Meet Luke Thiessen
Let’s just start by saying the quiet part out loud: we did not expect that a straight, cis, white, Christian male would be the perfect person to take over Alyson Shane’s duties at Starling Social. But, after getting to know him, we’re confident you’ll be as happy about it as we are.
“Happy” is a strange word to use because we are all having a lot of feelings right now. We’re figuring out it’s okay to feel a little happy mixed in with everything else. Maybe the more correct word is “right.” Luke coming on board feels like the right decision for Starling Social.
Who Is Luke?
The first thing you need to know about Luke is that he is starting a Taylor Swift drag cover band with John Luxford. Okay, maybe that’s not the first thing you need to know, but it is important information, and we will be sharing show details when it becomes available.
Luke is a long-time, trusted and close friend of Alyson’s. The two met during a work placement at Direct Focus, where Alyson was working at the time, and then reconnected on Twitter — back when it was still a good place to be.
Wanting to get into similar work, the two became fast friends, bouncing ideas off of each other over a craft beer and cheering for the other’s successes.
You may have seen Luke at one of Manitoba’s many music festivals or even playing in his own band! He is drawn to folk, Americana and blues music — but he also loves a good bop. Luke’s other hobby is brewing beer and he’s a proud member of the Winnipeg Brew Bombers.
Work Life
After graduating from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2014, Luke secured a job at his second internship, Golden West Radio — a network of (mostly rural) radio stations with a couple of spots based in Winnipeg.
When you hear Luke’s voice, you immediately agree that it belongs on the radio, so it was no surprise that he was asked to start part-time and cover the news. That quickly turned into a full-time position on Classic 107 and across other Golden West radio stations.
Luke says doing the news was never his dream, so he transferred to another station and secured a spot as an afternoon drive show host. In that position, he led the content creation and the on-air team. That included things like coming up with partnerships for advertisers, delivering on-air content, running a show, and coming up with timely and entertaining things to talk about.
Interested in doing and learning more, Luke started doing freelance communications and publicity work with a local record label.
“After about a year I took the leap, quit my day job and started doing freelance full-time.”
Most of his clients were in the arts and music scene, but he also did communications work for non-profits and small businesses. In the initial years of Starling Social, Alyson hired Luke to manage some content marketing projects.
Luke made a great impression in the communications field and was offered a job at Siloam Mission as the Manager of Communications, where he spent the next 6.5 years.
At Siloam Mission, Luke helped grow the communications and marketing department from a team of one to a group of four. They handled everything from public relations to digital marketing to fundraising materials.
“Over that time, we brought a lot of that work in-house or changed our vendors to local vendors, like Starling Social. Whatever we couldn’t do in-house, we wanted to at least have close to home, so that’s when we started working with Starling.”
If you didn’t know, Siloam Mission became one of Starling’s clients in 2022.
In November 2023, Luke left Siloam Mission to take a break, do some work in the craft beer world, and start his own freelance practice. His business was just starting to come online when Alyson passed.
If you’ve interacted with our team before, you’ll know we’re a bunch of self-starters with good intentions. Through our grief, we each contributed to creating spreadsheets of outstanding tasks, making tough calls, and writing whatever needed to be written. We felt it was important not to add more to John’s plate, for our clients to have no interruptions in service, and to treat this company with the same respect Alyson showed us. After a couple of weeks and some discussion, a team member phoned Luke and pitched the idea of him coming on board.
“It never occurred to me that this was something I should think about doing. But it immediately clicked for me. We had a discussion, and I thought, as long as everyone wants this to happen and feels the same way, then this feels like such a natural fit.”
While we all mourn the circumstances that brought us here, we also feel Luke has the experience, skills, and values we want to run Starling Social — and the extroverted personality to grow it. His personal and working relationship with Alyson gave him insight into how the company is run, and we are grateful he has stepped in to fill this position so Starling Social can continue to thrive.
Joining Starling
Luke’s goal is to add to the company, not change how it's run. He wants to see what else he can bring to the table for clients to make their experience even better.
“I am looking forward to digging back into the work that I’m passionate about. To meet new clients and get to know their stories and their people. I’m a people person. I’m an extrovert, and that gives me energy.”
Luke loves working on big-picture ideas and creating new strategies. As an “ad guy", he’s driven to create campaigns that tell the story of a product, brand, project, or capital campaign. He loves getting into a brand or campaign with a great story to tell.
Publicity and media outreach is a large piece of Luke’s background and a new service he is proud to offer Starling clients.
“I've always been so proud of Alyson and the work she’s done at Starling. It’s been amazing to watch the business grow and, by extension, see her clients do well. This opportunity just feels really exciting and I’m honoured to be able to continue that and do some of that same great work.”
If you have questions for Luke, or are interested in ramping up your digital marketing game in 2025, contact us here.
