Stephanie Yanecek (She/Her) Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

As senior vice president of SmithBucklin’s Marketing & Communication Services unit, I am responsible for the team that delivers highly effective marketing and communication campaigns to our client organizations. We help clients attract and serve new audiences and strengthen their brands in their marketplaces.My 50-member team offers research, editorial and creative services, including: design, positioning and branding strategy, convention/event promotion and marketing, member and trade publications, content marketing, member retention and recruitment programs, media relations and market research. Under my leadership, we have become a digital and marketing partner with our clients, and we have developed growth opportunities in product management, branding and marketing strategy. I also work directly with client organizations to help them achieve growth through the utilization of SmithBucklin’s innovation and new product development methodologies.Reporting to the CEO, I am part of the senior management team. I graduated from SmithBucklin’s Leadership Learning Forum, an intensive 12-month program that each year inspires the individual learning, self-discovery and personal growth of 15-20 SmithBucklin employees by exposing them to leadership concepts and principles. Created by SmithBucklin CEO Henry Givray, who is also the program’s lead facilitator, its goal is to build leadership capacity throughout the company – to grow leaders from within.SmithBucklin is the association management and services company more organizations turn to than any other. The company’s mission is to achieve the missions of the client organizations it serves and provide uncompromised stewardship for their long-term prosperity. SmithBucklin offers full-service management and high-impact specialized services to trade associations, professional societies, technology user groups, industry consortia, charitable organizations, corporations and government institutes.

Chicago, Il, Us

In establishing and launching the SmithBucklin Innovation Center, we developed a proprietary process to assist associations in the area of new product and services development. Based on successful models in the private sector, our customized process meets the unique governance, organizational and cultural requirements of trade and professional associations. Our team recognized that merely offering a portfolio of new products and services was not strategically effective for our clients, so the Center’s staff and I worked closely with association board members, volunteers and staff to help build a long-term model of new product development and management. Among our results, a healthcare client saw an increase in its education programs, resulting in more than $200,000 in new revenue.Since 2012, the SmithBucklin Innovation Center has been integrated into the company’s overall innovation and new product development methodology and process.

Chicago, Il, Us

After starting at SmithBucklin in 2000 as a manager in Marketing & Communication Services, I was promoted in 2002 to senior manager, focusing on our technology clients.I provided strategic counsel for our client organizations and steered the direction and implementation of branding, integrated marketing, event promotion and change management efforts for SAP, HP and IBM user communities.Under my leadership, we also built a team to identify and institutionalize a new product development process dedicated to the SAP user community. This initiative became the foundation of the SmithBucklin Innovation Center.

As product manager for Zenith Electronics, I oversaw product family lines for profitability and led cross-functional teams across areas of manufacturing, sales, finance, marketing and engineering. I contributed to bringing Zenith’s first high-definition television (HDTV) to the consumer market.

Mba, Marketing

Bba, Marketing

Study Abroad