Resume — Gary Q. Smith

Direct marketing professional with more than four decades of accomplishment in diversified and increasingly responsible marketing and IT leadership roles, including executive marketing management with P&L responsibility. Deep expertise in consumer and B2B direct response, catalog, direct mail, and e-commerce; hands-on command of marketing databases, analytics, tools, and technologies.

Hodges Badge Company

2010 – 2025

Marketing Director & IT Project Leader

  • Transitioned marketing from print and trade-show advertising to a multi-channel strategy built on email, Google and Bing paid search, and organic search
  • Introduced catalog square-inch analysis and customer lifestyle photography; redesigned circulation strategy to grow the customer database and fill seasonal manufacturing capacity gaps
  • Directed RFQ, platform selection, and implementation of Shopify e-commerce and Klaviyo email marketing as project leader
  • Directed complete replacement of 40-year-old business systems; lead architect for a custom integrated ERP spanning order processing, product configuration, manufacturing planning, and shipping

BlueSky Brands, Inc.

2004 – 2008

Senior Vice President, Marketing

  • Led marketing for The Paragon, Bits & Pieces, National Wildlife, and Winterthur Direct: $125M in sales, 60M catalogs circulated annually
  • Replaced four aging web platforms; grew the web channel to 44% of company sales
  • Built marketing database, LTV, and circulation analytics capabilities across all brands

Blair Corporation

1999 – 2004

Director of Marketing

  • Built a new apparel brand from scratch by employing an aggressive marketing strategy and startup mentality to achieve $16M in sales in four years
  • Directed brand strategy, circulation, first website launch, and e-commerce programs

Genesis Direct / Day-Timers / The Franklin Mint

Earlier career

Marketing & Technology Leadership

  • Director of Database Marketing & Analytics (Genesis Direct); Director of Marketing (Day-Timers) — 40M+ catalogs planned annually, 15%+ catalog profitability improvement in year one
  • Brought statistical modeling in-house; rebuilt prospecting database and selection analytics (16% response-rate lift)
  • Systems and programming leadership at The Franklin Mint — the technology roots of a data-driven marketing practice

Education & Speaking

  • MBA, Management — St. Bonaventure University
  • DMA conference speaker and author of presentations on Lifetime Value Analysis, Prospecting Databases, and Database Marketing Segmentation & Personalization.