There was no formal interview process. There was no search firm, no shortlist, no final-round presentation. There was a referral.
Obele Brown-West had been trading notes with Folklore leadership for years — the kind of friendly co-mentoring that usually stays exactly that. Then she sent a brand their way, on her own, before anyone had put an offer on the table.
“That was the turning point,” says Brown-West, who has assumed the role of CEO + Partner at Folklore, the Minneapolis independent brand and digital experience agency. “I wasn’t just giving counsel or rooting for the agency from the outside anymore — I wanted to see it thrive and play a key role in what came next.”
Brown-West comes to Folklore from Colle-McVoy, where she was president of the Stagwell agency.
The agency she’s inheriting isn’t a fixer-upper
Folklore landed on the 2026 Inc. 5000 and made Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agencies list in both 2025 and 2026. Its work sits at the seam where digital strategy, customer experience, accessible design and platform development meet.
Recent projects include a global digital remit with Inspire Medical Systems, the launch of the 2026 Scotty Cameron Phantom line and digital ecosystem builds for Premier Marine and Sonex. Best Buy Health, Natus Neuro, Roundel and Waev Inc. round out the roster.
That growth came under Lorenz Esguerra, who drove nearly 40% revenue growth in his first year as CEO and held the line with consecutive double-digit increases after it.
Esguerra moves up, not out
Esguerra transitions to Chairman, which in a lot of agencies is a polite word for the exit ramp, though he’s framing it differently.
“Obele and I have spent years trading notes and challenging each other. She is a powerhouse who doesn’t do fluff,” Esguerra says. “Folklore has always been about moving faster and going deeper than legacy shops. Obele is the exact right force to take what we’ve built and scale it thoughtfully,” said Esguerra.
He’ll now spend his time on clients and the community-building work that shaped how the agency operates.
A track record built on growth agendas
Brown-West has spent more than 20 years attaching herself to things that needed to get bigger. She built early audience development and monetization strategy for The Week’s website launch, then helped scale Tinuiti while forging first-to-market partnerships with Google, Amazon, Meta, TikTok and Reddit.
As President of Tracer, she built the go-to-market engine alongside an $18.1 million funding round. Most recently, as President of Colle McVoy, she modernized agency operations, helped drive 30% growth and landed the agency’s first global beauty client.
The brands she’s stewarded read like a category tour: Chips Ahoy!, Mars Inc., ALDI, MilkPEP, Headspace, Cars.com, Sanofi, PacSun, the NFL, United Airlines, Unilever, Revlon and Wrangler.
First 90 days, then a growth team
Brown-West will partner with Mike Matheny, Folklore’s Founding Partner + Chief Operating Officer, on day-to-day operations while her own remit covers strategy, future planning and commercial scale.
The early plan is unglamorous on purpose: get close to the team and the clients for 90 days, then add people to the growth team and push into new markets.
“I’ve respected Obele’s reputation in this industry, from a distance, for a long time,” Matheny says. “When you sit down with her, you realize pretty fast that she’s a springboard for excellence. Folklore is in growth mode, and Obele is a builder through and through.”
The AI pitch, minus the demolition
Her read on what brands want right now is refreshingly unromantic about the technology.
“Brands want to move faster and leverage AI, but they’re working within complicated ecosystems they’ve already invested in,” Brown-West says. “They don’t need another partner telling them to rip everything out. They need a team that understands the business problem first, then connects strategy, brand experience and implementation at the intersection of CX and technology.”
Which is, more or less, the argument for hiring an independent in the first place.
Learn more
Folklore
Obele Brown-West LinkedIn
Lorenz Esguerra LinkedIn
Folklore LinkedIn
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