» SPOTLIGHT
Women's Day Supplement
A THOUGHT Paige O'neill, Chief Marketing Officer, Sitecore has enjoying managing teams and helping them improve their skills What made you choose this career path? How would you summarize your professional journey so far in terms of meeting expectations, both yours and the organization’s? I studied political science degrees, and then spent a year in New York University’s Media Ecology Ph.D. program studying how technology impacts culture. During this period I got a part-time job working for a PR agency and ended up dropping out of the Ph.D. program, abandoning my idea of professorship and embarking on a career in PR and marketing. I have worked my way up through various companies, but the key for me has always been to challenge expectations. I don’t like doing the minimum as I want to do more, be my best, authentic self and help companies develop their best representa-
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tion as well. I think that’s about having a bit of the teacher in me still! I also really enjoy managing teams of people, helping them to expand their skillsets. I feel it’s very important to be a visible role model for women in marketing, helping them to be confident in their abilities, and make their desires and ambitions known. People like me will always be there to point others in the direction of opportunity. From your experience, is gender a differentiator in Marketing at all or are men and women similar in these roles in terms of the strengths they bring to these roles in conceptualizing and executing? Are women sufficiently recognized for their contributions? We all arrive in a role on an equal playing field, but over time, that equality still,
unfortunately, degrades. Everyone brings their individual strengths to their role, and it’s only by embracing a diverse range of thoughts, experiences and skills that organizations can truly address their broadest audience and realize their potential. We need to make sure we’re creating workplaces where young women know they can grow, and lead, in the way that is most authentic to them, and where their contributions are recognized and rewarded. How has Hybrid work and accelerated digitalization challenged, changed and enabled your role in Marketing? In March 2021, a survey my company commissioned from Advanis asked 402 U.S. marketers to reflect on the impact of Covid-19 and their priorities going forward. The results showed that marketers
