Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., which provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including: content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, marketing automation management, and database management for both B2B and B2C companies.

Ms. Beasley serves as president and online marketing certification instructor for the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California.

She also speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for several marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, and AMA.

Ms. Beasley’s Speaking Appearances Include:

Integrated Marketing Week 2013
Online Marketing Summit 2010, 2011, and 2012
Online Marketing Institute 2010–2013
Visual Media Alliance 2012
LADMA 2010, 2011
MENG 2011 and 2013
Kansas DMA 2007
Louiseville DMA 2001
St Louis DMA 2001
DMA National Conference 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2013
AMA 2017
BMA 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012English (500 word max)

Katie Bullard, President of DiscoverOrg, has quickly made an indelible mark in the sales intelligence space, and has been instrumental in the meteoric rise of DiscoverOrg, now the industry-leading sales and marketing intelligence provider.

Since Katie joined DiscoverOrg three years ago, she has helped guide the company to its unprecedented growth: In 2017—DiscoverOrg’s 10th year— the company surpassed all growth goals, including revenue, database size, profitability and number of employees. The marketing team, under Katie’s leadership, last year sourced 54% of the company’s revenue and was named Marketing Team of the Year by SIIA.

What principles guide Katie as she continually looks to build upon her team’s success? “I always take a holistic view of how to create an engine of growth by bringing together market strategy, product strategy, partner strategy, and acquisition strategy,” she says.

Katie’s 15-year background includes broad enterprise expertise encompassing finance, corporate strategy, recruiting, training, sales development, and operations—all of which complement her current responsibilities of leading the global marketing, product management, and partnership functions at DiscoverOrg.

Katie holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Virginia.

Cyndi W. Greenglass is a founding partner and Senior Vice President Strategic Solutions at Diamond Communication Solutions, a data-driven communications firm specializing in Healthcare, Financial Services, and direct response solutions.

Greenglass has twice been named into the Top 100 Influential BTB Marketers by Crain’s BtoB Magazine and was the 2012 CADM Chicago Direct Marketer of the Year. Cyndi is a member of the Executive Management team at Diamond Marketing Solutions where she is responsible for the strategic planning process, participates in strategic acquisitions, and manages the agency services division.

Prior to becoming a “Direct Marketer”, Cyndi spent 10 years in the international business consulting arena with the U.S. Embassy, the Canadian Consulate General, and the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service.

In 2016 Cyndi was named one of 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management and one of the 10 Most Fascinating People in Business to Business Marketing. Cyndi is passionate about educating future marketers on the importance of data analytics for strategic decision making. She lectures on data and digital marketing nationally is highly sought after to speak at major industry conferences.

Cyndi received her B.A. from the University of Toronto and holds an M.S. in IMC from WVU. She is delighted to join the faculty of her alma mater as an online adjunct instructor.

Greenglass is a host on WVU Marketing Communications Today a live internet radio program with podcast replays.

Derrill Snyder, Senior Sales Consultant at Hodges-Mace, LLC is nominated by Elizabeth Fairleigh and Derrill's team.

Derrill is a Senior Sales Consultant at Hodges-Mace, LLC, where she handles business development and sales throughout Ohio, Michigan, Western PA, and West Virginia. She was named 2018 Rep of the Year for her sales successes - Every year since joining the company in 2015 Derrill has been named to the Champions Club recognizing top performers.

Derrill was chosen to serve on the Hodges-Mace's Rep Advisory Board, which is an exclusive group of individuals carefully selected for their leadership and industry knowledge. In this capacity Derrill makes decisions for the sales team and plans projects, often collaborating with marketing, to increase the knowledge base of the team. She also advises other reps on what’s going on in the industry and is considered a leader among her peers.

Derrill is a large case specialist at Hodges-Mace, which means many of her clients are large employers with 5K+ employees - While she has smaller clients she is one of the go-to salespeople for large enterprise clients with complex requirements.

Ashley Ferguson, Senior Vice President, Sales at Hodges-Mace, LLC is nominated by Elizabeth Fairleigh and Ashley's team.

Ashley is a proven executive sales leader, developing high performing teams who exceed revenue targets for top line revenue growth. She is known for her results-driven philosophy, innovative thinking and change management leadership. With over 20 years of experience in multiple industries and market segments, she and her team align with marketing to consistently drive double digit sales growth.

Areas of Expertise:

Attracting and retaining talent
Leveraging data and analytics
Developing sales strategy and scaling organizations
Driving Women in Leadership initiatives
Lead generation and digital marketing strategies
Leadership of inside and outside sales teams
Compensation plan development
Quota setting and forecasting
Coaching and developing leaders

Personal: Avid traveler, skier and coaches young female athletes.

Kaeli O'Connel, Demand Generation Coordinator at Lola.com is nominated by Christine Snyder.

Kaeli O'Connell is Demand Generation Coordinator at Lola.com, the Agile Travel Management™ company that provides a super simple way to manage, book, and report on business travel. She has been a powerhouse in generating demand for the company’s app since joining Lola.com in November 2018. She helped to generate 15 percent more leads than planned for January, delivered 125 percent of the February lead goal, and generated 118 percent of the lead goal for March.

