Year-End Letter from FCS Board Chair & Vice Chair

As 2020 comes to an end, we take a moment, on behalf of the entire FCS Board of Directors, to thank you for your membership and to acknowledge 30+ corporate members who have joined us since September.

Your decision – and in many cases, the decision of your company’s marketing executive – to enroll in an FCS membership as part of our new structure has proven to be a tremendous testament to the value of our simple three-word mission statement: Community, Education, Philanthropy.

Since pivoting to a virtual events-driven organization, our 33 events have attracted well over 1,000 individual guests – impressively from more than a dozen countries, besides the U.S. and Canada. We welcomed senior marketers from 48 leading brands (see below) as our guest speakers, spearheaded by the 14 top executives (highlighted below) who committed to our Members Only events, every Thursday from September through December.

  • We also staged two very successful virtual award shows during 2020 and launched the second year of our Mentoring Program with nearly two dozen mentor-mentee pairs.
  • Aware of the role we can and should play in the industry, we formed the FCS Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee within our Board to guide and inform future programming and community engagement opportunities.

Most importantly, last May, we announced a $100,000 donation to our Race for Kids charities. With our Members Only Event Series, we donated another $14,000, bringing the list of children’s charities we supported in 2020 to 12.

Along with the resilience of our membership, the FCS has been bolstered by the unwavering partnership of our many sponsors (see below). We’re grateful for their financial backing.

The result of the support we’ve received from individual marketers, financial brands, and sponsors is evident in the stability and solvency of our organization as we head into the new year.

  • Although we do not expect to return to in-person events during the first half of 2021, we are committed to continue to grow our community and the value we bring to each member.

While there are many who deserve our gratitude and appreciation for what we’ve accomplished in 2020, there are three people we’d like to specifically single out for our heartfelt thanks.

  • Most notably, we would like to thank and congratulate Kevin Windorf, the FCS CEO, for his leadership and vision in redefining our 53-year-old organization and continually driving us towards excellence. Under his guidance, we have been able to build out new revenue streams to support our ongoing philanthropic mission.
  • Also deserving of special recognition is John McCormick, who chairs our Programming Committee. John has continued to be wildly successful in recruiting the vast majority of our speakers; his diligence and passion make him the ideal brand ambassador for the FCS.
  • And finally, our Admin Coordinator Vanessa Sandri has been invaluable to our organization since joining us in 2019, and her behind-the-scenes work on Membership, Mentoring and our awards competitions has been simply stellar.

Thank you all again for your membership. We wish you health and prosperity in the New Year.

Tim Hart, Chair of the FCS Board of Directors
Tom Jago, Vice Chair of the FCS Board of Directors

Our 2020 Sponsors:

Bloomberg Demandbase Dianomi Forbes
FOX Business FT Fundamental Media Gale + Assembly
InvestingChannel Investopedia Jornaya MarketWatch
McCann MullenLowe NewsCred The New York Times
The Strategic Agency TIFIN Group Twitter The Wall Street Journal

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our 2020 Guest Speakers:

  • Betsy Palmer, AIG
  • Andrea Brimmer, Ally
  • Erik Schneberger, American Century
  • Kim Grant, Bank of America
  • Jim Frawley, Bellwether
  • Adam Grealish, Betterment
  • Alix Mills, Bloomberg LP
  • Brenda Tsai, BNY Mellon
  • Nikki Darden, Citi
  • Christine Farrier, Demandbase
  • Barbara Chandler, Deutsch
  • Andrea Zaretsky, E*TRADE Financial
  • Amy Ricketts, EMI Boston
  • Connie Weaver, Equitable
  • Andrew Chesney, Fundamental Media
  • Nicole Pullen Ross , Goldman Sachs
  • Vanessa Romann, Havas
  • Megan McCartan, HighTower
  • Russell Findlay, Hiscox
  • Emily Pachuta, Invesco
  • Alex Craddock, iShares
  • Alanna Nensel, Janus Henderson
  • Jean Lavin, JL Insights
  • Dipti Kachru, J.P. Morgan
  • Leonor Palao, J.P. Morgan Asset Management
  • Justin Grant, JPMorgan Chase
  • Leanne Fremar, JPMorgan Chase
  • Devin Banerjee, LinkedIn
  • Michael Katz, LinkedIn
  • James White, Lord Abbett
  • Neil Siegel, Macquarie
  • Christa Spencer, Mariner Wealth
  • Jennifer Halloran, MassMutual
  • Ben Jankowski, Mastercard
  • Audrey Choi, Morgan Stanley
  • Daniel Allocca, Nuveen
  • Porter Gale, Personal Capital
  • Jaime Kalfus, PGIM
  • David Thuma, PNC
  • Dresdyn Hefferen, PNC
  • Beth Wood, Principal Financial
  • Berta Aldrich, Private Advisor Group
  • Luigi Laredo, Royce Investment Partners
  • John Brockelman, State Street Global Advisors
  • Liz Kiehm, State Street Global Advisors
  • Stephen Tisdalle, State Street Global Advisors
  • Winnie Sun, Sun Group Wealth Partners
  • Sylvia Toense, T. Rowe Price
  • Angie Newman, UBS Wealth Management
  • Chrisinda Mowrer, Voya Financial
  • Tom Jago, The Ward Group
  • Barri Rafferty, Wells Fargo
  • Dana Caragine, Wilmington Trust

Our 2020 Moderators

  • Larry Black, BlackMoss
  • Maria Rosati, Eminence Communications
  • Kevin Windorf, FCS
  • Sadé Muhammad, Forbes
  • Chardia Christophe – Garcia, Forbes
  • Rashaad Denzel, Forbes
  • Caleb Silver, Investopedia
  • Kate Shaw, Living Group
  • David Gelles, The New York Times
  • Rebecca Blumenstein, The New York Times
  • John McCormick, OspreyMedia
  • Ed Nini, Principal Group
  • April Rudin, The Rudin Group
  • Niharika Shah, TIFIN Group
  • Tom Jago, The Ward Group