The Memorial Collective brings artists, innovators and vendors together with funeral homes to help the public reimagine what’s possible in remembrance.
The Memorial Collective is a separate company. Members of our team helped build and run FrontRunner Professional, alongside colleagues whose backgrounds bring other disciplines to this work.
The story behind The Memorial Collective begins inside funeral service. It includes a family funeral home, more than three decades of licensed practice and the founding of FrontRunner Professional, a company built from direct experience of what funeral homes and the families they serve actually need.
FrontRunner grew into a funeral-technology company serving the profession nationally and later became part of Tribute Technology. Along that journey, members of this team worked across funeral service, software, web design, marketing, customer success and operations. Along the way, they learned what it takes to introduce change in a profession built on trust.
The Memorial Collective brings that experience together with art, science, design and operations. Our work connects meaningful ideas with clear explanations and the trusted guidance of funeral professionals.
Families deserve to understand more of what remembrance can be. Funeral professionals deserve meaningful ways to grow their businesses and serve their communities. Artists, makers and technologists with something thoughtful to offer deserve a way to contribute.
We believe remembrance can be art, music, story and place. The company exists to bring those possibilities together, explain them clearly and help funeral homes remain the trusted guides who bring them to families.
Our vision is to help strengthen the role funeral homes already play as trusted guides through life’s hardest transitions.
That means looking at the larger responsibility of care.
Before the death.
At the time of death.
And in the time that follows.
That is the Continuum of Human Care.
And we believe funeral service has an important place in it.
These are the named people accountable for the work. Their experience spans licensed funeral practice, funeral technology, public education, design, operations and artificial intelligence. The biographies below explain what each person contributes.
30+ years of licensed funeral practice · a funeral-technology company that became part of Tribute Technology · a CMO who grew up above a funeral home · a CEO who runs mission-driven organizations with AI · a co-founder who studied personal transformation and how people find meaning.
Founder & Visionary
A licensed funeral director for more than 30 years, Kevin founded FrontRunner Professional in 1994 in the back of his family’s funeral home in Gananoque, Ontario. He grew it into a funeral-technology company serving funeral homes across North America before it became part of Tribute Technology. The Memorial Collective carries forward his conviction that families deserve more meaningful choices, with funeral homes at the center of bringing them to people.
Chief Marketing Officer
Co-founder
Ashley grew up above her family's funeral home and has more than 15 years of experience in funeral-service marketing. She became a partner and Chief Marketing Officer at FrontRunner Professional, then continued in senior marketing leadership after it became part of Tribute Technology. She has taught and presented to more than 10,000 funeral professionals at more than 50 industry conferences. That experience now shapes how the Collective introduces new possibilities in remembrance.
Chief Executive Officer
Kelsey leads mission-driven, cross-functional organizations, bringing the operational discipline that turns an ambitious vision into a functioning company. His focus on people, product fulfillment and continuous improvement, including the practical use of artificial intelligence to help teams work with greater clarity, is what keeps the Collective moving from idea to reality.
Science and AI Lead
Amin’s background spans artificial intelligence, signal processing and software engineering. He holds a PhD in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from Kyungpook National University, with a focus on signal processing and AI, and has held research roles at Queen’s University and the KNU-LG AI Institute in South Korea. He leads the intelligence and technology framework behind the Collective, keeping advanced systems connected to real human and business needs rather than technology for its own sake.
Creative Experience Architect
Co-founder
Katie began her career at FrontRunner Professional, working at the intersection of funeral service, technology and design, before expanding her work into human behavior, emotional experience and personal transformation. That unusual combination of industry understanding and a deep curiosity about how people feel, decide and find meaning is what keeps the heart of The Memorial Collective at the center of the products and experiences it creates.
COO & Customer Care
Stephanie grew up in funeral service and spent more than a decade working across funeral-technology brands. She understands the profession from the inside, works across every department of the company, and turns plans into coordinated day-to-day action. She is the connective tissue of the team, helping all the moving parts move together.
Campaign Performance
Curt’s work at The Memorial Collective focuses on campaign performance, lead capture and follow-up. His background includes FrontRunner Professional, bringing funeral-technology experience to the team’s digital marketing work.
Content Strategy
Ben is a content marketer with experience at AMS Business Advisors. At The Memorial Collective, his work spans content strategy, campaign writing and podcast editorial preparation, helping the team organize and communicate its ideas.
A wider team of artists, makers, technologists, strategists and funeral professionals stands behind this leadership. These specialists turn the plan into something families can actually experience, understand and choose.
Some offerings involve something a family cannot replace.
When cremated remains become part of a work of art, the responsibility includes how they are received, handled and returned, as well as the finished piece. Clear processes and appropriate preparation are essential to that work.
We want families to understand what an offering involves and have the opportunity to ask questions before choosing it.
Our vision includes helping professionals serve families and their communities throughout the year. That means creating opportunities to celebrate life while it is being lived, as well as honor someone after a death.
Personal art, stories and experiences can begin a relationship at different points in a person’s life. We are developing offerings and support with that longer relationship in mind.
Our wider vision includes contributing to the communities and causes connected with our work. The shape of that work is still being developed, and we will share specific commitments as programs are introduced.
We intend to develop a structured way to support causes that strengthen communities, help families and create meaningful change before, during and after loss. We will describe that work in concrete terms when it is ready.
We also want our giving to support the communities connected to our work.
That includes health, families, young people and other causes where we believe The Memorial Collective can make a meaningful contribution.
As the company grows, our ability to give back should grow with it.
The offerings introduced so far are part of a larger body of work. Some will grow through our own team. Others will come from people who see an opportunity to build with us.
If you see a way to contribute, we would like to hear from you.