She is a proponent of delivering high quality, educational content through multiple channels – blogs, podcasts, video testimonials, e-books, white papers, speaking and more – in order to drive leads and revenue.

Kaeli was successful as Interactive Web Marketing Associate at Continuum Managed Services, developing user-friendly, responsive web pages using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Additionally, she maintained company websites by applying relevant web marketing and conversion-optimization strategies.

Prior to Lola.com, Kaeli was Technical Marketing Specialist at Penn Foster, working on the lifecycle communications team, focused on email. She led the email A/B testing program, developed templates using HTML and CSS, and created as well as optimized automated series.

Kaeli earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Richmond in 2015.

Rachel Spencer, EMEA Sales Manager for VanillaSoft is nominated by Alanna Jackson.

Rachel Spencer is an up and coming sales leader rockstar.

Rachel is a fundraising expert with over ten years of experience. She has managed teams of 40 fundraisers and worked with the likes of Oxfam, Unicef, NSPCC, Barnardo’s, Cancer Research UK, Alzheimers Research and more. She holds records for most funds raised on a single campaign at the Queen Mary University of London and for the best ROI on a single campaign at King’s College London.

For the last few years, she has also single-handedly led the EMEA sales for VanillaSoft, and her knowledge in telefundraising for higher education organizations plays a critical role in her position since higher education is one of VanillaSoft’s target verticals.

Recently, she wrote a Telefundraising Campaign Guide – How to Transform Your Telephone Campaign ROI. The eBook speaks to the pain points that higher education organizations face and walks through various ways they can improve their telefundraising efforts and ROI.

As a subject matter expert on Sales Engagement, Rachel regularly contributes to and speaks at, major industry events and panels including most recently the AA-ISP Digital Sales World and the Sales Innovation Expo.

Rhoan Morgan, CEO and Co-Founder of DemandLab LLC is nominated by Kiyana Neil.

Rhoan Morgan has been a leader in martech strategy for over 20 years and continues to use her expertise to further the revenue goals of her clients, further the success of her sales and marketing peers, and support innovation in sales and marketing.

Rhoan co-founded DemandLab, a pioneering marketing technology agency, a decade ago. Through strategic value initiatives and by partnering with market-leading platforms like Informatica and Adobe, DemandLab has achieved significant growth year over year under Rhoan's leadership. The agency has won numerous creative and technical awards for its client work, including a Stevie Award for Company of the Year – Business Services category, and was named one CIOReview's 25 most promising digital marketing solution providers.

Rhoan has recently begun to share her knowledge and expertise with the marketing community through publishing and podcasting. In 2017, she co-authored "Change Agents: The Radical Role of Tomorrow's CMO." Part manifesto and part instruction manual, the book introduces readers to DemandLab's Revenue Ecosystem® Framework, an approach that DemandLab developed to guide marketing and digital transformation for their own clients. The book was a finalist at the Content Marketing Institute CMAs and a gold winner at the 10th annual Golden Bridge Awards.

In 2018, Rhoan launched "Revenue Rebels," a monthly podcast that shines a spotlight on the rule-breaking marketing and sales leaders who are accelerating business growth with a fanatically customer-centric approach. More recently, in the first quarter of 2019, she has released the "Change Agents Playbook," a step-by-step guide and templates designed to help marketers operationalize the concepts introduced in the original book and lead a digital transformation within their organization.

Rhoan is a Marketo Certified Solutions Architect and Marketo Champion, a four-time winner of the SLMA's 20 Women to Watch, and one of SLMA's 40 Most Inspiring Leaders in Sales Lead Management.

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Andrea Lechner-Becker, CMO at LeadMD was nominated by Kristin Hege

Andrea Lechner-Becker is the CMO of LeadMD, the world’s leading modern marketing firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Andrea has had a storied career, quite literally. Her background includes six years climbing up the ranks at LeadMD from VP to Chief Strategy Officer, spanning 2011 to 2017. During this time, she sharpened her skills telling stories in marketing and sales that resonated with customers and enabled the company to grow. She took a break in 2017 to spend time promoting her first novel, Sixty Days Left, and then came back to LeadMD in 2018 in the role of CMO.

Mari Anne Vanella, CEO of The Vanella Group is nominated by Karmon Walker

Mari Anne Vanella has led The Vanella Group, Inc. to always maintained a position in the forefront of relevance for B2B large enterprise sales. Her organization was recognized in the Silicon100 in 2018. She is constantly evolving their Telesales 2.0® solution to be aligned with current technology and best-practices. Recently, Mari Anne was in the top 50 Martech influencers released by Onalytica. She participates heavily in the sales community to educate other sales professionals, mentors young entrepreneurs, and this last year received the "Honor Roll" award for her sponsorships of classroom projects across the US for kids living in underserved areas.

Jeanne Hopkins is nominated by Christine Synder.

Powerhouse marketer Jeanne Hopkins is an expert in aligning Sales and Marketing all for the sake of leads, having gotten Sales on her side for five different companies in recent years, delivering outstanding results - each with a different challenge, each with a different, favorable outcome. Jeanne is known for creating marketing machines that spearhead data-driven, high-velocity demand creation programs to drive high-growth for software companies.

