Meet our team
Get to know the leaders at Beyond the Arc who help drive client success.
Last updated: January 2026
Team at a glance
Steven J. Ramirez
CEO
Steven J. Ramirez is the CEO of Beyond the Arc and leads client work at the intersection of Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy, customer experience, and AI innovation for financial services, fintech, technology, and utility companies.
20+ years as an industry thought leader in fintech, AI, and technology • Fintech & Marketing Strategist • Leads Beyond the Arc’s AI innovation practice (AI Agents) • Former Time Warner executive • Former Silicon Valley spokesperson for AT&T • Startup advisor and mentor • BA + MBA, UC Berkeley / Haas
What Steven leads at Beyond the Arc
- GTM strategy and execution for banks and fintech.
- AI innovation advisory & solution development: Helping teams apply AI, Agentic AI, and NLP to improve efficiency and decision-making.
- Data-driven customer strategy + marketing: Strengthening customer experience, marketing, and operations.
- Training initiatives in compliance, risk, bank operations, and AI deployment.
Expertise
- Fintech and banking strategy
- AI, Agentic AI & Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Customer experience
- GTM strategy & execution
- Merger integration
Gavin James
Director of Creative Services
Gavin James is Director of Creative Services and a CX Strategy Consultant at Beyond the Arc. She leads B2B marketing (strategy, positioning, messaging, content, and ABM) to help financial services, fintech, and technology brands connect marketing to revenue. Her work includes developing AI-informed customer insights and personas, and crafting unique marketing and thought leadership content that increases buyer engagement, sales conversion, and customer lifetime value (LTV).
20+ years CX + B2B marketing • Marketing for Top 5 banks & Tech leaders • Former Info Design Manager + User Education Manager at Microsoft • Society for Tech Comms award winner • Microsoft Press author
What Gavin leads at Beyond the Arc
- B2B marketing strategy: Insights-led, customer-focused product positioning, messaging, and content strategy.
- Creative services: Content creation and design for integrated, multi-channel marketing and strategic initiatives.
- Thought leadership: Content that builds trust and demand across the buyer journey, tailored for client segments and industry verticals.
- Personas + journey maps: Research-backed tools that shape value propositions, CX strategy, and content.
Expertise
- GTM strategy & marketing
- AI and Agentic AI / GenAI
- Customer Value Proposition
- Customer Personas & Journey Maps
- Customer Communications
- Design: Branding, information architecture, web design, graphic design
Jacqueline Espinoza
Consulting Practice Leader
Jacqueline Espinoza is a senior strategy consultant at Beyond the Arc, helping regulated industries move from strategy to execution. She leads generative AI initiatives for the electric power industry, designing and building LLM-powered prototypes and apps. She also creates marketing videos that translate complex capabilities into clear stories that drive alignment and go-to-market (GTM) progress.
20+ years in consulting and industry • Former Deloitte Sr. Manager • BA Pomona | MBA UC Berkeley
What Jacqueline leads at Beyond the Arc
- Generative AI and Agentic AI prototypes & apps (use cases| POCs| adoption)
- GTM storytelling and assets, including marketing videos
Expertise
- AI app & prototype development
- AI strategy and prioritization for regulated industries
- Translating AI capabilities into clear value propositions and buyer-ready messaging
- Stakeholder alignment and launch enablement for AI initiatives
Michelle Espinoza
Generative AI App Developer & Video + Visual Designer
Michelle Espinoza is a AI application developer and designer at Beyond the Arc. She builds AI-enabled tools and workflows and creates video, motion graphics, social assets, and landing pages. Her work helps clients in regulated industries, including fintech and electric power, communicate complex ideas clearly across digital channels.
10+ years marketing design + video production • AI app development aligned with governance, privacy, risk, and compliance requirements • Top 5 bank campaigns + communications
What Michelle delivers at Beyond the Arc
- Generative AI application development: prototyping and building AI-enabled tools and workflows.
- Creative production for marketing and customer communications: graphics, landing pages, videos, and web-ready design.
- Campaign-ready content that turns complex ideas into clear, engaging stories across channels.
Expertise
- GenAI & Agentic AI app development
- Video production
- Social media
- Content marketing
- Graphic design & web design
- PR and media relations
Nina Katz
Banking Training Consultant
Nina Katz is a senior training consultant and writer at Beyond the Arc. She helps banks and financial services organizations design training programs that support strategic initiatives and improve performance.
25+ years in corporate learning for retail, commercial & international banking • 12 years at Bank of America, including VP for Retail Training Program • MS in Organization Development
What Nina delivers at Beyond the Arc
- Training program strategy + build: designing and developing training that supports business initiatives (compliance & risk, AI governance, communications, customer service, adoption).
- Bank communications enablement: helping teams improve how they communicate with customers through standards, training, and practical examples.
- Workshop-based rollout support: service workshops and user training that accelerate adoption of new tools and ways of working.
Expertise
- Corporate training and training management
- Course development & instructional design
- Strategic planning & process design
- Customer communications
- Internal communications
Cynthia Jones
Utility Strategy & Analytics Consultant
Cynthia Jones is a leader in Beyond the Arc’s utilities practice, bringing deep utility-industry experience as both a senior leader and a “big six” management consultant—combining strategy, financial analysis, and real-world grid operations insight.
Strategic planning leader across 3 large electric & gas utilities • Led renewable generation investment cases • Top Electric distribution operations engineer • BS Electrical Engineering • MBA HR Management • Wharton Leadership Program
What Cynthia delivers at Beyond the Arc
- Utility strategy: Corporate strategy paired with financial analysis and consensus-building to move projects forward.
- Investment-grade business cases for generation and energy initiatives (pro formas, risk/return framing, decision analysis).
- Operations-focused recommendations informed by hands-on utility industry experience (maintenance, design, planning, construction, grid ops, emergency response).
Expertise
- Corporate strategy & planning (utilities)
- Financial analysis, pro formas, investment cases
- Decision analysis for risk-based strategy profiles
- Electric distribution operations & grid reliability / emergency response
- Industry consulting (energy, healthcare, wireless, aircraft manufacturing)


