Our Founding Principals

The Brand Establishment organization is the result of some forty years of brand-building expertise, as evidenced by its two Managing Partners. Rosemary Breehl and Tom Traynor and Founding Partner, Jim Hughes.

Each brings to the organization a wealth of experience with local, regional and national brands in just about every category.

Since its beginning in 1999, the Brand Establishment has been recognized as the leading brand building authority in the country and has worked with over 300 brands, in both the profit and non profit categories, to successfully differentiate themselves and deliver their brand’s unique promise.

 

Jim Hughes, C.B.S.
Founding Partner

Jim received classic advertising training at one of the finest communications schools in the country, The Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Here, Jim participated in creative assignments for such major advertisers as Volkswagen, American Airlines, GTE and Alka Seltzer. And later, in his professional career, he led brand development initiatives for Armor All, Pacific Bell, Del Webb Corp and, literally, hundreds more.

After a 32-year run as principal and Sr. Brand Strategist at his own firm, TH&M, Jim founded the Brand Establishment in 2000 to assist, train and certify small to mid-sized agencies that desire to deepen their strategic capabilities. In 2007, Jim recognized the enormity of talent and brand expertise of two outstanding Brand Establishment members, Rosemary Breehl and Tom Traynor and, together, formed the current leadership group of The Brand Establishment, LLC.
 

Rosemary Breehl, C.B.S.
Managing Partner

Ro has spent her entire career helping clients build and manage their respective brands. She has worked closely with Stouffer’s Corporation, Bonne Bell, The Higbee Company, National City Bank and many others. She’s an exceptional account management advocate and trains marketing communications firms around the country on the most efficient, time-beneficial operations issues of the day…from account management to fiscal responsibility.

Ro founded Breehl, Traynor & Zehe, one of the nation’s leading brand development firms, in 1992 after along, successful account management career at Wyse Advertising, one of the mid-west region’s most powerful ad agencies.
 

Tom Traynor, C.B.S.
Managing Partner

Tom’s 35+ years of experience comes from both the agency and client sides, as he has worked in advertising and marketing positions for some of the country’s leading brands – American Greetings, McDonald’s, GM, Time Warner, Cellular One, National City Bank, Emerson Electric, Masonite and many others. He and his partner, Rosemary Breehl, are the majority shareholders of one of the nation’s leading brand development firms, Breehl, Traynor & Zehe.

Tom is a nationally recognized lecturer/teacher on brand development and travels the country extensively, helping organizations understand how and why to apply the fundamental principles of brand development and branding as they relate to increasing the value of any organization or product.