“I feel and have always felt, that my job is to generate revenue. I want to make sure that the sales leader who I’m working with is somebody who I like and respect, and we’re joined at the hip so that we can together grow the business.” – Jeanne Hopkins

Jeanne currently leads both Lola.com’s marketing organization, building a metrics-based powerhouse to fuel demand as well as its customer success organization, ensuring a great Lola customer experience. In the short time since joining Lola.com in October 2018, she has built a full marketing team, including content, ops, paid, events, email, social media, and channel – in just 60 days. She interviewed dozens with hundreds of applications to review. But she didn’t just build any team. She built one with a terrific culture fit and an ability to make things happen – which clearly are.

Jeanne has been named six times to SLMA’s “20 Women to Watch” List, most recently in April 2018. She has been honored four times by SLMA as one of the 50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management professionals and named each year to the 40 Most Inspiring Leaders since its inception in 2015. She is a powerhouse on Twitter, having been recognized by Social Media Marketing (SMM) Magazine’s list of Top CMOs on Twitter with 95,000+ @jeannehopkins followers.

Jeanne is an accomplished writer, advisor, and speaker. She co-authored “Go Mobile,” a top-selling mobile marketing book on Amazon.com. She has been serving on the advisory board of SLMA since 2015, BrightInfo since 2014 and Bedrock Data since 2012. She has been serving as the Co-Chair of the MassTLC Sales and Marketing Group since 2012.

Jeanne was previously Executive Vice President and CMO at Ipswitch and has held executive marketing roles at HubSpot, Symmetricom (now Microsemi), SmartBear, MarketingSherpa, and Continuum. At HubSpot, Hopkin’s leadership helped the company land on the number two spot on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies by generating 50,000 net new leads per month. 

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Laura Patterson is nominated by Deborah Pfluger, Bonnie Caver, Lisa Box, Julie Jones

Deborah tell us, "Laura takes a practical, no-nonsense approach to proving and improving the value of Marketing. Laura began her 25+ year career in sales and had the great fortune of working across functions spanning customer relationship management and Marketing with a capital “M”. Today she is at the helm of VisionEdge Marketing, founded in 1999, and is recognized as one of the pioneers and authorities in the Marketing Performance Management (MPM) discipline. The company specializes in helping companies apply data, metrics and proven best-in-class practices to improve Marketing effectiveness, deliver business impact, and enable better business decision-making. Laura and VisionEdge Marketing are all about making Marketing an engine of growth for organizations. Martechexec selected Laura as one of the top 50 women in marketing technology. Engagio identified Laura among the top Marketing Operations leaders to know. Laura serves on the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Masters of Marketing Science Advisory Board."

Bonnie Carver.

" In an environment where leadership relies on data to drive decisions, Laura Patterson is ahead of the game in providing her clients with a path for analyzing data to make smart customer and product decisions. In her 25+ year career in Sales and Marketing, working across functions spanning customer relationship management and Marketing with a capital “M,” she has always taken a practical, no-nonsense approach to proving and improving the value of Marketing. 

Today, she is at the helm of VisionEdge Marketing, which is celebrating its 20th year of business success. Since founding the company in 1999, Laura has showcased a passion for helping companies such as Cisco, Elsevier, Southwest Airlines Cargo and BAX Global, make solid business decisions and guiding marketers in driving those results. Under her leadership, VisionEdge Marketing is recognized as one of the pioneers and authorities in the Marketing Performance Management (MPM) discipline. The company specializes in helping companies apply data, metrics, and proven best-in-class practices to improve Marketing effectiveness, deliver business impact, and enable better business decision-making. Laura and VisionEdge Marketing are all about making Marketing an engine of growth for organizations. 

In 2018, VisionEdge Marketing took its expertise to a whole new level with a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This patent covers the company’s innovative methodology,  Accelance®, an outcome-based mapping method that creates the blueprint for a measurable Marketing plan that aligns to quantifiable business outcomes.

Laura is supportive of fellow entrepreneurs and is collaborative in helping others reach business and career goals. She is a thought leader, who is generous with her time and knowledge sharing. She has authored hundreds of articles, two books, and is a frequent speaker at business events and universities as a guest lecturer. Additionally, she works to mentor future Marketing Executives, serving on the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Masters of Marketing Science Advisory Board. This cutting-edge curriculum is designed to help students learn how to leverage data to improve Marketing performance and business outcomes. 

Laura is a recognized leader in the Marketing industry and was most recently selected by "Martechexec" as one of the Top 50 women in marketing technology, and "Engagio" identified her among the Top Marketing Operations leaders to know. "

Lisa Box

"Laura has been a trailblazer helping companies of all sizes understand the value of marketing. Since Laura founded VisionEdge Marketing, she has worked with leading brands such as Kronos, Nokia and Cisco, accelerating their marketing operations including customer acquisition, analytics, strategic planning and execution, as well as measurement management. Laura is also an important community member serving as a mentor, accomplished author, and leader in many professional and service organizations. Her work in the marketing industry has earned her recognition as a Top 12 Marketing Ops Influencers and Authors, as well as Top 50 Women in Martech. Laura’s passion for excellence in marketing is contagious and is one of the reasons she is regarded as a top thought leader."

