Five Chief Marketing Officers in GovCon

Businesses can achieve success in more ways than just product leadership or price competitiveness. Identifying marketing trends and priorities can be just as important for the growth of a business.

The chief marketing officer is the senior executive responsible for an organization’s marketing activities. Corporate Finance Institute said that the role serves as the head of advertising activities, brand management, market research, product development and management, marketing communications, pricing and customer service.

In light of the challenges of recent years, the vast majority of CMOs believe that the coronavirus pandemic affected their companies’ marketing strategies, according to a survey conducted by Chief Outsiders.

The survey also showed that 43 percent of CMOs nevertheless see the pandemic as an opportunity for companies overall.

The Potomac Officers Club — a division of Executive Mosaic — features five CMOs in the government contracting sector.

James Whitemore, Chief Marketing Officer at NetApp

James Whitemore serves as executive vice president and chief marketing officer at NetApp, a hybrid cloud data services and data management company.

NetApp specializes in helping businesses adopt enterprise-grade cloud capabilities and cloud storage technology.

Whitemore is responsible for executing global marketing strategies and accelerating growth through market recognition, NetApp said.

The cloud technology veteran has more than 25 years of leadership experience in global sales, product management and marketing strategies.

Whitemore joined NetApp in 2016 through the company’s acquisition of SolidFire, a data center transformation company where he previously served as chief marketing officer.

During his stint at SolidFire, Whitemore was responsible for all corporate, product and field marketing functions, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He was previously senior VP of sales and marketing at West IP Communications, tasked with leading unified communications-as-a-service sales and marketing teams.

Whitemore spent over a year as chief marketing officer at SAVVIS Communications, a global provider of enterprise IT infrastructure and services.

From 1997 to June 2006, Whitemore held various leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including VP and chief marketing officer, at Sun Microsystems’ storage products group.

Whitemore earned a bachelor of arts degree in business administration and management from Northumbria University in the United Kingdom.

Joy Jarrett, Chief Marketing Officer at Guidehouse

Joy Jarrett is the chief marketing officer at Guidehouse, working out of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, and Nashville, Tennessee. Jarrett says she strives to build brands, inspire exceptional teams and transform businesses with new products, strategic partnerships, unique market differentiation and impactful marketing experiences.

Jarrett has been working for the global consulting services provider for almost three years, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Before joining Guidehouse, Jarrett tried her hand at entrepreneurship as the owner and CEO of Mozaic Labs, a technology company based in the Greater Nashville Area. She referred to her former company as an independent network of thinkers and passionate doers who took brands, products, cultures and communities to the next level in health care and technology.

Earlier in her career, Jarrett served as the vice president for branding and marketing at MEDHOST, a Franklin, Tennessee-based health information technology company. In that role, she “launched and expanded a new digital health platform through product enhancements, strategic partnerships and marketing.”

Jarrett earned her degrees in journalism and business from the University of Georgia. She later earned her MBA from the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business.

Matt Maurer, Chief Marketing Officer at ICF

Matt Maurer serves as senior vice president and chief marketing officer at ICF, a global consultancy and digital services provider.

ICF practice areas include aviation, climate, cybersecurity, marketing, education, energy, environment, homeland security, international development, disaster recovery, resilience and transportation, according to the company’s LinkedIn profile.

Maurer is responsible for all aspects of marketing and external communications, including strategy, brand management digital marketing and demand generation, ICF said.

The marketing and communications veteran also oversees public relations and executive communications, sales operations and internal communications.

Before he joined ICF in 2016, Maurer served as the top communications officer for Opower and Blackboard, two technology startups based in the Washington, D.C., area, his LinkedIn profile reveals.

He was previously managing director for media relations and public affairs at CommunicationWorks, a strategic communications firm that works with commercial and government organizations.

During his public relations career, Maurer executed communications strategies for IBM, Intel, the Department of Education and several grantees of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He briefly served as a senior fellow at Widmeyer Communications, a Washinton, D.C.-based full-service public affairs firm specializing in strategic communications.

Maurer earned a bachelor of arts degree in communication from the University of Buffalo in New York.

Chris Capossela, Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft

Chris Capossela is the chief marketing officer at software company Microsoft. Capossela is also the leader of Microsoft’s Consumer Business organization. He has been holding his current position for over seven years and has been with the company for over 24 years.

In his current role, Capossela oversees marketing activities across Microsoft’s consumer and commercial business. As the chief of the Consumer Business segment, he oversees the Consumer Channel sales team, Microsoft Advertising sales and Microsoft Stores, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The marketing veteran started his professional career with Microsoft in 1991 as a marketing manager with the Windows Seminar Team. He then held multiple roles with the company, including as a speech assistant to company founder Bill Gates and as corporate vice president for the Consumer Channels Group.

Capossela is the board chairman of Worldreader, a nonprofit organization that provides digital books to underserved communities. He also served as the annual co-chairperson at United Way of King County, a nonprofit that helps families and individuals become financially stable.

Capossela holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University.

Colleen Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer at Maxar

Colleen Campbell is the chief marketing officer at Westminster, Colorado-based Maxar Technologies. She has a 19-year career that includes leadership roles at multiple companies. She specializes in strategic communications, social marketing, public affairs, business-to-business activities, federal sector marketing and crisis communications.

Campbell joined Maxar in August as CMO, a role where she oversees the company’s global marketing and communications strategy. She is responsible for executive and internal communications, media relations, marketing initiatives, digital strategy and corporate reputation management. She is also a member of the Institute for Public Relations Measurement Commission, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Before joining Maxar, the industry veteran was the vice president of marketing and communications at Alion Science and Technology, a company that Huntington Ingalls Industries acquired in August. She led marketing, media relations, advertising and other related activities for the company’s three business groups. Other leadership roles that Campbell held throughout her career include director of digital strategy and integrated communications at Northrop Grumman and digital strategy and social marketing VP at global advertising company Ogilvy.

She holds a master’s degree in communication, culture and technology from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in political communications from The Goerge Washington University.

Maxar offers a range of intelligence, imagery, precision mapping, robotics and geospatial foundation products and services to U.S. and international government, defense and commercial clients.

ABOUT POTOMAC OFFICERS CLUB

The Potomac Officers Club is owned and operated by Executive Mosaic. Since 2002, Executive Mosaic has been a leader in media and exclusive senior executive networking programs primarily targeted to the U.S. federal government contracting (GovCon) marketplace. In addition to connecting executives of consequence into a fabric of like minded communities, the company’s growing cross-media platform serves as a leading source of news about the people, policies, trends and events shaping the nation’s GovCon sector.

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Tags: Chief Marketing Officer Chief Outsiders Chris Capossela Colleen Campbell Corporate Finance Institute Executive Mosaic govcon government contracting James Whitemore Joy Jarrett Perry Hardt Potomac Officers Club