After making the leap to join a small start-up, this Chief Marketing Officer has been a leading force in developing innovation in FinTech. As one of the executive leaders building and offering key solutions that consumers seek out and expect from businesses today, Karen Voci’s role at Everyware puts her at the forefront of women leading in contactless payments. Karen plays an impactful role in advancing marketing strategies towards growing the future of contactless payment and communication. It doesn’t just end there, as she takes on strategic discussions, program and product development, and more beyond her role.
Name: Karen Voci
Job title: CMO
Company: Everyware
Current location: South Florida, Boynton Beach, FL
Karen Voci is a seasoned Marketing professional with more than 15 years of experience. She started her career right out of college at PSINet, an Internet start-up company in Northern Virginia. In that role, she learned about how passion, hard work, and dedication can pave the way to a rewarding career. Karen worked her way up the professional ladder quickly from sales to a promotion as product manager, which catapulted her career and landed her in a key role at AOL.
“I think every woman in the technology industry can agree it’s mostly male-dominated. You must be bold, have a voice and not be coy about what you think is best for the project or company. It can be a bit of a boys club sometimes but that’s changing every day. Thanks to young women choosing and having the opportunity to follow a tech career path, we’re seeing some of the brightest talents are women.”
In her ever-evolving and integral role at Everyware, Karen had a hand in the growth and development of the company leading stellar teams. She has welcomed fellow female employees to the company’s growing roster and works to ensure Everyware is both a diverse and dynamic team that poises the company for continued success.
During the past seven years at Everyware, she has advanced to become Chief Marketing Officer, where she manages strategy discussions, program/product development, and overall execution of the merchant onboarding program including vertical market strategies outlining merchant-driven benefits, field communication, standard PR, and marketing tactics, and all social media outlets.
A leader in the FinTech world, offering key solutions that consumers seek out and expect from businesses today, Karen’s role at Everyware puts her at the forefront of women leading in contactless payments. The campaigns and client success that come from the company are all partly thanks to her careful planning, management, and decision-making on behalf of the team.
The company sees bigger things ahead with new opportunities to add more and more technology that is embedded into financial services. “The key will be creating the right balance between financial and technological knowledge that is becoming critical in the upcoming year. Our product is the future of payments and communication with text messaging technology to drive adoption of contactless, digital, omnichannel payment and communication.”
As far as the culture she is helping to build out, Karen exclaims, “Everyware fosters an atmosphere where team members care for one another and feel comfortable coming up with new ideas and sharing them – there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Leadership always strives to serve as mentors for the team, transferring knowledge and helping one another grow. As a veteran-owned company, Everyware strongly believes it is important to create opportunities for those who may not otherwise have a chance to thrive and anyone with the desire and passion is always welcome to join the team.”
“I love celebrating our wins together and making sure to recognize my teammates when we accomplish something great. It goes back to how I like to start the day with positive affirmations, and it fits in well with our company ethos. “
More on Karen:
Currently lives: Boynton Beach, FL
Family at home: My husband John, son Braeden and my sweet Toy American Eskimo, Zoe.
Hometown: Syracuse, New York
Favorite hobby: Paddleboarding. I also love to run 5ks for charities and like to go fishing with my family.
Favorite part of your day: Working out at Orange Theory in the morning. --
Exercise is my effective stress reducer to kick off my day in the morning.
Favorite show to binge: The Profit.
Best job decision you have made:
The best job decision I ever made was making the leap to join a small startup (Everyware) since I saw the vision and dream to build a company with an impactful product.
Worst job decision you have made:
My worst job decision was moving to an e-commerce company that pulled me away from my family with lots of travel. I realized the key to success is having a balance between work and family. Today, I am happy to say that I found the perfect balance at Everyware.
Most important lesson you have learned:
The most important lesson I learned from past mistakes is that nobody is perfect. Making mistakes is part of learning and growing in life. This has allowed me to become a better executive, wife, and mother. I believe learning from our mistakes hits every aspect of our life to make us stronger. These important lessons have helped me grow as an individual to be respected in the workplace with positive vibes all around us.
Daily Diary
Monday
6:30 am - Wake up and make my favorite coffee, a caramel macchiato, to start the day right! Then, drive my son to school. I love driving my son to school because it allows us to connect with no interruptions. I always make sure to let him know to have a great day because that’s the only way we should start our days...with positive affirmations. ”Today will be great!”
8:15 am - I go to Orange Theory to workout with my fitness team that motivates me to be strong in mind, body, and soul.
10:00 am - Meet with my team for our weekly meeting to review goals, roadblocks, constructive feedback on projects, and next steps on clients.
11:30 am - Participate in our company-wide Weekly “All Hands on Deck” meeting to review top priorities for the week from all divisions.
12:00 pm - Take my dog Zoe (aka my second baby!) for a walk around the block. She loves this time of day, and so do I because it helps me to quiet my mind and recharge some, so I feel relaxed and reset for the rest of my day. Afternoons are even more packed than mornings since Everyware is on Austin time.
1:30 pm - Time to eat since I have been on calls most of the day! I believe that filling your body with healthy and nutritious food fuels a sharp mind.
2:00 pm - Review marketing initiatives with my team for events and social media planning for the week.
3:00 pm - Meeting with new integration for a discovery call and outlining the workflows with next steps. You can see my days are always filled with meetings!
5:30 pm - Review end of the day follow-ups and strategic review on social media and other important time-sensitive tasks.
7:30 pm - Try to settle in for the evening and have dinner with my husband, relishing on what the day brought in for both of us.
9:00 pm - Back online to do some important preparation tasks for the next day.
10 pm - Hit the pillows because I’m usually exhausted by this hour, but I’ll open a favorite book to settle in for the night.
Saturday
9:00 am – Since it’s the weekend, I try to sleep in till 9 am and catch up on sleep.
11:30 am – I hit up my Pilates class because, in life, we’ve got to change things up. It can’t be the same routine every day.
1:00 pm – My husband and I get on the boat and hit some waves. We usually bring the paddle boards because that’s my favorite pastime. Peanut Island is our favorite place to dock so we can take advantage of the sandbar.
4:00 pm – I always check in with my son before he’s off to work and remind him of all those positive affirmations.
5:00 pm – I take just a few moments to check in on Everyware emails to ensure all clients are happy and there are no urgent matters to handle.
7:00 pm – We’ll usually find a nice place on the water to have dinner.
9:00 pm We meet up with friends back in the neighborhood after dinner for a soothing nightcap to top off a great day!
Reach out to Karen on Linkedin.