From the May 2010, American Marketing Association (AMA) Marketing News. Article is Marketers To Watch, featuring 5 up-and-coming marketers.

1. 18
Marketers to
Everyone knows who the B-to-B marketing CMO stars are—people such as Beth Comstock
at GE and Kathy Button Bell at Emerson come to mind. But what about the next generation
of talent, people below the CMO level who are having outsized impacts on their companies’
marketing e orts? People who we very well may be talking about as the CMO stars of 2015 or
2020? Marketing News set out to find them—asking a variety of industry sources. These five
are by no means the only up-and-comers out there. But they point the way for others to excel in
their marketing posts. Here’s what they’re doing and what they have to say about marketing.
BY THE MARKETING NEWS STAFF
editor@ama.org
Jason L. Cordova How will you get there?
I’m very fortunate in my current role to work across the GE portfolio
Age 31 and to work with some brilliant marketers. e real key is to continue
Company General Electric Co.; Fairfield, to get industry depth and knowledge and to continue learning from
Conn. those people. e more we’re able to do that, the more e ective we are.
Title Director of Strategic Marketing
What is the most important thing you’ve done to get
Job Description Cordova is responsible for
you where you are today?
a number of key initiatives, including part-
I would say the biggest thing that I’ve taken away is just continuous
nering with GE businesses to identify and
learning, taking the time and understanding from very smart people
leverage customer insights across GE and
what you can learn.
enabling the marketing function via an inter-
nal professional/social network platform.
Cordova joined GE in 2006 a er stints at REFERENCE
Mentoring Minds, an educational publisher, “Jason is not afraid to jump into situations where he knows he is not
at IBM and at his own sports management an industry expert, yet he is willing to help,” says Stephen J. Liguori,
company earlier in his career. He spent two executive director of global marketing at GE. “He has contributed
years in GE’s Experienced Commercial Lead- on meaty marketing projects in GE businesses as diverse as aviation
ership Program, learning about a variety of GE and mining. The fact that he has a good strategic head on his shoul-
businesses. “I love marketing, it’s a great place ders and takes a team-based approach to learning is a large part
to be right now; I just can’t imagine a better function,” he says. of what makes him e ective. He can always be counted on to bring
an external customer’s view to the situation with ideas on how to
Where do you want to be in five years? incorporate them.
05.15.10
In broad strokes, I would love to be in a CMO or leadership role, or
maybe a pro t-and-loss role for one of the GE businesses. I hope to “What can new marketers learn from Jason? Listen intently to your
continue to grow and learn and have more responsibility to really clients and then formulate an action plan, based on your knowledge
create impact. and their input, to move the ball forward.”
marketingnews

2. 19
Alex Bender
Age 42
Company Archer Technologies/RSA (a division of EMC);
Overland Park, Kan.
Title Director of O er Marketing at RSA, formerly
Vice President of Marketing at Archer Technologies
Job description Bender is responsible for leading Archer’s
marketing team and all its initiatives, including lead generation,
channel and Web marketing and analyst relations. Previously,
Bender held senior product marketing management positions at
Tripwire, Unicru and McAfee.
When Alex Bender joined Archer Technologies four years ago it
was a $10 million company without a de ned marketing sta . Today
Archer is a $33 million company with a thriving, eight-person team
of professional B-to-B marketers whom Bender hired, trained and
developed into a results-oriented, metrics-driven sta . Another
big marketing win has been the launch of a 3,000-member online
community available exclusively to Archer’s clients, which Jon Darby-
shire, Archer’s president and CEO, points to as a big contributor to
Archer’s 98.6% product license renewal rate.
e 170-person company, which delivers governance, risk and
compliance (GRC) solutions for information technology to busi-
nesses, is currently undergoing an integration with Boston-based
RSA, which purchased Archer in January.
Where do you want to be in five years?
In ve years [my plan is to] de nitely be part of the RSA marketing team. It’s a great organization and I’ve been really
blown away by the talent that is there. ere is always opportunity, and I have a re in my belly. I’ve really enjoyed
growing this company and whether I continue to grow this company or stay in a division, there are exciting opportu-
nities out there. [RSA is a $600 million-plus business.] It’d be exciting for me to be a part of a business that size again
and to be able to leverage my [large company] experiences with Tripwire and McAfee.
How will you get there?
