Situation competitors

John Saunders is a President & CEO at Fleishman-Hillard.

Harris Diamond is a Chair & CEO at McCann Worldgroup.

As President of MullenLowe Boston, Kristen leads an agency built to work with ambitious thought leaders. Kristen has led strategic brand planning for numerous domestic and global challenger brands, including Acura, Volkswagen, Saab, adidas, Charles Schwab, Kohler, Coca-Cola, American Greetings and Miller Brewing. Kristen is a two-time winner of the Jay Chiat Award, the industry’s highest award for strategic excellence, for her work on Volkswagen and Coca-Cola. She believes we live in a world of increased competition, and the biggest threat to business today isn’t rejection, but indifference. For a challenger to win, they must have the ambition to steer conversation towards their brand and in their favor. As a growth officer, Kristen focuses on repositioning and differentiating the agency by utilizing her planning background. In her three years at MullenLowe U.S., the agency has doubled in size, opened offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles and twice been named to the Ad Age Agency A-List. In her six-year tenure at The Martin Agency, the agency was one of the fastest growing agencies in the country, named to the Ad Age A-List five consecutive years, and in 2010, Adweek named them Agency of the Year.

Kathy took an interesting path to a career in agency leadership. She studied economics as an undergrad at the University of Cincinnati, and that social sciences background trained her to look for the motivators that lead people to make the choices they make. She earned her MBA at what is now UC’s Lindner College of Business, a discipline that prepared her to apply consumer behavior principles in the context of business objectives. After a career that included stops at Accenture, Macy’s and Coca-Cola, she joined Northlich in 2000 as chief financial officer, later serving as COO. As president and CEO since 2007, she helps brands and companies understand both the contribution and the cost of their marketing efforts so they can deliver real value to their shareholders and stakeholders. Kathy loves the outdoors and does her best thinking while walking outside. She loves the Cincinnati neighborhoods of Mt. Adams and OTR for their vibrancy and transformation. Kathy’s proudest achievements are her three bright and caring sons, whom she aspires to someday take on a trip to Australia and New Zealand.