WHO WE ARE
By design, we are small and nimble – with uncommonly deep experience and intense personal focus on just a few clients at a time. The partners are all senior business people, accomplished advisors, strategists, executives, authors, and mentors. And it’s the partners who are hands-on with client work as well as client relationships, every day. In our areas of expertise, we successfully compete with some of the best-known and largest management and marketing consulting firms in the world, and are able to provide services very cost-effectively by comparison.

STEVEN CRISTOL
Steven Cristol founded Strategic Harmony® Partners and has advised some of the world’s most innovative companies on business and marketing strategy, product strategy, and integrating the disciplines of brand management and product development.
Since his earlier days in consumer packaged goods marketing, Steven has helped more than 50 companies – from global market leaders to rapid-growth early-stage innovators – build stronger brands and optimize product portfolios across diverse range of industries and technology sectors. He is a recognized thought leader on simplifying the customer experience and, as a Free Press and McGraw-Hill business author, his books have been published in 11 languages.
Steven previously served as the senior brand marketing executive at Pacific Bell, then a Fortune 35 company (now AT&T), and as chief marketing officer at Personics, a Silicon Valley venture-backed startup acquired by Time Warner. He began his career in the development finance division of Philips in The Netherlands, held account management positions on consumer goods accounts in leading Chicago and San Francisco advertising agencies (known today as DDB Worldwide and TBWA Worldwide), and was also a professional songwriter and music publisher in Los Angeles.

JANET BEACH
Janet Beach is a marketing strategist and market researcher with many years’ experience launching new products, identifying new market opportunities, and creating strategies that successfully differentiate brands.
As Managing Partner of US Marketing Services, Janet’s deep experience in talking directly with customers and transforming their hopes and challenges into high-impact strategies for clients has cut a broad swath through the high-tech, financial services, healthcare, and consumer products sectors. Her work is also richly informed by client-side experience as senior marketing executive at Sprint and at the iconic Jeanswear division of Levi Strauss, as well as managing global consumer products advertising for Kraft General Foods and Johnson & Johnson at Young & Rubicam New York.
Janet has served on the boards of the American Marketing Association and Business Marketing Association, and served as volunteer Chairman and Executive Director of the Job Forum of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce for more than 20 years.

LYNN UPSHAW
Lynn Upshaw is a strategic brand marketing consultant, author, speaker, and award-winning educator on the MBA professional faculty at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Lynn is the author of three highly-regarded brand marketing books – Building Brand Identity and The Masterbrand Mandate (both John Wiley & Sons), and Truth: New Rules for Marketing in a Skeptical World (AMACOM/American Management Association). He has also written numerous articles in publications such as The Journal of Brand Management (UK), The Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications, The Peking University Business Review (PRC), Advertising Age and Brandweek. He has been a sought-after speaker on four continents, and has created and facilitated dozens of strategic planning and brand building workshops.
Lynn is also a member of the MBA professional faculty at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Recipient of the Earl F. Cheit award for teaching excellence, he has guided hundreds of graduate students through the intricacies of corporate and product/service marketing, and also serves as a faculty director and instructor at the UC-Berkeley Center for Executive Education.