Lee Bowers
Founder at BluStarr · Quad
Colorado Springs, CO
In My Own Words
We're looking to build a passionate team to launch startup BluStarr.com – A Bold New Women's Action Sports Apparel Brand
As the founder of BluStarr.com, a startup women's land-based action sports apparel brand, I am on a mission to support and promote women's action sports and the athletes who drive these high-energy, high-passion pursuits. Focused on sports like Motocross (MX), Supercross (SX), Mountain Biking (MTB), Climbing, and other individual land-based action sports, BluStarr is more than a brand – it's a new paradigm.
Our goal is to develop and market a line of edgy, angsty, branded women's casual wear, complemented by innovative tech items and accessories, built specifically for women who thrive in action sports environments. To make this vision a reality, I’m assembling a team of talented designers, creative visionaries, and industry experts in women's action sports fashion and workflow processes.
About Me
With over 25 years of experience in the Women’s Motocross industry, I’ve worked to elevate women’s action sports and athletes in significant ways:
- Managed the first truly factory-sponsored Women’s Pro MX Team in partnership with Yamaha.
- Hosted professional women’s events and sponsored elite riders, including Sarah Whitmore, Tara Geiger, and Tania Satchwell.
- Partnered with promoters and media outlets like TransWorld and RacerX to grow exposure for the sport, its athletes, and its events.
- Throughout my career, I’ve worked toward creating a new paradigm where women riders can make a living pursuing their passion for racing full-time, just as their male counterparts have long been able to do.
The Bigger Picture
BluStarr isn’t just about apparel; it’s about giving back. A cornerstone of our company will be a give-back program offering free, week-long life-skills boot camps in the Rockies for at-risk teen girls and young women. Led by professional athletes and experienced mentors, these boot camps will aim to build self-confidence, self-esteem, and a belief that they can achieve whatever goals they set for themselves.
The Opportunity
We’re looking to launch the brand in the next 3–6 months and are seeking passionate, skilled individuals to help bring this vision to life. Currently, I’m seeking:
- Designer(s) with an edge and a deep understanding of women’s action sports and fashion.
- Project manager(s) and director(s) with expertise in the fashion industry, particularly in workflows and processes.
- Other team members who share a passion for action sports and want to help create a synergistic team capable of taking BluStarr from concept to market.
While I bring decades of experience in advertising and marketing to the table, I am looking for collaborators with fashion-specific expertise to round out the team.
If you’re interested in being part of this exciting journey, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Let’s work together to create a brand that not only supports women’s action sports but empowers women everywhere to push boundaries and pursue their passions.
Let’s build something extraordinary.
Work Experience
Client Services Project Manager
Quad2022 – 2024
Primary liaison between clients and production teams, utilizing my broad knowledge of catalog/retail, in-store signage, and print production workflows. Establish and promote excellent customer relations through effective and proactive communications to update clients and other stakeholders on project status. Lead day-to-day management and optimization of projects, entering specifications using job management software and ensuring proper priority was given to each job to meet client expectations. Constantly seeking to optimize workflows and legacy systems by drawing on my extensive understanding in each Creative Services area, including project management, design, print production, and prepress. Attend and set relevant client meetings, production, and project management status calls, bringing in appropriate resources from Creative Services as needed. Maintain contact with clients and production to set project milestones, create project estimates, track schedules, advise of job progress, scheduling concerns, and any requests for additional information or materials, when required. Perform invoicing, forecasting on a pre-set deadline, and monitored clients’ budgets for accuracy and timeliness. Maintain the master schedule for all project activities and conduct periodic status checks to assess progress against the schedule. Make changes to plans when requirements/scope changes/shifts. Track and report on quality metrics, strategize with the client and deliver services that attract and retain customer loyalty. Train other employees as needed. Perform other related duties and participate in special projects as assigned.
Creative Services Project Manager
Creative Circle2021 – 2022
Worked on a contract basis, as a Creative Project Manager/Client Services Project Manager for regional and national ad agencies and in-house marketing departments, overseeing the design, production, and management of digital creative assets. Managed projects from initial sales contracts to brand development, creative executions, and final deliverables, including digital (SEO/SEM/PPC/WEBDEV), DM, print, OOH, etc.
Creative Project Manager / Sr. Production Designer
AdPro2016 – 2020
As a digital creative/designer and liaison between Account Services & Creative Services, I was responsible for the creation, development, management, and successful execution of digital creative projects for AdPro360, PhilLong.com’s internal advertising & marketing agency for all 15 of its regional dealerships. Work included, but was not limited to, print, Online/Digital Ads, Social Media, Website Maintenance, in-house video production, and other media. Responsible for all vendor communications, negotiations, estimating, purchase orders, product quality, and on-time delivery of outsourced projects. Protectively communicated project status updates, including any issues that may have arisen, accompanied by mitigation/contingency plans, to all relevant agency stakeholders/departments to ensure on-time delivery to our internal clients. Freelanced to full-time. Phil Long is a privately owned dealer network with over 750 million annual sales.
