Marianna Kantor

“I've worked closely with Marianna and seen her be a champion for something that is critical across all facets of marketing and business – the exceptional. I still remember one of our earliest conversations when she told me one of her convictions is that the primary mission of marketing is to identify and dominate new markets. That is a tall, ambitious order in contemporary business culture, riddled with complexity and challenge, and I have seen her be strategic, inventive and unafraid in implementing that mission. Along with her belief that the purpose of marketing is to be a powerful growth engine, Marianna has an engineer’s affinity for data, a scientist’s commitment to proven technology and a designer’s appreciation for the strategic value of differentiation, positioning and brand. She is results-focused, demanding and has a business mindset that understands business value and the entire enterprise. I’ve seen her take on extremely difficult challenges and drive new initiatives for the sake of stronger performance and new levels of organizational achievement. Beyond all that, Marianna is highly curious, invested in constant learning, and is fully committed to digital innovation. The breadth of her experience, her intellectual pursuits and her natural sensibilities for strategy, business and improvisation give her a perspective, energy and strength that are genuinely unique. ”

“Having spent the past 2.5 years working for Marianna, I’ve had the opportunity to watch her do some truly incredible things. From identifying key industry trends to setting clear and achievable goals, she is a savvy executive with a keen understanding of how to drive growth. She brought discipline and confidence to an organization that had lost its way. She is courageous, determined, and unselfish. She leads by example and has the ability to improve the performance of those around her, even at the enterprise level. However, what has impressed me the most is that I’ve seen first-hand her ability to combat inertia, complacency, and inefficiency. She catalyzed the transformation of a 48-year old organization and fundamentally changed how marketing is perceived, operated, and measured. She has done it by influencing a well-entrenched senior leadership team, not showing but proving how marketing can contribute to overall success, and by recruiting and building her own high-performing teams that are inspired by her vision for what marketing can be. To her credit, her thirst for insight has resulted in the creation of performance dashboards for the first time in the company’s history, inspiring other parts of the organization to adopt similar methods and embrace analytics as a vehicle for improvement. I have had the pleasure of working for some incredibly talented and creative people in my career, and Marianna stands out as being one of the best.”