Marketing Careers Round Table Event
Participating Business Professionals
**Chris Bruchoff, Executive Team Leader - Logistics, Target
Chris has worked for Target for a total of 8 years and first started with the company while in high school working on the sales floor for 3 years. Chris attended the University of Arizona and majored in Public Management and Health & Human Service Administration; while at the UofA Chris worked in Human Resources at the UofA Bookstores for 3 years. In 2005, Chris rejoined Target as an Executive Team Leader of Assets Protection and played a critical role in maximizing profitability through the reduction of theft and operational shortage. In 2008, Chris moved to the position of Executive Team Leader of Logistics. Chris' role as a Logistics Executive is to ensure that the sales floor is full with products and to maintain a clean and accurate stockroom. Chris feels that working for Target has been a great experience, with opportunities to grow as a leader.
- Areas of Expertise: Retail Management, Guest Relations, Development and Training
**Stephanie Butkus, Business Planning Associate, General Mills
Stephanie graduated from the University of Arizona in December 2007 with a degree in Engineering Management (with a focus around Food Processing). She completed a summer Engineering internship at a manufacturing plant for her Senior Capstone project, and realized that this was not the career path she wanted to take. Open minded about sales, she felt like it would be a better fit for her. Today, she works at General Mills as a Business Planning Associate. Every day she applies not only the management and marketing concepts that she learned in her Business classes, but also the analytical and critical thinking skills that were vital to success as an Engineering student.
- Areas of expertise: Sales and Planning
Susan Cantrell, Vice President of Advertising, Tucson Newspapers
Susan Cantrell is the Vice President of Advertising for Tucson Newspapers. Throughout her career in the newspaper industry, she has worked in the sales, marketing, special events, magazine, circulation, online and suburban newspaper areas of the business. The diverse nature of the business and the constant challenges has kept her captivated for years. Susan is a graduate of the University of Kansas and majored in Journalism and Advertising.
- Areas of expertise: Sales and Marketing
**Mitchel Forney, College Unit Director, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
Mitchel Forney is the College Unit Director for NMFN Tucson. A Marketing major graduate from Eller, he interned for NMFN his senior year and placed in the top 3% of the company as an intern. Mitchel has strong skills in both print and video design, and produces many videos for Eller, including the Cohort Orientation video. If you are interested in having business skills with some design skills on the side, Mitchel would be good to talk to.
- Areas of expertise: Sales
**Colleen Gendron, Recruiting Director, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
Colleen is the Director of Recruiting for the Southern Arizona Financial Group for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. She is a U of A graduate with experience in business, sales and management.
- Areas of expertise: Sales, Marketing, Finance
Jim Grow, Store Manager, Wal-Mart
Jim has worked in the retail business in Tucson for over 20 years. Jim worked for Walmart for 10 years and is currently a Store Manager. Jim has been in this position with Walmart for 5 years, and has been a manager for 2 at other retail establishments in Tucson.
- Areas of expertise: Retail, Sales, Management
Amalia Hernandez, College Relations Regional Manager, Macy's
Amalia holds an MBA from Notre Dame de Namur University and is currently Macy's Regional Manager for College Relations. She has been with Macy's for the past three years. Previously, she held the position of Diversity/Business Development Manager for Macy's West. From 2002 to 2006 she was appointed Consul General of Honduras in San Francisco, CA. She enjoys working with people from multicultural backgrounds and has management experience related to diversity inclusion in HR practices, as well as multicultural marketing, business development, and community relations experience. She developed and executed several multicultural marketing campaigns and customer service initiatives.
- Areas of expertise: Retail, Multicultural Marketing, Business Management, Diversity Development (HR)
**Tim Lake, Account Manager, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Tim graduated from the Eller College in 2007 and went into sales as an Account Manager for Cisco working with healthcare and global financial customers. Prior to graduation he operated and subsequently sold a small business providing web-based lending and marketing services to financial institutions in the Southwest. He also served as President of the UA American Marketing Association for two years. Recently Tim moved back to Arizona as an Account Manager in Cisco’s higher education and government verticals.
- Areas of expertise: "Leveraging Inexperience” and “Making a Splash” as a new grad
Megan Mayes, Human Resources Supervisor, Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Megan graduated from University of New Mexico with a degree in Psychology, in 2001. After graduating, she moved to North Carolina where she started with Enterprise. She began her career with Enterprise as a Management Trainee 5 years ago in Wilmington, NC. She worked her way up and in to Human Resources, and was promoted to the Recruiting Supervisor position for the Tucson group in Oct 2006. As the Recruiting Supervisor, she worked extensively with U of A students to help them prepare for the job market through mock interviews, info sessions, and active recruiting on campus. She currently holds the title of Human Resources Supervisor, and now focuses more on the legal and day to day operations of the business. She has a 5 month old son named Ethan, and her husband, Doug Mayes, is the community relations manager for Jobing.com.
