Ford Motor Company

Responsible for consolidating global marketing technology selection and management activities, overseeing marketing operations data capability intake, prioritization and compliance, and driving a long-term technology roadmap.

Marketing Technology and Governance Lead

Association of National Advertisers

Member, MarTech Leadership Council

Smartsheet

Led a large centralized marketing automation team providing global campaign operations, data orchestration, solution design, support and governance. Applied system architecture and technical expertise directly to projects. Mentored team members on effective practices and skill development.

Director, Marketing Automation

Poly

Plantronics + Polycom. Now together as Poly.

Leadership role expanded to manage MarTech stack of over 120 technologies and drive excellence in central webinar/virtual event operations.

Sr. Manager, Marketing Technology and Automation

Sr. Manager, Marketing Automation Operations

Manager, Marketing Automation Operations

Polycom

Promoted from individual contributor to marketing automation team manager at Polycom. After acquisition by Plantronics in July 2018, leadership role was expanded to lead the combined team and build the integrated function.

Sr. Manager, Marketing Automation

Technical and creative lead for marketing automation campaign and platform operations, mentorship of distributed producers, and development of innovations in capabilities and processes.

Senior Marketing Automation Manager

Marketing Automation Manager

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Functional lead for team of email and web editors and designers. Served as interim manager.

Senior E-mail and Web Designer/Marketing Automation Specialist, Customer Channels

Web and E-mail Designer, Enterprise e-Business

Sedlak Design Co.

Print, web, identity/brand and e-marketing design services

Independent Consultant

Universal Technologies, Inc.

Managed design and development team and external resources, delivering small and medium web projects, provided creative direction and technical guidance. Expanded services with business model and operational plan for email marketing services. Led major initiative to re-imagine flagship SaaS product, including new creative direction, technical architecture and business model.

Manager, Design and Development

McCue Design Consultants

Handled print graphic design for direct mail, advertisements, packaging and large format graphics. Led web design and development, adding database-driven technology to agency’s capabilities. Managed extensive packaging portfolio for leading refractories company through two re-brandings.

Web and Graphic Designer, Lead Developer

Thinking back, my career in marketing operations can be blamed mostly on my dad.

Before we owned a home computer, I’d accompany him when he had to go to the office on a Saturday. He wrote code for steel production systems, I played on a Mac nearby. He thought I’d enjoy the paint program since I had a lot of interest in art. I immediately used this new power to publish school news and sports in “The 6th Grade Post” newsletter for my classmates.

He spared no detail about how things worked, whether discussing a piece of machinery or a basic process of life. He always explained WHY something was. I was fascinated. He gave me old appliances and vacuums to take apart. I discovered how parts connected and worked together. The gears, belts and wheels told a story of design and engineering for a purpose.

Now with a family PC, we bonded over hardware and software. A good friend, a quintessential “computer nerd”, gave me my first glimpse into the online universe. I dialed in daily to local BBS’s and a university with real internet access, blocking the family phone line for hours.

I discovered Netscape when I got to college and I was hooked. There were no classes for web design, so I taught myself HTML the old-fashioned way—viewing web page source code and writing my own markup in Notepad. I learned the basics of JavaScript and one summer my dad taught me to program in C++. I learned how to be efficient in coding and to write for future flexibility and ease of maintenance.

Uninspired by the available courses of study, I elected to design my curriculum, borrowing classes from many disciplines. I turned web design into a career, which led to email marketing, which evolved into marketing automation and technology.

So here I am, still blending creativity and technical work. Here I am, still seeing all of the metaphorical gears behind a system. Here I am, still figuring out how to efficiently connect components to achieve a goal. Here I am, still trying to make work easier, scalable and maintainable. Here I am, taking what I’ve learned and sharing it with others through mentorship, community involvement and conference talks. Here I am, still learning.

Despite no artistic interest himself, my dad never dissuaded me from the arts. He knew computers and code and saw a chance to connect those dots. I realize now that he was very creative in how he approached coding and systems and I've found my own satisfaction in the concept.

He’s never said so, but I suspect he didn’t actually need all of those Saturdays at the office.

Having just joined the unofficial MOps-Apalooza “Three-Timers Club” and thoroughly enjoyed conducting a live workshop on ROI Storytelling (thank you to all who attended and participated!), I’m hereby initiating the #BringingMopzaBack campaign!

