Our Team

Brent Kobayashi

President & Owner
416.410. 3266 ext. 111
brent@kobayashi.ca
@brentkobayashi

For 25 years, Brent has helped clients improve their sales and marketing efforts while enhancing their brand images strategically and cost-effectively. Obsessed with computers since Grade 9, he ended up training his instructors in Grades 10 and 11 before going on to train executives and professionals. At university, he set out to get a BBA but was far more interested in his computer science electives, so he founded his own firm and hired designers, writers and developers to create business-building websites for clients. Today, Brent is heavily involved with the WordPress community and helps organize their Toronto meetups for 1500 people. He’s also a co-organizer of WordCamp Toronto, their annual 400-person two-day conference.

Mike Sbrizzi

Creative Director
mike@kobayashi.ca

It’s not every day you meet an agency Creative Director who’s played Frank Sinatra’s son in a docudrama for the History Channel, has guest starred in a James Cameron TV series, acted in a variety of independent films as well as commercials for McCain’s and Marshall’s. Mike has done all this and more. He co-founded an independent production company, working as a writer and video editor—and then, fell in love with typography and design. A graduate of Humber College’s Digital Communications Design program, he’s spent the last 15+ years putting his skills to work for clients. As Creative Director at KZ, he not only heads up the team but is often the hands-on lead designer. He’s smart, creative—and a decidedly interesting guy.

Mary Ellen Belzile

Director of Operations
maryellen@kobayashi.ca

Mary Ellen Belzile is a Process Improvement Guru. Certified as a 6-Sigma* Black Belt and with 30+ years business experience with brands including Jaguar Land Rover, Ford, and Volkswagen, she is skilled at analyzing processes, finding the barriers to efficiency and effectiveness, and working with clients to implement an improved design to support strategy and/or business needs Mary Ellen has 12 year’s experience sitting on the National Senior Operating Committees of two multi Nationals, and understands both the needs for operational effectiveness and also internal controls. Mary Ellen’s superpower is getting to the root cause of issues by speaking with people who are doing the work, building relationships, and even understanding what is NOT being said before recommending changes. Teams at all levels are comfortable with Mary Ellen, making her a valuable resource on potentially tricky projects with a great deal of change in scope.

Gurcharn Birdi

Lead Designer & Front-end Developer
birdi@kobayashi.ca

“Birdi” isn’t just a front-end developer and lead designer on multiple accounts. He’s also an accomplished illustrator and print media designer. After graduating 10+ years ago from Humber College with an Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design, he began his career creating print ads, logos and corporate branding materials, annual reports, brochures, magazines, catalogues and displays before shifting into the digital realm with eblasts, web banners and rollover graphics. Web design intrigued him, so he completed a Certificate program at Humber in Web Design, Development and Maintenance, and has been designing websites full-time since 2014. An avid illustrator and photographer, he’s captured stunning images of ancient architecture in half a dozen EU countries.

Hector Jarquin

Intermediate Developer
hector@kobayashi.ca

One of the newest team members at Kobayashi, Hector works with the team developing user-centered experiences (UX), and has a passion for accessible, semantic, and responsive applications. Also, believes in sharing and conversing with others about the tools and practices that have helped deliver the best solutions in his developer journey.

Morgan Kobayashi-LeBel

Marketing Specialist
morgan@kobayashi.ca

Morgan has spent his life passionately making videos, and enjoys both independent work and being part of the creative team here at Kobayashi + Zeitguys. Behind the computer is where Morgan feels most at home, whether developing video ads, social posts, or brand assets. He has a deep love for movies and can talk tirelessly about them. His favorite movie is Synecdoche New York, and don’t get him started on it or he won’t stop. His hobbies include creating music videos for local bands, learning to code games, and developing his animation skills. His hobbies match perfectly with his work here, since he’s always creating.

Angela Lattanzio

Finance Manager
angela@kobayashi.ca

You’d never know if from her bio, but without Angela we would be doing all our work for free, and things like Employee Engagement and process improvement would just be nice ideas. After completing her Bachelor of Music Degree in Opera Performance from Western University, Angela worked as the buyer for the Classical Department in the largest record store in the country. When the recorded music industry started to show signs of monumental change she made the move to public service, specializing in process improvement at ServiceOntario. Eventually the opportunity to join the Kobayashi team arose, and it was too good to pass up. Collaborating with this creative bunch has been a joy for her, and she still sings Puccini to the peonies in her beloved garden.

Rich LeBel

Sr. Manager, IT Services
rich@kobayashi.ca

With 20-years’ experience and a strong focus on customer support, responsiveness and functionality, Rich wears many hats at Kobayashi+Zeitguys, although his main role is as KZ’s go-to person for Client Support and all things IT related. Rich knew he was in the right field when he took apart the first computer he was given and put it back together (fully functional!). His experience with a variety of platforms has left him with intimate knowledge of web applications, development languages, networks, and security. Not only does he ensure our hosted infrastructure is running well, is secure, and is constantly monitored, he also leads our support department, ensuring client requests are actioned quickly and efficiently. If your site has a problem, or you need something sorted, he’s your guy. Well, he’s our guy, but we’ll share him with you.

Tomas Llobet-Arany

Lead Developer – Full Stack
tomas@kobayashi.ca

Tom is KZ’s resident Full Stack Developer, a highly skilled programmer who can do it all because he’s proficient in both front-end and back-end coding. He designs user interactions on websites and develops the applications and databases responsible for a website’s functionality. Tom works closely with Mike and Birdi on web design features and sees projects through from concept to finished product. Not only is he multi-talented, he’s proficient in more computer technologies than most people know exist. A graduate of Fanshawe College in Multimedia Design, Production and Advanced Multimedia 10+ years ago, Tom makes a point of learning every new technology that comes his way. As a result, KZ clients can benefit from innovative features long before their competitors are even aware that they exist.

Libby Lucas

Creative Strategist
libby@kobayashi.ca

Libby Lucas is a strategic thinker with a love of research and a talent for identifying insights. She specializes in results-oriented solutions that extend to all forms of digital, broadcast and print marketing. For decades, she was an award-winning writer and creative director in advertising, PR and marketing communications agencies, creating high-profile consumer campaigns for P&G, Kraft, Kellogg, Nestlé, Philips, Braun, governments and not-for-profits, as well as B2B campaigns for Mobil, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow and Pfizer. She’s produced extraordinary businessbuilding results, once turning a stagnant #2 brand with a 22% share of market into the #1 brand with a 36% share in just 18 months. She’s given seminars for industry associations, taught at Humber College and OCAD U, has written videos and a documentary that aired on Global TV and has even directed a couple of TV commercials. Originally from Montreal, she’s reasonably bilingual.