TrailBlaze team.

With a career spanning sales, marketing, strategy, nonprofit administration, communications, and entrepreneurship, Tim has a complete perspective on economic development through a marketing and communications lens. Tim has presented regionally and nationally on topics surrounding social media, marketing, and branding, and has worked with some of the country’s top brands throughout his career. As a strategist, he applies qualitative and quantitative data to develop recommendations, action plans, and comprehensive blueprints, focusing on impact and investment. As a creative, Tim builds the tools for implementation, incorporating methodic principles of design and psychology.

Most of Tim’s experience exists at the intersection of marketing and economic development. As the former Director of Marketing for the Pittsburgh Technology Council, Tim provided the foresight and direction to enhance the brand of the PTC, while creating the organization’s social media campaigns and strategy from scratch. His proven leadership practices and campaigns are still the skeleton of current efforts of the organization, which were recognized by ASAE, receiving the Gold Circle Award for electronic communications. He also received the BSA President’s Award for Marketing for a strategic regional marketing campaign targeted at youth programs. Tim also developed the Stronger Than Hate image that received international viral adoption following the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018.

Other Experiences and Interests

In addition to Tim’s marketing and communications experience, he also has extensive experience in grant writing, aligning funding opportunities with client needs and orchestrating millions of dollars in successful grant proposals for organizations.

Tim serves on the board of directors for the Brentwood Baldwin Whitehall Chamber of Commerce and Brookline Teen Outreach. He also serves on the local CANstruction organizing committee, an event where teams build sculptures out of canned goods, which are then donated to local food banks. As an Eagle Scout, Tim remains active with the scouting program in an advisory role for the camping and marketing departments. He also created a foundation, the ACORN Society, with other camp staff alumni to provide grants that market the outdoors to youth. Graduating with high honors from Allegheny College, Tim was active in numerous organizations, including the college radio station and television station — the foundation for his love of communications.

As an avid outdoorsman, Tim can usually be found hiking a mountain, floating down a river, or relaxing around a campfire, when he’s not at his home in South Park, PA.

Stronger Than Hate

Tim is the creator of the well-known Stronger Than Hate image that he designed in the aftermath of the tragic mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in October of 2018. He was moved by the event to put his talents to use as a way of uniting people under an image of strength and hope on an otherwise somber, devastating day. As with most things that go viral, Tim never intended for it to gain the exposure and popularity it did, but the simple message and design resonated with people close to him and they wanted to share it beyond his private social media circles. Eventually Tim allowed his work to be shared, and the Stronger Than Hate image gained traction first locally, then nationally and even internationally as a rallying point to elevate neighborly love and support over cowardice and bigotry.

While Tim will never profit from his design, he and the Pittsburgh Steelers saw the opportunity to use the popularity of the movement to raise money for the reeling Jewish community in Pittsburgh. Through a partnership between Tim, the Steelers and Underground printing, the sale of Stronger Than Hate shirts raised $70,000 that was entirely donated to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

When asked about Stronger Than Hate for a news story after his image went viral, Tim said “It represents our city; it represents our strength; it represents that we’re not breakable. …I don’t see it anymore as mine. It’s ours if it helps everyone else. It’s everyone’s. …I want it to be a unifying symbol for as long as it continues to resonate with people.”