I have nothing unique to add to the praise already being heaped on the quality sessions and workshops. They were wonderful and I appreciate the effort every presenter put into their content.

Instead, I’ve been reflecting on the “un-program”—the organically generated experience that complements the prepared education. Some standout moments for me were:

A 2 a.m. debate about the true nature of an MQL (with Jack Segal  and Blaine Tetterton)

An airport chat about the importance of elevating your team and those around you (with AJ Navarro)

Supporting the knowledge-sharing loop and so much more on a balcony with a view (with Mike Rizzo)

Musing about taco-consumption strategy (with Lauren Aquilino 💕  and Courtney McAra 🤠)

Learning about HubSpot reporting and database management in line at Disneyland (with Ian Shields)

Exploring the challenge of doing what you need for your own peace of mind—even if the circumstances themselves don’t get better as a result (with Dan Mott and Lizzy Hazard) 

A sidewalk lament of the untapped value of MOps people in MarTech product management and sales (with my perpetual travel buddy Jessica Kao) 

Acknowledging the amazing reality that we’re all each other’s heroes—or heroes-to-be (in the conference hallway with Heenal Unadkat and at dinner with Rachel Squire) 

Mutual support for the unseen emotional impact of unemployment (with JJ Eggers) 

Expressing love for the beauty of British Columbia (with Naomi Liu) 

Delving into who we are away from work (with Robbie Wiggins and Stephanie Naddaf, MBA)

Appreciating the labor of love that is the Marketing Ops Community  and Mopza (with Audrey Harze ✨ and Amanda Rizzo) 

As if that weren’t a full week, I’m grateful as well for the many, many people who asked about and supported my recent career update—not treating me as a curiosity but out of genuine interest.

The award for most unexpectedly awesome moment is a tie between the ball pit on the lawn and Ian and Jess’s  impromptu swing dancing in the middle of “town” in California Adventure. The second-place team finish in the trivia contest was fun, too.

And it filled my soul to connect with new and old friends like…
Zoe Forman
Sydney Mulligan ☕️  
John Muehling
Karina Vidal
Kristen Hughes
Adam Enright 🏎️🏁
Jeff Coveney 
Chloe Pott  
Chris Willis, MBA  
Manda Seljeseth  
Todd Sprinkel  
Joey Okumura  
Alysha 🌟 Khan  
Keith Nyberg  
James Leedom  
Tom Grubb  
Ryan Vong  
Andrew Dimmick  
Sergiy Bondarenko  
Cam Conrad  
Sam Liss  
Bryan D’Andrea
Amber Sellens

#Mopsapalooza #mops #marketingops #mopza25

AJ Sedlak

Join me as we discuss how to connect martech investments to real ROI through data, narrative, and hands-on exercises. 
You will learn how to-

💬 Translate tech into business value
💡 Tie features to cost and opportunity
🔍 Show ROI beyond license fees
🧾 Break down complex investments
📊 Build leadership-facing stories
🎯 Practice in real-world roleplay

If you’re ready to move from “cost center” to “growth engine,” this one’s for you.
🎟️ Lock in your Camp-MOpza seat now: https://lnkd.in/eRfwwwqu

Already got General Access pass? Apply for a sponsored upgrade: https://lnkd.in/ejBYXQEQ

#MarketingOps #CampMOpza #TechStackROI #MarTechLeadership
#MOps-Apalooza2025

#MOpza25 is here and it’s almost Halloween! Camp Mopza ticket holders, make sure you go into the event app now to reserve your seats for workshops on Monday, October 27. The interest survey from several weeks ago isn’t a reservation and a lot of people still haven’t made their choices.

I’m running a workshop in the late session based on the main type of questions I get when I talk about tech stack management: How do I get my leaders to see the value of a tech proposal?

Well, campers, get your s’mores and let’s gather around the dumpster fire for some storytelling…

It’s time for tales of haunted, abandoned tech, set adrift in your operations with no one at the helm… vampiric vendors bleeding your budgets dry… and beloved tech proposals sent to the C-suite never to be heard from again!

It’s time for “Engaging Leadership with a Return on Technology Investment Story!”

Attendees get access to a digital copy of the workbook and a special token from the interactive, role-playing experience. See you tomorrow!

#mopsapalooza #marketingops

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