Role: Chief Marketing Officer
Company: SLA Mobile
Track Record: ‘My parents pushed me to work hard to achieve my goals and earn the things I wanted. This helped me gain a very strong work ethic,’ says Jennifer.
What do you do?
I am CMO at SLA Mobile, a technology market leader for the global mobile industry with headquarters in Belfast and Kuala Lumpur. SLA Mobile collaborates with global brands and mobile operators to unlock network assets and to help them harness the opportunities this presents.
We deliver scalable, profitable and market-led mobile software solutions that boost existing revenue streams, deliver new customers in existing and emerging markets – and grow market share.
What does your job entail?
My daily responsibilities include elements of strategic planning, global branding and marketing, internal communications, building and maintaining partnerships and new business development, and disruptive thinking. I also contribute to shaping product development.
Is it 9-5?
Yes 9-5 and more! I tend to work at all hours of the day, and when I am not in the office my brain is still pondering work topics. I try to maintain a healthy balance though, and prefer to keep weekends free for quality time with my family and recharging my batteries.
Did you always want to make your career in marketing?
No, my career aspiration was always to be a foreign correspondent. I began working in a television station, but transitioned into a marketing role in a family-owned direct mail business in America.
The company executed direct mail and special event fundraising for the American Indian and farming communities of the Midwest and Dakotas.
Our capital campaigns raised millions of dollars and helped to create jobs and fund a hospital, college, radio station, and environmental causes on American Indian reservations (like Pine Ridge and Rosebud in South Dakota, where the movie Dances with Wolves was filmed.)
Outline your career to date?
I’ve worked for some top global agencies like Viacom, WPP, Havas, and Omnicom, and my career has evolved along with advancements and evolution in the field of integrated digital marketing.
I began with special event promotions and 1:1 direct marketing and later crossed over to working with relationship marketing for frequent flyer programmes and branding, partnership marketing and loyalty marketing to what is now known as integrated digital marketing.
I am pretty nimble when it comes to the industry and sector and have worked in areas including telecoms companies BT & MCI, IT with IBM, and airlines like Delta and American.
Tell us about your qualifications/training?
I took on most of my university studies in Minnesota, where I earned my Bachelor of Arts in Russian eastern European studies and German language, and later studied for my Master’s Degree in international management.
I’ve always been the type to look for opportunities for myself in terms of travel and education. My first taste of foreign travel was when I was chosen to be a young diplomat to the former USSR at the age of 14.
I represented the United States as one of 10 Americans sponsored by the Soviet-American Friendship Society and sent to an elite Komsomol Camp on the Crimea of the Black Sea.
I was an American Field Service exchange student to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslavia, and returned as a student researcher for the University of Minnesota and a programme called Amity Among Nations.
I also studied at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. My academic studies, experiences in international travel and work experience enhanced my thinking and advanced my career.
Are there any projects you have been involved in which you are particularly proud of?
I’m a recent addition to the SLA Mobile team, but I am already proud of the work that the company does. We recently represented Northern Ireland’s thriving mobile technology sector on a global stage at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which was very exciting.
What qualities are required for your job—personal and professional?
Good listening and observation skills are crucial for such a detail-oriented job. The ability to be enthusiastic and patient also help to make the job easier. I think my job requires both creativity and business savvy, so it is important to be able to switch between left brain and right brain thinking.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love spending time outdoors with my husband and children Nicholas and Bianca. I really enjoy bike rides along the seashore and road trips around the Antrim Coast.
Tell us an interesting fact about yourself
I like to think I was an entrepreneur from a young age. As a student I raised money to travel by asking for donations from community businesses and having fund-raising parties where I sold raffle tickets for prizes and beer. Sometimes I even held the parties in public parks!
Who has inspired you most in your life?
My parents pushed me to work hard to achieve my goals and earn the things I wanted. This helped me gain a very strong work ethic which has followed me throughout my life and into my career.