Pepsi, Capitol Records, PetSmart, Dial, Nissan, Wholly Guacamole, MidFirst Bank, University of Arizona, Talking Stick Resort, Casino Arizona, the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Rising FC.

Paul has been honored by Graphis, American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), Print Magazine, and the American Advertising Federation named Paul its 2025 “Creative Professional of the Year.” Paul received his BFA in visual communications from Northern Arizona University and was an advisory board member of the AIGA AZ.

Christina is a bilingual, seasoned public relations professional who started her career in internal communications while simultaneously working in a newsroom.

Christina oversees both the organic social media and public relations teams at Riester. She also collaborates with the creative team on multicultural campaigns. Her work has resulted in positive outcomes for clients and she has a breadth of experience in a variety of client verticals including healthcare, consumer-packaged goods, restaurant and food, travel and hospitality as well as government communication within transportation, voter education and public health.

A moment of great team pride was winning the national PR Week, 2019 Best in Public Sector Campaigns for Riester client the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

Christina holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication and a Minor in Business from Arizona State University. She also holds a Master of Science Degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Grand Canyon University. She attended the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey, where she became proficient in written and spoken Spanish. Christina is adjunct faculty in the Behavior Sciences Department within the Maricopa Community College District.

Laurie has decades of branding media experience in healthcare, banking, government, education, utilities, tourism, restaurants, business-to-business, medical, and law, including at major New York City ad agencies and over 11 years at Riester.

Laurie earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at the University of Arizona and built a highly respected reputation in the media industry throughout her almost 40-year career. She has serviced clients such as New York Telephone, American Express 1-800-The-Card, McDonald’s, Arizona Lottery, US Travel & Tourism Authority, Arizona Office of Tourism, W.L. Gore, and Casino Arizona/Talking Stick Resort.

Laurie’s experience in both direct response and traditional media, along with her ability to adapt to the evolution of digital and streaming media, makes her a valuable, well-rounded resource for clients.

Annie’s mastery of digital media, full-funnel attribution and conversion optimization experience in B2B, Big Events, CPG, Financial, Higher Education, Political, Tourism, and Utility, and her passion and unstoppable energy make her a dynamic media leader at Riester.

Annie graduated summa cum laude from Barrett, the Honors College, while competing as a D1 Athlete for the Arizona State University Women’s Soccer team and serving as a Research Fellow for the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict. After undergrad, Annie earned her Master’s degree in Sports Law from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Annie has built her media career exclusively at agencies, giving her experience across nearly every vertical and a wide range of campaign objectives, from large-scale awareness campaigns to highly targeted, conversion-focused campaigns driven by measurement and analytics.

Annie specializes in cross-channel media planning and buying, as well as measurement and analytics. She holds Meta’s highest certification, along with three Google certifications in media buying and measurement, plus additional certifications from TikTok, Pinterest, and X (formerly Twitter). As a hands-on leader, she oversees campaign execution, data attribution, reporting, and day-to-day optimization across client accounts.

Kurt brings 20+ years of experience in digital marketing and web analytics. He may have started his career as a CPA/MBA Big 5 Public Accountant but ventured into a brand new industry called “digital” just in time for Y2K. His search experience began at the inception of search itself.

Kurt is a successful entrepreneur and a pilot in training. He has served on the Bazaarvoice and Compare Metrics Advisory Boards and spends his free time RVing around the country with his wife and two sons.