PierceGray Seeking Chief Marketing Officer for Blue Ridge Global

October 14, 2022 – 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 — and much more influential. PierceGray is currently seeking a new chief marketing officer for Blue Ridge Global.

In August of 2022, Jeff Hawkins joined Blue Ridge as the CEO and is looking for a new CMO who will lead the design and execution of the marketing strategy for this $20 million business that will grow four to five times over the next four to five years. Blue Ridge has a clear path to reach $80 million in revenue, and the CMO will play a key role in the growth plan through demand generation, campaign management, digital marketing management, and event execution. The CMO may be based anywhere in the U.S., with a preference for Atlanta, GA, or Chicago, IL.

The successful candidate will have extensive experience with value creation through digital channels (e.g., site, email, app) and marketing programs (e.g., SEO, paid social, programmatic media, email marketing), etc. They should also have familiarity with or ability to learn Marketo, Hubspot, and/or Pardot to help the team manage leads, email campaigns, and analytics. In addition, candidates should have demonstrated project and program management skills; able to deliver enterprise results in unsophisticated, under-resourced, and ambiguous environments without direct-line control.

Blue Ridge is the creator of the leading supply chain platform for distributors, retailers, and manufacturers. As a fully configurable supply chain planning software solution, Blue Ridge improves forecast accuracy, operational efficiency, profitability, and competitive edge in real-time.

PierceGray is a specialized, retained executive search firm focused on building leadership teams in investor-back environments. The firm is functionally-focused, hiring executives and building teams in the following disciplines: Operations and supply chain; sales and marketing; finance and transformation; and general management. PierceGray’s clients include private equity firms and portfolio companies as well as publicly-held companies across North America. PierceGray has been operating since 2006 and serves clients in nearly every industry sector in North America.

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:

ZRG Partners, a leading search firm backed by private equity firm RFE Investment Partners, recently assisted in the recruitment of Mark Gaydos as chief marketing officer of NASDAQ-traded CalAmp in Irvine, CA. Managing director and technology practice leader Lisa Hooker led the assignment along with Douglas Madden, managing director in the technology practice. “Mark’s proven product marketing leadership, demand generation expertise and deep understanding of enterprise software and technology companies will be extremely valuable to CalAmp as we continue our transformation to a leading software-as-a-service provider,” said Jeff Gardner, CEO of CalAmp.

Mercedes Chatfield-Taylor, a co-founder of Artico Search, has placed Jen Jones as chief marketing officer of commercetools, a platform for next-generation B2C and B2B commerce. In her new position, Ms. Jones oversees commercetools’ global brand, marketing, and corporate communications efforts, including brand strategy and design, customer marketing, demand generation, product marketing, marketing analytics and operations. Prior to joining commercetools, Ms. Jones was chief marketing officer at Dataminr. With offices in San Francisco, New York, and Austin, TX, Artico is off to one of the fastest starts among boutique search firms in recent memory.

ON Partners recently placed David Greenberg as the new chief marketing officer for Conversica, a provider of conversational AI solutions for enterprise revenue teams. Consultant Aaron Clark led the assignment. “We’re addressing a real need with applied AI,” said Jim Kaskade, CEO of Conversica. “I am thrilled for David to join our executive team roundtable. His experience in marketing leadership with practically every high-growth success in the Pacific Northwest will prove vital and contribute greatly to Conversica’s success in 2022. I need a powerhouse marketeer to guide Conversica to market growth and dominance in a time of explosive competition. I couldn’t be more excited to begin the year adding David’s energy and expertise.”