Leadership

Laura Michaels

Chief Creative Officer

Laura brings a invaluable combination of vision and creativity to Fusebox, and over a decade of experience leading teams in strategic marketing and planning, design, user experience, and technology.

As a leader and colleague, Laura’s goal is to cultivate a fresh and collaborative environment where unconventional, envelope-pushing ideas and innovative solutions are both encouraged and welcomed. She inspires and challenges every member of her team to envision new ways to think about client products and services — and ultimately, how to make their offerings more relevant to customers

She has successfully led online brand development, user experience and design for companies of all sizes, from startups to Global 1000 companies.

Throughout the course of her career, Laura’s original and inventive projects have garnered industry praise, resulting in several coveted One Show Interactive Pencil and Clio Awards.

Laura’s creative journey reflects her lifelong love of the arts—a passion that fuels her volunteer work in promoting arts-based causes. She works with several not-for-profit creative organizations as a board member, including MoreArt.org, a local New York city organization dedicated to making art more publicly accessible, and Streb.org, an organization that focuses on introducing new cultural paradigms to movement and dance, public performance, and arts activism.

And since one career is just the beginning for someone like Laura, she also funnels her artistic genius into an original line of jewelry. Her work can be found at lmichaels.com, and in select boutiques in Soho and Montauk and at LOOT at the Museum of Art and Design in October 2011

Laura lives with her daughter Kassandra and two dogs, Licorice and Sonna. When she’s not working, you’re likely to find her in Montauk—one of her favorite places on earth—where she’ll be surfing, sourcing vintage treasures or shooting photos with her ever-present camera.

Steve Michaels

Director of Strategic Services and Technology

Steve Michaels’ background in product development and resource and risk management, in addition to his extensive experience within a variety of sales and marketing channels, provides him with the ideal background to manage Fusebox’s diverse portfolio of products and services. His efforts have positioned the Fusebox team for success with clients across a wide range of industries.

Since joining the Fusebox team in 2001, Steve has been deeply involved in developing business solutions for their financial, entertainment, and communications technology clients. Steve heads up software management for Fusebox clients, including the development of integrated cloud computing systems, data centre server virtualization technology, and data integration in Service-Oriented Architectures.

In addition, Steve has spearheaded Fusebox’s software development strategy, most notably in the areas of “software as a service” and rich internet applications, consistently providing new methods of data delivery for companies, employees, retailers, and consumers. He has also shown particularly innovative leadership in the development of financial services technologies, including real-time trading systems, business intelligence and reporting, and compliance regulation.

Prior to his work with Fusebox, Steve spent seven years driving technology projects at AT&T Bell Labs, where he received accolades for his contributions to some of their most sophisticated undersea projects to date.

Steve holds a BSME from Rutgers University, an MSE from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA from Cornell. When he’s not holding down the fort at Fusebox, he’s spending time in Hoboken with his wife and two children. And if you don’t find him there, it’s a good bet that Steve is working on his handicap on the golf course.

Bryan Thatcher

Founder and CEO

Throughout his career, Bryan Thatcher has pursued innovation above all else—which makes him the perfect choice to lead Fusebox’s diverse team of creative and technical minds. Every day, he challenges and inspires those around him to create some of the industry’s most game-changing solutions.

A native New Yorker and proud Brooklynite, Bryan began his career with a BFA in Graphic Design from the School of Visual Arts. From there, he founded his first digital design studio, Twelve Point Rule, in 1989. The Twelve Point Rule team brought new meaning to the term “early adopter” when they became one of the first studios to produce fully digital designs. For the next decade, their reputation continued to soar as a result of successful projects and ventures with clients in the sports, entertainment, and fashion industries. This led to a string of coveted industry awards, and the birth of even bigger plans—again, with Bryan leading the charge.

In 1995, the studio expanded their services to include interactive design and development projects for notable clients such as Nickelodeon, Time Warner, and Chase. In time, the tiny ten-person digital design studio swelled to a staff of 100… and Fusebox was born. This new incarnation led to work with some of the most revered names in finance, media, and entertainment, including JPMorgan Chase, MTV, CNN, ESPN, and Carnegie Hall.

Bryan has continued to prove himself as a true digital visionary and industry pioneer since then by heading up a series of risk-defying startups. In 2000, he launched uDefine, a “find engine” that changed the way users could pursue online content. The market collapse in 2001 introduced significant challenges to the project, but Bryan was nowhere near done pushing the boundaries of innovation. In 2006, he launched Empressr, a rich media “software as a service” that received immediate industry acclaim, and broke the mold for presentation software tools.

In addition to his ever-growing resume of digital and creative achievements, Bryan is widely respected for his work with the community. His recent involvement with the Founder Institute speaks to his belief that the status quo of startup incubation and development needs to change in profound ways. He also speaks regularly on marketing and branding to a variety of audiences, both corporate and academic.

When he’s not working on his latest venture, Bryan enjoys life with his daughter in the midst of Manhattan’s 24-hour-a-day energy. He is also an avid photographer, a design snob, and likes to occasionally beat himself up surfing at his favorite beaches. He also immerses himself in emerging technologies, mobile strategies and social business design.

Rob Thatcher

Senior Vice President and Managing Partner

As one of our founding partners, Rob has worked hard to ensure that his idea of good client service—service as unique and individualized as the clients themselves—is inherent in our business model. His goal is to fully understand each client’s needs—and to let those needs determine how best Fusebox can serve them. Rob accomplishes this by staying in close contact with our clients, and by maintaining a hand in the day-to-day management of their engagements—no matter how busy his schedule may be.

And the results speak for themselves. Rob is responsible for developing both an impressive client roster—including Citigroup, Carnegie Hall, Direct Edge, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, L’Oreal, Redken, and Time Warner Cable—and an exceptional level of client loyalty almost unheard of in this industry.

Rob is enjoying life in Orange County, NY with his family.