Julie Jones

"Laura Patterson is an accomplished Marketing executive and entrepreneur of marketing performance management. Her experience in the financial services industry, technology and semiconductors paved the way for her to take the helm of VisionEdge Marketing. This year, VisionEdge Marketing will celebrate 20 years helping companies use data, analytics, process, and measurement to achieve Marketing excellence. 

Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) recognized Laura in 2018 as a Top 20 Women in Business for her career contributions in the fields of marketing and sales. She served as a guest host for the SLMA in 2018 brining insights from CEOs on how to take on the growth challenge and the role of Marketing. From the time she was nominated, Engagio identified Laura as one of the Top 12 Marketing Operations Influencers and Authors. In July, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Laura the patent for her Accelance® Blueprint and Outcome-Based Mapping invention, a method that aligns Marketing efforts to quantifiable business outcomes.

Laura is a relentless thought leader whose content earns businesses a competitive advantage by connecting revenue growth to customer value. The annual Marketing Performance Management Benchmark Study conducted by VisionEdge Marketing and partners contributes to the Marketing discipline and provides specific action Marketing leaders and professionals can take to play a more strategic role.

I have had the opportunity to work with Laura to demonstrate through alignment and accountability the value of a national program’s education, outreach and engagement initiatives. It is my pleasure to nominate Laura Patterson, co-founder and president of VisionEdge Marketing for the 2019 Top 20 Women in Business award. Her work with organizations to create performance-driven marketing operations fundamentally shifts business potential for growth.

What’s more, Laura is committed to preparing future marketers for the work ahead in our data-driven, performance-oriented business culture. She serves on the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Masters of Marketing Science Advisory Board to help students learn how to apply data to improve Marketing performance. And, associations regularly tap Laura’s experience and expertise as part of their professional development programs."

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Erica Stritch is nominaed by Aly Jamison.

As a Vice President at RAIN Group, Erica heads up strategy and execution for all aspects of marketing, lead generation, thought leadership development, and branding. She has 15-plus years of experience directing marketing and lead generation campaigns to fuel sales growth.

RAIN Group has experienced significant growth under Erica’s leadership. She led the charge in re-branding the company in 2011, including a new name and identity, new messaging, and expansion into new markets. She has increased inbound leads by 165 percent domestically and the company has expanded into eight countries. Website visits have grown from 6,000/month in 2012 to 100,000+/month in 2018 and hundreds of articles of have been placed in business, sales, and industry publications. She also spearheaded the launch of the book Rainmaking Conversations (Wiley, 2011), which made the Wall Street Journal’s Best-seller list.

A much sought-after expert in marketing and sales, Erica has been quoted in publications such as MarketingProfs and Entrepreneur Magazine. She is author of numerous articles that have been published in several industry publications, including Microsoft Dynamics Marketing and Sales Community, Hoovers.com, CPA Leadership Report, Professional Services Journal, Sales Lead Management Association, and others. She was a contributor to the book, Speaking Your Way to Success (Houghton Mifflin, April 2010).

Erica has won numerous marketing campaigns for RAIN Group. In 2019, the company won a FINNY in the Killer Content Awards for its infographic “9 ways to crush your sales goals.” Last year, the company was named a finalist in the same program for its infographic “5 Sales Skills to Differentiate Your Team” and named a finalist by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) for its white paper “5 Sales Prospecting Myths Debunked.” In 2008, the company received gold in the Marketing Sherpa Awards for “Best B2B Email Opt-In Campaign” where they competed against major companies like IBM.

RAIN Group has also been honored with numerous marketing accolades in the sales industry that were spearheaded by Erica. In addition to winning honors for its Top Sales White Papers and eBooks, entities such as Business.com, LeadFuze, Sales Pro Central, Top Sales World and others have recognized RAIN Group as a Top Sales Blog and Top Sales Resource Site.

Erica possesses numerous qualities that make her an influential leader. She has a tenacious drive for achieving the best results and never settling for good enough.

“Erica is a great leader because she empowers her team to make decisions, try new things, grow in and out of their roles, and fail without fear. In a time when many of us are strapped to our phones with an always-available mentality, she is one of the few who espouses work-life balance, and encourages disconnecting, family time, and self-care.”
Beth McCluskey, Director of Marketing, RAIN Group.

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Laila Danielsen is nominated by Maggie McKeon.

Laila Danielsen’s direct, hard-charging approach has catapulted Elliptic Labs with its ultrasound technology from an Oslo University spinout to the world stage, where the company’s AI virtual Smart Sensor(™) platform is revolutionizing the fiercely competitive consumer electronics market throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S.

Danielsen saw that the company’s ultrasound technology could be used to enhance an essentially overlooked element of the smartphone - the proximity sensor. In October 2016, she initiated Elliptic Labs’ first foray into the smartphone market by selling her vision to Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, known as the “Apple” of China, that allowed the electronics giant to introduce Elliptic’s INNER BEAUTY®Virtual Proximity Sensor technology into the Mi Mix phone series. This technology helped Xiaomi create an almost full-screen phone with an ultra-thin bezel, and kickstarted the market trend for full-screen phones worldwide. Since then, Elliptic’s ultrasound technology has been in the Xiaomi’s Mi Mix 2 (November 2017); Mi Mix 2S ( March 2018); the Mi Mix III (October 2018) and in Xiaomi’s mass volume Mi 9 and Mi 9 SE (February 2019.) On April 2018, another of China’s phone manufacturers, Smartisan, included Elliptic Labs’ INNER BEAUTY virtual proximity sensor into its Smartisan Nut 3 phone. Removing the proximity sensor is now in such demand that Elliptic Labs formed a partnership with Solomon Systech to enhance this solution with machine learning and make it available to OEMs for all kinds of displays.

