Management Team
John Grudnowski
Founder, Managing Partner
John leads FRWD's Ideation and Strategy Department.
In May 2009, John founded FRWD. He brings 15 plus years of PR and digital marketing services experience that he gained over the course of his career at Accenture, General Mills, Carmichael Lynch and Vail Resorts.
John has developed digital strategies, provided expert training, counsel and advice to marketing executives, led internal client innovation teams, as well as led execution teams for a variety of Fortune 1000 clients including: American Express, Discovery, 3M, General Mills, Deluxe, Target, Best Buy, Sony Pictures, Dairy Queen, Starz Entertainment and Ameriprise.
Previous to creating FRWD, John founded and led the modern media practice at space150, a Twin-Cities based ad agency, as well as led agency business development supporting revenue growth from under $1MM to over $12MM in four years. John has also co-founded the Minneapolis-based i612 media organization, and has served on multiple digital-based start-up boards of directors.
Gary Allen
Partner, Media Systems
Gary has developed market-leading technology and earned a reputation for excellence in technology development by building some of the industry’s most effective media tools, including ConnectCommerce and i-Search, now part of DoubleClick's DART suite, and AdGooroo's unique competitive intelligence tools: SEM Insight™, Natural Rankings Monitoring and Trademark Monitoring™.
Formerly the CEO of AdGooroo, Gary served 30 of the world's top 50 search agencies and major brand advertisers, such as Target, for whom he defined success metrics and extracted actionable findings from competitive search data.
Aimee Reker
Partner, Media Services
Together with Partners John Grudnowski and Gary Allen, Aimee is forging a new style of digital marketing and media consultancy within bellwether agency start-up, FRWD.
Aimee joined FRWD after nearly a decade with IPG and McCann Worldgroup where, as SVP, Global Director of Search, she was honored with the Agency’s global award for Mentorship, launched a global search practice, championed social within Populist, and helped clients and colleagues navigate the sea of opportunity through the IPG Emerging Media Lab. Prior to that, Aimee led media for Circle.com (now Euro RSCG 4D) and Initio Design and trained in "traditional" at Campbell Mithun and AT&T Paradyne.
At FRWD, Aimee leads the Media Service practice and a team of more than 30 digital media strategists, driving solutions for clients like General Mills, Deluxe, St. Jude Medical and 3M. She brings a passion for digital innovation and has created award winning media solutions for ING, Microsoft, Intel, Unilever, US Army, Mastercard, Verizon, IKEA and General Motors.
Kathryn Duncan
Partner, Talent Services
Kathryn represents experienced, talented marketing and advertising professionals with a focus in digital media.
A marketing veteran since 1995, Kathryn received a BFA from Minneapolis College of Art & Design. After a few short years as a designer, she discovered her niche in account management and business development for direct marketing and brand agencies, working primarily within the financial services industry.
In 2006, Kathryn was hired to recruit for an emerging permanent placement team for The Creative Group, a Robert Half International company. While at The Creative Group, she found her passion in connecting smart people to great clients everyday.