Employee Spotlight: Jennifer Hunold, Senior Brand Manager

At The Martin Group, great ideas and results really are a group effort. They come from remarkably talented individuals that we form into equally remarkable teams.

Meet Jennifer Hunold, senior brand manager of The Martin Group’s new Albany office.

 

Where were you working before The Martin Group and in what role?

Before joining The Martin Group, I was a Senior Brand Manager at Creative Communication Associates (powered by HotChalk). CCA is an integrated marketing and branding agency focused on higher education. I worked with some of HotChalk’s top clients alongside the CCA team, providing account and brand management, aligning projects with a cohesive strategy and being a liaison between the teams in both organizations.

 

When were you hired here?

I happily started at The Martin Group in mid-March 2018.

 

What do you love about working here so far?

The caliber of the people and the work. Everyone here truly cares about our projects and clients, and they bring their best ideas and a collaborative spirit that is invigorating to be part of. Best of all, everyone is very down-to-earth and genuine – couldn’t ask for better when starting somewhere new!

 

Give me a line or two about what you spend most of your work day doing.

I’d say you can describe my role as being the connective tissue between all the pieces moving on behalf of our clients. As one of the first team members in our new Albany office, I also have the honor of sharing what The Martin Group has to offer with the Capital Region.

 

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work and on weekends?

Besides sleeping in and having a lazy morning on the weekend, I’m a fan of getting out into the woods with my husband or hanging out with friends and catching up with family. I also get into the studio to make my artwork. During the week, I try to hit the gym, eat a yummy dinner, and do some board and committee work for Collar Works (collarworks.org), a contemporary art gallery in Troy.

 

What’s your favorite type of food?

If it has a vegetable cooked in an interesting, fairly healthy way with delicious spices, I’m all over it. I also can’t turn down a good piece of barbeque or a slice of bacon. Dessert, too. So, pretty much, (nearly) all the foods!

 

Favorite place to travel?

Nova Scotia has got to be our favorite spot thus far. The Tidal Bay is a wonder, the people are great and the weather is just how I like it (not too hot!). And returning to Iowa to see my family can’t be beat.

 

What’s one of your most random fun facts?

This one usually surprises people: I was a city transit driver in Iowa for five years. I operated 16-ton, 40-foot-long buses, drove paratransit routes, did a short stint as a student-mechanic (steaming engines, backing busses over a maintenance pit, running clean-up crews and rotating tires!) and spent a few years as a Dispatcher. At the time there were probably 25 unique routes and 200 employees with shift changes as often as every two hours. It was a fun, lively job to have for a college student that generated lots of great memories and lifelong friendships. In fact, I still have my CDL!

 

Anything else you’d like to share about your career trajectory?

As an artist with fine arts degrees, I’m very grateful to have landed in marketing and branding. Every day, I find ways my education and experience connect meaningfully to projects and our diverse range of clients, and that brings a richness to my career I hadn’t expected.

 

More about Jennifer.

Jennifer brings a natural born knack for creativity and resourcefulness into all projects she manages for our clients at The Martin Group. An Iowa native, she has a BFA from the University of Iowa and a MFA from University at Albany (SUNY). Before joining The Martin Group, Jen garnered six years of industry experience honing her brand management and business development skills in multiple verticals, including education. Currently, she supports our clients in the Capital Region with brand and account management, strategy and project management. She also enjoys making work outside of work as a trained fine artist, producing very colorful, detailed drawings. Beyond that, she works out, hangs out, writes, gardens, grills and explores with her husband in Troy, NY.