Recommendations for Mary Hennen

RICK ERWIN, Senior Vice President, Experian

I knew and worked closely with Mary between 2004 and 2007 (the last 3 years of the 9 years she was with Experian). During this time she was our managing vice presidnet for the multichannel retail industry, where she made a major, lasting impact on the success of the company.

Many executives claim to have experience in multichannel retail marketing, but Mary's deep roots in catalog and retail direct marketing, her extensive domain knowledge across all forms of online and offline media and her intimate understanding of the dynamics between store, catalog and internet commerce place her in the top tier of experts in this space. She has a solid command of the strategic business drivers within traditional retail and direct response companies - both consumer and business-to-business dimensions. Additionally, she is well versed in the issues associated with consumer privacy and pending legislation affecting multi-channel marketers.

She is skilled at leading complex, cross-business unit, cross-functional initiatives in matrix-management organization structures. This was apparent in her ability to deliver results across numerous acquired businesses within the Experian portfolio. The key to her success was her ability to creatively and pragmatically solve challenging business problems that normally arise on such initiatives.

Mary was a highly visible ambassador for Experian in the marketing services industry and represented our organization to the National Retail Federation, Direct Marketing Assocation as wells as with numerous alliance partners.

Over the years she has earned great respect from her employees and colleagues within Experian as well as across the industry.

Charles Silver


I have known and worked with Mary in several capacities over a period of the last 17 years. We worked together when I ran the marketing for the direct marketing businesses of Disney, J Crew, Time Warner and Bloomingdale's. She was with both First Data and Experian during this time.

She has asked that I specifically address her knowledge of catalog, on line and retail businesses and her ability to handle tough situations.

Several years ago, one of BBM strategic initiatives was to drive our on line channel growth. As I started to develop that strategy, Mary was one of the first people on my list to call and solicit input from. She put together a team, led a strategy session and made relevant recommendations to my team on key elements that we needed to consider in order to execute our strategy.

My observations in working with her is that she understands the importance of a multi-channel approach and the key elements in how to execute that strategy. She understands the challenges and financial dynamics of a Multi-channel marketing program and the reasons why companies continue to shift investments into the on line channel as well as the issues around retail cannibalization and the importance of giving customers want they want.

A choice between channels:

She was always a valued partner when she was at Experian who helped us deal with many challenges including evaluating technology platforms, optimal customer contact strategies and personality conflicts that got in the way of optimal performance between our two companies. I had full confidence that when I called her she would make sure that what we needed to get done got done.

I also served with Mary on the Direct Marketing Association's Catalog/Multi-channel Operating Committee from 2003 - 2007. She was an invaluable asset who provided the council with needed skills including fund-raising and helping guide program expansion. Her efforts enable to take this council to a higher level than it had ever been to.

She represented her two previous employers to the marketplace with professionalism, has always kept proprietary company information confidential and I believe would be a great addition to Best Buy.

Cindy Elzinga, senior vice president of it strategy, forsythe


I had the pleasure of working with Mary, while she led Experian's retail marketing services group. In her capacity, she represented the organization and with setting and enacting it's strategy to the on line, catalog and retail industry. Her role encompassed developing both Experian internal as well as client business strategies. Experian had deep capabilities within the retail space including; consumer information, advanced customer database solutions, analytics, market research, retail site selection, email marketing, web analytics and advanced advertising solutions designed to address sophisticated one to one targeting and measurement across consumer viewing devices including tv, on line, mailbox and in product. She was well versed in how all of these components fit into the overall retail operating models.

She demonstrated leadership for the organization by aligning vision, resources and commitments so that the company maintained its forward momentum in the midst of great change through multiple acquisitions, a changing competitive landscape and evolving complexities with consumer marketing channel shifts. She made decisions and took actions that strengthened the company’s effectiveness. Her influences on the organization were broad in scope and they impacted multiple business units as well as the industry in general, many are a competitive advantage to Experian today.

Her leadership strengths are:
  • Ability to align long term goals with short term objectives;
  • Developed an organization and system to ensure that employees received effective coaching;
  • Focused;
  • A deep understanding of the industry markets, competitors, nature of the industry, governmental influences and economic and social influences;
  • Ability to understand an existing organizations capacity, products/services, market positioning, customers. Systems processes leadership and organizational culture;
  • Understanding of the increasing complexities that CMO's, CIO's face with ever complex and changing fragmented channels of customer communications, data infrastructure from e-commerce, marketing systems, applications and associated ROI's;
  • Ability to solve problems both within an organization and with designing solutions for other companies to solve their business challenges;
  • Rapidly assessing where businesses are at and identify and develop strategies that make a difference in operating results;
  • Demonstrating and gaining the trust and respect across on line retailers, top 100 and multi channel merchants as well as captured the hearts and souls of Experian's employees;
  • Comprehensive understanding of consumer privacy laws, data security, human resource laws, employee training;
  • Ability to assess and build a high performance team. This included a deep commitment to executive training, rewarding and inspiring innovation, and building a talented team of diverse professionals;
  • Excellent competencies including executive communication/presence and financial acumen.

I had the pleasure of working very closely with Mary with many of the top 100 retailers including Wal-mart/Sam's club, Target, CDW, Staples, Microsoft, Limited Brands, etc. She was recognized as a strong leader while at Experian and the broader retail marketplace. She is also well known throughout the industry.

Mary conducts herself throughout her career with the highest of personal and professional integrity. She is passionate about the industry and making a difference within an organization and to the people that are under her direction.

Her roles at Experian have prepared her well for becoming a true strategic leader. She has a unique perspective on the technology, marketing and has the people leadership skills to be an asset to any organization.

Frederick Neil, Founder and President, SMA-corp


I have had the pleasure of working with Mary Hennen since the early 1990’s in a variety of capacities. My background has spanned a variety of senior level B2C and B2B multi-channel marketing positions across financial services, retail and technology. In each capacity, I have been fortune enough to engage the services of Mary Hennen and the firms she has worked with to achieve exceptional results.

Mary is an industry thought leader who roles up her sleeves to work with peers, clients, business partners and other constituents to create robust and relevant go to market and revenue optimization strategies. Mary is always focused on generating shareholder value through the design and execution of products and services that have a key point of differentiation in the marketplace, as well as the appropriate strategic and tactical delivery components which ensure the right message is delivered in the appropriate media and format to the right audience at the right time.

Mary’s skills are truly channel and industry agnostic which enables her to provide a 360 degree view of the competitive landscape, as well as other key market drivers which are critical to be aware of to insure optimal program execution and revenue growth.

My most recent engagement with Mary, when I was Vice President of Strategic Marketing & Decision Support at CDW, involved her work at both Experian and Digital River where Mary was a critical strategic resource for me and my team as we developed fairly robust and complex customer segment stratification and segmentation models with the intent to optimize customer share of wallet, as well as creating segment and customer specific marketing mix models. Mary worked closely with me to insure the Experian team understood what we were trying to execute amongst a series of very complex business rules which Experian had not previously encountered. Mary was the glue, at the senior most level of Experian, the made the program a success. While at Digital River, Mary worked with me to craft a software digital download strategy for CDW in an effort to unlock millions of dollars in incremental revenue.

Mary is a superstar, a one of a kind nimble business executive, who has a proven track record of working effectively across channels and platforms, while engaging in a professional, strategic and thought leadership manner which have made her and all those she interacts with to be more successful.