leadership biographies

Ann embodies the vision and mission of ecoEnvelopes. For more than a decade, she has been an environmentally-driven leader with a record of achievement in the development and marketing of new businesses, programs and products that support a better world. Ann is an award winning commercial photographer and former marketing industry creative professional, having worked as a commercial photographer and graphic designer for more than 15 years.

From 2001 to 2005 Ann founded an organic community garden, developed food waste partnerships and a recycling program for River Market Community Co-op in Stillwater, MN. Her programs and promotions boosted membership by 1,100 new members and increased sales 300%. She also founded and operated the Big Tomato Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm that supplied vegetables, flowers, chickens, honey and bread to the Stillwater community.

Ann combines her background in design and marketing with her passion for protecting the environment in developing ecoEnvelopes. Making the first ecoEnvelopes with a sewing machine in her kitchen in 2002, Ann has taken her vision and made it a reality. Today ecoEnvelopes is well on its way toward being a leader in sustainable design. Under her direction, ecoEnvelopes has received US Postal Service approval and garnered attention from industry-leading companies in a variety of sectors.

Ann holds a Fine Arts Degree in Photography from the University of South Dakota and a Masters Degree in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.

An experienced, solutions-oriented market strategist, Gale is an impassioned eco-warrior. Gale has also held senior leadership positions in marketing, sales and finance with Next Generation Network, The Washington Post, CBS and International Paper Company.   

Gale is a past President of Entropy Solutions, Inc. a thermal management company that engineered devices to ship temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals.  At Entropy she secured early stage investment capital and directed the company’s market-facing activities.  From 2000 to 2004 she was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Integrated Decisions and Systems, Inc., a software technology company that achieved global market leadership under her direction.   She also served as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Vallon, Inc., a B2B provider of web-based software and Internet solutions, where she managed the marketing, business development and product design departments for clients such as IBM.
 
She holds a B.B.A. in Finance from Iona College in New York. Gale and her three teenage daughters are active volunteers for Families Moving Forward and Habitat for Humanity.

<< Return to Our Story