- Areas of Expertise: Sales, Customer Service, Human Resources, Marketing
**Michelle Mixer, Group Training Supervisor and Professional in Human Resources (PHR), Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Michelle graduated from The University of Arizona's Eller College of Management with a degree in Marketing. Since college she has worked for two very large companies. She worked in inside and outside sales for DeWalt Power Tools for two years. She left DeWalt to work at Enterprise and has been their approximately seven years. She started as management trainee and worked her way up; she believes her success with Enterprise is due to the company’s integrity and strong business foundation. With both companies, the focus was primarily on sales and customer service. She also earned her national certification for Professional in Human Resources (PHR).
- Areas of expertise: Human resources, Training and Development, Sales, Customer service
Joe Morris, Store Manager, Wal-Mart
Joe is a graduate of Texas A&M with a degree in Commerce and a BBA in Marketing. He worked in the Insurance industry and as a Production Supervisor before entering retail. Joe has been employed in Retail Management for a total of 27 years, 19 of which have been with Wal-Mart stores.
- Areas of expertise: Sales, Management, Retail
Juan Olivares, Store Manager, J.C. Penney's
Juan started a career with J.C. Penney's in El Paso, Texas in 1994. He transferred twice to stores within the El Paso market as a sales manager. From El Paso he transferred to Mesa, Arizona to the Superstition Mall store. A year later he transferred to Glendale, Arizona to the Glendale Mall where he worked for three years as a sales manager for the Home Store. His next assignment was store manager of the J.C. Penney's in the Tucson Mall for approximately three years. His current assignment is store manager of the J.C. Penney's at El Con Shopping Center.
- Areas of expertise: Retail, Sales, Management
Joe Parlapiano, Senior Manager, Vanguard
Joe has been in financial services management for most of his career. He has held management roles with Vanguard, Prudential, John Hancock and T. Rowe Price. He left a successful 11 year career with T. Rowe Price and moved to Arizona in 2007 to become a manager with Vanguard based on their industry leading focus on meeting client’s financial needs. Vanguard is the largest mutual fund company in the United States. Vanguard leads the industry in net cash flows and has over $1.2 Trillion in assets. Joe is the senior manager for the Retail Operations department in Scottsdale, AZ. He graduated from Trenton State College with a degree in management and received an MBA degree from Tampa College. Joe is the college champion at Vanguard for the University of Arizona. In this role, he works with school faculty, advisors and student groups to help provide support and mentoring.
- Areas of expertise: Accounting, Sales, Marketing, General Management
Bruce Richardson, Director of Sales & Marketing, Marriott University Park Hotel
Bruce has a 20 year career in the hospitality industry which began in 1987 as a means to a ski pass in Summit County, CO. During this time he had the privilege of working in many world class destination resorts as well as corporate hotels in Colorado, Oregon and Arizona. He has experience in all areas of hotel operation, sales, and marketing. Although his field of study was computer information systems, he believes sales is the best field because it is a great place to provide a service, make people happy and be social all while getting paid!
- Areas of expertise: Hospitality Sales and Marketing
**Monique Rios, Campus Ambassador, General Mills
Monique is a junior at the Eller College of Management pursuing a bachelor's degree in marketing with minors in Spanish and Global Business. She is also the General Mills Campus Ambassador as well as executive board member of Eller College Student Council and Chain Gang Junior Honorary. She is actively involved in Eller's HERO program and the Honors College Ambassadors. She works in the Eller Undergraduate Office's Professional Development Center as a student coordinator.
- Areas of expertise: Recruitment and Sales
Mark Rosato, Program Manager, IT Acquisitions, Cisco Systems, Inc.
With years of experience in high-tech, dynamically changing environments where leadership qualities and sales skills were paramount to the success of assigned and developed responsibilities, Mark has recorded accomplishments in sales, supply chain, P&L/general management, strategic planning, and operations with Fortune 500 companies of Cisco Systems, and Compuware, along with U.S. Government tenure with NASA. Through the years Mark has developed and delivered innovative programs to drive change within global communities, utilizing process re-engineering, technology implementation, and effectively prioritizing initiatives with executive sponsorship.
