Brand Ambassador

Emily Reagan, MBA ’99, takes the helm of the school’s marketing efforts as first chief marketing officer.

The market for education is rapidly changing, and Texas McCombs is undertaking a major new initiative to increase its standing among top business schools worldwide.

Soon after stepping into his role, Dean Jay Hartzell determined that the business school needed a robust marketing operation to support this ambitious goal. That led to the creation of the role of chief marketing officer, a new executive-level position overseeing the brand, marketing, and communications strategy for the school.

Heading up the new effort is Emily Reagan, MBA ’99, a marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience in consumer and business-to-business marketing, most recently as senior vice president of integrated marketing with Austin-based Bazaarvoice. She has extensive strategic management experience in the marketing field, including senior-level positions with agencies and retailers across the country. She also has deep ties to the school both as an engaged alumna and as former chair of the McCombs MBA Advisory Board. Now, more than 18 months into the role, Reagan is building new marketing capabilities and culture at McCombs that reflect the best practices in academia and industry.

When Hartzell introduced Reagan to the McCombs community last year, he explained his goals for the role and why she was a great fit for it: “The CMO position was established as a core element of our strategic plan, to integrate our marketing strategy and resources across the school to the end of creating a national and global brand image to compete with our elite peers in business education. Emily is a proven leader in building brands, driving marketing strategies, and optimizing customer experiences in both consumer and business-to-business environments. Her senior leadership will ensure that our marketing systems, talent, and goals are fully aligned with our powerful new brand position: ‘Human Centered. Future Focused.’”

Reagan, who grew up in a family of educators, says the timing was right for her to make the move to McCombs. As a marketer, she was drawn to the school’s assets: “Beautiful new building, the amazing faculty and their research expertise, the student experience, and valuable alumni network.” Her passion is obvious when she talks about the McCombs brand. “From a marketing perspective, I’m like a kid in a candy store,” she says.

Since she arrived, Reagan has crafted a marketing plan supporting the dean’s ambition to make Texas McCombs a top 10 business school. She arrives at a time of great change in higher education, with new education models and globalization of learning.

“How universities and schools compete and market to students is changing,” Reagan explains. “Students today are vastly different and technologically enabled in a way we’ve never seen before. Their expectations for what they want out of their educational experience are shaped by tech companies and consumer brands, which have a high bar. We have a great opportunity to meet them there.”

Toward that goal, Reagan is leading the buildout of whole new digital operation, including a new website and the integration of such marketing tools as Salesforce and Marketo to better identify and communicate with prospective and current students, alumni, and corporations. Combined with new advertising messaging on a national level, the overall goal is to build the school’s brand by elevating the story of McCombs.

Creating a CMO position is a new trend among top business schools, and was something Hartzell knew McCombs needed for the school to meet his strategic objectives.

“Business education, particularly in the top 20 world where we compete, is very undifferentiated,” Reagan says. “We’ve started a journey — beginning with the research and positioning work we did — to tell a compelling story and create an experience that truly set us apart from our competitors. My biggest challenge is thinking about how to do that. I’m thinking about how we can show up in a way that feels cohesive and relevant to the people we want to attract — students, faculty, staff, and businesses,” Reagan says.

What can alumni expect from the value of their degree? “Assuming my team’s efforts and the efforts of our strategic plan are successful, we will have elevated our status and brought more value to their degrees,” says Reagan, “and ensured that the best and brightest leaders of tomorrow are coming here to get an education.”

This article appeared in the fall 2019 issue of McCombs magazine. Click on the link to see the full issue.