Michele Wells :: President

Wells began her career at the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington, D. C. as a press relations assistant. In 1979, she joined Burson-Marsteller, the world’s largest public relations firm, starting as an assistant account executive in the company’s Pittsburgh office. Wells was part of the team that built Burson-Marsteller’s Denver office during its 1980s expansion. She left her position as account supervisor to start her own company in 1983.

From 1983 to 1993, Wells owned and managed Wells Communications, Inc., which became one of the Rocky Mountain region’s leading public relations firms, known for crisis management, media training, and marketing and public relations for high technology, healthcare, real estate, manufacturing and consumer products and services companies.

Her firm merged with The Johnston Group to form JohnstonWells in 1993. As president of the merged company, Wells helped JohnstonWells grow to become the largest public relations firm in the Rocky Mountain region.

After selling her interest in JohnstonWells in 1996, Wells joined acclaimed chef Kevin Taylor in building a group of fine-dining restaurants in the Denver metropolitan area, including Dandelion in Boulder, Palettes at the Denver Art Museum and Restaurant Kevin Taylor in downtown Denver. She managed all opening activities for each restaurant. Her ongoing work over a four-year period included local and national marketing, public relations and community relations activities for the restaurants, which were regularly featured in national food and travel publications, including Food & Wine, Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Travel & Leisure. She also managed day-to-day operations in the company’s Boulder restaurant, Dandelion.

In 1999 and 2000, Wells left the restaurant group to move to Europe with her husband while he worked in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. While there, she rejoined her former employer, Burson-Marsteller, as a consultant to clients at its office in The Hague. Her work there included crisis management and media training for McCain Foods and Armstrong Industries, among others.

Wells studied cooking as an apprentice at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., and at La Cucina al Focolare in Italy. She has taught cooking classes at the Cooking School of the Rockies in Boulder, Colo., and through the American Women’s Club of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She has traveled in Europe, Latin America, South America and Asia.

Wells is currently on the Board of Directors of the Women's Bean Project in Denver. She is a past board member of the Boulder chapter of the Slow Food International Association, the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food and Boulder County’s food bank, Community Food Share. She also served on various committees with the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Wells earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1977.

Michele Peterson Murray

Michele Peterson Murray has more than 10 years of experience in developing and implementing public relations strategy. As executive director of public relations for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), Murray led the beef industry’s consumer public relations efforts, providing strategic vision for the beef brand regarding nutrition, safety and recipe communications. In addition, Murray has handled multiple high-profile media interviews, identified and prepared media spokespeople and has extensive experience in key message development.

Murray also served as a senior counselor at JohnstonWells Public Relations where she helped lead public relations planning and implementation for Archer Daniels Midland, Kemin Foods and the Denver Newspaper Agency. Murray served as an account manager for CMF&Z Marketing Communications, where she helped manage and coordinate industry relations activities for the national dairy checkoff program.

Murray’s experience has led to several industry awards including a PRSA Silver Anvil Award for issues/crisis management of the Canadian BSE case, PRSA Silver Anvil Award for employee communications, the Creativity in Public Relations Award and the National AgriMarketing Association Best of Show for a Public Relations Program. Murray earned a bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communications from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Murray grew up on a dairy farm in central Minnesota.

Daniela Kuper

Daniela Kuper is a 30-year advertising and marketing veteran. She owned and managed one of Colorado's most acclaimed advertising agencies, Kuper Advertising, which became McClain Finlon Advertising when she departed in 1989 to pursue work on her first novel. She has been an independent advertising and marketing consultant since that time. Her clients have included:

BJ Adams & Company Real Estate. Aspen, Colorado
Little Nell, Hotel, Aspen, Colorado
La Montagne Restaurant at Little Nell. Aspen, Colorado
Double Bar X Ranch, Real Estate, Aspen, Colorado
The Christiana, Real Estate, Aspen, Colorado
Snowmass Club, Hospitality, Snowmass, Colorado
Abercrombie & Kent, Tours and Properties, Telluride, Colorado
Watermark Properties, Real Estate, Cambridge, Maine
Merck & Company, Pharmaceuticals
Aramark, Children’s Learning Centers
Coleman Natural Beef
La Cucina al Foccalare, Cooking School & Tours, Italy
Swedish Hospital, Denver, Colorado
St. Joseph Hospital. Denver, Colorado
In addition to her advertising work, she is a published fiction writer of short stories and a novel, Hunger and Thirst (St. Martins Press), which was nominated for the Harold U. Ribalow Prize.

Contact Daniela directly at (303) 942-1274 or at danielakuper@gmail.com.

Dan Ragland

Dan Ragland has 25 years of experience in advertising. During that time he worked in the Denver market for Tracey-Locke/BBDO, The Evans Group, Grant & Pollack and McClain Finlon, where he spent five years as creative director managing accounts such as The Rocky Mountain News, Keystone Resort, Rose Medical Center, Denver Art Museum, American Conservatory Theater and Head Sports. For the past 15 years Ragland has been an independent art director/designer, with experience in print advertising, brochure and collateral design, television, outdoor, logo design and identity packages, working with clients such as BJ Adams and Company Real Estate, Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons Attorneys at Law, KEMA Consulting, Financial Planning Association and Thayer Media amoung others. Dan’s advertising has been awarded on international, national and local levels for both creative and marketing success. Other clients Dan has worked with include: Aramark, Saint Joseph Hospital, Centura Health, BAE (the DIA baggage company), Media Lab, Z-Axis Corporation, NightRider of Houston, Pep Products, Coresoft (a Utah-based telecommunications company), StorageTec and Maxtor.

Also...
In addition to our core team, we involve professionals in website development and optimization, video production, media buying and photography. We involve these professionals both in strategy definition and in actual execution. Other highly skilled professionals with more traditional skills such as copywriting, print design, database management, media-target research, are enlisted as needed.