Lauren Cercone, a classically-trained marketer, has 15 years’ experience in brand management and new product development. She gained an unusually broad exposure to marketing issues and solutions in companies such as Borden Foods, Oral-B, Fresh Express and James River, and Fresh Express Fresh Foods. With real-world experience and pragmatism - and not a little common sense - Lauren has helped businesses sort out what they know from what they think they know, and then move forward. As the project leader on complex development projects, Lauren solidified a strong grasp of the “nuts and bolts” of new product development. Unlike many marketers, she is equally as comfortable in strategic discussions and the “fuzzy front end” of projects as she is in marketing plan development and implementation. Lauren holds an MBA in Marketing from NYU and an A.B. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College. She lives in Salinas, CA, with her husband James Williamson.