Executive Team

Monica C. Smith,
Chief Executive Officer

Monica is a game changer. You want to be on her team and she will be the star on your team. She is a visionary with a very down to earth ability to laser focus on what is important, a relentless push to excellence and a passion for everything she does. Monica personifies the direction marketing is moving – omni-channel, direct, personal, fluid and interactive.

As changes in technology outpace marketers’ ability to keep up with consumer access and preferences, Monica is in the vanguard to master technology, optimize access and build successful programs shaped by preferences. From DRTV campaign management, alternative media and driving retail to on- and off-line customer acquisition strategies, Monica’s omni-channel savvy and strategic sensibilities home in on the most effective marketing programs.

For over a decade she has been chosen by dozens of companies, from Fortune 50 to niche marketers, to lead customer-based and insight-driven business and Brand transformations. She has guided organization transitions from transaction-based to preference- and relationship-based go-to-market strategies, integrating messaging and service offerings across consumer touch points. Inspiring her clients to collaborate cross-functionally in order to drive continually innovative product/service pipelines that enhance the customer experience, she reinforces her clients’ Brand essence, and keeps their Brands fresh and competitive.

Pioneering in analyzing the relationship between on-air spend and retail sales, Monica has created proprietary KPIs and analysis frameworks to determine how best to integrate media spend to drive over $1 billion in revenues at the retail level.

Monica takes a very personal and rigorous approach to her practice and the Brands she touches. She demands excellence and loyalty from those around her, and she is unbending in her desire to have her clients finish first. She is a person many C-suite executives keep in their advisory group, and for good reason; her advice always comes from a place of honesty and insight supported by the facts.

Not only a significant force in the DRTV, retail, online and direct mail marketplaces, Monica is now reshaping how marketers will interact with their customers. Passionate about customer relationships through strategic segmentation, enhanced targeting, and optimizing the Marketing mix, Monica has launched a new company, I.Predictus, designed to bring an unprecedented level of analysis and understanding to DRTV and other direct marketers to maximize the efficacy of their marketing spend. She has recently raised millions in start-up capital from highly respected business leaders and bleeding-edge entrepreneurs who believe in her vision and find her energy and market intelligence inspiring and reassuring.

Her spirit, drive and industry expertise and achievement were honored when she was named one of New Jersey’s Best 50 Women in Business 2010. She is also committed to her growing family and giving back to the community. She founded the non-profit organization One More Smith” that provides care and homes to the neediest of animals (Follow One More Smith on Facebook). She has also set up an entrepreneurial scholarship at her alma mater, The College of Mt. St. Vincent.

Monica blends her intensity to win with an insatiable appetite to have fun and do good. She sets the standard for the entire Marketsmith team.

Carina Pologruto,
General Manager and Executive Vice President, Client Services

Recently honored as one of the brightest and most accomplished young practitioners in the industry as part of Direct Marketing News’ annual selection of Thirty Under 30 superstars of the next generation of direct marketers, Carina is one of those rare talents who encompasses both the right and left side of the brain.

In her five plus year tenure with Marketsmith, she has achieved significant improvements for major Brands. She has consistently grown her clients’ bottom lines every year in this daunting economy, by providing the key strategic insight across retail, direct mail and online initiatives. She sweats the details and brings laser-focused insight to creating strategy. Her commitment to flawless execution is second to none. In 2008, she took over a luxury travel/luggage account and created a more profitable direct to consumer business for them every year in this hard hit time for travel. She built a retail database for a luxury personal accessories retailer. Through her diligence in the process, Carina uncovered significant fraud at the retail level which saved the company thousands of dollars. She turned a personal life style mailer’s catalog business from loss to profit through her strategic ability to craft successful circulation strategies which resulted in cutting costs by over three quarters of a million dollars, eliminating the loss and showing a positive contribution of over $200,000

She is a key contributor to the Marketsmith team – bringing her strong intellect, passion and commitment to bear on everything she touches. She has helped develop new proprietary technologies and modeling. She is a strong contributor to Marketsmith’s website blog and linkedin marketing group. The perspectives she shares spark lively discussions and provide useful insights to all who follow her in both venues.

Prior to Marketsmith, Carina was Marketing Manager at Caswell Massey. She has a degree in Sociology from Rutgers.

