CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • September 27, 2021 21
2021
EXECUTIVES IN MARKETING It would be apt to call the last two years the best of times and the worst of times for marketing professionals. A stable economy means they’ve mar keted their organizations’ or clients’ brands to new domestic and global markets and introduced new products and services. At the same time, they’ve been chal lenged by the difficult job of respect fully and effectively connecting with a public energized—and divided—by the pandemic, demands for social justice and calls for racial and gender equity. The 33 professionals profiled here
rose to the occasion by doing what they do best: Keeping their eyes on mis sion statements and goals. Proactively listening to consumers. Reinventing, recalibrating and sometimes upending strategies and tactics to address “the new normal” of the work environment. Doubling if not tripling down on pro bono efforts. Harnessing the power of technology, including AI. If marketing in the 21st century means owning a wardrobe of hats, these execu tives wear them very well indeed. By Judith Crown and Lisa Bertagnoli
GETTY IMAGES
METHODOLOGY: Honorees did not pay to be included. Their profiles were drawn from nomination materials submitted. This list is not comprehensive. It includes only executives for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after an editorial review. The honorees demonstrated that they used their skills to significantly advance their organization or their client’s.
JILL ALLREAD
SARAH BARNES
PATRICK BERGNER
CHRISTINA BOTTIS
CARL J. BRODARICK
CEO Public Communications
Vice president, marketing Spaulding Ridge
Chief marketing officer Coyote Logistics
Chief marketing officer Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care
Jill Allread leads a 50-person national, integrated agency that provides full-service commu nications, digital strategy, and content and executive training to a range of industries. A fre quent trainer on crisis management, her experi ence includes 12 years in newsrooms of daily newspa pers, includ ing a stint as metropolitan editor for the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. The agency has been recognized by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce and LGBT Business Enterprise. Allread is on the steering committee for a $20 million capital campaign to build a recreation center in Oak Park for underresourced fami lies, youth and seniors. She also serves on the capital campaign committee for Howard Brown Health Center to raise $15 mil lion for a new youth center for LGBTQ youth and a new clinic on Chicago’s South Side.
Sarah Barnes oversees mar keting strategy and sales enablement at Spaulding Ridge, a management consultant specializing in IT strategy, cloud implementation and process improvement. Her responsi bilities include developing and executing marketing and PR plans and budgets, mentoring talent and building scalable systems to measure success. Since joining in early 2021, she’s instituted strategic marketing and sales enablement guidance; orches trated Spaulding Ridge’s first conference, Elevate21, which featured 19 sessions with prom inent speakers; coordinated the launch of new branding and a new website; and served on the DEI committee. Before joining Spaulding Ridge, Barnes was senior director of marketing at Nvisia and director of marketing at Campbell & Co. For 11 years, she was also adjunct faculty at the Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business, teaching digital marketing and public relations.
Chief marketing officer Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago
Christina Bottis is CMO at Coy ote Logistics, a global third-par ty supply chain solutions pro vider. She oversees a team of 25 professionals that develops and executes the company’s mar keting efforts, including its go-to-market, lead-gen eration and sales-enable ment strate gies. Recent achievements include producing Coyote’s first global digital summit for 7,000 ship pers and carriers; launching the CoyoteGO digital freight e-commerce platform to enable carriers and shippers to manage supply chains digitally in the midst of the global pandemic; curating a COVID-19 con tent series to help customers navigate market volatility and demand shifts within their supply chains; and developing the “Green Means Give Thanks” campaign to recognize frontline workers and health care professionals. Marketing drove upward of 80% of inbound leads in 2020 and is on track to sur pass that metric in 2021.
Carl J. Brodarick is responsible for marketing strategies at Sea sons Hospice, an AccentCare company, managing initiatives to boost user acquisition, con version, engagement, satisfac tion, facility and renewal rates for the organization’s 50-plus Medi care-certified sites and 23 hospice inpa tient centers. Faced with COVID-19 implications and the industry’s largest merger, he reinvented key go-to-market approaches and helped fuel annualized growth of more than 10% a year. He was the executive sponsor of the orga nization’s DEI initiative, which is developing strategies and actions to overcome racial and socioeconomic barriers and bring awareness of hospice and palliative care to underserved communities nationwide. He also serves as a board member for Seasons Hospice Founda tion.
Patrick Bergner has specialized in real estate marketing for more than 20 years. As CMO at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Chicago, his team serves more than 1,400 real estate agents and their clients. Recently, his department rebranded the entire compa ny, launched company websites and opened new offices. Among his key campaigns are “Get Noticed” and “Chicago Strong,” which highlighted the resilience of communities during the pan demic. Before his work with the marketing team at BHHS Chicago, Bergner was an ac count representative for a print and online ad management software company. He serves on the board of BHHS Chica go’s nonprofit, the Kindness Foundation, which supports meaningful local initiatives in the communities it serves and enhances the quality of life for fellow citizens.