About
Operator. Strategist.
Brand builder.
Twenty years across beverage, wellness, RTD, cannabis, food, and lifestyle. Launched Miller Lite in Canada. Built packaging systems for portfolio leaders and challenger brands. Founded an agency. Now consulting as a senior operator.
Strategy and execution as one job.
Most senior brand work in this industry sits in one of two buckets: strategists who write the deck, or creatives who build what someone else briefed. The interesting work — the work that moves a P&L — happens at the seam between those two roles.
That seam is where I've spent most of my career. Brand strategy that survives contact with packaging. Packaging that survives contact with retail. Retail that survives contact with the founder. The connecting tissue is the work.
Two decades, three modes.
Senior brand leader inside global portfolio companies. Founder and operator of a creative business. And now: a partner-level advisor for founder-led companies that need senior involvement without the agency overhead.
Inside
Senior strategist on SABMiller's Canadian portfolio — Miller Lite, MGD, Grolsch, Pilsner Urquell, Peroni. Led the Canadian launch of Miller Lite end to end. Built brand and packaging systems for category leaders. Learned how P&Ls actually move.
Founder
Founded Smaller Agency. Grew the Toronto office 300% in the first year and doubled the local roster without adding overhead. Worked across cannabis, wellness, hospitality, food, and lifestyle — challenger brands and category leaders.
Advisor
Now consulting selectively as a senior brand and growth operator. Fewer engagements, deeper involvement, partner-level time with founders who need a strategic operator in the room.
The most useful thing a senior operator brings to a founder isn't another opinion. It's pattern recognition.
— Noah Barlow
What I believe about how brands grow.
A set of operating beliefs, sharpened over two decades. They are not original, but they are decided.
- 01 Packaging is media. Most founders underfund it.
- 02 Consensus kills demand. Sharp positioning has to alienate someone.
- 03 Premium brands are often emotionally weak. They forget what they're for.
- 04 The package is the brief. If it can't say it, the brand can't either.
- 05 Most agencies don't understand commerce. The good ones can't hide it.
Currently
Based in Toronto. Selectively available.
Working with a small number of founder-led brands across North America. If you're considering bringing on senior brand or growth leadership, let's have a conversation.