The second element that Danielsen saw as valuable in Elliptic Labs’ technology was the fact that ultrasound could be used to detect presence in smart devices. In February 2018, Danielsen applied Elliptic Labs’ technology to the burgeoning market for smart assistants, advancing the company’s next stage of growth through its INNER REFLECTION(™) presence detection technology for smart speakers. In January 2019, Elliptic Labs won an award at CES from IoT Breakthrough for this presence detection for smart speakers.

Elliptic recently utilized the concept of sensor fusion and in January 2019, Elliptic Labs created another industry first by showing presence detection for television sets and multi media devices. View the video here, but mute a bit if you have Alexa devices nearby.

In December 2017, Danielsen brokered a deal with Qualcomm that saw Elliptic’s touch-free ultrasound gesture technology running on the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 Mobile Platform using the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (NPE).

Danielsen has also formed technology partnerships with top-tier blue-chip companies, including such as Knowles Electronics and Qualcomm. During her tenure at Elliptic Labs, she has expanded the Norway-based company’s global footprint with one office in San Francisco and two in China (one in Beijing and another in Shanghai) and an office in Korea.

Danielsen’s proven track record of bringing emerging technologies to global markets spans her work at companies including HotLink Corporation, CRL (acquired by AppliedTheory), Scali (acquired by Platform Computing), and FastScale Technology Inc. (acquired by EMC/VMware). Danielsen also held management roles at IBM and Penguin Computing, and currently shares her expertise as an advisor to ascending companies. She is a speaker at top MBA programs and an advisor for Innovation Norway, considered the Norwegian government's most important instrument for enhancing innovation and development of Norwegian enterprises and industry.

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Recognition/Awards:
- “40 Under 40” (Connect Association)
- “Top 100 Champions” (Small Business Influencer Awards)
- “SMB 150” (SMB Nation)
- “20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management“ (SLMA)

Community Involvement:
- Judge for the Stevie Awards
- Gwinnett Tech HRTM Advisory Committee
- AMA Atlanta Volunteer Committee
- University of Tennessee Alumni Board (Atlanta Chapter)

Robyn Davis specializes in trade show strategy; through her company (WINH), she teaches business-to-business exhibitors across North America in industries like healthcare, oil and gas/construction, and technology how to make their trade show participation even more worthwhile. Specifically, Robyn provides speaking, training, and consulting services to individual exhibitors and groups of exhibitors (often working with event organizers to provide “exhibitor education” workshops and webinars at events like RSNA, World of Asphalt, and AAO-HNSF’s OTO Expo/Experience).

Year after year, Robyn has presented educational sessions at prestigious industry events (like IMEX America, EXHIBITORLIVE, HCEA Connect, EventTech, and others) and her writing has been published by reputable print and online publications (like Exhibitor magazine, Event Solutions magazine, TSNN, AEM Advisor, SGIA Journal, and many others). Also, Robyn routinely creates and shares helpful advice/insights with her own audience directly (from quick video tips to longer articles to full webinar series, like her instantly popular “Trade Show Summer School” webinars, which she offered for the first time in 2017).

Robyn Davis has quickly become a well-known and respected voice among event professionals. Although trade shows tend to be driven by tradition (“we’ve always done it that way”), Robyn uses her unique background (small business family, Aerospace Engineering degree) to inspire exhibitors to freshen up their approach to trade shows and, in doing so, shift their focus to the strategic actions that drive real business results (like generating more top quality leads, strengthening relationships with current clients, and raising awareness for their companies, offerings, and causes).

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Nina Church-Adams, Senior VP Marketing at Act-On Software is nominated by Kim Blomgren.

It’s no surprise that in 2017, Nina was named a Rising Star by HousingWire.com. She has held progressively more senior leadership roles, from American Express and Nike to multiple heads of marketing roles at Finastra, the third largest FinTech company in the world. And now she is Senior VP of Marketing at Act-On. Kate Johnson, CEO at Act-On, said: “We are delighted to have someone of Nina’s caliber join the Act-On team, bringing her deep branding, product marketing, and strategic go-to-market expertise to meaningfully accelerate our market impact.” Nina has significant experience leading global, cross-functional, marketing organizations in fast-growing companies, and her achievements just keep piling up.

Prior to her corporate endeavors, Nina spent two years in Anhui, China at International Bridges to Justice (IBJ), a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, whose mission is “to protect the basic legal rights of ordinary citizens in developing countries”. Specifically, Nina spearheaded the opening of IBJ's first international office and supported the opening of the second one in Beijing to aid the development of China's fledgling indigent criminal defense system.

