Greater Chicago Area
Strategic business communications professional: I see disruption as opportunity—a time to clarify brand positioning and articulate a new point of view. Have represented iconic brands during periods of transformative change: Accenture, National Science Foundation, Publicis Groupe agencies Leo Burnett and Razorfish, UL, and University of Notre Dame. 💡Positive change agent who aligns internal stakeholders via a bespoke “strategic discovery” process, resulting in an integrated marketing-communications approach that mirrors business strategy and supports short- and long-term goals. Pattern recognition for the AI era: relentlessly curious, culturally and contextually aware, and discerning. 🇪🇺🇮🇪🇫🇷🇺🇸Proven track record of leading global integrated marketing communications teams and campaigns during disruption, crises, growth, and transformative change. French fluency. US-Irish citizen. US-EU passports. Former journalist working on both sides of the thought leadership coin: multimedia branded content and media relations. Have generated positive media coverage in top-tier outlets including Chicago Tribune, FT, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. Considered an "incredibly thoughtful writer" and "tenacious" storyteller who works hard to "tell the story that needed to be told" (Accenture). 💯“Sally has a sharp instinct for translating technical research into compelling, cohesive stories and is both persuasive and highly effective in getting things done. She is a trusted collaborator who elevates the work around her, and any organization looking for a communications leader who can build coherence, momentum, and impact across complex systems would be lucky to have her.” -- Deepa Shankar, director of partnerships, UL Research Institutes, the research division of the $3B safety science company Underwriters Laboratories (NYSE: UL)
I am thrilled to announce that I am joining Guided Path Marketing as a strategic client advisor. Guided Path was founded by Madhu Bhawnani-Dutta, one of the most inspiring, pioneering and kind marketers in the business. Our consultancy is powered by Blam Digital | Marketing Franchise based in Birmingham, England (for Peaky Blinders fans, where Tommy Shelby ruled the roost). With team members in South Africa and Brazil, we offer a full suite of integrated marketing services for companies with up to $10M in annual revenue: brand or product launch (or refresh); paid advertising; website update and management with AI agents for 24/7 customer service; PR and media relations; multimedia content strategy, production and social media; and SEO, AEO, and GEO. We serve B2B and B2C companies ranging from physical retail stories and health&wellness companies to tourist destinations and early-stage tech firms. We offer Fortune 500 experience at small-business prices. Please get in touch if you'd like to know more!
• Created and led the marketing communications function for EARTH, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center.* • Refined and refocused EARTH’s brand voice, replacing technical website language with accessible, science-backed, and business-focused content; positioned EARTH as the only federally funded, national resource for the HVACR industry establishing a clear value proposition for industry partners. • Developed media relations strategy for University of Notre Dame and University of Maryland to showcase EARTH’s research as pivotal to energy efficiency in the context of one of society’s most pressing business issues: data centers. • Bridged academia and industry through contextually relevant, meaningful and timely brand narratives spanning new website landing pages, fact sheets, video, feature articles, social media, email, webinars, and inaugural industry forum. • Championed innovative research as lead storyteller, i.e., a Lehigh University chemical patent and Notre Dame’s use of AI to discover new molecules; transformed peer-reviewed articles and presentations into videos and stories that accelerated technology transfer and heightened interest from the business community. • Results: 100 professionals from 25 companies attended industry forum; ~100% corporate membership renewal + seven new prospective members; 2 speaking engagements tying EARTH to the data center zeitgeist; 418% increase in LinkedIn visitors, endorsement from Chemours (NYSE:CC). *EARTH - funded via a $26M from the National Science Foundation and corporate investment - is led by University of Kansas and involves researchers from University of Notre Dame, Lehigh University, University of Maryland, University of South Dakota and University of Hawai'i. My role prioritized the business audience. Due to grant-funding issues and a hiring freeze at one of the schools, my role was eliminated.*
• Envisioned the organization’s first integrated marketing campaign across paid, earned, social and owned channels to launch the $7M global Discoveries in Safety Grants program, as part of brand-awareness strategies and executive thought leadership for UL as it prepared for its initial public offering (IPO). • Leveraged change management, stakeholder management and leadership skills to not only catalyze the creation of ULRI’s email marketing system, but also foster new ways of working across ULRI and five individual institutes to ensure consistent narratives. • Established communications KPIs and reporting dashboards to measure content engagement. Aligned brand content and messaging across six websites and social platforms, driving 22K+ opened emails, media coverage for Chief Research Officer, 500 attendees to webinar featuring CRO and institute directors, and nearly 3K website visits. Generated 155 global applications for 10 spots. Work was recognized internally for "setting the standard" and "exceeding expectations, especially globally."
• Founded, branded, and grew a consultancy specializing in communications strategy, branded content, media relations, live events, and sales-enablement materials for enterprise, academic and celebrity/luxury clients. Recruited three times by Accenture for high-profile engagements during this time (see below) and also recruited to share expertise as a content creator and professor. • Media placements for celebrity clients: secured NBC.com exclusive for Olympian Greg Louganis; obtained MediaPost exclusive for MUMM Champagne and entertainment company owned by Grammy winner DJ David Guetta, with music video featuring British actor James Purefoy. • Post-crisis sales enablement for luxury vertical: Wrote marketing and sales brochure for Ritz-Carlton at Dorado Beach, featuring the humanitarian works of celebrity chef José Andrés, to promote the resort’s post-Hurricane Maria reopening. • Financial vertical: Led media strategy for UCLA research on Wall Street conflicts of interest, earning coverage in Bloomberg, Business Insider, Financial Times, investing.com, L’Echo, and more. Produced post-pandemic employment trends report for BOKFinancial [NASDAQ: BOKF], used by sellers to guide clients as economy rebounded; conducted on-camera interviews for Seeking Alpha with CEOs on IPO day: ZipRecruiter [NYSE:ZIP], Haverty’s furniture [NYSE:HVT]; SimilarWeb [NYSE:SMWB]. • Content creator: Ragan Communications/PR Daily; WPEngine-owned Velocitize, South Florida’s Lifestyle and Business & Wealth titles, and video-centric e-commerce company TVPage. Published Creativity Is Contagious blog and two multimedia e-zines. • Adjunct Professor, Florida International University: Writing Fundamentals and Global Media and Society.
Recruited 3 times over a 7-year period for high-priority business areas: 2016 (Fjord, now part of Accenture Song), 2021-22 (Supply Chain & Operations) and 2023 (Accenture Consulting/position paper on AI and productivity) • Owned internal communications strategy for a 40,000-person global organization, aligning employees with business priorities during a period of rapid transformation. News-breaking approach included articles featuring prominent clients such as Arcelor Mittal, videos from UNCOP, etc. Collaborated with business and media relations teams to plan internal and external announcements around key acquisitions in US and Europe. Generated ideas and edited external blog posts that shared global perspectives to drive new business internationally. Identified milestones for CEO Julie Sweet’s quarterly investor calls. • Results: Generated nearly 10K views for a leadership video via Viva Engage; increased town hall attendance by 40%; 95% of townhall attendees said they developed essential knowledge to pursue multimillion-dollar deals, a major corporate priority. ✔ Managed external writing firms in the US and the UK to transform jargon-laden drafts into compelling stories.