Our Team

Ann Clark

In 1989, after years of creating small handcrafted toys, dollhouses, and ornaments for sale throughout New England, artist and baker Ann Clark designed a metal cookie cutter and launched a new business in her garage. Armed with a small amount of cash and unbridled enthusiasm Ann tackled her first trade show and sold out her limited inventory of cookie cutters. Ann Clark, the company, was born.

Ann’s artistic flair and love for baking has created an extensive product line of handmade cookie cutters for the gift and kitchenware industries that sell throughout the United States and in many parts of the world. Ann Clark Cookie Cutter “The Cookie Cutter People from Vermont,” is now the largest manufacturer of cookie cutters in America.

Ann graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in art. She and her husband, John, picked Vermont as their home and soon found a scenic site in the foothills of the Green Mountains to raise a family. Beyond her art, Ann also enjoys traveling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and spending time with her grandchildren. She’s active in the local garden club and volunteers at the Rutland City Free Library.

Ann’s favorite cookie cutter is Mountain Bear, although the piggy cookie cutter continues to hold a special place in her heart.

Ben Clark

Ben, our fearless leader, is likely the most zealous whiteboard user you'll ever meet. He doesn't use them just for stick figure drawings or snarky comments: he pushes innovation and continuous improvement, with the boards as his aides. Anyone who is invited to a whiteboard discussion knows that Ben means business.

Ben was raised in Rutland, Vermont, and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont. He later completed a Master's in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His career included employment with Black & Decker in new product development and purchasing, as well as the die casting industry. In 1998, he and his wife moved to Vermont so he could join the family business. Since becoming CEO of Ann Clark Cookie Cutters, Ben has been an avid proponent of lean manufacturing, which is a method of reducing waste without sacrificing productivity.

Ben's laugh can be heard from several rooms away, and he loves comedy. He also loves skiing, hunting, hiking, and paddle boarding. He currently serves on the board of Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center, whose primary mission is to strengthen and empower Vermont manufacturers. He and his wife Denise have two daughters, Margaret and Becca, and the family dog is a chocolate Labrador named Molly.

His favorite cookie cutter is the Watering Can.

WHAT DRIVES ANN CLARK COOKIE CUTTERS?

CEO Ben Clark discusses what drives the company, its vision and its management philosophies.

Ben Pelkey

Self-proclaimed as an Excel guru, Ben enjoys diving into the numbers and letting the data tell a story. A seventh-generation Vermonter, Ben was born and raised in Rutland County, where he still lives with his wife Lilly, daughter Sparrow, and their dog Wynter.

After earning a B.A. in Finance Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University, Ben began his career in banking before transitioning to corporate finance in the solid waste industry, where he gained a multitude of experience over 7 years.

When he’s not crunching numbers, you’ll find him coaching youth football or gearing up for Spartan races. He loves off-roading in his Bronco and hitting the slopes in Vermont's beautiful mountains. Cooking is one of his favorite pastimes, though his wife is the true baking expert in the family!

Ben is thrilled to be part of a family-owned company that values craftsmanship and community. His favorite cookie cutter is the Skull & Crossbones, a nod to his love for Pirates of the Caribbean and the adventurous spirit it embodies.

Denise Clark

Denise, who is married to Ben, is a trained lawyer who received her JD from Wake Forest University, and she's also a licensed pharmacist. While that might not be the background you'd expect for an HR leader, it was just what the doctor ordered when she joined Ann Clark Ltd. in 2021 to help manage the company's rapid growth.

Denise loves travel and being outdoors, skiing, mountain biking and other active pursuits with Ben and daughters Margaret and Becca.

As a southern girl transplanted to Vermont, she can appreciate the winter hat, but her true favorite cookie cutter is all about summer, or a tropical vacation: The Flip Flop.

Tom Funk

Tom grew up outside Boston and fell in love with Vermont as a college student at Middlebury College. After a few years of working in New York in the book publishing business, Tom returned to Vermont where he has managed online marketing and website content for some of Vermont's most beloved brands, including Vermont Teddy Bear Company, PajamaGram, Green Mountain Coffee, Keurig, and Gardener's Supply Company. Tom first met the Ann Clark team when working for its website agency in the early 2000s, then joined the company full time in 2020.

With three daughters in college or graduated, Tom and his wife are rising to the challenge of their "empty nest" -- hiking, skiing, gardening, dining out and traveling. Tom also plays hockey a couple nights a week with the aptly named Disfunktional Hockey Club.

His favorite shape is the Llama because it's fun to decorate, and reminds him of a family vacation in Peru with awesome trekking through the Andes.

Hilary

Hilary joined Ann Clark to help bring Ben Clark’s vision to life. With a passion for project management and process improvement, Hilary is focused on bringing the team together in harmonious collaboration with a goal-oriented approach.

A native Vermonter, Hilary left the state for college, career and personal adventures. She returned home to her roots in 2014. She graduated from University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from U. Albany. Her career has spanned multiple industries and states, including brand strategy, retail and software in Vermont; paper manufacturing in upstate New York; architecture in California; and real estate in Aspen, Colorado. The common thread has been leading cross-functional teams in project management, change management and process design. 

Hilary loves spending time with her son doing everything from sports to cooking and snuggling their family cat. She can often be found outdoors on the water, on snow, in the woods or around a campfire. 

