Amy Pagels

I founded ALP Impact Advisory to help mission-driven organizations build clarity before acceleration. I partner with nonprofits, foundations, and community-based institutions, navigating the changing workplace by aligning leadership, simplifying workflows, and adopting AI in ways that strengthen trust rather than disrupt it. With more than 20 years in corporate strategy, agency leadership, and nonprofit board service, I bring an executive-level perspective grounded in purpose. My work focuses on responsible AI governance, operational clarity, and structured storytelling systems that help leaders communicate with confidence and free up meaningful staff time. Engagements range from structured readiness initiatives and foundation-backed capacity programs to ongoing executive advisory support.

As SVP of Marketing, I oversaw strategy, innovation, and execution for a diverse portfolio of 500+ SKUs, managing a multi-million dollar budget and leading a team of 9 (including 4 direct reports). My focus was on building operational excellence, strengthening cross-functional collaboration, and positioning Jel Sert for long-term category growth. Key contributions: Improved efficiency by 20% by implementing process improvements that reduced bottlenecks and streamlined collaboration across R&D, Sales, and Operations. Led AI marketing adoption, piloting generative tools to boost efficiency, competitive research, and long-term strategy. Renegotiated legacy licensing contracts, saving millions while unlocking new opportunities for brand expansion and revenue growth. Guided long-term strategic planning, defining growth initiatives to build consumer awareness and deepen engagement.

In this role, I scaled Jel Sert’s licensing and promotional partnerships function, creating collaborations that drove incremental sales, expanded distribution, and enhanced consumer engagement. Key contributions: Launched promotional partnerships capability, including gaming activations, that expanded retail presence and opened new consumer channels. Managed 20+ licensor relationships and developed inbound licensing strategies to introduce “better-for-you” products and diversify the portfolio. Negotiated licensing contracts end-to-end, partnering with Legal and the CFO to ensure profitability and long-term alignment. Led corporate innovation planning, embedding licensing opportunities into the company’s growth pipeline. Created a commercialization tracker to improve visibility, cross-department collaboration, and accountability across product development.

Elevated Ferrara to the leader in the licensing/partnership industry for the confections category through breakthrough campaigns that broke the mold for what was expected and crafted connections uniquely tied to each of our brand strategies. ✔ The unexpected combination of Friends and Brach's Conversation Hearts drove over 1B impressions ✔ Weirdly awesome nature of the Trolli brand and core consumer sparked a strategic connection to gaming after joining the organization in 2020 and still remains strong today ✔ Launched both the inbound and outbound licensing practice as well as product placement, supporting a portfolio of over 30 candy, fruit snacks, and cookies brands ✔ Led cross-function initiatives developing strategy, guardrails, benchmarking initiatives and ways of working across brand marketing, sales, in-house agency, foodservice, legal, QA, accounting, operations, supply chain, and external agency partners resulting in savings of $1.3M ✔ Onboarded 13 licensees within first year of outbound licensing program, generating $700K in gross retail sales of licensed products ✔ Using consumer insights and industry knowledge, negotiated promotional partnerships with more than 35 licensing and non-profit leaders including Universal, WB, Disney, Marvel, Viacom, Nintendo, Mattel, Crayola, Make-A-Wish, National Forest Foundation, and many more.

Provided consulting services to companies such as Pampered Chef, to amplify their marketing messages during a critical sales time period (i.e., back to school, summer, holidays, etc.) Custom promotional partnership for clients included: ✔ 2-hour strategy session ✔ A comprehensive overview of 3-5 promotional partnership ideas aligned to your target audience and business objectives ✔ Outreach and deal negotiation with selected partner ✔ Deal Memo detailing the asks from both parties to inform contract development and consulting support with your legal team during the contract process ✔ Ongoing partner management from outreach to implementation ✔ Collaboration with your external or in-house agency team throughout the process to save you time and effort ✔ Shorten the time to implement a new partnership program

While working as the VP Licensing and Partnerships at Epsilon, I partnered with agency teams across the country to support both existing client relationships and new business pitch efforts. In some cases, the account team maintained the relationship with the client, and in others, I took a leadership role working directly with the client. Being able to quickly plug in helped account teams focus on managing the relationship while I tapped my network to quickly recommend strategic partnership opportunities. Some of the clients I supported included: Kraft, Conagra Foods, Olive Garden, Pernod Ricard, Five Star Notebooks, Purina, Juicy Juice Splashers, and agency pitches for jewelry, alcohol, candy, and retail. Overall result? ✔ Delivered immediate value for Epsilon by saving their clients over $2MM in partner fees through strategic negotiations ✔ Helped their clients achieve YOY revenue gains, front of store placement, and other marketing objectives ✔ Shortened the time to implement new programs with more powerful promotions ✔ Streamlined the process between the agency, partner, client, and other external agency partners ✔ Supported innovation and thought-leadership initiatives by presenting annual Licensing Show recaps to the client's brand management teams on behalf of the agency ✔ Demonstrated subject matter expertise in both hosting and representing clients at Licensing Show for four years ✔ Drove agency credibility by bringing Hollywood to Chicago with a studio roadshow on-site at the client's headquarters

Ten years working in a below-the-line agency taught me that no matter the industry, it is critical to ground every big idea in data. I started at Aspen in 2005 managing mobile marketing tours and direct mail campaigns for Qwest Telcom and went on to work in Hispanic marketing for State Farm. I spent the next three years immersed in the CPG industry, creating promotional programs and other marketing tactics with great companies like Conagra Foods and Saputo Cheese. In 2011, Epsilon, a data-focused company owned by ADS, purchased Aspen. I led the first cross-functional team that blended Aspen's agency creative business with Epsilon's data business for FedEx's small business loyalty program. The way our team used behavioral data to create campaigns across email, direct mail, and websites shaped my use of data in developing strategic licensing and partnership programs today.

Developed global strategy for one of the world’s most recognized icons, Ronald McDonald. Re-imaged Ronald McDonald in support of McDonald’s global children’s well-being goals. Responsible for ensuring global collaboration on initiatives for Happy Meal programs, Ronald McDonald, and World Children’s Day.

Managed promotional development and execution for various brands and projects within the Coca-Cola Company including: Dasani, Coca-Cola Trademark, Coca-Cola Food Service, and PowerAde. Define strategy, develop, execute, and manage comprehensive promotional plan encompassing integrated marketing initiatives designed to build brand awareness and increase penetration of product in retail. Managed eight Happy Meal programs yearly for McDonald’s from creative development, through client and partner presentations/approvals, to production. Managed regional special event development and execution for Best Buy customer-centric marketing initiative. Evaluated quantitative and qualitative data on young adult males and moms to recommend appropriate special event and street team promotions designed to drive traffic in-store. Developed General Mills premiums based on market trends and research.

Tracked, projected, and reported inventory of twenty million Happy Meal toys each week. Tracked project finances against pre-established estimates, created project timelines, monitored project deliverables, and facilitated requests for McDonald’s logistics questions.