A blue-ribbon panel of experienced marketers volunteered their precious time and expertise to review each nominee’s impressive body of work. Here are the judges that provided their thoughts this year. Click on the judges’ images to learn more about them (in alphabetical order).
Patrick Freeland-Small
Chief Marketing Officer, The University of Melbourne
Pat is a senior marketing and communications specialist with extensive Australian and international experience. His background includes leadership in all areas of strategic marketing and brand building plus professional endorsement as Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute. Just prior to taking up the role of Chief Marketing Officer at the University of Melbourne, Pat had been Business Development Director for the Foster’s Group, and prior to that had spent 10 years as the head of the global market development of one of Australia’s best-known international brand icons – FOSTER’S.
As the University’s Chief Marketing Officer, Pat is responsible for defining and positioning the University’s brand, for optimising communications with key stakeholder audiences and for overseeing the University’s marketing & communications programs. Pat was responsible for the development of the Dreamlarge advertising program which underpinned the launch of the Melbourne Model and the many recent advances in Melbourne University’s marketing, digital media, news distribution and public profile.
Pat has extensive experience in strategic marketing, brand building and business development across a broad range of consumer markets and cultures, retail, and business to business environments. He especially brings a worldly perspective drawn from his experience developing a category leader in over 155 countries worldwide and from working with some of the world’s largest sponsorship properties, most experienced advertising agencies and Marketers from around the globe.
Chas Grundy
ND Family and Digital Strategist, University of Notre Dame
Chas Grundy is a marketing professional at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He works for the Department of Development on engagement and fundraising programs, and previously served as the Director of Interactive Marketing for AgencyND. Chas serves on the board of directors for CASE Indiana and volunteers or consults for a variety of non-profits, providing assistance with strategic planning, marketing and fundraising. He blogs about higher ed web marketing at grundyhome.com and about non-profit challenges at nonprofitchas.com.
Jan Erik Kaarø
Assistant Information Director, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Jan Erik has worked for more than 30 years as a communications professional. He began his career as a newspaper journalist, and then moved to the then-Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1990-1995, with his last year there as Information Director. Since 1996 he has been employed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. The university has 20,000 students and is Norway’s primary institution for education scientists and engineers.
Jan Erik’s main areas of responsibility are the university’s official web pages and it’s social media presence, along with various PR activities, corporate branding, and business and community relations.
The NTNU Information Division has won numerous national prizes for its campaigns, its research communication magazine Gemini (www.ntnu.no/gemini) and its internal newspaper. The division has also been nominated three times for the European Excellence Award. One of Jan Erik’s current “babies” is the Campus Guide (www.ntnu.edu/new/campus-guide). When the guide was launched in August 2011, NTNU became the world’s first university with an indoor navigation app.
John Lichtenberg
VP, Chief Marketing & Enrollment Officer, Walsh College
John Lichtenberg has been in marketing since graduating from University of Michigan in 1986.
He has worked in high-level corporate marketing roles with prominent organizations including Century 21 Corporation, Kelly Services, Inc. and Campbell Mithun. He was Vice President of Global Marketing for Kelly Services World HQ for 13 years, Inc. where he was responsible for marketing across 37 countries outside of the U.S.
For the last three and a half years, he has worked as the Vice President, Chief Marketing and Enrollment Officer for Walsh College. Since he started working there, he has started a new brand marketing initiative that helped Walsh attain its highest enrollment, reduced the marketing budget by 33 percent, and won numerous awards.These accomplishments led him to be named as the 2010 International Brand Master, an annual honor awarded to a top professional in educational marketing.
Marian Theobald
Director of Marketing and Communications, The University of Sydney
After a career in print and television journalism, Marian Theobald moved into the higher education sector in 1990 when she became media officer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She moved to the University of Sydney, one of Australia’s leading research universities, in 1995, and has held numerous management roles in PR, communications and community engagement. Marian is currently Director of Marketing and Communications, and in that role led a major brand project, the first in the University’s history, which has resulted in a major shift not only in the consistency of the University’s messaging and imaging, but in the University’s understanding of the importance of protecting and developing its brand.
Michael Stoner
Co-Founder and President, mStoner
During his 30-year career as a communicator and consultant, Michael has served more than 200 education institutions (independent schools, colleges, universities, education associations), nonprofits, and businesses on four continents. He’s provided strategic consulting on developing institution-wide web strategies, led countless website development projects, and has earned an international reputation as a recognized authority on integrating marketing, communications, and technology.
Michael published his first email newsletter in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, he’s concentrated on the ways in which the Internet and the web have changed the way people communicate … and on how institutions can respond to those needs. He led his first Web project in 1995.
Michael has spoken at hundreds of professional conferences (CASE, NACAC, UCDA, and the College Board, for instance) and leads seminars on developing and using new media in institutional marketing and communications. He’s authored chapters for CASE and Open University Press books, and his articles have appeared in CASE Currents, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the College Board’s On Target and The College Board Review, and NACAC’s Journal of College Admission.
Michael’s experience as a communicator includes media relations, PR, marketing, and publications. Until October 2001, he led the new media practice at a Chicago based marketing firm. He also served as vice president of Halstead Public Relations in New York, director of communications at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, director of the office of publications services at the College Board, and associate director of university publications at Lehigh University.
Travis Brock
Director of Business Development, Educational Marketing Group, Inc.
Travis has more than nine years of marketing, social media, communications, and research experience in the higher education arena. Travis directs the EMG Academy and International Brand Master Award committee. He currently writes for and edits EMG’s Brand Manager’s Notebook (blog), Brand Bounce eNewsletter as well as updates and maintains EMG’s social media presence. As EMG’s research assistant and then as manager of research, he developed and implemented marketing research and brand analyses for more than 20 colleges and universities throughout North America. Methodologies have included secondary research, online qualitative studies, web analyses, quantitative surveys, and focus groups. He graduated with honors from the University of New Mexico with a BBA in Marketing and an MBA in Policy and Planning, and has received numerous honors for his academic achievements. Travis has also worked in a leadership capacity in customer service, creative development, and research in a variety of sectors including merchandising, food service, and education.
