Mission Statement

Pemberton exists to be the go-to resource for marketing and communications agencies to discover and reveal pathways to organic growth while changing the mindset of an RFP-obsessed industry, to being proactive, opportunistic and in-tune with their existing client partners that view an agency as an investment in their own growth strategy.  

J. Mark Riggs

Mark is the founder and CEO of Pemberton which is management consultancy that exists to be the go-to resource for marketing/communications agencies to discover and reveal pathways to organic growth while changing the mindset of an RFP-obsessed industry.
 

Before starting Pemberton, Mark spent 20 years in the agency world working for IPG’s Mullen Lowe, an Ad Age A-List Agency, Taylor, the Holmes Report’s Consumer Agency of the Decade, MWWPR and French/West/Vaughan, the Southeast’s largest independent agency where on six different occasions he grew small accounts into multi-million-dollar accounts.

Mark has spent a career learning the art of integrated communication developing and executing award-winning consumer programs for brands and companies like Allstate, Honda, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, Polaris, Coke, Diageo, RJ Reynolds, SunTrust Banks, the U.S. Navy, the Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN, to name a few.

Mark has a reputation as a business-builder and a strategic counselor and has experience in leading client services, insights and planning functions, as well as developing talent. A creative thinker and problem-solver, Mark believes that great thinking can “come from anywhere,” it’s the ability to harness it and leverage it for clients that makes the intellectual property of the agency valuable and an integral part of the marketing mix. 

Mark began his career as a journalist learning resourcefulness and the value of filling a window of opportunity with concise communication. Additionally, Mark started his marketing career in the Olympic Movement learning the intricacies of planning and an attention to detail in the development of events as a lifestyle communication tool.

A member of the Business Journal’s 40-Under-40 Business Leadership Hall of Fame, Mark won the first ever PR Week campaign award for a North Carolina-based agency. Mark has walked the plains of Kenya’s Masai Mara, the corridors of the Appalachian Trail, and found Tommy Lasorda sitting in his backseat.

Britt Carter 

Britt Carter is an executive-level public relations and crisis counselor. Britt's clients over the years include Fortune 500 companies, major health systems, and many public and private colleges and universities. 

Britt launched FleishmanHillard's North Carolina offices, and served as Senior Partner and General Manager. Britt managed teams around the world for reputation and crisis management, as well as brand building and story forecasting. He also developed a global social listening hub that served offices and clients throughout the network. He is a certified crisis counselor and guest lectures on crisis communication and reputation management. Britt has developed the Reputation Vulnerability Assessment, a tool to help clients identify potential crises before they develop. 

Prior to joining FleishmanHillard, Britt was a partner in the firm of French/West/Vaughan, a lifestyle public relations company, from 1997-2003. There, he created the Food & Beverage and Healthcare practice groups. 

Britt began his communication career developing brand identities for pharmaceutical, auto, and technology companies. He was on the team that developed the brand “Viagra” for Pfizer. 

Britt has served hundreds of clients, including UNC Chapel Hill and the UNC System (Appalachian State, UNC Greensboro, North Carolina Central, etc.) Auburn University, The University of Kentucky and many other colleges and universities. Clients also include AT&T, General Motors, The Home Depot, Citi, and, very proudly, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. 

Britt holds a bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and English from North Carolina State University. 

Dawn Ridge 

With more than 25 years of marketing and advertising experience, Dawn brings an informed and practical perspective to client relationships and results. Consistent with TPC Growth’s philosophy of organic growth as an often overlooked and under-prioritized income source, Dawn has increased the scope, income, and profitability on each account portfolio under her management. 

Dawn brings a combination of agency and client-side work experience in a range of categories, including B2B and B2C, with deep experience in digital as well as traditional marketing. 

Known by agency partners during her eight-year leadership of the Kimberly-Clark business for VML as “the client whisperer,” Dawn believes trust, transparency and mutual commitment can both strengthen and save client relationships. Dawn specializes in account counseling, helping identify, understand, and act on fractures in the agency-client relationship to help it grow and keep it stable. Dawn also conducts retrospectives on lost accounts to understand underlying issues getting in the way of partnerships. It is her belief almost every client relationship can be restored with the right approach. 

Through her career, Dawn has built a reputation for creating value and finding potential in underutilized assets. From the early days of digital—where she beat the incumbent creative agency of record to win the build and management of the first-ever Midas auto repair website their yellow pages agency—to working alongside Kimberly-Clark global marketing executives to provide digital and social media competency training, Dawn has a proven track record of building, growing and retaining relationships. 

Her brand experience also includes blue-chip companies like John Deere, AB InBev, BP, and Grainger as well as transportation, financial services, manufacturing, distribution, and utilities companies.

Educated at Augustana College, Rock Island, her liberal arts background, and English and History curriculum helps her see the connections between ideas, concepts and categories and has nurtured a curious and agile mindset. Dawn and her family live in the Chicago suburbs.