Our Team

We are a visual and narrative storytelling firm that helps global corporations launch new initiatives, startups bring fresh ideas to market, non-profits extend their messages to a wider audience, and much more. Meet our writers, designers, artists, animators, filmmakers and developers.

Jim McManus
Lisa Kilborn
Julie Pietrini
Katie Joly
Terence Oliver
Michael Rothenberg
Laura McFadden
Sean Noyce
Haisam Hussein
Bård Edlund
Andy Omel
Carolynn DeCillo
Michael Iantosca
Stanford Kay
Holly Harrison

Jim McManus

Principal | Creative Director

A lifetime interest in telling visual stories sparked Jim to found Complex Stories to help organizations communicate complex ideas through engaging and memorable visuals.

Prior to starting the firm, Jim worked with many of the world’s leading publications including The New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune and as a graphics consultant to newspapers around the globe. Additionally, Jim taught visual journalism at Columbia University and spent more than a decade leading the creative communications efforts for a highly successful global technology company.

Lisa Kilborn

Principal | Content Strategist

Over the past twenty years, Lisa has helped many of the nation’s largest and most innovative companies share the stories of who they are,  why they matter, and the value they deliver.  From household names like American Express, IBM, and Oracle to start-ups and category-leading technology companies, she works collaboratively with C-level management and their teams, to help communicate and promote the excitement and innovation of their missions and products.

Lisa’s expertise blends a strategic approach to messaging with all the practical elements of great storytelling across the many forms of content marketing and social media.

Julie Pietrini

Designer

A graphic designer with over twenty years of experience, Julie has helped shape visual stories for marketing, PR, finance, and law firms; healthcare corporations and holistic providers; and Emmy Award-winning personalities.

She has created brand identities for startups, executive keynotes for international corporations, and UI designs for institutes and universities including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, University of Maryland, University of Maine, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Julie is also creative in her spare time, exploring her passion for photography, art, and decorative cookie creation.

Katie Joly

Interactive Developer | Designer

Over the past decade, Katelyn has applied her strong background in front-end development, graphic and UI design to developing websites, building interactive applications, and solving design challenges. Katelyn’s work has benefitted important telecommunications, media, technology, financial services, healthcare, and educational organizations including Verizon Wireless, Yale, Johnson & Johnson, Food Network, iRobot, and Capital One, to name a few.

While her main focus has been on front-end web development, her passion for art and design has also led her to become well-versed in print work, as well as interactive and UX/UI design.

Terence Oliver

Animator | Filmmaker

An award-winning animator, information designer and illustrator, Terence currently teaches visual journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill and has taught at Ohio University, Kent State University and the Poynter Institute.

Previously, he held design leadership positions at the Akron Beacon Journal and was an editorial artist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Terence was a part of two Pulitzer Prize winning teams and has won more than 50 individual awards from prestigious industry organizations.

Michael Rothenberg

Filmmaker

Complex Stories’ partnership with Michael provides our clients with all the benefits of his rich and broad background in film and video. As executive producer & creative director of Peak Productions, over the past 30 years Michael has won numerous industry awards – including Emmy, cable ACE, ITVA Golden Reel, Cindy, and AMI Gold Awards.

While film and video technology continue to converge, the hands-on work of storytelling in sound and picture remains Michael’s first passion. He continues to take great pleasure in adopting new skills, new tools, and new ways of working to meet the demands of each project he takes on.

Laura McFadden

Designer

Laura loves to play with words and images.  She cut her design teeth with few different positions at Inc. magazine and worked her way up to art director.

She has designed books, magazines, annual reports, direct mail, logos, websites, and collateral for Body & Soul, Boston, CFO, Fidelity, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Medicine, Horticulture, Joslin Diabetes, Keurig, Reebok, Rockport Publishers, and Silent Spring Institute.

Sean Noyce

Designer | Illustrator

Sean’s infographics, illustration, and design work have been featured in some of America’s most storied publications like TIME, Newsweek, and Playboy. He has received numerous merits of recognition from the Society of Publication Designers (SPD), the Society of News Design (SND), Associated Press, Americans for the Arts, among others. His clients have included UCLA Health, Toyota, Saatchi & Saatchi, The Baffler, Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, City of West Hollywood, and Unreasonable Group. Additionally, Sean exhibits his fine art around the globe and is the director at Noysky Projects, an independent gallery in the center of Hollywood.

Haisam Hussein

Designer | Illustrator

Haisam creates infographics, maps, illustrations, and 3D renderings for a wide variety of clients including National Geographic, Time, Lapham’s Quarterly and VICE. Prior to working independently, he spent thirteen years in the Graphics Department of Conde Nast Traveler magazine, most recently as Graphics Editor.

Bård Edlund

Animator | Illustrator

Our collaboration with Bård brings our clients a thoughtful, artful approach to animation and illustration. After many years as the Art Director of CNN’s business news website, he founded EDLUNDART, a New York City design and animation studio. Bård has directed animation projects and designed for companies and organizations like Doctors Without Borders, Vox, NBC News, Fortune, The Verge, Pepsico, Stack Overflow, DJI, Squarespace, and Barnard College at Columbia University.

He spends his time away from client projects developing his own animated short films, writing and recording music, and generally experimenting with new approaches and ideas across several disciplines.

Andy Omel

Designer

Andy Omel has worked as a print and digital design director for more than 20 years. He’s art directed an industry-leading travel magazine, a monograph for a chart-topping heavy metal band, and an iPad app for brides-to-be. 

His designs have been recognized by The Society of Publication Designers for his work at Condé Nast Traveler and Rolling Stone.  Additionally, he has been an art director for some of the design industry’s leading consulting firms.

He’s also hopelessly addicted to travel and adding to his growing collection of guitars.

Carolynn DeCillo

Designer

An art director/designer who has spent over two decades creating visual communications in the design industry, and has a broad range of experience designing magazines, books, marketing collateral, and websites.

Carolynn has held art director positions at Body and Soul Magazine, America’s Test Kitchen and Christian Science Publishing, and has designed a range of projects for clients including Tufts University, Akamai, Lattice Engines, Mass Insight, and Rockport Publishing.

Michael Iantosca

Interactive Developer

An engineer specializing in highly interactive web applications and mobile apps, Michael has been building software for the web since 1994.

In addition to being passionate about all things technology, Michael is an aficionado of great UX and design. He has delivered interactive solutions for a variety of clients including Microsoft, Genzyme, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Health Dialog Services.

Stanford Kay

Designer | Illustrator

An award-winning information designer and illustrator, during his fifteen years at Newsweek, Stanford covered a wide range of complex subjects through his innovative and thoughtful graphics. He currently helps prominent corporations and nonprofit organizations visualize their data and communicate concepts.

He also contributes to numerous publications. His work has recently appeared in a number of published collections of the world’s best infographics.

Holly Harrison

Writer

After years editing and writing for various prominent publications, Holly shifted her attention to helping organizations craft content for reports, websites and films. She has also helped write speeches for corporate events at the U.S. State Department, the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

She is the author of several books on art and design, and frequently shows her own artwork in galleries around New England.