We’re a team of market and brand experts with investor discipline.

Meet our West Directors

No blind spots in the leopard's eyes / Can only help to jeopardize / The lives of lambs, the shepherd cries

- Colin Newman

Carlton is a veteran producer, curator, entrepreneur, and former academic who has worked across Film, TV and business. He leads multifaceted creative projects that are commensurate with the grand visions (and often modest resources) of early-stage companies.

Motivated by a thirst for knowledge and an endless desire for new experiences, Carlton moved from his hometown of Montréal to the Bay Area where he earned his PhD in Film Theory from Stanford University. With nearly two decades of creative production experience for a range of clients including Cisco, Facebook, Oakland Museum of California, and Mountain Hardwear, Carlton’s television and film work has premiered at festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW. Carlton is the founder of the Disposable Film Festival, which celebrates innovation in new media filmmaking internationally, as well as the co-founder of PROJECTOR, an organization that puts companies, causes, and directors together to create films inspired by revolutionary ideas. Carlton’s work at West brings his engagement with film and documentary full circle, helping new companies translate their stories and giving them life through multimedia.

What would we think if the telephone was invented after email?

Jeremy is a creative hybrid whose breadth of work includes advertising campaigns, product transformations, acquisition marketing, creative activations, experiential spaces, partnerships, retail, identity expressions, and brand development. Jeremy designs for the space where product, creative, and communications meet. He specializes in architecting end-to-end experiences, from awareness, through the product journey to engagement to advocacy.

Jeremy started his career in politics, holds a degree in Political Science from Point Loma Nazarene University, and also attended The Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, taking on a variety of roles on Capitol Hill, before switching to the brand world. Prior to West, Jeremy worked as Creative Director and Producer at both Weiden + Kennedy and the Martin Agency where he collaborated with a variety of world-class brands including Wal-Mart, Comcast, American Cancer Society, Microsoft, Nike, Target, Starbucks, Honda, and Old Spice. Jeremy has been recognized with several awards including One Club’s Best of the Digital Decade, a Cannes Grand Prix, and the ANDY Innovation Award.

Jeremy previously served as the adjunct professor for the Creative Technology track at VCU Brandcenter. If he’s not at his desk, Jeremy is wandering the streams, forests, volcanos, deserts, and coffee shrines around Portland Oregon with family, friends and creatures.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

- Margaret Mead

Joanna Rees is committed to changing what historically has been deemed impossible in the world of startups and venture capital. As a seasoned brand marketer, company builder and investor, she has spent her career embracing the idea that “the best way to change the future is to create it”. Joanna supports entrepreneurial leaders at the intersection of brand creation, company scaling, and growth.

In addition to her work at West, Joanna currently serves on the board of FICO (NYSE: FICO), Tentrr, Prelude Fertility, Boon Supply, and Perch. Joanna has previously served on numerous boards including Care.com (NYSE: CARE), Leapfrog (NYSE: LEAP), Quinstreet (Nasdaq: QNST), The Coppola Company, National Venture Capital Association, Endeavor Global, New Schools Venture Fund, and as a Senior Partner of the B Team. Joanna was also a candidate for Mayor of San Francisco in 2011––a first-hand exercise in building a personal brand. Joanna was named a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum and a Henry Crown Fellow by the Aspen Institute, where she now moderates the Henry Crown Fellowship.

Joanna brings significant experience in venture capital, finance, and investment banking––as the Founder of VSP Capital along with roles in investment banking doing M&A and private placements––to West. With deep roots in marketing and branding, she has held several senior marketing leadership roles at Danone and DMB&B. She previously led the formation and capital raise for Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor Global’s impact investment fund.

Joanna isn’t afraid to turn things upside down having been a gymnast at Duke University where she earned a BS in Psychology and her MBA in Finance at Columbia University. Joanna strives to create opportunities for women as the Board Chair of The Representation Project and on the board of Him For Her and its affiliated public benefit corporation, Illumyn. She loves to cook, especially when she can use the ingredients from her garden. She and her husband, John Hamm, talk leadership, play golf and bike ride, having (hopefully) successfully raised their four children.

Matt is a writer, researcher and marketer who has spent his career at the intersection of business and culture. He balances deep experience and an open-mindedness, making him an empathetic leader and brand builder who cuts right to the thesis of any story. Matt sits across the firm’s studio engagements and portfolio companies, ensuring that the full breadth of his own and the team’s experience is deployed to create the maximum value and impact.

Matt joined West in 2016 from Google where he served as the Global Head of Brand Experience alongside the Search, Maps and Translate teams. Prior to Google, Matt spent nearly a decade at Red Bull, in London and Los Angeles, leading the brand’s iconic work in action sports, music and events. His credits include producing an event racing airplanes along the river Thames in front of 40,000 spectators, making front-page news by jumping Tower Bridge on a motocross bike and working with a who’s-who of the music industry in programming 500 music events a year, including month-long festivals in New York and Los Angeles. He built and programed recording studios, art galleries, and has made numerous films and documentaries including a 10 part series memorializing a Google-funded amateur space race which he produced with JJ Abrams and Bad Robot.

Matt advises a number of companies in the culture and tech space and sits on the board of Switcher Studio, a West portfolio company. He is also the co-founder of AGEIST, a media and research consultancy. His writing and research has been published in The Economist, Financial Times, The Guardian, Forbes amongst others, and he spoke at Tedx in New York in 2019. Matt holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Masters in Media and Cultural Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. He is an endurance athlete and is a passionate believer in pencils.