2024 Women of Excellence, Mentorship
Susan Bagley
Head of Client Services, Lowe’s One Roof Media Network
Lowe’s
Susan Bagley’s recent promotion to head of client services for Lowe’s One Roof Media Network is the latest leadership milestone in the 18 years she has been innovating and driving impact across retail and media for her teams and clients. It is also a reflection of her longstanding history of mentoring and championing women in the sector.
In fewer than two years, Bagley’s authentic ability to create a culture of mentorship and development for women within Lowe’s media and marketing organization has been a testament to her character and integrity. Her passion has played an integral role in the acceleration of recruiting a best-in-class, experienced sales and account management team. Top women talent in the marketplace are choosing to join Lowe’s due to the recruitment and onboarding culture she has created.
Her efforts are not just being recognized through recruitment and retention but also within the broader organization. This past year at Lowe’s Women’s Leadership Summit, Bagley was highlighted by the Lowe’s marketing leadership team for her leadership in mentoring within the organization. Her direct team and partner teams nominated her for her efforts and impact on their careers.
Bagley also participates in multiple women leadership events in the industry while engaging with influential platform and agency leaders in the marketplace, showing her dedication to networking and development through continued education. Outside of work, she is passionate about mentoring the next generation of women leaders via Sharing & Caring Kids, Teen Action and Support Center (TASC) and as a Women in Revenue education mentor.
Jayme Jansky Beck
Head of Shopper Marketing
Unilever
Jayme Jansky Beck has spent the past 13 years of her career at Unilever. As the director of U.S. shopper marketing efforts for the past three years, she has successfully led her teams through the ever-evolving shopper marketing landscape, promoting a strong culture of execution, excellence and experimentation that has been repeatedly recognized both internally and externally.
Beck’s door is always open. Despite challenging demands on her time, she makes herself available to discuss ideas, share her perspective or offer suggestions. She allows her team members to bring their whole selves to work, and to champion the projects they are passionate about.
Within the organization, she has fully leveraged the convergence of marketing and sales to position shopper marketing as a lynchpin to drive competitive advantage with retailers. She organizes both formal and informal forums, bringing in industry experts to continuously upskill the shopper marketing organization. She wants her team to have a strong understanding of marketing, retail media and sales KPIs, but also to become retailer partner experts and focus on connecting cross-functional objectives to drive the maximum business impact for both Unilever and its retail partners.
When Beck brings people into her team from other functions, she takes the time to train and mentor them, ensuring that an experience in field shopper marketing is a valued skillset. She is a leader who is recognized for her own expertise, but also for her ability to develop talent, and her group has one of the highest employee engagement rates in the company with equally high retention rates.
Brittany Billings
Chief Marketing Officer
Trax Retail
Brittany Billings has led her team through several acquisitions in which she drove the integration of multiple teams and cultures to build a new team with the highest measured employee engagement in the company.
She joined Trax Retail in April 2023 and has been praised for her relationship management skills, highly evolved strategic and critical thinking acuity, financial acumen and, most of all, people management and mentorship passion. She is seen as inherently generous, of both her time and experience, and takes pride in seeing her colleagues excel.
Billings spearheaded Trax’s female-focused Women’s Employee Resource Group. She championed this initiative as a Trax-sponsored organization and created co-working groups and leadership trainings as well as mentoring opportunities. With more than 70 female employees across the globe, the group has hosted events such as the Fearless Female Speaker Series, where female clients and partners have come to speak and further the empowerment of the team, and led small group conversations, book clubs and more.
She also created a Female Mentorship Program, a global initiative where senior female leaders are paired with high-performing junior female leaders for an eight-week mentorship program. These women received untethered access to female leadership as well as a cultural education when women from different countries, roles and backgrounds came together through this program.
Most recently the technology solutions company’s executive vice president of global marketing, Billings was promoted to chief marketing officer in August.
Beth DeBona
Vice President, Strategy Director
Arc Worldwide
Beth DeBona has been on the team at Arc Worldwide for nearly eight years, first as a senior strategist working on the Procter & Gamble and Diageo accounts, and then as strategy director working with Unilever, Diageo, Kraft Heinz and Coca-Cola. In her current post since May 2023, she is seasoned in strategy for big brands, but is also a mentor, leader, coach and advocate for many on her team and others around her.
DeBona is invested in individuals’ career growth. She takes the time to understand their working styles, ambitions and challenges, and then tailors her leadership to everyone. She also sets the tone and leads by example, navigating tough situations with poise and diplomacy. She instills confidence and pushes her team to step out of their comfort zone.
Not only has DeBona been a key mentor for young strategists at Arc advocating for their career growth, but she is also the architect of Arc’s strategy intern program with Northwestern University. In that role she challenges and shepherds the next generation of marketers as they prepare and deliver their first real client-facing commerce marketing strategies. She led the program for three years and then mentored her successors who stepped into the role. Still in contact with many of the students, she is frequently asked to sit on the panel of marketing leaders curated by Northwestern to provide insight and inspire interns as they start their journey.
Jennifer Hutchings
CEO & Founder
Volt
Jennifer Hutchings is the CEO and founder of marketing, research and consulting agency Volt. A former colleague during her tenure as the Target shopper marketing director for Procter & Gamble can attest to her “exceptional leadership, strategic prowess, and remarkable customer- and consumer-centricity.” She is a combat veteran, a barrier buster and an advocate for mentoring women.
While at P&G from 2010-19, she was recommended for “Coach of the Year” five separate times, and won the award globally in 2017. In 2019, she recognized an opportunity to turn coaching into a career, and left P&G to pursue her dream of becoming an entrepreneur, ultimately founding Volt in December 2022.
Volt is focused on accelerating talent in Corporate 100 companies, and specifically focuses on building general management skills with marketers. Hutchings leads a General Management Academy, where she trains to overcome skill gaps such as business analytics, retailer joint business planning, and business writing fundamentals and internal influence. Post training, she stays on with the trainees and prepares them for key stakeholder meetings and major business decisions.
Hutchings has amassed more than 78 junior executives (70 of them women) that she coaches to help prepare them for general manager leadership roles. Her clients are companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, P&G and Johnson & Johnson.
Donnalyn Smith
Global CEO
Momentum Worldwide
As the first female Global CEO at Momentum Worldwide, Donnalyn Smith has actively encouraged women’s leadership, from speaking on numerous Female Quotient panels to more recently being the Executive Sponsor for its Women’s Employee Resource Group. In celebration of International Women’s Day this year, she participated in a panel alongside influential women from key brands including the NBA, Verizon, Purina and the NFL.
Smith has been a mentor to numerous women within the agency as part of the Global Mentorship Program, aimed at providing opportunities for Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) talent. It has more than 100 participants, 25% of whom identify as BIPOC.
She is also the key driver for Momentum’s purpose-driven strategy, “Make It Matter,” which comprises three core verticals: DEIBA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, Belonging and Accessibility), Sustainability and Wellness. Under her leadership, Momentum hosted the first Make It Matter Day last year across the global offices, aiming to unite the network’s more than 1,000 employees to share knowledge and explore the interconnectedness of DEIBA, Sustainability and Wellness.
Smith demonstrates strong teamwork within the Global Executive Committee, with the leadership team playing a vital role within the agency, regularly contributing to Global Town Hall meetings and keeping the global markets closely connected. As an inspirational thought leader, she is a champion for advocacy. Momentum has been recognized as Adweek’s Experiential Agency of the Year, Digiday’s Employer of the Year and more recently named Campaign US Experiential Agency of the Year.