I think that one of the things I realized coming into RSA was that [at Archer] we think we gured out our target
market pretty well. … One of the things we track [at Archer] is what is marketing’s impact to the bottom line? When
you are able to understand how marketing has in uenced the win rate, it is very important. We’re going to bring more
succinct processes on how to create those metrics and trackability to RSA. [To grow my career at RSA,] I would rather
do it by proof rather than by force.
What is the most important thing you’ve done to get you where you are today?
e key is that I’m never satis ed by staying put. I’ve always had drive to grow my knowledge and career. [An impor-
tant thing I have done] to get me where I am today has been to align myself with a good company and, more impor-
tantly, to get the right peers and mentors in place. A team is essential. Equally important is to have the right metrics to
understand what we need to get [to the goal] and be able to provide a lot of proof points along the way.
REFERENCE
“There’s no question that Alex leads marketing for Archer and people here know that when they have ideas,
questions or concerns, they go to Alex. One of the most impressive things he’s done is he’s built a phenom-
enal team—a team of superstars. … We get comments all the time on the things we roll out from customers,
prospects and competitors, and they’d be amazed to know [it all comes from] a team of eight to 10 people. In
meetings with Alex, it is just evident that he enjoys marketing and really has that passion for it. The team picks
up on that and creates quality deliverables. They’re not just pushing things over the fence.” –Jon Darbyshire,
president and CEO of Archer Technologies marketingpower.com

3. 20
Mike Where do you want to be in five years?
McCalley I want to be leading a world-class marketing organization that is purely
customer- and market-focused and that is recognized for best practices.
Age 38
Company Dresser Inc.;
How will you get there?
Addison, Texas
rough a three-phase approach. It’s having a clear vision that people
buy into; identifying the gaps of where we are today; and lling in those
Title Corporate Director gaps. e reality of it is that it’s through talent management, it’s always
of Marketing people [ rst, then] process and technology. It starts with having the
Job description McCalley right people creating the right processes and deploying the right tools
is tasked with creating and and technologies to achieve that.
developing marketing functions
across this engineering equipment What is the most important thing you’ve done to get
and services company. you where you are today?
I’ve surrounded myself with world-class practitioners, whether it was
Like many industrial companies, internally or externally. [Also] it’s never being satis ed with the current
Dresser in the past was internally status quo or the current situation. Even a er we’ve done something
focused on product development that’s dramatically raised the bar, we always ask: ‘What can we do
rather than looking outward via better? [What is] better for our customers and better for our company?’
marketing to gain customer insights.
McCalley was hired in 2008 to change that, says Scott Coleman,
Dresser’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate develop- REFERENCE
ment. Coleman hired McCalley to elevate marketing’s role within the “He’s done a phenomenal job of establishing marketing within the
company. McCalley has done that with programs such as marketing company,” says Coleman, McCalley’s boss. “He’s one of those guys who
boot camps to train the many engineers at Dresser who nd them- has great customer insights and really understands marketing. Mike
selves in marketing roles, Coleman explains. One hundred people led the charge to really bring customer-led insights [to the company’s
have passed through McCalley’s marketing boot camps in the past product development process].”
two years.
Lori Kirk-Rolley
Age 43
Company Dal-Tile Corp.; Dallas
Title Senior Marketing Director
Job description Kirk-Rolley leads brand marketing e orts,
including advertising, public relations and other programs, for
Dal-Tile’s three target segments: homeowners, dealers and
builders, and architects and designers.
Lori Kirk-Rolley says she sometimes gets funny looks when she says
her job is to peddle baked dirt. But she insists the challenge in market-
ing ceramic tile to di erent audiences, and her pride in the products,
makes her job an exciting one.
Kirk-Rolley has been at Dal-Tile, the largest manufacturer of
ceramic tile in the United States, for nearly 15 years. One career high-
light: leading a 2005 renovation of product presentation in showrooms
that resulted in a 15% sales increase from participating dealers. What is the most important thing you’ve done to get
Kirk-Rolley received a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Blooms- you where you are today?
burg University of Pennsylvania in 1988 and an M.B.A. in marketing It’s really a culmination of a couple of things. e rst thing is I’m a
from La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1995. She worked at three big believer in brands and I think that each of us is our own brand, so
marketing agencies in the Philadelphia area, including Ketchum Inc., the one thing that I really try to do is consistently deliver results. …
before joining Dal-Tile. e other thing is to have a good understanding of internal or exter-
nal customers, and that means listening to what they need and reading
Where do you want to be in five years? between the lines. … It sounds simple but a lot of people don’t take the
I’d like to be in an executive-level marketing position working for an time to do that.
organization that allows for creative thought and expression, values
contributions and recognizes success. … I do see myself as wanting to
continue to operate in more strategic initiatives and to really have the REFERENCE
opportunity to participate in setting the road map for the company “I really lean on Lori because of her expertise,” says her boss Joe
moving forward. Lundgren, vice president of marketing. Lundgren himself never
received formal marketing training—he started working at Dal-Tile
How will you get there? in the warehouse in 1984.
