MeTEOR Education

Elgin, IL. (Remote Location)

August 2018 – November 2018

Director of Marketing
January 2017 – August 2018

Director of Marketing

A proven leader and mentor with a successful background in marketing and sales, Cindy was responsible for overseeing all marketing activities for Paragon Furniture, including creative, research, tradeshows and events, public relations, social media, website development, digital marketing, marketing automation and vendor management. In the short time Cindy was at Paragon she not only established new branding and messaging, but also:

• Improved user experience for our customers by introducing new and updated literature, successfully launched new website and wrote and developed partner handbook and contract that outlined company’s policies and procedures

• Positioned Paragon as an active learning environment thought leader by launching end user focused knowledge resources including articles, blog, vlog, enewsletter and three resource guides all centered around active learning spaces; as well, three new architect and interior designer continuing education courses

• Enhanced customer communications and reporting by leveraging marketing automation software (Pardot)

  • Built the organizational and data infrastructure for marketing and sales campaigns and gained intelligence about the state of the marketing database; completed the bi-directional Salesforce.com integration, cleansed database and established lifecycle reporting for prospects

  • Increased email marketing database by 250%

• Improved visibility of marketing spend by successfully producing a marketing budget and template

Bretford

Franklin Park, IL.

November 2004 – November 2016

Director of Marketing Communications 
February 2007 – November 2016

National Sales Manager – IT Channel
August 2005 – January 2007

Product Channel Manager
November 2004 – July 2005 

Director of Marketing Communications

As Director of Marketing Communications for Bretford Manufacturing, Inc., Cindy lead a team of professionals responsible for domestic and international internal, channel and end user reach. A proven leader and mentor with a background in marketing and sales, Cindy spearheaded the development of the Discovery Guide, an effective marketing tool that helped facility professionals understand, create and implement agile learning spaces. The Discovery Guide centers on a research project also directed by Cindy called iLab, which focuses on the learning space as an educational tool. The project studied student outcomes, teacher evaluations and anecdotal and ethnographic evidence to understand the agility and adaptability of the iLab space and how it supported teaching and learning. Cindy also formed a partnership with Convergence Academies operating from Center for Digital Arts Partnerships at Columbia College Chicago to provide furniture for Digital Ateliers in two high need, traditionally low-performing Chicago Public Schools. Cindy used the research and key findings from this study to drive more schools to adopt this inspirational learning model. At that time, it was the only study where the outcomes actually showed an improvement in grades and attendance.  Additionally, Cindy has built a collection of tools, articles and case studies that support Active Learning Environments that were used by schools across the country.

• Developed and drove overall brand strategy and brand positioning across marketing and sales in support of all business objectives

• Managed team of four individuals that were responsible for the creative, channel and product marketing for Bretford; managed up to 7 individuals that also included the management of product management and development; manage vendor relationships including advertising agency, photographer, printer, public relations, copy writing, fulfillment and interior designer, tradeshow and events

• Creative and innovative in seeing new marketing and sales opportunities; spearheaded two research projects and a multitude of knowledge resources, became influential resource and thought leader for sales teams all with respect to active learning environments and the benefits to close business for Bretford; orchestrated the need for a strategic plan for THINC College & Career Academy and became an active participant in building THINC’s strategic plan along with members from Kia, Georgia Power, Interface Floor and the Innovation Office of Troup County in LaGrange, GA

• Developed and managed a yearly marketing budget of $2m and marketing plan implementation; including professional development, social media marketing, iPad apps, marketing automation (Pardot, Eloqua), photography, webinars, videos, newsletter, presentation decks and CEUs, brochures and catalogs, publication and online advertising buy, creation and direction, tradeshow management and direction

• Managed public relations initiatives of news releases, editorials, press meetings, key speaking opportunities and case studies

• Established a Marketing Automation process to qualify, nurture and report sales leads to our sales team; created and managed an inside sales team of one

• Continually built marketing strategies for improving mindshare at Architect & Design firms, Channel Partners and at the end user level within Education, Corporate, Government, IT and Office markets domestically and internationally

National Sales Manager – IT Channel

• Drove revenue for IT Channel within Bretford and exceeded sales goals of $8m for 2006

• Managed team of four field sales representatives, two of which were the president and CEO’s daughter and son

• Responsible for building budget, sales plans, forecasts and long term strategies for channel

• Developed sales proposals and answered special pricing requests while maintaining profitability and managing gross margin performance for the IT Channel

• Created new polices and procedures and revised current contracts for channel

• Streamlined internal organization to meet the needs of the new policies and procedures

• Collaborated with executive staff on overall company strategies

• Continued responsibilities of Product Channel Manager role; prepared product and marketing information, which supported the strategic plans of the business

