KATIE KEEPS US IN CHECK

Katie Kaiser is great at managing projects. She’s even greater at being a positive presence and Planet cheerleader. Her optimism quickly made her a popular Planeteer, but is also a boon in her project manager capacity. Even when she’s pinging you for a progress update, you’re still glad to hear from her.

Katie’s been managing projects and clients at Chicagoland ad agencies her whole career, with stints working on substantial brands like Sears, Discover Financial Services, and Pfizer Animal Health. One of her favorite pastimes is playing Pokémon GO, which is fitting, since we’d imagine training Pokémons resembles her project-wrangling day job duties, too.

Besides PoGo, Katie’s got a few other freetime passions as well:

What’s your favorite hobby?

Fishing! My general favorite fishing memories are with my family in Northern Wisconsin, catching walleye and preparing them and frying ‘em up. A really memorable trip was in Florida where the tarpon were running. About 20 minutes before our charter was about to end my husband got a tarpon on the line! He fought it for 45 minutes to an hour and finally got it to the boat. The captain looked at me and said “get ready” (with the camera), and he lifted it up out of the water and I snapped a shot of it and then we released it. It was about 200 lbs, 6' long. So I guess that was more my husband’s catch but mine by association, lol.

What do you collect?

Snowglobes. My favorite is the first one I ever received, from my dad, which was a globe with the Art Institute of Chicago lions wearing the Christmas wreath. (If you’re not familiar, there are two large, well patina-ed bronze lion statues at the entrance of the Art Institute that the city dons with various costumes for the season, athletic team accomplishments, or similar celebrations.)

If you had a totally free weekend to be a tourist in your own city, what would you do in the Chicago area?

I’d probably catch a Cubs game and eat and drink my way through the city.