About creative animal

Wendy W. Smith founded Creative Animal after years of working in diverse roles with creative companies. Prior to Creative Animal, Smith was the first COO at Renny & Reed, the venerable New York floral and event design firm. Renny & Reed consists of two New York City locations and one in Palm Beach, Fl. The company has three sectors: retail, event design & production, and service to 5-star hotels. Wendy was hired to internally restructure the company, realign and manage a staff of thirty employees, and prep the company for growth.

Before Renny & Reed, Wendy ran the family-owned SchoolHouse Kitchen, LLC, an all-natural condiment company. Starting with a single product introduced to the market by her mother, Wendy built the line into twelve products across four categories that were distributed across the country in retail outlets such as Whole Foods, The Fresh Markets, and Dean & Deluca. The products received numerous awards and recognition from publications such as Food & Wine, Oprah’s O Magazine, Bon Appetite and more.

Prior to SchoolHouse Kitchen Wendy worked as a private investigator at The Mintz Group, a firm specializing in pre-hire and pre-deal due diligence and post-fraud investigations.

The beginning of Wendy’s career was spent in the photography industry. Starting at Industria Superstudio in New York she learned the ropes of NYC’s premier photography studio of the day, Wendy then moved to Allure Magazine as the Assistant Photo Editor. After New York, Wendy moved to Los Angeles and became the Director of Spot Studio and Productions, starting and running a full service studio and production-company as well as hosting corporate and private events.

Wendy has also participated in boards and one-off events such as Renewable Brooklyn, a day-long music and arts festival promoting the idea of renewable energy and sustainability in 2003. Later Wendy went on to be a founding board member of The Canary Project, an organization that produces art and media to deepen public understanding of climate change, as well as The Chef’s Council of St John’s Bread & Life, the largest emergency food provider in Brooklyn and second largest in all of New York City.