• Developed co-op accrual program that engaged territory field sales representatives to make calls on the IT Channel; program resulted an increase of 5% in sales for 2007

• Promoted to Director of Marketing Communications to lead and manage marketing department in February 2007

Product Channel Manager

• Produced a “needs analysis” for entering the IT market place; provided an overview of the IT marketplace, the risks involved in entering, the needs of the business to enter and a timeline and step-by-step plan of action

• Provided definitions to sales and product management on what their roles consisted of in the organization to help streamline their internal functions

• Generated a sales strategy template and provided strategic vision to support sales on how to go to market within the IT Channel

• Wrote and produced a policy and procedure handbook for distributor partners on how to work with Bretford and internally changed the old processes to conform to the new processes

• Developed a consistent communication plan to inform partners about Bretford via an electronic email campaign

• Learned the capabilities of a Mac and used various design software programs to produce numerous communication pieces

• Responsible for the advertising copy from conception to completion for all print and online

• Overall management of funding in cooperation with sales team

• Promoted to National Sales Manager for the IT Channel in less than a year of being hired in August of 2005

NEC Solutions (America), Inc.

Itasca, IL.

May 2001 – October 2004

Channel Marketing Manager
September 2003 – October 2004

Sr. Channel Marketing Specialist
April 2003 – August 2003

Channel Marketing Specialist
May 2001 – March 2003

Channel Marketing Manger

• Managed the development and implementation of innovative channel “Partner Programs” to strengthen relationships and increase sell through revenue

• Effectively managed partner relationships that assisted the sales organization to achieve 136% of budget for 2003

• Comprehensive hands-on experiences with integrated marketing communications, plan creation, market segmentation, strategic planning, creative development, production and fulfillment and project management which were developed in fast paced high-tech business environments

• Provided strategic vision, tactical execution and wide-reaching daily management to boost NEC brand awareness and drive solution based selling through all channel partner accounts domestically and internationally (Canada and Latin America)

• Strategic support for sales teams to build and implement partner initiatives via the use of co-op and MDF funding

• Responsible for profitably budgeting, program implementation, sales support, new product introduction, special events planning, report generation and overall budget management of approximately $10m per year

• Consistently recognized by executive management and clients for superior talents in team leadership, needs analysis, troubleshooting and problem resolution in high-pressure situations, was awarded “Star Achievement” award in June of 2003 by NEC Sr. Vice President and awarded by NEC Sales Vice President in May of 2004 “Outstanding Contributor” award

• Promoted from Sr. Channel Marketing Specialist to Channel Marketing Manager September 2003

• Promoted from Channel Marketing Specialist to Sr. Channel Marketing Specialist April 2003

Lucent Technologies

Denver, CO.

February 1998 – December 2000

Account Executive                                   September 2000 – December 2000

Qwest Channel Manager                                     July 2000 – August 2000

Regional Account Manager                       December 1998 – June 2000

Account Manager                                        February 1998 – November 1998

Account Executive

• Developed and created Wireless Services sales role to sell Lucent Technical Services to Qwest

• Analyzed Qwest’s Wireless network to offer service resources to assist in their network deployment

• Generated $10M in non-traditional revenue from Qwest by selling Enhanced Lucent Technical Services

• Managed Lucent internal service relationships to support external service sales efforts

Qwest Channel Manager

• Proactively worked with the Qwest customer team to support the channel initiative

• Provided relationship management between Lucent channel partners and the Qwest customer team

• Managed all past/present/future sales through channels for Qwest

• Acquired and analyzed channel value to produce new selling concepts, market information, pricing and performance to reduce total costs to Qwest

Regional Account Manager

• Grew Anixter’s West region Lucent Sales by 23% for fiscal 1999

• Provided technical support and training to Anixter on all Lucent products

• Supported the implementation of all Anixter/Lucent marketing strategies

• Insured that all Anixter/Lucent program initiatives were communicated and implemented successfully to achieve expected results

• Provided relationship management between Anixter and Lucent Enterprise, Service Provider and Federal Govt. domestic and international sales teams

• Proactively worked with the Anixter Enterprise, Service Provider and Federal Government sales teams to focus on new activities that lead to profitable revenue growth

• Enhanced knowledge base of Lucent by successfully completing applicable training courses

Account Executive

• Contributed to account year over year revenue growth of 38%

• Participated in the “Class of ‘98” training curriculum

• Volunteered to work a two-month assignment with Lucent’s quotes group in Greensboro, NC to enhance knowledge of Lucent’s special pricing and contract programs

• Successfully completed a total of 22 Structured Cabling training classes including Account Executive Sales Assessment

• Promoted to Regional Account Manager December 1998