THE BRAND LIAISON, LLC
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA

With over 200 years of combined experience, The Brand Liaison team is one of the industry’s most diverse and talented. With degrees in both law and accounting, and 25 years in licensing and business development, Steven combined his vision, experience and strong industry contacts to create The Brand Liaison. Since its formation in 2011, The Brand Liaison has quickly gained prominence as one of the licensing industry’s leading boutique agencies, with a stellar reputation and strong management team. The Brand Liaison staff is among the most diverse in the industry with experts across a broad range of product classifications. In addition to his strong negotiation skills and ability to craft business deals advantageous to all parties, Steven is able to utilize his creative and entrepreneurial skills to provide guidance in brand development and product development. “Based on our deep rolodex and our collective experience with thousands of companies, we are able to quickly identify our clients’ core competencies, as well as their business needs. We are then able to create successful business relationships by matching our clients’ needs, with companies that specialize in that area.” Steven graduated cum laude in the top 5% of his class at Fordham Law School, 1991 and graduated SUNY Albany in 1987, with dual major in Accounting and Business Administration. He is a licensed attorney and member of bar in the state of New York. In 1995, Karen formed Karen Diamond & Associates (KDA), representing The Pillsbury Company for strategic planning, management, and implementation of the licensing program including the Pillsbury brand and logo, the ever popular Doughboy character, Green Giant, Little Sprout and the Old El Paso trademarks. Under Karen’s direction, the Pillsbury licensing program grew from 4 initial licensees to over 45 companies. With more than 500 licensed products in the marketplace, the licensing industry still considers the Pillsbury program a model for successful corporate programs, having been nominated for several industry excellence awards including winning the coveted, “Licensee of the Year” award by its kitchen textile licensee for its superior execution and distribution of the Pillsbury product line and Lechter’s nomination for the LIMA “Retailer of the Year” for its comprehensive integrative Pillsbury promotion. Prior to forming KDA, Karen worked for companies including Warner Bros. Consumer Products (Looney Tunes, Batman, Superman, Pillsbury, Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, Baskin Robbins, 7UP, etc.), Liz Claiborne and Cole Haan. At WBCP, Karen was profiled by the industry publication, Home Furnishings Daily (HFD, now HFN), with a cover story featuring her innovative and ground breaking Looney Tunes licensing program. Having worked directly for Liz herself, at Liz Claiborne, Karen developed a keen aesthetic for fashion and an impeccable eye for detail. Katey Gabrielson is an accomplished licensing executive who has held key positions related to branding, licensing and business development, from both the perspective of licensing agent and brand owner at some of the world’s most recognized and beloved brands. With a work pedigree based on multimillion dollar consumer goods sales, Katey has shown an innate ability to successful license brands across various industries and retail placement, including specialties in apparel, accessories, footwear, and toys. She played a key role in the expansion of the Ty Beanie Babies Brand in the mid to late 1990s and later as Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Toy Island, a division of Li & Fung USA, where she was recognized for her creative and energetic leadership. Prior to joining The Brand Liaison, Katey held senior management positions at Compass and Prominent Global. At The Brand Liaison, Katey is a member of the company’s senior management team and leads new business initiatives. She is also responsible for managing licensing for several of the brands we represent and is a key liaison to major retail partners including Kmart/Sears, Target, Justice, Kohl’s, Walgreens, CVS, Best Buy, and Federated Department Stores’ Macy’s and Bloomingdales. Katey prides herself on her dedication to expanding placement of intellectual property, while maintaining a conservative hold on brand assurance, brand integrity and partner selection. Marcy is a seasoned licensing professional with over 25 years of experience who has built her career and reputation based on initiative, strategic and creative thinking, strong leadership and results oriented hands on approach. She is a brand builder delivering effective results in developing talent, trend forecasting, product development and marketing. Marcy brings key insight into today’s retail environment with her background as designer, manufacturer and principal of Buffalo Rome a product design firm. Throughout her career, she has consistently forged strong relationships with major giftware, stationery, party goods, toys, collectibles, publishing, apparel, textiles, tableware and home furnishings manufacturers. such as Gibson USA, Town and Country Home, Fiesta Toys, Demdaco, Mohawk, Design Design, Leaning Tree, CR Gibson, Creative Converting, Spectrix Fabric. Marcy’s licensing achievements have culminated in the sales of thousands of SKU’s and her direction has influenced trends in a broad range of products and markets. Paul Cohen is a partner in the Creatif Licensing Division of The Brand Liaison leading our representation of trend-setting designers and classic artists. Currently, our Creatif division provides a broad range of artistic talent to dozens of active licensees responsible for manufacturing licensed products in all the major industries including giftware, stationery, party goods, toys, collectibles, publishing, apparel, textiles, tableware and home furnishings. Paul is responsible for ensuring that we maintain strong relationships with our manufacturing partners, as he understands that these relationships are the key to our long term success.