Courtney Watson brings over ten years of marketing experience to the organization. Born and raised in Virginia and an alumna of the University of Virginia, Courtney and her family now call Chattanooga home.

Launching her career in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at Long Haymes Carr Advertising, Courtney worked with Siemens Wireless, Wachovia Bank, and Zatarain’s.  She helped win and launch Siemens Wireless to the U.S. market, manage Wachovia Bank’s Marketing to Women campaign, and develop www.zatarains.com.

Building upon this traditional advertising experience, Courtney moved to San Francisco and caught the dot-com wave.  She worked for Flycast Networks (acquired by CMGI); a start-up that developed the first automated real-time media buying and optimization system across a network of thousands of websites. Courtney managed over 30 campaigns and averaged over $1 million in online media spending per month.

In 2002 Courtney returned to the classroom to pursue her MBA at Vanderbilt University, concentrating in Strategy and Finance with an emphasis in Brand Management.  In between her first and second year of the program, she worked for Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, enjoying sips of champagne in between evaluating their online media initiatives and quantifying the value of their public relations efforts.

Following graduation from the Owen Graduate School of Business at Vanderbilt, Courtney  accepted a position with AOL, where her creative marketing efforts contributed to a 6% increase in new AOL registrations and led to her selection to AOL’s Marketing University, a six-month engagement to present product marketing strategy to senior executives.  Courtney parlayed this experience into her position as Account Director at the Corporate Executive Board, a Washington, D.C.-based research and consulting firm serving over 70% of the Fortune 100.  As an Account Director within the IT Practice, she worked closely with over 100 CIOs and IT executives, and exceeded the department renewal rate goal of 82%.

Courtney is a member of the Women’s Leadership Institute and the Young Professionals Association of Chattanooga.