MarTech Trailblazer Leah Carlson Joins Velir as VP of Client Services

We’re thrilled to announce that Leah Carlson, a marketing technology leader, digital strategist, and creative operations expert, has joined the Velir team as VP of Client Services. 

Leah brings over 14 years of experience leading digital and technology transformation in global consumer packaged goods (CPG) corporations, member-based associations, and family-owned-and-operated businesses. Her expertise spans people, operations, processes, and technology solutions. She has built several successful digital transformation programs that advanced MarTech solutions and adoption, enabled change management, and drove efficiency and growth for organizations. 

Before joining Velir, Leah has built a career of leading “firsts.”  

She brought the first Digital Asset Manager (DAM) to McCormick, launching and growing a global DAM program that managed over 400K marketing and product assets for all of McCormick’s internal functions and 30 business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) brands. In this role, she also established global content best practices and playbooks enabling scaled content development for teams across Americas, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM and she managed several website content initiatives, including Frank’s RedHot. Plus, she won Acquia-DAM (Widen)’s 2018 Best DAM Contest.

During Leah’s time at McCormick, she led a marketing tech stack audit and strategy development to measure and drive higher returns on investment. She also collaborated closely on product content and helped establish the first product information management (PIM) tool and program. In 2022, when McCormick centralized and expanded their in-house creative studio, to produce over 80% of the marketing assets internally, Leah was appointed to spearhead the first Creative Operations team. She established a production process for the new UK studio and ensured end-to-end creative conception, creation, and delivery in full and on time for all content globally.

In her most recent role at McCormick, Leah led Global Digital Growth, where she was responsible for audience strategy and first-party data. She established a vision and pillars for the program, defined success metrics and a roadmap, implemented the first customer data platform (CDP), and developed use cases for collecting and leveraging data throughout the consumer journey, identifying new audiences and opportunities to accelerate growth for the organization. 

Similarly, Leah brought the first DAM to National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) to manage all brand, digital, and event assets. She developed an automated process enabling the Events Team to share content and assets directly from live events with media partners in real-time to accelerate the press release process. Her roles at NCBA began with leading omnichannel marketing initiatives, brand design, and website design and development. They expanded to support several other MarTech initiatives including SharePoint, a company-wide modernization initiative, content management system (CMS) platform evolutions, and the design, development, and implementation of a custom recipe database that enabled the end-to-end process from recipe development in the kitchens, integrating assets from the DAM, and publishing to various digital channels.  

Leah loves to solve puzzles and understand where there are opportunities to pivot or optimize resources, processes, and technology, as she garners support and alignment along the way. She takes a strategic approach to her work, leveraging her experience and Prosci Change Management Certification to centralize business outcomes in all her efforts. She values taking a long view, collaborating to understand objectives, and developing roadmaps that will grow organizations pragmatically. She enjoys sharing her approach and is a sought-after speaker and thought leader in the industry. She has spoken at several DAM and Creative Operations events including Acquia Engage and Henry Stewart.  

We’re excited that Leah has joined Velir and eager to see what “firsts” she brings to her latest role as VP of Client Services.