Michael Waksbaum,
Senior Vice President – Planning

Michael is an expert in bringing clarity to data and making them usable. The rigorous and insightful analysis Michael and his team deliver underlies the optimization of over $100 million in media spend for our DRTV marketers, the painstakingly thoroughness of database builds for our clients expanding their direct to consumer operations, new understandings of customer performance for some of the greatest brands in retail, and strategic planning for our catalog and nonprofit clients . With more than 20 years experience in the direct marketing industry, including over five years at Marketsmith, he combines sage industry wisdom with a willingness to challenge outdated practices. Skilled in developing and integrating PC based relational databases, multiple analytical techniques, planning and forecasting, efficiency management, and benchmarking, he has built over a dozen databases and is a spreadsheet and database maven, bringing his extensive experience to bear on direct marketing analysis and execution across all offline, online, and on air direct to consumer channels.

Throughout his career, Michael has consistently overdelivered. Some of the many brands for which Michael has helped improve their marketing efforts are Euro Pro, Wearguard/ARA, Lillian Vernon, Mokrynskidirect, J.Crew, Newport News, Brownstone Studio and Avon Fashions. He has a BA from Columbia University, and an MBA from New York University.

Davey Rosenbaum,
Senior Vice President – Research

With experience in marketing strategy, research and evaluation, and communications for broadcasters, telecommunications companies, market research firms and non-profits, Davey’s background allows her to contribute to the breadth and depth of Marketsmith’s suite of services. She is responsible for all client and competitive, primary and secondary research, and she interprets the findings to feed internal and client marketing programs and new business development activities. Delving into dial test results, she identifies opportunities to improve infomercial performance. She recognizes the need for understanding and using market and survey-generated data to gain a reliable picture of and then shape market and consumer dynamics. She is practiced at pinpointing the necessary research and then turning the information into actionable data quickly. Drawing on her market research background and expertise, Davey assesses both creative and call center scripts to make them most effective in speaking to the viewer and caller. Additionally she helps shape how Marketsmith communicates its message. Davey has been on the Marketsmith team since 2003. Prior to joining Marketsmith, she was a freelance marketing/communications consultant for seven years working with media, technology and healthcare clients. Previously, she handled marketing communications, from planning through execution, for GTE Worldwide Telecommunications Services. Her experience also includes strategic analysis of new business ventures in cable television and acquisition opportunities for companies such as Metromedia and The Washington Post Company. And, on the nonprofit side, she did grant evaluation for the McKnight, Bush, Minneapolis, and Pillsbury foundations. Davey has a BA from Smith College and MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.

Dawn Smith
Vice President Operations

Don’t mess with Dawn- she holds a black belt in Taekwondo and she is responsible for the smooth workings of Marketsmith’s financial and operational infrastructure – accounting, human resources, and office systems. Additionally she manages Marketing operations, overseeing and administering relationships with media agencies, trade associations and industry press. Her unique mix of rigor and discipline combined with energy and innovation invigorate our staff, our company presentation and our external relationships. Before joining Marketsmith, Dawn had a successful career as financial trader and broker, working at Tradition NA, Eurobrokers, Prebon Yamane and Mitsubishi Bank. In that fast-paced environment which demanded excellence in results , she honed her skills in multi-tasking, making decisions quickly, and overdelivering on expectations. In her spare time, Dawn serves as a member of the Board of Education for the West Essex Regional School District.

Peter Smith,
Vice President, Global Sales

From advertising to rugby and everything in between, Peter is one power-player you’re going to want on your team. Peter arrived at MSI after a fifteen-year tenure as an Institutional Broker, during which time he served as a VP for two securities brokerage firms. Despite the heavy workload inherent to his position as Vice President of Global Sales at I.Predictus, it wasn’t long before Peter endeavored to apply his advertising expertise to Marketsmith as well. Currently VP of Global Sales for both companies, Peter’s work with the SVP of Media Research and the members of the Advertising Department is integral to Marketsmith’s continued expansion.

While attaining his degree from Seton Hall University, Peter played Inside Center for the University Rugby team. His days of knocking heads may be behind him, but Peter’s powerful personality diminished in the slightest. A father of three, Peter ranks his top 3 priorities as “family, family, and family”. At home–just as in the office–he is a provider, a role model, and a guiding force.

Given the almost two decades he spent on Wall Street, it’s not exactly surprising to learn that Peter is a self-described ‘casual golfer’. Realistically speaking, however, ‘casual’ may not be the most accurate term for Peter’s golf game–he’s certainly no novice. You won’t find him erratically swinging away on the driving range. Peter is actually a bit fascinating in that his golf game is extraordinarily similar to his sales strategy: he always plays the full 18, and yet, you’ll never hear a soul say he’s on the back 9.

Marketsmith’s Thought Leaders

Follow us all on Twitter and join our LinkedIn discussions

Phone : 973 889 0006 / Fax : 973 889 5429 / email : contact@marketsmithinc.com