Upon returning to the United States, Nina spent four years at American Express OPEN where she launched a new extended payment Charge Card product and managed multi-channel marketing strategies to increase spend and loyalty of OPEN’s highest value customers. While at American Express, Nina was certified as a Six Sigma green belt and continues to apply a process improvement mindset as a marketing leader - something that is especially relevant as her team looks to continuously improve and optimize their Demand Gen engine.

After American Express, circling back to her desire to help the underserved, Nina’s team at Nike Foundation designed and piloted the Girl Effect University program, a global learning platform preparing experts in international development to design and execute large-scale programs dedicated to unleashing the potential of 250 million adolescent girls living in poverty. The program was successfully transitioned to and is operating under the auspices of Mercy Corps.

As part of the senior leadership team at D&H, Nina helped lead the company to an acquisition by Finastra, and to the number three position in the market. This was in part due to her successful efforts in evolving the marketing organization from a product-focused, bottom of Flannel marketing effort to a solution-focused, strategic marketing approach that spanned the entire B2B marketing Flannel from awareness, to demand generation, to sales enablement, to customer success.

Throughout her career, Nina has been passionate about advancing opportunities for girls and women. As co-chair of the D&H Women’s Network, Nina launched its expansion into the US. And even as a student, Nina’s master’s dissertation was a longitudinal study, revisiting the research of her undergraduate thesis, exploring the importance of formal women’s networks in advancing women’s leadership. Nina is thrilled to now be working for a female tech CEO, Kate Johnson, at Act-On during an exciting time for the Act-On team in its journey to help marketers anticipate, automate, and accelerate their engagement efforts!

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Cathleen Schreiner Gates, EVP Sales & Marketing at Ellie Mae is nominated by Erica Harvill.

Since joining Ellie Mae in 2012, Cathleen has helped Ellie Mae grow across all customer segments, including strong growth in the enterprise and mega enterprise lender segments. Ellie Mae’s FY2017 earnings reported revenue of $417.0 million, up 16 percent from $360.3 million in 2016; net income of $52.9 million, up from $37.8 million in 2016; and adjusted EBITDA of $122.6 million, up from $113.1 million in 2016. Cathleen’s sales and services organization was responsible for booking 40,800 Encompass seats in the year, taking the total users to 242,000. Today, Ellie Mae processes more than 33 percent of all residential mortgages in the United States and under Cathleen’s leadership, has taken the lead in offering a truly digital mortgage to the market.

In addition to contributing to Ellie Mae’s revenue growth, Cathleen also has inspired people with her customer-first, caring and fun leadership style. She is laser-focused on understanding the customer needs and has made her career as a dedicated partner to Ellie Mae’s customers, regardless of size or scope. She’s metrics-driven and challenges those around her to reach their greatest potential, but maintains a fair and perceptive mentality. She also is a firm believer in bringing fun to everything she touches at Ellie Mae. For example, she re-imagined the annual sales kickoff meeting by gathering 300 teammates for a meeting titled “The Aligning” – as a spoof of The Shining – when she surprised them with parody videos to further excite and motivate the team for the year to come.

When she’s not leading her coworkers to success, Cathleen is very involved in the Bay Area community as a proud resident of Pleasanton. Cathleen is passionate about empowering other women to be leaders. She is the executive sponsor of Ellie Mae’s EMerge Women’s Leadership group that brings together women from across the organization to promote training, networking and conversations about the challenges and opportunities they encounter. Cathleen also participates in the annual Ellie Mae Classic golf tournament at TPC Stonebrae in Hayward, California, that benefits the Warriors Community Foundation and helps close gaps of opportunity and access for underserved students in the Bay Area. Cathleen’s professional accomplishments have earned recognition including: Mortgage Professional America Elite Women, HousingWire Vanguard, and HousingWire Women of Influence.

LinkedIn

Genie Parker is nominated by SLMA Staff

With over 30 years in business, Genie Parker is an accomplished sales and marketing leader and influencer. The range of her career experiences, with an emphasis on doing business by phone, reaches into hundreds of industry verticals including technology, non-profits, business services, financial services, and manufacturing.

Parker co-founded Parker, Murray and Associates, a call center that supplied sales and sales leads to small businesses, as well as Fortune 500 companies, in various industries. At Parker Murray, Genie drove the adoption of new lead management technologies before launching VanillaSoft.
Genie's company consistently delivered sales, qualified leads, appointments, marketing, and fund-raising services to businesses from The Fortune 500 to small businesses across the United States for 15 years.

PMA gained a reputation in the industry with companies looking to carry out highly-productive calling campaigns while ensuring a quality customer experience. Her knowledge of technology and the entire phone sales process gives her the ability to bring the two together to give VanillaSoft customers the tools they want and need.

VanillaSoft has evolved in one of the most powerful CRM software tools on the market. VanillaSoft’s core philosophy and development process are centered around a single concept: The Power of Simplicity. By focusing on simplicity, it allows its customers to achieve increased productivity, higher contact rates, and better sales accountability. Simplicity has also undoubtedly driven the acceptance of the system by salespeople. It was from her real-life experiences with Parker Murray that they created an Intuitive and easy-to-use, customer relationship management system.  Genie is a visionary who identifies the need for specific tools in the emerging inside sales market. She also advocates for the need to adapt queue-based technology to high-end sales.

