Biography

Marketing Domain Expert

Head of International Marketing
VP of Integrated Marketing
& Product Manager

If you want to optimize or integrate your marketing as part of a sustainable growth strategy, then we should talk!

Multichannel marketing, SEO/SEM, integrated marketing, including Account-Based Marketing, and omnichannel marketing are my thing! I am a marketing domain expert AND a product manager.

Looking for my CV?

It's here ;-)

(6-minute read)

Full Biography

Carla represents more than 20 years of professional experience in integrated and international marketing, 12 years managing multi-cultural and cross-functional teams, and 8 years doing Product Management.

She is trilingual (a native French/Spanish speaker) and has a proven successful marketing performance in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Sr. Director of Marketing & Communications at PPA (non-profit)

Carla served as the Sr. director of Marketing & Communications at PPA (standing for Professional Photographers of America) for more than 8 years. PPA is the world's largest non-profit photographic association and serves more than 30,000 members in 50 countries by helping photographers develop their artistic and business skills while growing and protecting a sustainable industry.

Carla has helped PPA grow its membership and subscriber base with recruitment and retention efforts by more than 7,000 in 6 years and more than doubled the organization's social media followers (>120,000 for PPA and >350,000 for its magazine). Carla planned and managed PPA's $3.3 million annual marketing communications budget and a team of 12. She instigated omnichannel and engagement marketing campaigns and launched 12 new product features, programs, events, and programmatic initiatives (always managing various campaigns simultaneously) resulting in +36% in revenue growth, email open rate doubled, and we earned a Telly Award for best Online Promotional/Branding Campaign.

She managed, built, and scaled the organization’s brand, including a company-wide rebranding, from logo design to new brand identity roll-out, staffing, training, and coaching on new brand voice/tone, including developing the positioning and brand story for the company’s 7 individual pillars. Results: Over $50,000 in cost-savings and improvements in internal processes/workflow + best-reported customer experience.

During her tenure at PPA, Carla also restructured and scaled the marketing & communications team, from 6 to 12 staffers, created an internship program, and instigated and volunteered in the company’s first Inclusion & Diversity Committee. The results: Positive impact on the company’s annual conference, speaker selection, staff, company-wide training with better social acceptance, more encompassing social impact, higher staff engagement, and lowest staff turnover in years.

At PPA, Carla spearheaded the launch of 12 online products and services (new websites, apps, online and in-person event registration system, online learning platform, online directory, online networking platform, user-engagement rating system) resulting in +30% in overall traffic growth, - 60% in web visitor complaints, and 1st reporting dashboard created. Drove the content marketing strategies for 4 brands through 17 social media outlets and consolidated our social presence, integrating UGC, messaging, and SEO. Results: +640% followers and + 300% in engagement; +25% in customer satisfaction; +150% membership rate over 8 years.

Principal at Melle Global MarCom (white-label marketing consulting firm)

In parallel with PPA, Carla also spearheaded (and continues to) a white-label consulting firm that backs up integrated marketing agencies, Melle Global MarCom LLC. Her main interests are in creative businesses and international ventures (better when both are married!) Other industries include professional services, software development, and real estate.

Through the consulting venture, Carla has developed global planning and execution of marketing plans with maximum impact, social media strategies, lead generation and outreach campaigns, advocacy programs, account-based marketing, and GDPR compliance. Design-wise, Carla also develops and produces logos, ads, brochures, manuals, microsites, and presentation kits, marketing toolkits, and social media strategy for branding and visual storytelling.

Global Outreach & Account Management Director (state-government)

Before PPA and Melle, Carla spent 6 years directing the international marketing team of 12 at the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), which is the sales and marketing arm agency of the State of Georgia leading initiatives to attract and grow investments, exports, tourism, and film and video productions. There, Carla coordinated the international marketing, business communications, global branding, and interactive needs of the state through its 10 international offices.

The international communication program Carla led was (and still is) called Global Georgia. It received the 2009 best-of-all-categories PRSA award (Public Relations Society of America), which recognized the significant economic development impact of the public relations outreach undertaken to promote the State of Georgia internationally. The same program won four consecutive annual national public relations awards!

At GDEcD, Carla also directed the content strategy and spearheaded the annual production of more than 80 collateral pieces, while organizing more than 100 trade shows, AND managing and optimizing the agency’s $4‐million dollar international marketing budget, proving her knack for multiple-project management and cross-functional team management. She also formed the in-house interactive media team and launched several initiatives such as an online communication platform; social media policy for 12 industry groups; video production; trans-creation of a website into 6 languages; automated events promotions; launched a new mobile website; created new iPhone and iPad apps; and started an on-line small business forum.

Lastly, while at GDEcD: Carla was the account director for the three agencies of record, advertising, public relations, and interactive, providing strategic insights and cross-project value-added propositions, branding/messaging guidelines, and overall internal communication workflow.

International Marketing Director (business development consulting)

Carla had arrived to GDEcD from Paragon Path, an Atlanta-based business development consulting firm, where she served as marketing director. There, she developed strategic and operational marketing B2B and B2C plans for a variety of industries, including financial services, printing, optical equipment, video game, lotteries, and telecommunications, in the Southeast United States and Latin America. In this capacity, Carla was also the director of a team of four that developed an English/Spanish training program for telecommunications sales professionals and marketed it in the USA and Latin America. Carla spent the last two years at Paragon Path as a full-time on-site consultant, acting as the marketing director for Cadillac Jack, a gaming and software development client.

Before starting work in the United States, Carla spent three years in Mexico City, initially working as a market analyst for Alcatel-Lucent, a large French multinational telecommunications company. She then moved to a business development consulting firm (Procorfi at the time, now TCG Finance), spending the first year as an exports and mission specialist and the second leading the international development efforts of the firm and promoting the company’s banking clients (mainly the PNC Bank) in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Carla holds two Masters degrees: one in international relations and another MBA in marketing. She has completed and continues to take continuing education training programs from Emory University, Essec Business School, the Ex-Im Bank, among others, and received her Certification in Product Management in 2021.

Carla served two four-year terms on the boards of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic American Center for Economic Development and volunteered with Global Atlanta and F:22 Studio until PPA's workload required her to refocus her energies. Nonetheless, Carla is still a member of the Georgia chapter of the American Marketing Association and served for 6 years on the Board of Advisers of AIESEC, a multi-chapter international internship platform for high-performing students. She now volunteers as the email manager for the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association now called Atlanta-Fuse.

For more, take a look at my Resume page.

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