The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Pinnacle Awards were announced Oct. 13, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place virtually Dec. 8.
Next is Marketing Executive of the Year (Private Company) finalist Jessica Lindberg, director of marketing at Dovel Technologies. Here, she talks what has made her successful in her current role, shaping the next generation of industry leaders, proud career moments and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2020/2021?
Over the past few years, Dovel has made significant investments in marketing and communications to elevate its brand awareness in our market and communicate effectively with our employees. As we’ve grown and added new members to our Dovel family of companies, I established a consistent and harmonized message platform that reflected Dovel’s overall strategic vision. I developed an external marketing strategy that included a website refresh for all our web properties, alignment between different social media accounts, content development and a unified media relations program — all designed to showcase our unified brand and messaging. It was a massive effort that fortunately turned out to be very successful.
I’m also proud of our internal communications efforts, particularly in response to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. We needed to proactively — and quickly — create a comprehensive internal communications strategy to keep employees informed, especially when most of them began working from home. The company created a response team to manage the ever-changing terrain of the pandemic, and I oversaw internal communications efforts, which were essential in keeping employees connected, informed, and focused.
Ultimately, this led to an enterprisewide rollout of Slack, which provided a cohesive collaboration and communications platform for our growing employee base. The tool has been crucial to our ability to share information, connect employees, and most importantly, work with our customers in an efficient manner during a challenging time.
What has made you successful in your current role?
First, I truly believe in what we’re doing at Dovel. I feel strongly about the company’s mission and strategic vision, and when you have that level of belief it drives you to do the best job possible. Plus, Dovel has a strong purpose and commitment to help people. That makes it easy to enjoy what I do.
Second, I’m a naturally collaborative person. I thrive off working with a strong team, and I’m fortunate to have that at Dovel. We have incredibly talented and dedicated team members, all of whom are equally passionate about telling our story.
Finally, I really enjoy taking complicated topics, explaining them to our audiences, and helping those audiences feel a connection with our vision. It’s challenging, but it’s also very gratifying and fulfilling, especially when I know the solutions the company is developing are making a difference in health, life sciences, public safety, and the other areas we serve.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
It’s hard to answer this question, because Dovel has accomplished so much over the last few years. We’ve elevated our brand, expanded our footprint in our target markets, added significant contract vehicles, won multiple awards, matured our internal infrastructure and onboarded nearly 500 employees in the last year alone. We’ve also executed effectively against our strategic vision and have built out our marketing and communications efforts. That’s not all me, of course, but I feel humbled and proud to have played at least a small role in these accomplishments.
All of this culminated in our recent sale to Guidehouse. That sale is the result of years of our team’s hard work and dedication to get the company where it is. I’m excited and honored to share our story, support my colleagues, and be a part of our company’s success.
How do you help shape the next generation of government leaders/industry leaders?
I’ve been enormously lucky to have several wonderful mentors over the years who have helped shape my career. I believe we need more of those kinds of people in business, and I take it very seriously. I love to mentor, share my perspectives and am genuinely happy to see others succeed.
I’m committed to passing on what I’ve learned to the next generation. Not just by giving my perspective, or telling people what I think they should do, but through listening, sharing and giving peers a seat at the table. Because we can all learn from each other, regardless of how many years of experience we have. Sharing different ideas and experiences helps everyone grow.
Looking back at your career, what are you most proud of?
Marketing and communications are about building relationships, which I find to be an important part of my daily life. In fact, I take a lot of pride in how I connect with others. Those connections can take many different forms. I build them through my writing, supporting my colleagues, and meeting industry peers.
So, to pick out one thing I’m most proud of — it would be the relationships I’ve built over the years. More so than any successful campaign, media placement or brand recognition I’ve achieved. Those relationships have played a large role in helping me become who I am today. I’m hopeful that I am able to reciprocate and help others just as much as they’ve helped me.