Ellen Didier

President

Also known as “Dragon Lady”, Ellen likes to spend her time developing strategies for growing Red Sage or its customers. While she is a frequent speaker at associations and conferences, the Red Sage staff spends most of its time wishing she’d just hush up and go back to her office. Despite her years in Alabama after moving from Connecticut in 1994, Ellen still hasn’t learned to say “y’all” or “Fixin’ to” or “Whatcha know good?” Ellen can’t seem to stop volunteering and is currently serving as board president for Decatur City Schools Foundation, chair-elect for Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce, and Vice Chair for WBCNA in Huntsville. Really. A trophy wife, Ellen is married to Dan and has a combined family of four children and two grandchildren. Ellen and Dan relax by going sailing on their sailboat named Sadie Bea.

Kelli Norwood Ponder

Business Development Associate

Kelli was hired on the spot when she said during her interview that she didn’t mind making cold calls. Just the kind of business development professional we needed. While Kelli is only 5’1” tall in actuality, her attitude and charisma have been known to completely disarm 6’4” retired army officers into buying lots of services from Red Sage before they realize what they are doing. She is absolutely passionate about the Huntsville market, being one of the few natives left. Well, she grew up in Athens but, close enough. When Kelli gets bored, she dresses up her poor, helpless dog who absolutely hates being dressed as a ballerina… or santa…. Or bunny…. Or really anything at all. A raving Alabama fan, Kelli is married to Darrell and has two dogs named Aubrey and Bentley.

Heather Thompson

Marketing Coordinator

Heather joined Red Sage after working as a publicist in the Christian music industry in Nashville, Tennessee.  Around the office, Heather is famous for saying "Just a Minute" and being the last one to arrive at  all internal office meetings. Naturally, she gets a bunch of heat for this. Heather has demonstrated her yoga moves around the office  - to polite disbelief as no one else on staff is flexible enough to bend that far in different ways. Heather writes all web copy and puts together all marketing plans. She also handles all online advertising for Red Sage customers. In her spare time, Heather plays clarinet in the Madison Community Band, and once ate lunch with Abraham Lincoln. She is active in the Decatur Jaycees and in Habitat for Humanity of Morgan County. Heather is married to Ashley and has a dog named Buddy.

Mark Moore

Art Director

Mark handles all graphic design for print and web projects.  He also gets free stuff all the time. We’re not kidding. Free chicken wings, free dessert, free airline tickets. Free everything. From friends and total strangers. He just emits this vibe that says “Give me free stuff”. Even Dragon Lady nearly got sucked in by this vibe once. He also is the only guy that works in the offices at Red Sage so we tend to cut him a lot of slack in return.  Mark is very involved in community theatre in Huntsville where his dramatic side is given full reign. He occasionally brings this dramatic flair to Red Sage where he has been known to burst into song or come up with new dance moves.

Teresa Smith

Web Projects Coordinator

Teresa gets crazy designs from Mark and then has to figure out how to program them. She once programmed a website that had like a million different z-index layers. Yeah – we don’t know what this means either but apparently it was very hard because she gritted her teeth non-stop for a week. However, no matter what anyone throws her way, she always figures out a way to program it to life.  To ease her stress, Teresa collects Mr. Potato Heads (R2-Potatoo, Darth Tater, and the band Kiss) and Barbies (Joan Jett, Cher, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds Barbie, etc.) She contributes many hours to dog rescue and has fostered and/or transported over 120 great Pyrenees, Golden Retrievers and other large breed dogs since 2006. Teresa is married to Tim and has a son named Tucker. They have two dogs named Tahoe and Sam.

Dan Thompson

“Charlie”

Dan Thompson, also known as “Mr. Didier” or “Charlie” is married to Dragon Lady and thus is part of Red Sage. While holding down a full time job as program manager at GE in Decatur, Dan does all things financial for Red Sage – including payroll – which makes him a beloved member of the staff though he isn’t actually in the office. He is called “Charlie” because he is often a disembodied voice on the speakerphone (as in Charlie’s Angels). He also likes to send reminders to staff to update timesheets in whatever foreign language alta vista or babelfish serves up. Dan often looks bemused, and sometimes shell-shocked, when he joins the staff for annual planning sessions, which he once referred to as “going to Munchkin Land.” Dan is also responsible for keeping Dragon Lady happy.