Brand Manager, Digital Project Manager, Creative Project Manager, Digital Creative Artist,
Creative Circle2016 – 2018
CISO Brand Manager / Print & Digital Project Coordinator
Pearson2015 – 2016
Global Information Security Team. I was responsible for managing the creation and distribution of all branded digital creatives as a part of Pearson’s strategic goals to increase internal information security awareness to help mitigate the risk of data breaches and the substantial corporate liability they could incur. Responsible for creating and maintaining corporate brand standards throughout all communications. Reported to Cathy Pitt.
Conceptualize strategic initiatives and implement details of campaigns. Execute strategies with cross-functional teams. Manage internal and external marketing partners. Supervise brand content. Create and manage access to brand assets. Assist integration of campaigns with brand consistency.
Print & Digital Project Coordinator / Lead Production Designer
Graham Oleson Advertising2011 – 2013
Creative department manager for a mid-sized, 50-year-old ad agency working with clients primarily in the automotive industry.
Responsible for scheduling, budgeting and coordinating all digital creative projects with Account Services, Media and Traffic.
Additionally, I was tasked with reviewing and re-engineering the creative department's production workflow and job tracking systems with the goal of optimizing employee billable hours and increasing productivity and profitability.
Over a 6 month period I implemented new job tracking software, revised the creative production workflow and created new vendor policies. These changes increased individual employee productivity from 65% to 95% which increased department profitability by nearly 50% while fixed costs remained the same.
Sr. Print Production Manager / Creative Project Manager / Lead Production Designer
Vladimir Jones2006 – 2011
Managed the design and production of all digital creative assets for print, online, and other media. Responsible for maintaining corporate brand standards for each client throughout all creative collateral and communications. Responsible for ensuring projects were produced on time and at or underestimated budgets. Responsible for all vendor estimates and purchase orders. Coordinated and managed vendor outsourcing of digital mechanicals from submission to completion, ensuring all deliverables arrived on time, were of the highest quality, and were billed at or under budget. Attended all press checks and signed off on all color/contract proofs (Traditional Print/OOH/Signage/Etc.).
Print/Digital Production QA Testing Consultant
Quark2006 – 2006
Worked under a three month contract with lead QA engineer and related departments to create and implement test plans, identify and isolate defects and communicate with installed users to provide data and other feedback to the QuarkXPress development team. During that time I was the lead/primary QA Engineer on Printing/PDF/PPML/EPS component testing for QuarkXPress 7’s Universal Binary build for the new Mac/Intel based Macintosh computers.
Print/Digital Production Consultant / Adobe Ceertified Training Expert
Current USA, Inc.2005 – 2005
Contracted full time to train their newly formed prepress department in the use of Adobe InDesign using the XMPIE variable data integration software plug-in to print to their newly purchased iGen printer after converting the existing workflow from PrintNet to an automated InDesign PDF workflow.
Owner
AGP1992 – 2004
In 1992 I relocated to Colorado Springs from CA and founded AGP, a full service commercial graphic services company that specialized in providing branding, marketing, pr, prepress, production, scanning, digital imaging, and presentation services to the local creative, media and printing community. By developing and implementing business and marketing plans in conjunction with a targeted marketing strategy I was able to take the company from its start-up phase of only one person and no revenue to a healthy and profitable enterprise generating annual sales over $1M with a staff of 20 employees. After selling the company in 2004 I provided digital workflow optimization consulting in Denver and Colorado Springs for two years before being brought on full time as a project manager at Vladimir Jones, one of AGP’s largest clients.
Owner, Event Manager, Event Promoter, Sponsorship Acquisition, Media Buyer, Sponsor Relations
Concept Productions2000 – 2003
Produced and managed a yearly Supercross event at Penrose Stadium in Colorado Springs, CO. The 1 day event had 5,000 spectators, 500+ participants and 72 employees.
Education
Certification
General Assembly2020 – 2020
Studied, learned and mastered Digital Media strategies, skills and tactics during GA's intensive 10 week, hands-on professional certificate course. Prior to obtaining final certification, each student had to develop, create and present acomprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy to professors for a B2B or B2C enterprise, utilizing the latest DM tools, methods, insights and best practices.
Skills procured from course: • Ability to use a full arsenal of digital marketing tools, including Google AdWords, Facebook, Google Analytics, etc. • Ability to design and execute comprehensive marketing plans across a variety of modern digital channels — social, search, email, paid advertising, etc • Ability to analyze the success of digital marketing campaigns using Google Analytics.
Core Course Topics of Study • OBJECTIVE-FIRST MARKETING • CUSTOMER INSIGHTS • SOCIAL MEDIA • PAID SEARCH • SEO AND CONTENT STRATEGY • GOOGLE ANALYTICS • MEASUREMENT • TESTING • EMAIL MARKETING
Certifcate Program
Colorado State University2016 – 2017
The CSU Project Management Certificate Program was created to help current project managers with at least 5 years of PM experience develop critical tools and techniques to work in dynamic project management environments and learn to run projects on time and under budget with standard, worldwide-recognized processes using a comprehensive, integrated seven-module curriculum based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide*).
Business
Santa Monica CollegeProjects
RacerX Article
Article in RacerX about our factory-backed women's pro motocross team in the mid 2000s.
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