SALES LEAD MANAGEMENT ACHIEVEMENTSGenie Parker has played a major role in the management of VanillaSoft's operations:

• Built internal accounting system and processes for HR, AR, and AP.
• Built internal sales process
• Built support knowledge base
• Oversaw new website development
• Found and built business development relationships
• Played an integral role in developing and building VanillaSoft's Cloud-based, Lead Management Platform

In her current role, Genie oversees marketing strategy, directs marketing communication efforts, and partners with sales to continue increasing VanillaSoft’s brand awareness and market penetration.

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Kathy Bryan, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications at Digital Media Solutions is nominated by Kimberlee Archibald.

Kathy Bryan is the Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Digital Media Solutions (DMS), an industry leader in the world of customer acquisition and retention that helps clients maximize their digital marketing to beat the competition and accelerate growth. In this role, Kathy is responsible for all aspects of marketing and communications for DMS and its subsidiary brands. Since its inception, DMS has evolved into a full-service performance marketing company that services firms within highly complex and competitive industries including mortgage, education, insurance, consumer brands, automotive, jobs and careers. DMS has achieved incredible year-over-year growth, which has earned recognition on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

A senior-level strategic marketer with strong B2C and B2B expertise via integrated marketing, brand management, demand generation, content marketing and client services, Kathy has made significant contributions to developing and maintaining the DMS brand across multiple platforms. Bryan has worked at both global and boutique advertising agencies with Fortune 100 clients in the hospitality, travel, mortgage, education and retail sectors.

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Rachel Schulties, Executive Vice President, Digital Agency at Digital Media Solutions is nominated by Kimberlee Archibald.

Rachel Schulties is the Executive Vice President of the Digital Agency at Digital Media Solutions (DMS), an industry leader in the world of customer acquisition and retention that helps clients maximize their digital marketing to beat the competition and accelerate growth. As the leader of the cross-functional agency team, Rachel oversees affiliate marketing, client and vendor relationships, agency services, performance marketing, the award-winning Sparkroom performance technology and its technical support function that helps brands boost results and redefine the win. DMS has achieved incredible year-over-year growth, which has earned recognition on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Rachel has spent her career managing client relationships, building strong teams and delivering highly successful multi-channel marketing campaigns that have connected thousands of consumers with hundreds of brands. This expertise allows her to provide best practices in lead gen and digital marketing guidance to some for the most complex and competitive companies.

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Mary Rogul, VP Sales Strategy & Engagement at Crayon has been nominated by David Donlan at Crayon.

David says about Mary, "Mary’s accomplishments as a sales contributor, executive, leader, and trainer are extensive. I had the pleasure of first working with her at HubSpot, where she joined as one of the first 100 employees and helped scale the business to 850 employees, a successful IPO, and global expansion. As a member of the enterprise sales team, the fastest growing business unit, she frequently led the business in revenue attainment. She has since gone on to lead and advise sales teams at global enterprises, including implementing strategic software and service initiatives with Cerner Healthcare and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, LLP. Mary now serves as Crayon’s VP of Sales Strategy & Engagement, leading sales hiring, training, and development programs for a world-class team of mid-market and enterprise sales executives. In her first three months, she has already exceeded sales hiring and training targets and rolled out new initiatives that have yielded the business millions of dollars of sales pipeline. She is a a frequent speaker and panelist for Women in Sales Leadership and Women in Tech."

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Anna Fisher is nominated by Caitlin Coen of ZoomInfo. Caitlin tell us, "As VP of Marketing at ZoomInfo, Anna Fisher is at the forefront of innovation, building brand awareness and cultivating top-of-market lead generation strategies. Anna’s strategic skill set in business and marketing has been impactful for driving revenue via nurture campaigns, marketing-related webinars, and thought-provoking conferences. This past year, her team’s metrics continued to rise as 72% of all closed-won opportunities resulted from marketing-generated leads. Furthermore, 33% of MQLs converted from multi-channel lead generation programming.

In addition to leading her team to success, Anna is an active contributor to many well-known publications, including CMO.com, Chief Marketer, and MKTGinsight. For the past 4 consecutive years Anna has been included in SLMA’s list of 20 Women in Business to Watch and in 2017, named one of SLMA’s 40 Most Inspiring Leaders.  

Anna and her team also hosted ZoomInfo’s 3rd annual Growth Acceleration Summit, bringing together hundreds of B2B marketing and sales professionals from around the country. The event housed over 600 attendees and nearly 50 speakers for two days of multi-tracked sessions, presentations, workshops, and networking events. "

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Kyla O'Connell, Senior Partner, and Sales Facilitator at Asher Strategies is nominated by David Potts from Asher Strategies

He tells us, "Kyla O'Connell has worked (fought) her way up from a starting position as an outside sales representative to becoming senior partner in a global sales and marketing company and an inspiration to women in sales.  Everything she has accomplished, from winning games as a star lacrosse player to showing Vistage Worldwide business owners how to increase sales, has been done at full throttle.  Kyla has gained the respect of hundreds of business people around the world for her skill in coaching and guiding sales leaders and sales teams in growing their customer bases beyond their expectations.  She is especially effective at inspiring young women sales professionals to grow, to learn, to excel, and to become sales leaders themselves.  Never satisfied with sales training business as usual, Kyla has found new ways to make traditional sales essentials current and created new approaches tailored to new markets.  She is the co-host of the Asher Sales Sense podcast, a master in identifying sales aptitude through her own expertise and the Advanced Personality Questionnaire, a brilliant marketing strategist, and even a practiced image consultant.  Kyla is truly a business leader to watch and I highly recommend consideration of this recognition."

