Balsam Brands CEO and leadership

Caroline joined Balsam Brands in 2007 in a Marketing-focused role and has played many different roles since then. Now, she oversees Operations, guides our brand direction and expression, and champions cross-functional decision-making and coordination. Working with the team to solve complex problems with simple solutions is one of her favorite things about her role.

Her professional career has included strategic planning and marketing roles for leading consumer brands at Levi Strauss & Company and as a consultant at Bain. She also has experience in the non-profit sector at The Bridgespan Group and YouthBuild USA. Caroline was an Arjay Miller Scholar in the Stanford MBA program and holds undergraduate degrees in Economics and Systems Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania. If granted the superpower of her dreams, she would be morphing into all sorts of animals, vehicles, and other physical objects, emulating Plastic Man from the 70’s cartoon series (her childhood hero!).

Kristen is one of the original team members at Balsam Brands, and started at the company as an intern during graduate school in 2007. Intrigued by the job diversity, culture, and entrepreneurial spirit of the company, Kristen joined full-time in 2008. Kristen first focused on performance marketing in addition to a plethora of other initiatives. Kristen now oversees all marketing, eCommerce and project management activities, assists with company strategy, and often makes chocolate chip banana bread for colleagues to enjoy (and sometimes her family and friends, too…).

Kristen’s career started in the finance world; prior to business school she worked in investment banking and private equity before joining Sears Holdings. Kristen was named an Arjay Miller scholar in Stanford’s MBA program, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago with a double-major in Economics and Statistics. If given a superpower, Kristen would probably want to have the ability to have unlimited superpowers - she likes having options.

Mike manages the finance, accounting, and treasury functions at Balsam; he counts the money, prepares the financial reports, and oversees our insurance and capital needs.

Mike is a Certified Public Accountant and before joining the Balsam team, worked as a senior manager for Deloitte & Touche. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Master in Professional Accounting and received a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Utah State University. If Mike could choose any superpower, he would replicate into 3 “Mikes” - 1 to play, 1 to work, and 1 to keep up with his 3 busy children.

Joanne Rodriguez Litiatco is a Chief of Staff, ROHQ at Balsam Brands and is based in Philippines. She has worked as Operations Manager / Service Delivery Lead at Hinduja Global Solutions and Shift Manager at Customer Contact Center, Inc (now HTMT). Joanne works or has worked as Program Manager at Confabia, Inc and Business Development and Project Implemenation Manager at Confabia, Inc. She attended University of the Philippines.