Katie Reilly, 39
VP of Marketing & Culture, New York Sash, Central N.Y.
Reilly has a BA in policy studies and an MS in information design and envisioned a career at a nonprofit—and yet it’s not surprising that she’s spent 22 years in home improvement. Hers is a family company, after all, and she’s been there since high school, working her way up the ladder. “I’m a big family person, so it didn’t really make sense for me to leave unless I was going to move somewhere, and I didn’t want to move,” she says. Now she’s the driving force behind the company’s marketing, making sure New York Sash feels like family to the community, as well.
In the Community: Reilly oversees the company’s weekly HGTV-style TV show. “Our customers feel like they know us,” she says. “They come into the showroom, and they know our products and they’re already familiar because they’ve seen it on TV.”
Pet Project: Reilly launched an annual toy drive in 2005 in partnership with Utica University men’s hockey team. Attendees to the game bring a teddy bear to donate, and in 20 years, more than 60,000 stuffed animals were given to charities.
Human Touch: The company recently opened a training center for installers, and Reilly is marketing this endeavor to the community. “People like the human approach. You can talk about how great the product is all you want, but what’s really engaging is the people swinging the hammer and how trained they are.”
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