- Announcements
- Newsletter
- Current page is 6.5: President's Blog
- Press Releases
President's Blog
Do You Know Karen Albritton?
Well I do. I know Karen through AMA, not just PAMA, but AMA. Karen is the President of CapStrat, one of the top agencies in Raleigh-Durham and with significant penetration in life sciences, education and financial services to name a few. Karen is just one of the Chapter Presidents throughout the country that I have come to know through my involvement with PAMA and AMA.
Whereas my local network continues to grow, I can honestly say that were it not for AMA, I wouldn’t know Karen or for that matter, Shane Johnston (Raleigh-Durham), Pat Frew (Cincinnati), Karen Stone (Nashville), Amy Favreau (Richmond), Andre Paquin (Northern NJ) or numerous other leaders and top marketing professionals throughout the country. Why is this important to me? Because in an ever-shrinking global environment, I’m constantly reminded of the need to build a network with top professionals and not just top local professionals (which is crucial) but TOP professionals, regardless of the city each calls home.
Karen is the quintessential example of this; healthcare and life sciences live in the greater Philadelphia Region, but Karen has penetrated this market and serves a variety of companies with ties in the region. How do I know this? Karen and I met three years ago at an AMA National Leadership Summit and discussed our various challenges with running a chapter as well as within our professional careers. Karen lives and works in Raleigh, NC serves top brands like Siemens Medical, BASF, Quintiles and Deloitte and I now consider myself lucky to call Karen a friend and colleague. She’s a top notch professional and a resource that I know I can rely on for leadership advice in running the chapter as well as professionally.
Companies don’t necessarily pick local talent; they pick TOP talent and AMA affords me the opportunity to look beyond my immediate boundaries to form long-lasting relationships with that TOP talent . . . and since I’m name dropping, did I mention that I know Mary Beth Clay, Senior Director of Marketing at Siemens Healthcare? Integrating my extended network, I now feel that I can CONTRIBUTE by someday getting Karen and Mary Beth together.
… and to the others I refer to in this post . . . DITTO the above. :-)
If you’re looking to grow your network locally as well as nationally, build your skills and help other marketers to excel within our profession, ping me. I can share more stories of the people that I have come to know and respect through my involvement with PAMA and how it has helped my career.
All the best,
Craig Barton
President
Philadelphia Chapter
American Marketing Association