Cathy Carl
Chief Marketing Officer
Essence

Cathy Carl has had relatively the same job since high school; advertising editor of her yearbook, campus tour guide as an undergrad, concierge in various ski towns, and for the past 20 plus years, marketing for digitally-led advertising agencies. 

Currently Cathy is Chief Marketing Officer at Essence, a digital media agency that is part of GroupM. Clients include Google, Visa, GrubHub, and Target. The agency is 600+ people, manages over $1B in media spend, and deploys campaigns in 71 markets via offices in Chicago, Delhi, London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo. 

In her role, which reports directly into the global CEO, Cathy is charged with leading business development worldwide, as well as promoting and protecting the agency's brand and reputation with key stakeholders.

Prior to Essence, Cathy was VP/Global Communications Director at Razorfish. Before that, she held various posts at Tribal DDB/DDB Worldwide, Play (now owned by Prophet), and The Martin Agency. 

In her spare time, Cathy is an avid cyclist with a tattered passport and a serious case of wanderlust for developing nations. If it’s likely you’ll get dysentery from visiting the country, it’s probably on her wish list. 

Cathy earned her BA from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And while she’s a fervent Tar Heel, San Francisco is home - although she misses lightning bugs and people who know BBQ is a noun involving pork and not a verb.