CLAIRE TONDREAU

Claire Tondreau, Founder and Business Chief, HotSpring

Claire Tondreau founded the brand development firm HotSpring in April 2000.  HotSpring helps established brands uniquely reinvent their position in the market, identifying opportunities for brand and revenue growth and helping client teams cross the threshold from strategy to implementation.  HotSpring has applied its approach to successful projects for companies such as Atkins Nutritionals, Barnes & Noble, Citi Cards, Sprint PCS, the Visiting Nurse Service of NY and a number of magazine publishing companies.

A non-conformist at heart, Claire Tondreau’s initial interest in marketing was sparked by a Penn State University professor who, she recalls, hated advertising and marketing. After graduating with a BA in English Literature and spending a brief time at an ad agency in her hometown of Philadelphia, Claire embraced the idea of making marketing her career. She went to New York where she served in positions at advertising agencies Benton & Bowles and then Jordan McGrath Case & Taylor, where she worked during two periods separated by a stint on the corporate side. In 1996, J. Walter Thompson brought her on board to handle their Kellogg’s business as a senior partner and managing director. Subsequently she joined Ammirati Puris Lintas as executive vice president and managing director in charge of the Unilever account.

Claire has a deeply held belief that— and interest in—how companies can grow beyond their own expectations.  With a general management perspective and a focus corporate strategy, Claire directs HotSpring’s overall approach to its projects. From her agency- and client-side management positions, she has experience with manufacturing, sales, licensing, and membership programs in addition to marketing and communications.  She has had P& L responsibility within national and multi-national companies with complex divisional structures, reporting relationships, and cultural differences.

Tondreau is a guest lecturer on marketing at Columbia University and NYU. Claire frequently addresses in-house brand strategy seminars for HotSpring clients and participates in industry trade conference panels in HotSpring’s various vertical markets. Originally from Philadelphia, Claire is an inexplicably proud resident of New Jersey.