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Chrystel Adams is nominated by Cyndi Greenglass of Diamond Communication Solutions. She says about Chrystel, "In role, Chrystel is leading the Global P&G account for Communisis where she is responsible for delivering exceptional client service through building, motivating and leading a team across 15 European geographies. In 2017, Chrystel was promoted to Head of Client Services for Communisis, where she gives strategic leadership and direction to her teams. She manages a client base including P&G, Nestle, Bacardi and J&J and is fully accountable for the delivery of the clients’ requirements while growing profitable sales for Communisis.

Chrystel has a passion for inclusivity and diversity, with a specific interest in promoting Women in Business initiatives. She understands the pressures and challenges of balancing her career goals and her family life and is well placed to share her experiences with others. She is encouraged with recent strides made in addressing gender inequality, such as the legislation relating to the gender pay gap, but is keen to build further on this momentum. 

Chrystel recently participated in the Global Women’s Forum meeting in Paris.  At the invitation of her client, she recently attended an extremely powerful Diversity and Inclusion meeting which was hosted at the P&G Headquarters in Cincinnati. 

She is a keen advocate of her passion within Communisis. She wishes to ensure fundamental change takes place in order to nurture, develop and bring talent into her organization and support growth.  She is actively working within Communisis to develop a program of activity which gives women more confidence to develop fulfilling careers and open up more opportunities to address gender imbalance in the workplace. Chrystel’s call to action for Women in Leadership is clear: we need to make Women in Business initiatives a higher priority topic in order to accelerate a better future and growth for organizations who embrace this. She is determined to deliver a clear step change within the wider organization. 

Chrystel has been leading teams across marketing and print communications for two decades. She started her career working for a French print management group deploying complex services across Europe. She then moved to Charterhouse where she utilized her excellent strategic client engagement skills to evolve Charterhouse from a UK-centric print management company to being a global player with a blue chip client portfolio including Unilever, Stanley Black & Decker, Coca Cola, Renault and Nissan. She was appointed Head of Client Services with a seat on the board of Charterhouse in recognition of her contribution to the growth of the organization.

Chrystel graduated from the Institute of Economy and Commercial Sciences – IECS- Strasbourg, and started her career in the UK, as a logistics leader at Timken, then moved to be a Manufacturing accountant for British Associated Food before settling in the Marketing Services Industry."

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Liz Brohan is nominated by Cyndi Greenglass of Diamond Communication Solutions. Cyndi tells us why she was compelled to nominate Liz:

The entrepreneur fire has always burned brightly within Liz and was ignited by the feeling that she could build a world-class agency and help clients solve problems from both a business and marketing perspective. So Colman Brohan & Davis Inc. (CBD Marketing) was established, and Liz took on the position as Co-CEO and President to help build the agency.

Within CBD, Liz is dedicated to the development of her team.  Career development, strength identification, gap analysis, sharpening skills and on-going training on emerging marketing technologies.  The happiness and satisfaction levels of her colleagues is paramount in work.  She is keen on building a culture that provides both an environment that promotes collaboration and flexible work options, as well as innovation and exceptional work products.

Liz has created many opportunities to celebrate and assist deserving marketing professionals just embarking on their careers. 

Most recently, she established a pioneering virtual internship program that allows college students all over the country the opportunity to gain real-world marketing experience with national and international corporations without having to move to Chicago. Beginning with a partnership with Kent State University, Liz worked to align the internship goals, objectives and student’s curriculum with the needs of current CBD clients. 

As a woman-owned business, Liz takes great pride in celebrating the achievements of businesswomen in marketing across several industries. In fact, Liz helped develop a program celebrating Kick-Ass Women™. It recognizes inspiring and game-changing women who’ve helped advance their profession or make a difference in the lives of others.  

Not only does Kick-Ass Women recognize accomplished female executives, but it is primarily designed to provide young professionals with insight on lessons learned from the business world. Kick-Ass Women highlights the importance of taking risks, standing up for what you believe in, and gaining the experience it takes to become a better leader — especially when things don’t work out as expected. Liz also developed the first-ever mentorship program for the members of the Executive Advisory Council at Governors State University. Serving on this council with so many talented professionals from some of Chicagoland’s most prestigious organizations, inspired her to pair these individuals with high- potential students in order to prepare them for success in their upcoming careers. A high percentage of Governors State University’s student population come from underserved communities, which makes them so eager to partner and learn.

Lastly, another program honoring and recognizing young professionals that is very near and dear to Liz’s heart is CADM’s Emerging Leaders Award. This award recognizes marketers with 2 to 8 years of experience who have already made a difference in their company and community.

Liz created this program in 2008 as a way for CADM to increase its relevancy with Millennials and entice them to become members. In response to these initiatives and her 20+ years of service to her community and CADM, Liz was honored as the association’s 2016 Response Marketer of the Year.