About
I’ve seen marketing change. I’ve also seen what doesn’t.
Recruiting, selling, advertising, running marketing in-house, and building an agency. I’ve sat on both sides of the table, and that’s where the judgment comes from.
I started in recruiting, which taught me how people, labor markets, and money actually move. Then I moved into account management and built a new staffing vertical, which taught me about customers, objections, and revenue pressure. After that I went into advertising, helping employers find candidates through newspapers and the first online job boards.
From there I led marketing in-house: at a national staffing firm, where I brought a set of legacy brands together under one identity, and at John Hancock, where I did sales-driven marketing for the Life Insurance business. In 2006 I started Saltbox Marketing and spent the next two decades doing the work, across industries and across generations of marketing.
Fractional leadership is the whole career applied to one job: knowing what to do, in what order, and who should do it. I don’t sell more marketing. I make the marketing you already have answer to the business.
Philosophy
What I believe about marketing.
- Marketing needs leadership.
- The tools have changed. The job hasn’t.
- Strategy before technology.
- The best medium is the one that works.
Career
Where the perspective comes from.
- 1990
B.A. Marketing · Boston College, Carroll School
A marketing degree, then six months in Prague before the career began.
- 1990–1995
Recruiter, then account manager, then leader of a new IT staffing vertical · Judge Technical Services
Started by placing hard-to-find engineers, moved into managing client accounts, then built a new IT staffing vertical. Labor markets, customers, and revenue pressure, all in one seat.
- 1995–2000
Contract HR and staffing consultant
Contract HR and staffing work for large employers, including running R&D staffing for a corporate research lab.
- 2000–2001
Recruiting and traffic management · Circle.com / Arnold Communications
A hybrid of recruiting and traffic management at an interactive agency. It pulled the career back toward marketing.
- 2001–2002
Creative · Pape Communications
Recruitment advertising: helped banking, technology, and defense employers find candidates through newspapers and the first online job boards. Traditional marketing for the staffing world, and the bridge between the creative team and the client.
- 2003–2005
Marketing Manager, Brand & Creative · TAC Worldwide
Brought a set of legacy brands together under a single identity, and ran an internal team plus freelancers and vendors.
- 2006–2009
Manager, Marketing Communications · John Hancock
Sales-driven marketing for the Life Insurance business unit: direct mail, launches, and sales tools.
- 2006–present
Managing Director · Saltbox Marketing
Built an integrated creative studio serving healthcare, biotech, consumer, and B2B clients.
- Now
Fractional Chief Marketing Officer
The whole career, applied as senior marketing leadership.