How Marketing Can Drive Strategic Planning

Kristen Martin currently serves as Chief of Staff to TIAA’s Chief of Marketing and Communications, and is also the Head of Engagement for the M&C organization. In these roles, she shapes M&C’s storytelling strategy, leveraging nearly 20 years of experience in Marketing & Advertising and Strategic Planning within the financial sector. In addition to her professional responsibilities, Kristen is a dedicated member of the Charlotte Preparatory School Board of Trustees and serves on the Advisory Board of the Financial Communications Society, Charlotte chapter.

Angela is a senior executive with deep leadership experience in driving innovation in marketing initiatives including branding, advertising, market research, product development, and customer engagement. She has a proven track record in driving business growth through innovative marketing campaigns, enhancing brand affinity, and leveraging consumer insights and data analytics to optimize marketing ROI in the financial services and consumer goods sectors.

Currently, Angela is the Head of CSBB Brand & Advertising at Wells Fargo Bank. In this role, she is responsible for bringing the CSBB brand experience to life across products, channels, branches, and paid advertising. She develops and implements strategies and initiatives that begin to re-define customer and employee experiences that build the brand and drive bottom-line impact.   

Previously at Wells Fargo, Angela served as Cross Credit Marketing Manager and Cross Credit Insights & Innovation Manager, pioneering roles that drove cross-credit insights, promotional marketing, and innovation. She redefined strategic value for the credit businesses, launched new digital, social, and radio marketing initiatives, and developed multi-channel financial/credit education programs. 

Before joining Wells Fargo in 2005, Angela founded and led Insight Development, a strategy, branding, and marketing consultancy. She also served as Senior Vice President at Bank of America, where she defined unique value propositions and brand strategies for various product categories and developed a new diversity value proposition as the African American Marketing Executive.

Earlier in her career, Angela was Vice President of Marketing & Sponsorships with the Harlem Globetrotters and began her career in Kraft Foods' selective brand management program.

Angela is involved in non-profits, including the Leadership Development Initiative in Charlotte, and EmpowHERment . She is also a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc,/   She holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from North Carolina A&T State University and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

Lijo Joseph has over 20 years of experience in client leadership and growth marketing. Lijo comes with a strong financial background dedicating over 4 years of his time to the Wells Fargo Consumer Small Business Banking team. Managing a diverse team of 25+ in planning, activation, and analytics professionals he has helped achieve double digital YoY incremental growth for the business and he has also helped lead his OMD team towards award-winning work recognized by DigiDay and OMMA for Wells Fargo. With his experience in building media strategies in multiple channels including Linear, CTV, Streaming, Programmatic, Search and Social, while strictly adhering to FLA compliance and other financial industry regulations, Lijo is excited to continue the CSBB momentum. When Lijo is not leading his team to beat business outcomes based on ROMI, he enjoys supporting his brilliant wife and cheering on his children in their favorite hobbies like soccer and swimming.

Rachel Cobb leads Strategy + Planning for the marketing agency Mythic. Prior to joining Mythic, she cultivated her strategy prowess at The Richards Group and Leo Burnett. Rachel firmly believes that the best work is born from a simple and believable truth. She is passionate about uncovering insights that help brands Be More and she has applied this philosophy to fuel growth for major brands including Disney Global Parks, Motel 6, Coke/Godiva, Fruit of the Loom and Kellogg’s. Rachel has spent much of her career designing and aligning brand and go-to-market plans for financial services companies such as MetLife, TIAA-CREF, UnitedHealthcare, Wells Fargo, and Ally Bank. When she’s not solving brand and business problems, Rachel can be found navigating teenage moods, exploring with her husband, getting lost in a great book and mentoring talented professionals.