MBA Alum Fellow Spotlight: Kate Thunnissen T’02
May 22nd, 2017Topics: Social
At CDS, we place great value on our network of friends and colleagues. Our Alumni MBA Fellows are an important part of the Center and are continuously working on new projects with various companies on strategies and business technology. This blog is a way for our network of alumni to share updates on their current work, their pathways after Tuck, and what lessons they learned that can be helpful to students interested in digital strategies.
Kate Thunnissen T’02
Head of Product Marketing, Dealogic
Where are you currently working and what type of work are you doing?
I run marketing at Dealogic, a fintech firm. We provide capital markets info (like deal data) and workflow software to financial institutions — banks, investment firms etc. Our software is behind almost every IPO you’ve heard of – from initial contact to roadshow to share order placement, Dealogic is there.
Do you think about digital strategies in your current role? How often?
Every day! My team and I spend our time figuring out how best to connect and excite clients and prospects, and we know digital is powerful. You can’t say you’re a “fintech” firm but show up with a paper brochure. For example we revamped our website to push more content marketing via electronic means (youtube, email, social media, online advertising) and launched our first video series last year. Internally it’s also key, I have a globally dispersed team and I want to make sure they feel connected to me and each other, not isolated. Digital provides opportunities for that. Finally, I love the metrics. I have to justify marketing spend to the Board and CEO, digital strategies often mean better tracking and measurement allowing me to optimize and get to the right targeted audience at the right time.
How have digital technologies impacted your company/industry since leaving Tuck and the CDS?
It’s huge. The financial markets can be both incredibly innovative and incredibly backwards. They are always looking to the bottom line so are quick to embrace some things, they love our mobile app for instance which allows them to get data in real-time and beat the competition. On the other hand regulation can mean they move very carefully and slowly. We’re seeing that now with some new regulation called MiFID2 launching in Europe. As a firm that provides technology solutions to financial firms, we see both sides.
What lesson(s) did you take away from your time as a CDS MBA Fellow that has been useful in your career?
That things change rapidly. No one had smartphones when I was at Tuck. Now, I can’t imagine work or my personal life without it. There was no Facebook or Twitter, yet now I have a team working on that full time. Though I will say – there’s one constant with digital, and that’s security. I remember discussing it during our meetings, and I’m still discussing today.
What advice do you have for our current MBA Fellows when it comes to digital strategies and careers?
I think the world is digital, frankly. It’s not like we really separate it anymore. I do marketing, not digital marketing. I live my life which just happens to include using a lot of apps to get things done, meet friends, order food etc. So whatever career you want you should be digitally literate. Stay up to date on innovation, learn as much as you can… I recently took a “introduction to coding” class which was great. I don’t ever plan to be a software developer, but it is the basis for so much of how the world runs today so it can’t hurt to know something. Oh and remember to update your passwords! At least, try to avoid 123456 🙂
