At four years old, Nicole Callahan stood on a chair while her French grandmother taught her how to quarter a chicken. That day began her lifelong passion for the culinary arts. As a teenager she traveled from Colorado and spent summers with her extended family in Paris and Brittany. There she learned a lot of things: the importance of butter, how to not only say joie de vivre but also live it, and that to create a well-balanced recipe in life, sometimes you have to go out and search for the perfect mix of ingredients.

Nicole began her formal education at Vanderbilt University where she received a B.A in European studies. Down in Nashville, she couldn't help but expanded her culinary repertoire by exploring the butter-laden recipes of the deep South. Following graduation, Nicole took a position in business-to-business sales. This experience became the soup stock, so to speak, for the recipe of her career. What she most learned most, besides tenacity, was that that a good pitch is everything. But to do that best, you have to understand the unique nature of the brand and the needs of the customer.

Soon an opportunity came along that Nicole couldn't pass up. She packed up her bags and headed to California's Sierra Nevadas to help create and launch North Lake Tahoe's first private golf course community, Lahontan Golf Club. It was a huge success. One thing Nicole knew for sure: she had found the spice for her recipe - a knack for marketing.

But to add more depth, she returned to Colorado to attend the University of Denver and earn her M.B.A. Upon graduation Nicole was awarded the "Outstanding Marketing MBA" honor. She joined the Sterling-Rice Group where she led innovation and brand strategy projects for many clients including Oscar Meyer, Kraft, Heinz, Frito Lay and Unilever for over five years. It was another ingredient vital to her understanding of brand strategy. One flavor was missing from her master recipe.

Nicole rounded out her background when she entered corporate America as the Director of Product Innovation for First Data's TeleCheck brand. In this position, she was able to leverage her ardor for in-depth understanding of customer needs and pair those needs with unique solutions to create and launch new products for merchants ranging from mom-n-pop pizzerias to some of America's largest corporations.

All of these disparate ingredients have come together to make Nicole a well-balanced strategist. Nicole's passion for building strong brands based on a foundation of consumer insights led her to reunite with Priscilla and D'Lea and join Tango Strategy. As for her childhood passions, her grandmother's handwritten cookbook is her most beloved possession. And did we mention? She sure can throw a lively dinner party.