- Areas of expertise: Sales and Sales Operations, Technology Industry
**Ashley Talley, Sales Development Associate, Altria Sales & Distribution
Ashley graduated from the University of Arizona in December 2007 from the Retailing and Consumer Sciences major. She began working for Altria, formerly known as Philip Morris USA, as a Territory Sales Manager (TSM) in charge of selling and executing marketing and merchandising programs in 160 retail accounts. After some key learning and training as a TSM, she was promoted to the Sales Development Associate (SDA) where she is currently training as a manager in Phoenix, AZ.
- Areas of expertise: Sales, Marketing, Merchandising, Retail
Fanaye Taye, Store Team Leader, Target
Fanaye has worked for Target for the last eight years, and started as an executive working in Guest Service and Softlines. She completed her MBA from Webster's University in 2005, and was promoted to Store Team Leader in 2006. Her undergraduate degree is in Psychology from California State University Los Angeles. Working for Target is an exciting career that is everchanging, and focused on development of teams, and creating the best shopping experience for guests. As a Store Team Leader, she is on the frontlines representing Target's brand both to guests and team members. Her role as a Store Team Leader also allows her to play a larger role within her district spearheading company objective's and meeting goals in training, payroll, and company roll outs in certain areas.
- Areas of expertise: Retail Management, Guest Relations, Team Development & Training
Jessica Taylor, National Recruiting Manager, AT&T
Jessica Taylor is a results-oriented professional with proven success in solution selling, sales management, and recruiting. She takes great interest in the fast paced, innovative telecommunications industry and is passionate about her current role as the National Recruiting Manager for AT&T’s Business Sales Leadership Development Program. After graduating from Boston College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Jessica joined AT&T and participated in a six month sales development program that provided her with the skills, competencies and knowledge to start her career in Business to Business Sales.
Jessica was promoted into a sales management capacity where she supported a team of 11 representatives. She understands the criticality of hiring the right talent as well as developing, coaching, and supporting those individuals to success. She is driven, dedicated and determined to serve as a valuable resource to everyone she supports.
- Areas of expertise: B2B Sales and Sales Management
**Paul Tellier, Line Manager, Vanguard
Paul graduated from Eller College of Management in 2004, with a BS in Business Economics. Shortly after graduating, he joined Vanguard in Scottsdale, AZ taking inbound calls within the Retail Services group, where he obtained his Series 6 and 63 licenses. Paul was trained on Vanguard’s approach to long-term investing, and was able to apply what he learned to his financial discussions with clients and prospects. Paul then rotated to Vanguard’s Operations department, where he was responsible for reviewing transactions, and ensuring that accounts were compliant with SEC guidelines and regulations. His personal goal was to obtain a leadership position within the organization, and he was able to advance to a Team Leader role within our Concierge Services department. Paul’s responsibilities included coaching a group of 10 sales associates on ways to make it easy and compelling for prospects and high net worth clients to invest additional assets at Vanguard. After ten months as a Team Leader, Paul advanced to the Line Manager role with concierge Services, where he is responsible for the oversight of 60 sales associates.
- Areas of expertise: Retail, Sales, Leadership Strategies, Client Services, Problem Resolution
Dee Anne Thomas, Director of Sales, AdVision Outdoor
Dee Anne Thomas is a New Orleans Native and has a Journalism Degree in Advertising from Louisiana State University. She worked in New Orleans Radio Sales and Marketing for 10 years before coming to Tucson to oversee advertising sales for 3 Clear Channel radio stations for the last 15 years. In February, she joined ADVision Outdoor as director of sales overseeing the sales and ,arketing of Tucson's transit advertising on bus shelters and bus benches.
- Areas of expertise: Creating Sales and Marketing plans for Businesses and Advertisers utilizing Outdoor Transit Advertising
Vincent Trinidad, Director of Sports Development, “Tucson Sports” Metro Tucson Convention and Visitor’s Bureau
Vince is the Director of Sports Development for the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau. His previous positions include: Director of Events Management of the Baton Rouge Area Sports Foundation, Executive Director of Team Baton Rouge, the local organizing committee, for the 2005 American Bowling Congress Tournament, Director of Sports & Venues for the 2001 Summer National Senior Games, National Senior Games Association Team member for the 1999 National Senior Games, Logistics Coordinator for the 1998 NIKE World Masters Games in Portland, OR and Administrative & Operations Manager for the 1997 U.S. National Senior Games in Tucson, Arizona.
- Areas of expertise: Sports Marketing, Sport Tourism and Event Operations
**Indicates U of A graduate
For further information, please contact Liz Howard at 520.621.3519.
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