Meet Stu Carnes

Creative Director turned Entrepreneur, Stu Carnes began his career in 2005 as a Designer at Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Montvale, New Jersey. He later went on to work for marketing agencies 360i and R/GA before launching “Wine Guide” a wine pairing app for the Google Assistant, which led him to join serial entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk and his two Co-Founders as Creative Director for their Napa-based DTC wine startup.

Within 18 months, it was purchased by Fortune 500, Constellation Brands where Stu joined, along with the company’s Co-Founders, as Creative Director for a portfolio of 12 luxury fine wine and spirits brands, where he built, managed and scaled a new internal studio from the ground-up.

Creative Leadership
Described by colleagues as a uniquely insightful, curious, flexible, empathetic and accountable leader with an acute intuition for human behavior, Stu has a long proven track record for understanding how to create brand relevance for consumers in natural, engaging, innovative and authentic ways.

Entrepreneurship
He derives much of his perspective from his time spent on the water. An avid mariner, he’s credited the lessons he’s learned while sailing as being the most relevant to his life on land. In 2023, Stu’s life-long passion for boating led him to build and launch SKWOL .us, a direct-to-consumer marine care company that offers professional grade DIY cleaners and protective coatings to boat owners across the United States.

Visit skwol.us >