At Catchword, we’re the antidote to “predictable.” We’re an eclectic coterie of talented professionals who bring fresh perspective to the world of naming. We banished ruts when we opened our doors in 1998. Working from offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, all of us pull together to add muscle to the names we create. We balance creative juices with strategic prowess. Whiteboard madness with legal scrutiny. Wit with heart.

Laurel Sutton - Linguistics/Project Director
the mustard in the mix
Like the mustard she’s so fond of, Laurel brings an element of spicy complexity and depth to our branding process. For starters, she’s a scholar in the fields of etymology, sociolinguistics and phonetics. And she’s an eclectic multi-linguist who knows German and French—and dabbles in Irish, Japanese, Gothic and American Sign Language. (Would we make this stuff up?) She’s also a virtual encyclopedia of information about commercial names: past, present and from around the world. So to say Laurel can assess name candidates from a variety of perspectives is something of an understatement. A veteran naming strategist even before co-founding Catchword, Laurel has directed every imaginable kind of naming project—from simple product launches to intricate architectural systems—for clients such as Cisco, Roche, Adobe, and Allstate. She was the first person to receive a B.A. in Linguistics from Rutgers University, and majored in English there as well. Laurel has a Masters in Linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley (where she managed the university’s phonology lab)—and is a dissertation away from her Ph.D.

Recent read: Death from the Skies! These Are the Ways the World Will End (it’s actually really fun—she says)
Favorite movie: Repo Man
Favorite places: Hawaii, San Francisco
Unexpected talents: Changing a flat tire in under 15 minutes & sitting really, really still for hours (a skill developed while attending Catholic school)
Guilty pleasure: Watching shows on TLC like “What Not to Wear”
Will never be good at: Drawing

Burt Alper – Strategy Director
the voice of Catchword
More than anyone else, Burt is the voice of Catchword: the one you’ll hear quoted in the press or lecturing at business schools. Burt was already a seasoned brand strategist and naming pro when he co-founded Catchword in 1998. Since then, he has spearheaded brand name creation for clients such as Charles Schwab, HP, P&G, Palm, and Wells Fargo. If you’re thinking of hiring us, Burt’s probably the guy who’ll talk to you about your branding challenges and ways we can be of service. He’s also the go-to guy for thornier issues of strategic naming, and he has a knack for distilling complex marketing challenges into plain English. (A skill our clients are perpetually grateful for.) A California State Debate Champion in high school, Burt clearly was destined for his role as Catchword megaphone. He has a B.A. in Psycholinguistics from Swarthmore College and an MBA from Harvard. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the College Preparatory School in Oakland.

Recent read: The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Favorite movie: The Usual Suspects
Favorite place: Ankor, Cambodia
Unexpected talents: Cooking (we can vouch for his guacamole), competitive sailing
Guilty pleasure: A’s games & fine wine (but never in combination)
Will never be good at: Jogging

Aaron Hall - Project Director
conduit for creativity
Like the magic ring in the Green Lantern comics he collects, Aaron has the power to bridge the gap between imagination and reality, and bring ideas to life. Throughout our creative process, he keeps clients in the loop and contextualizes naming ideas so that clients can see—and capitalize on—their commercial potential. He also has extensive experience screening names for common law and trademark issues—and can steer clients towards names with the most potential and least baggage. Aaron has helped birth formidable brands for companies including Leapfrog, Magellan, Kyocera, Vudu and THQ. An expert on social media, he was formerly a youth marketing strategist, conducting focus groups and other research for companies such as Levi-Strauss, Pepsi and Carsey-Werner. He was a project manager at Master-McNeil, another naming firm, before joining Catchword. Aaron received his B.A. in Psychology from Harvard, where he also studied Spanish and Italian.

Recent read: American Gods
Favorite movies: Anything with awesome special effects
Favorite places: Italy and Redwood Canyon in Kings Canyon National Park (lots of amazing sequoia trees—my favorites!)
Unexpected talent: Perfect recall of the names of everyone I meet at cocktail parties (even after imbibing)
Guilty pleasure: Chocolate-chip cookies (if it doesn’t have chocolate, it might as well not exist)
Will never be good at: Standing still when I hear good music

Maria Cypher - Executive Creative Director
precise creativity
Maria’s a paradox. She’s so inventive she can give wings to just about any brand idea—in a thousand different ways. And she’s so meticulous you’d trust her with your accounting. You could call her approach to creativity (and our creative group, by extension) tough love. Her philosophy is that only by being rigorously—exhaustively, you might say—thoughtful and strategic can creative ideas and connections really take flight. Among the many companies who’ve embraced Maria’s creative vision are Safeway, Dockers, CBS, Gymboree, Microsoft, Pepsi, and Schwab. In love with words her whole life, Maria was the editor of several trade and travel magazines based in Asia (did we mention she speaks fluent Mandarin?). She was also a senior project director at Master-McNeil, another naming firm, prior to co-founding Catchword. Maria earned her B.A. in Psychology and Economics at Stanford University, before going on to get her MBA (also from Stanford). She enjoys singing and playing guitar, and expects to self-publish her first children’s story, Winkletown, online soon.

Recent read: Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Favorite movies: Breaking Away, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien
Favorite places: Hong Kong, DC, Tahoe, Maui—and the Bay Area
Unexpected talents: Juggling, poker, parallel parking
Guilty pleasures: Sleeping till noon, all things carb
Will never be good at: Knowing where north is, whipping up dinner

Mark Skoultchi - Managing Director, East Coast
amping it up
Mark’s passionate about…well, just about everything. Especially breakthrough branding. And he brings that intensity to each step of our process—from strategic analysis through final screening—to take our creativity up a notch (or three). Sort of like the volume knob on your TV or sound system that takes the output to a whole other level. With his ear for high-impact names, Mark has helped brands in just about every commercial field amp up their presence in the marketplace. Including launches for companies such as Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Xerox, and Ahold USA. Before becoming a partner at Catchword, he was a Creative Director of Naming at Interbrand’s New York office, where he honed his 360-degree understanding of branding. A graduate of Brandeis University with a B.A. in history, Mark also has a J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He’s getting a much more playful sort of education these days from his two young kids, Anna and Jack.

Recent read: Who has time to read?
Favorite movie: Anything by the Farrelly or Cohen brothers
Favorite places: Salzburg, Cape Cod, San Francisco
Unexpected talents: I can move my scalp without touching my head. It’s amazing.
Guilty pleasure: Chocolate. I’ve got a problem.
Will never be good at: Finding my keys

Beth Gerber – Creative Director
the keeper of “fresh”
Beth’s role at Catchword is a bit like that water spritzer you use on plants—she helps keep our thinking fresh and vigorous. She enlivens all things creative here: from naming companies and products to designing right-brain exercises that help clients get to the heart of their brands. Before joining Catchword, Beth was an award-winning advertising creative director and copywriter for almost 20 years and a fanatic about strategically-driven creative. So she gets the big picture, and knows how to create names that will play to your brand’s positioning and help tell your story. Between naming and advertising, her experience building brands spans just about every industry. (And includes Wells Fargo, HP, Leapfrog, Toyota and THQ.) Beth got her B.A. at Brown University, majoring in both Organizational Behavior and Creative Writing. She later trained at the Pennsylvania Gestalt Institute, where she learned a lot about what shapes people’s beliefs and behavior— and how to create change.

Recent read: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
Favorite movie: Secrets & Lies
Favorite places: The right hemisphere of her brain, Big Sur
Unexpected talents: Hula-hooping, writing short stories
Guilty pleasure: Re-reading her favorite fiction over and over (and over and over and over….)
Will never be good at: Poker