Garrett Hall | Researcher
A Professor of Digital Marketing in the Sheridan Pilon School of Business, Marketing Program. Garrett primarily teach in the areas of Marketing, Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Garrett is also a Mentor-in-Residence at Sheridan’s EDGE entrepreneurship hub, and a Faculty Advisor with ENACTUS (Entrepreneurial Action for all of US) Sheridan.
Garrett graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Social Psychology & Statistics in 1986. After this, he completed his MBA in 1988 from the University of Alberta with a focus on Direct Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
Garrett brings over 30 years of business management and marketing experience from entrepreneurial and large-enterprise organizations, having held positions across multiple disciplines including advertising agency Account Executive, Director of New Business, Product Group Manager, eCommerce company Business Owner and a marketing & business consultant.
In 1988, Garrett started his career as an Account Executive with Young and Rubicam in the Direct Marketing arm of Wunderman Worldwide, the world’s largest direct marketing agency at the time. Garrett managed the marketing for various clients such as Book-of-the-Month Club, IBM, AGO, and Maclean’s Magazine.
In 1992, Garrett started as the Marketing Manager of Education Book Clubs and New Business Development with Scholastic Canada, an international publisher and educational marketing company. He managed a team of 10 people in the $23+ million Book Clubs department in the areas of creative & design, production, marketing, and all aspects of sales. He set up marketing performance measurements to control costs and integrated direct marketing principles into creative design. Garrett was also responsible for the launch of the Babysitters Club brand into Canada.
From 1996 to 2009, Garrett owned The Added Touch Group, an online, catalogue, and physical retail seller of consumer household, fashion accessories and gift items. During peak season, Garrett supervised more than 100 employees and a staff of seven department managers through all aspects of the offline and digital businesses; including marketing, sales, strategic planning, forecasting, budgeting, internal controls, human resources, operations, technology, internet, accounting activities and more. With the power of Direct and Digital Marketing, The Added Touch was constantly researching our products, customer behaviour, and responses to promotions.
Under Garrett’s leadership, sales grew to $7.5 million and the customer CRM grew to 835,000 contacts. In only six months, pure internet sales grew from $0 to $600,000 and the digital customer base increased from 0 to more than 170,000 contacts. In 2009, Garret sold the business to an American company called Gardens Alive, a $500 million revenue online retailer and began his own consulting business.
During his time as a consultant, Garrett assisted companies looking to expand into new markets. This included Garden’s Alive, which launched nine brands into Canada in 2009, generating more than $25 million in Canadian sales.
Sujinda Hwang-Leslie, Doctor of Creative Industries | Researcher
Dr. Sujinda Hwang-Leslie is a Professor of Marketing in Sheridan Pilon School of Business. She has been working as a creative director and a marketing director in the digital media and marketing fields since 1993. During that time, she bought one business and founded two start-ups.
Her first business, Applied MultiMedia (APMM), was a division of Applied Learning, an ASX listed company in Australia. She took part in the management buyout and became one of the four partners in the business. APMM offered training solutions to top tier companies in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore including ANZ, BHP, Coca-Cola Amatil, Telstra, Woolworth and Australia Post. It won several Masters of Multimedia, Real Estate Marketing Awards, and Australian Institute of Training and Development awards.
Her second business, a start-up called 1024 Design, started as a digital design agency and grew into a marketing firm, offering digital design and marketing consultancy services to mainly start-ups and small businesses. Sujinda worked with both B2B and B2C clients in Australia, UK and Thailand from various industries. Her top tier clients included Shell UK, Shell Thailand, Amcor and CDX.
Her third business, a start-up called 1024 Simulation, offering integrated big data solutions for transport simulation and analysis. Clients included Deutsche Bahn Engineering and Consulting in Germany, South Africa and UK, and SNC-Lavalin in Canada.
Currently, Sujinda is a Marketing Professor at the Business School, Sheridan College. She was part of the team to develop the Graduate Certificate Creative Industries Management Program, which was launched in Fall 2019. She also developed curriculums for two visual communication design courses, and co-developed six digital marketing courses and three micro-credential courses. In addition, she led the team to create integrated experiential learning platforms for students to practice the latest digital marketing technologies.
Sujinda received a Bachelor of Communication Arts (Motion Picture and Still Photography) from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand (1989), a Postgraduate Diploma in Design Studies from University of Technology Sydney, Australia (1992), and a Doctorate of Creative Industries from Queensland University of Technology, Australia (2009). Her thesis was an interdisciplinary study of Graphic Design and Marketing.
Sujinda is an Australian and Thai with Chinese and Burmese heritage. She was born moderately deaf so she understands the challenges of being under.
Shokran Salehi| Researcher
A Professor of Digital Marketing in the Sheridan Pilon School of Business, Marketing Program. Garrett primarily teach in the areas of Marketing, Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Garrett is also a Mentor-in-Residence at Sheridan’s EDGE entrepreneurship hub, and a Faculty Advisor with ENACTUS (Entrepreneurial Action for all of US) Sheridan.
Garrett graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Social Psychology & Statistics in 1986. After this, he completed his MBA in 1988 from the University of Alberta with a focus on Direct Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
Garrett brings over 30 years of business management and marketing experience from entrepreneurial and large-enterprise organizations, having held positions across multiple disciplines including advertising agency Account Executive, Director of New Business, Product Group Manager, eCommerce company Business Owner and a marketing & business consultant.
In 1988, Garrett started his career as an Account Executive with Young and Rubicam in the Direct Marketing arm of Wunderman Worldwide, the world’s largest direct marketing agency at the time. Garrett managed the marketing for various clients such as Book-of-the-Month Club, IBM, AGO, and Maclean’s Magazine.
In 1992, Garrett started as the Marketing Manager of Education Book Clubs and New Business Development with Scholastic Canada, an international publisher and educational marketing company. He managed a team of 10 people in the $23+ million Book Clubs department in the areas of creative & design, production, marketing, and all aspects of sales. He set up marketing performance measurements to control costs and integrated direct marketing principles into creative design. Garrett was also responsible for the launch of the Babysitters Club brand into Canada.
From 1996 to 2009, Garrett owned The Added Touch Group, an online, catalogue, and physical retail seller of consumer household, fashion accessories and gift items. During peak season, Garrett supervised more than 100 employees and a staff of seven department managers through all aspects of the offline and digital businesses; including marketing, sales, strategic planning, forecasting, budgeting, internal controls, human resources, operations, technology, internet, accounting activities and more. With the power of Direct and Digital Marketing, The Added Touch was constantly researching our products, customer behaviour, and responses to promotions.
Under Garrett’s leadership, sales grew to $7.5 million and the customer CRM grew to 835,000 contacts. In only six months, pure internet sales grew from $0 to $600,000 and the digital customer base increased from 0 to more than 170,000 contacts. In 2009, Garret sold the business to an American company called Gardens Alive, a $500 million revenue online retailer and began his own consulting business.
During his time as a consultant, Garrett assisted companies looking to expand into new markets. This included Garden’s Alive, which launched nine brands into Canada in 2009, generating more than $25 million in Canadian sales.