“I love being a part of this fantastic team at Ann Clark, doing the work I love most. It’s truly a dream job, and I feel so fortunate to be part of its growth path.” 

Her favorite cookie cutter is the leaping reindeer, because it reminds her of childhood holidays and her grandmother’s sugar cookies.

Evelyn "Evie" Henderson

Originally from the backwoods of Maine, Evie fell in love with Vermont while pursuing a BFA in Graphic Design & Digital Communications at Champlain College in Burlington, which she completed in 2019. During her time there, she took art related classes that took her to various places around the world, including Spain, Portugal, and an entire semester in Auckland, New Zealand.

Evie came back to Vermont to work at Ann Clark Ltd. as the in-house graphic designer a year after graduating from college. She spends her days there creating imagery and graphics to further elevate Ann Clarks visual brand standards. A wiz with the Adobe Suite, she enjoys touching up product photography and sketching new packaging ideas. She has also become intimately involved in the creation of new cookie cutter shapes.

In her off time, she partakes in other creative hobbies, including painting, pyrography, and macrame. If asked whether she would jump off a bridge 'just because your friends are doing it', she can in fact answer yes, and highly recommends it: provided there is a state-of-the-art bungee cord attached.

Her favorite cookie cutter is the teacup, a fine addition to her collection of antique porcelain.

Lauren Olewnik

Lauren is Ann Clark's data wrangler. Her favorite task is cleaning data. She loves a good, clean spreadsheet filled with raw data that is ready to be mined for marketing gold. She recalls a time as an undergraduate at the SUNY Buffalo when she pondered how she could 'do research' for a living, while sitting in a library rifling through academic journals. After receiving Bachelors' degrees in History and French Language and Literature, she received a Master's degree in Library Information Science. While Lauren originally came to Vermont to apply her skills as a librarian, she is now engaged daily in vigorous competitive industry research.

In her spare time, Lauren runs the Women's Woodworking Club at Rutland's Makerspace, and is working on building a hollow wooden paddleboard from scratch. She is also a (no joke) worm farmer--you should see the data she collects on her worms--time, temperature, moisture, feed rates. Truly exciting stuff.

Lauren's favorite cookie cutter shape is the rocket ship, because her guiding principle is that you are only bound by your imagination, so we should always push boundaries to see how far we can go.

Alyssa

Continuously chasing higher elevation from the flat lands of Southern New Jersey where she grew up, Alyssa brings her mountaineering mindset to the world of purchasing here at Ann Clark, planning and preparing what we need to summit our production goals! She started her career after graduating from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania with her B.S. in Criminal Justice, working in many industries from automotive to logistics before finding her passion for manufacturing.  

Her hard work in the office is a means to be outdoors - backcountry skiing and trail running are the go-to activities, but anything in the mountains will do! Her extreme enthusiasm for skiing is not just for boring her co-workers in office chit chat, but she also shares her love for the sport as an instructor at Okemo. Miles truly equal smiles in her world! 

Her favorite cutter is the snowflake... simply because she really likes winter and snow! 

Kelly

As a true Vermonter, Kelly brings her kind, fun spirit to Ann Clark, helping all of our wonderful customers in her day-to-day. Although she has lived in other states, she settled where she grew up, right here in Rutland, VT. Before joining our team she worked in education and finance, growing her skill set to assist others through many situations. Give us a call and she will be there! 

Recently her favorite thing to do is visit her son, who is proudly serving in the Air Force! She also gets out to enjoy all the seasons Vermont has to offer, with activities like paddle boarding, hiking and skiing. She also has earned the title of Office DJ, playing tunes to keep us all groovin’ throughout the day.  

Her favorite cutter is the Palm Tree because of her vivid memories of visiting the Caribbean. 

Melissa Garrow

Melissa joined Ann Clark in 2020 after graduating from UVM with a degree in Statistics. In her first two years at the company, she worked her way up from Production to Shipping to Marketing. In her current role as Inventory Logistics, she maintains inventory levels, schedules the manufacturing of both cookie cutters and food products, and builds databases for use in production and data analysis. 

Outside of work, Melissa enjoys reading science fiction and showing off her “useless knowledge” either at trivia night or at home watching Jeopardy. A lifelong musician, she plays percussion in many local bands in Rutland County including 10+ years in the Rutland City Band. She is also learning to play the accordion, much to the delight of her neighbors.

Passionate about math from a young age, her favorite cookie cutter is the Pi Symbol. 

Nadia Cox

Originally from Western Massachusetts, this city girl's life took a turn when her parent's hallmark love story unfolded and transformed her into a Vermont farm girl.   

During her time pursuing a B.A in Marketing and a Certificate in Social Justice at Castleton University, Nadia assisted in co-founding and a collegiate chapter of a national organization - the first one of its kind in the state of Vermont.  

When she's not in the office, she can be found cruising on adventures with her partner and their Golden Retriever Ollie, trying new tricks or just cruising down the slopes on her snowboard, practicing her craft in bartending for her friends and family with new cocktail recipes. 

As a retired college athlete, her competitive ways make her hungry for tackling any marketing project and be a fierce UNO competitor (don't underestimate her). 

Her favorite cookie cutter? The wedge - Though it's just a shape to one eye, it's a nod to her love for cheese. Life's better when it's a little cheesy and full of flavor.