Karen Hayward

About Karen

Karen Hayward is an author, international speaker and a Managing Partner and CMO with Chief Outsiders, where she is responsible for building and supporting a team of world-class marketers. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Karen matches mid-market CEOs and Private Equity Portfolio managers with the best-fit Chief Marketing Officers to help accelerate top line growth.  Her book “Stop Random Acts of Marketing” takes the learnings from her previous experience as a VP in both Sales and Marketing and shows mid-market CEOs how to build a strategic growth plan in the digital age to deliver compelling ROI.

How Karen has Helped Businesses Grow

• Initiated and drove an internal re-architecture of technology services business to meet market requirements after researching market size and opportunity. Resulted in 35% annual compounded revenue growth for the next five years.
• Redesigned CenterBeam’s go-to-market strategy to incorporate industry-first innovations, including 30-day contracts, no minimums, and flexibility to scale (up or down) every 30 days.
• Led public relations initiative that re-established CenterBeam with press and analyst community. Engaged top-level analysts for coverage in more than 80 industry articles. Established company thought leadership with articles in major industry trade outlets.
• Initiated Accelio Corporation’s industry-marketing program with global responsibility for financial services, government and manufacturing sectors. Successes included Charles Schwab, CIBC, Agilent, State of New Jersey, JP Morgan and the Government of Illinois.
• Developed Xerox Canada’s marketing programs to reposition company as a Technology leader that were later adopted by the Xerox companies in the US and Latin America.

Client Resources

• Stop Random Acts of Marketing

• Portfolio Company Marketing at the Speed of Now

• Developing a Sales Methodology for Growth
• Conduct a Sales Assessment to Exponentially Improve Execution
• The Recipe for Revenue Success: Sales and Marketing Alignment
• Are Your Marketing & Sales Organizations Aligned?
• The High Stakes of Synching Sales and Marketing
• Don’t Delay Your Digital Diagnosis
• PEI Operating Partner Forum 2018 – Insights from a Fractional CMO and Managing Partner
• The New Sales Funnel: How to Revitalize Your Messaging to “Wow” Today’s Consumer

Client Case Studies

• PunchTab - Marketing Leadership Jumpstarts Sales, Builds Runway for Growth

Executive Experience

• VP, Marketing SMB & Sales Enablement - EarthLink Business
• Executive Vice President, CMO & CSO– CenterBeam (acquired)
• SVP, Solutions & Global Industry Alliances – Accelio (acquired)
• VP, Sales - BeyondWork
• VP, Marketing - Xerox Canada
• VP & GM, Financial Services - Xerox Canada
• Director, Marketing, Production Systems Group - Xerox Canada

Clients Served

• Axiom Materials (Aviation & Aerospace)
• Intelex (Computer Software)
• Blue Jeans (Computer Software)
• Dutra Cerro Graden (Real Estate)
• VetSource (Pharmaceuticals)
• Southern Methodist University - Tower Center (Higher Education)
• Evanta (Professional Training & Coaching)
• ePAY Healthcare (Computer Software)

Testimonials

"I have worked with Karen over an extended period of time and always seen her as a quality leader. Her interpersonal skills are exceptional and she leads by example. She has always had the capacity to analyze complicated business issues and develop creative solutions. She has tendentious capacity to take on new responsibilities and achieve results in a very short period of time. Karen has always been a significant contributor to the senior management team and the success of the corporations she has worked in."

Gary Guthrie, President at COVENCO Ltd

"One of our biggest challenges as business leaders is bringing our vision to life to deliver exceptional customer and financial outcomes. How do we translate that vision through Marketing into a powerful value proposition, and ensure it resonates effectively through a motivated salesforce to clearly deliver sustainable business relevance to the customer? Why is this often so difficult to do? This is Karen Hayward's wheelhouse. Simply…she gets it! She has lived it! From customer facing roles at all levels to leading Sales and Marketing for mid-sized organizations; Karen is a proven performance leader. If you are searching for someone to help you and your company connect the dots, challenge the status quo while working collaboratively across the team; Karen is the leader who can help you deliver powerful business outcomes. From strategy development to field deployment, she will help to make it happen. She is tough minded, focused and performance driven. Her focus is on customer outcomes that work, delivering sales performance and strong financial results. She leads and motivates cross functional teams to deliver exceptional results. I have seen it first hand and continue to learn from Karen every time we connect."

Cameron Hyde, Senior Managing Director at The Summit Group, Inc.

“Karen helped us develop both a cohesive marketing strategy and organizational design that will support our vision and future growth. An integrated marketing plan was developed around a newly developed brand story to drive qualified leads to the sales team. Everyone in the organization is now aligned on what it takes to drive growth for PunchTab in an objective, outcome-driven perspective. Karen leads with her heart and is open, honest, and motivational with her team and colleagues alike. She has changed how we approached marketing and is a true member of our Executive Team.”

Mike Mansbach, CEO at PunchTab

"She is one of the most talented sales and marketing executives I have ever worked with. She possesses exceptional customer facing skills and thinks like a customer. She has the ability to carefully listen and shape a solution that exactly meets the customer requirements...100% of the time. Unlike many pure marketing people, Karen brings a powerful intersection of sales, operations, marketing, strategic thinking and incredible execution skills to every situation."

Kevin Francis, Chairman, CEO, Corporate Director, Entrepreneur, Author

"One of the best problem solvers I know, Karen has an innate ability to zero in on the core business issue while maintaining focus on big picture objectives."

Linda Jackson, Founder at ClearEdge Inc.

"She is an excellent marketer, superb at sales and sales methodology and just generally smart as a whip. Her common sense approach and work ethic combine to produce outstanding results. I recommend Karen highly."

Dan McDade, President at Pointclear "

"Karen was thoughtful, strategic and so easy to work with, we were lucky to have her!"

Luisa del Rosal, Executive Director at Southern Methodist University, John D Tower Center for Political Studies

"Talent!  Karen provides great counsel."

Jonathan Gilliam, Founder and CEO at Momentum Factor

Download Karen's Resume Here