Major Executive Search Assists WiTricity in CMO Search

August 26, 2021 – Major Executive Search has placed Amy Barzdukas as chief marketing officer at WiTricity located in Watertown, MA. Partner Patty Meagher Clare and managing director John Rivoir along with founder and CEO Sue Major conducted the assignment.

“As more automakers incorporate WiTricity wireless charging into their electric vehicle (EV) roadmaps, with some of those EVs being deployed as early as this year, we sought a CMO who can amplify our brand across consumer and commercial markets,” said Alex Gruzen, CEO of WiTricity. “Amy’s strong background in leading global marketing teams coupled with her experience working in the mobility and personal technology industries makes her the perfect fit for our new CMO role. We’re thrilled to welcome her to the leadership team.”

Ms. Barzdukas brings more than 25 years of business-to-business and consumer marketing, communications and product management experience to WiTricity. She joins the company after most recently serving as chief marketing officer of Omnitracs, the global pioneer of fleet management solutions to transportation and logistics companies that was acquired by Solera in June. At Omnitracs, she led a global marketing team responsible for field marketing, channel marketing, digital marketing, demand generation, marketing operations, communications, brand, product marketing and sales enablement. Prior to Omnitracs, Ms. Barzdukas served as EVP and CMO at the video and voice solutions company Poly Inc. where she managed over 180 marketers and communications professionals and drove the reorganization process of Poly’s rebranding after the merger of Polycom and Plantronics.

Prior to Poly, Ms. Barzdukas was vice president of worldwide marketing, business personal systems at HP where she ran worldwide marketing for the world’s largest business PC group, a $23 billion business, including desktops, notebooks, workstations, mobility, and software and services. She also spent nearly 16 years at Microsoft, completing her tenure at the company as general manager, competitive marketing strategy, server and tools business where she drove competitive analysis across a broad scope of products, including cloud technologies, database, virtualization and overall enterprise software.

At WiTricity, Ms. Barzdukas will be responsible for leading global marketing, driving the company through its next wave of growth as electric vehicles with WiTricity’s patented wireless charging solutions become commercially available.

“It’s no secret that the future of mobility is electric,” said Ms. Barzdukas. “Wireless charging will be a key component to this future, enabling a safer and more convenient consumer experience and autonomy. It couldn’t be a more exciting time to join WiTricity as the leader in the EV wireless charging market. I’m looking forward to working with the leadership team to continue building the WiTricity brand on a global scale.”

WiTricity is the global industry leader in wireless charging, powering a sustainable future of mobility that is electric and autonomous.

Respected Recruiters

Major Executive Search, based in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, is a woman-owned, global retained executive search firm focused on helping technology companies strengthen and grow their executive teams and boards of directors. Founded in 2000, the firm specializes in senior executive and board director recruitment. Its practice includes: big data/analytics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, digital media, energy management, internet of things (IoT), manufacturing, semiconductor, software applications, telecommunications, wireless healthcare solutions and wireless mobility solution.

Ms. Major has spent more than a decade establishing Major Executive Search as a leading boutique firm, placing hundreds of executives for Fortune 500 global and mid-sized organizations, as well as venture capital and private equity-funded companies. She specializes in the wireless, telecom, software and semiconductor sectors, serving Fortune 500 companies to start-ups. Ms. Major’s experience includes 20-plus years of executive search, including C-level executive placements for public and emerging, pre-IPO corporations. Prior to establishing Major Executive Search, she co-founded Slayton International’s first West Coast headquarters, where she served as a managing director. Her hands-on experience also includes opening San Diego, CA’s first top 10 search office for A.T. Kearney Executive Search.

Chief Marketing Officers

As business becomes more global and complex, and power shifts from producers of goods and services to consumers, the chief marketing officer’s job of planning and coordinating marketing activities has become more challenging, recruiters say. Yet executive search firms are seeing no shortage of assignments for this important C-level position.

Current business landscape demands have only increased the contribution from CMOs, according to the latest research report from Forrester and Heidrick & Struggles. The survey found that CMOs are building strong relationships with the head of product and research and development to prepare their organizations for digital disruption.

“We see CMOs moving beyond functional expertise to assume responsibility for driving overall growth within their organizations,” said Sheryl Pattek, vice president, CMO executive partner at Forrester. “They are evolving into key strategic partners on the executive team and know that collaboration with the rest of the C-suite will be instrumental to their success.”

Here’s a sampling of recent chief marketing officer searches taken from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:

SPMB, an executive search firm that helps find transformative executives throughout Silicon Valley, has assisted in the placement of Andrew Savitz as the new chief marketing officer of Azul Systems. Dave Mullarkey led the assignment. “Andrew has a tremendous amount of experience across all aspects of marketing, and a proven track record of helping companies effectively message, drive awareness and leads, position products, create new market categories and enable high growth sales,” said Scott Sellers, co-founder, president and CEO of Azul.

CarterBaldwin Executive Search has assisted Christian Community Credit Union in the recruitment of Aaron Caid as chief marketing officer of this mission-driven credit union. “We are excited to have Aaron Caid join the Christian Community Credit Union family,” said Blair Korschun, CEO of the financial institution. “Aaron is a man of faith with vast experience in leading marketing and analytics for companies with millions of customers and accounts. He has chosen to use his talents to help us grow the credit union and to help us better serve our members.”

Following a nationwide search, New York-based retail and consumer focused executive search firm Herbert Mines Associates placed Gil Phipps as SVP and chief marketing officer of Sprouts Farmers Market in Phoenix, AZ. President Brenda Malloy led the search along with managing director Alison Weil and VP Caitlin Kenefick. “We’re extremely pleased to welcome Gil to the Sprouts team,” said Jack Sinclair, CEO of Sprouts. “The experience Gil brings will be instrumental in shaping Sprouts’ long-term strategy to build brand awareness and loyalty with our core shopper, including strengthening and defining our private label business.”

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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