Laura Marriott, president of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)
"I thought there was just so much opportunity here, both personally and professionally. And I'm just passionate about mobile - I've been isn mobile for the past 11 years, and I just love it"
Charged: What's your role‾
Laura Marriott: My role is to manage the ongoing operation for the MMA. So that means strategy, events, marketing, marketing communications, finance - basically the general manager.
Charged: How'd you get that gig‾
Laura Marriott: I joined the board of MMA in December 2004. I was working for a company called Entrado that did a spam filter product. Then they were looking for a full-time staff position, and I thought there was just so much potential.
Charged: Yeah, but what was the appeal of going from board member to president‾
Laura Marriott: It was a challenge, and I think of where we are in terms of the industry, we all believed it could be much larger than it was - the power of connecting the consumer through the mobile device was beginning to take off, and I thought there was just so much opportunity here, both personally and professionally. And I'm just passionate about mobile - I've been in mobile for the past 11 years, and I just love it.
Charged: You've also made it the MMA's mission to promote the role of women in the mobile industry with your Women In Wireless initiative. How did that come about‾
Laura Marriott: When you go to any CTIA or 3GSM show, it's predominantly male. So we felt there was a real need to not only promote awareness of female executives in the industry, but also to help mentor up-and-coming women on how they can get more involved and how they can advance and be successful in their careers in wireless. We're focusing on four things - one is mentoring, another is education, to promote those females that have been successful. Third is recognition, so we're going to have some awards, and we've partnered with Ad Age to do that.