05.15.10
It gets back to really understanding the strategic path that the company
is on and being sure that every plan and program that we have kind of “She wrote the first marketing plan for us,” he says. “She has taught
aligns with that. I think just continuing to focus on meeting the needs me everything I know about the marketing side of the business and
of the customers … and being sure the voice we put out in the market- what should be said about Dal-Tile and how to approach a project
marketingnews
place delivers the right message. If I continue to do that, new opportu- and how to send specific messages out to specific audiences and
nities will come up. what channels to do that in.
“Her leadership has put us on the road to have a true brand iden-
tity for ceramic tile. … Her professionalism, her attention to detail, is
second to none.”

4. 21
These five are by no means the only marketers
to watch out there. But they point the way for
others to excel in their marketing posts.
Tom Pick
Age 48
Company KC Associates; Long Lake, Minn.
Title Online Marketing Executive
Job description Pick’s work ranges from conducting
online campaigns incorporating search engine
optimization and social media to managing a number
of clients for many of their marketing needs.
Beginning his career in engineering technology in
1987, Pick fell into marketing ve years later, earning
an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota in Minne-
apolis. Since then he has worked in B-to-B marketing
at companies such as St. Paul-based digital press equip-
ment manufacturer Printware Inc., enterprise so ware
developer So brands Inc. in Minneapolis and reinsur-
ance intermediary John B. Collins Associates Inc., also
in Minneapolis, developing a specialty in online market-
ing along the way. He landed at KC Associates in 2006,
and Pick prides himself on increasing Web tra c ve- What is the most important thing you’ve
fold within a year’s time for record management so ware done to get you where you are today?
provider client SmeadSo , among other accomplish- If I had to pick one, I would de nitely say it was [creat-
ments. ing] the [WebMarketCentral] blog, going back to 2005.
Outside of KC Associates, Pick hosts a blog Putting my thoughts, observations and experiences
called Webbiquity (formerly WebMarketCentral.com), down in blog form has really helped me make a
which covers B-to-B lead generation, online market- tremendous number of new connections and to meet
ing and related topics, and serves as advisor for B-to- interesting people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. … I
B-focused social media site FYIndOut.com and also developed a lot of experience in online promotions
B2BMarketingZone.com. in how to use blogging and social media to further
business e orts … and it has created recognition and
Where do you want to be in five years? given me credibility in terms of social media.
at’s a challenging question only because of the pace of
technology changes. … e one constant I have had the
last 20 years is to focus on helping B-to-B tech companies REFERENCE
market themselves more e ectively. I anticipate doing “He’s very good at analyzing things and good
that exactly ve years from now. … I have a lot of inde- at communicating what he’s seeing,” says Pick’s
pendence at KC Associates … [and] I’m not sure if I want employer Kirsten Chapman, principal at KC Associates.
to change that. … I do some public speaking. ere may “He treats our clients with great respect and takes
be an opportunity to do more of that. the time to explain to them how all this works, how
important it is and how it fits into broader marketing
How will you get there? and PR programs.”
It goes back to three activities: networking, taking advan-
tage of online media and continuing to experiment on Chapman also praises Pick for putting clients first. For
marketingpower.com
my own whenever possible, so I am bringing in a solid example, Pick took up an opportunity to explore a
base of knowledge. … Who knows what will be devel- potential product aimed at automating search engine
oped technology-wise over the next ve years? My hope optimization. “If that actually takes hold, that would
is whatever new tools come down the road, I’ll be able to eliminate a lot of billable hours Tom might have, but
help clients with opportunities to make themselves nd- Tom is very interested in knowing what is out there
able online, to establish their credibility and strengthen and knowing what is the best thing for clients,” she Know a marketer to watch?
their customer relationships. says. “A lot of people won’t do that.” m E-mail us with suggestions at
editor@ama.org.