Cara Murphy - SVP Marketing, Buffalo Sabres
Cara Murphy was a teacher before she was a marketer, working in education for an Ontario school board and as a literacy specialist at a Buffalo charter school. The Sabres hired her as a marketing coordinator in 2013, and she has been promoted at nearly every step since: manager, senior manager, director, vice president, and in September 2026, senior vice president of marketing. Her work is about turning fan culture into something people can join. When fans took to calling the Sabres a “wagon,” she explained how the team sourced a real one, restored it, and put it outside the arena. She was among those who planned the tributes to broadcaster Rick Jeanneret’s final season, including a five-week bracket where fans voted for his best call from 16 finalists. And she has led the team’s partnership with Buffalo AKG Art Museum, pairing community artists with themed jerseys and charitable fundraising.
Jeff Matthews - CMO, D’Youville University
Jeff Matthews joined the Buffalo Bills in 2006 as a multimedia producer and left eighteen years later as vice president of media and content. In between, he became a game-day producer in 2007, helping build the in-stadium experience fans know today, then produced shows for the team’s television network and helped launch its in-house radio programming, which grew into a televised simulcast. His media and content team grew to more than 40 people. According to D’Youville, it consistently ranked among the NFL’s top five in social media engagement, built the league’s most interactive app, and grew digital revenue from $1 million to $5.8 million between 2018 and 2024. He is a seven-time New York State Emmy winner. D’Youville hired him as chief marketing officer in March 2025, and he now sits on the president’s cabinet, leading brand, advertising, digital engagement, and market research. A Buffalo native, he started in television at Empire Sports Network and WB49.
Carol Horton - VP Marketing, Kaleida Health
Carol Horton came to health care through a newspaper and a hospital foundation. She ran marketing at The Desert Sun for more than five years, then joined The Buffalo News in 2012 as director of marketing, overseeing B2B, consumer, and employee marketing across the paper, its website, Buffalo Magazine, and its direct and media businesses. She became vice president of marketing and public relations a year later. In 2018 Kaleida Health hired her to lead its adult foundation as vice president, raising philanthropic support for the health system for five years. Kaleida named her vice president of marketing in March 2023. It is an unusual route to a health system’s top marketing job, combining media, fundraising, and brand work, and it gives her a clear view of both the patients and the donors the system depends on.
Kara Burke - SVP Global Markets Marketing & Business Unit Management, Rich Products
Kara Burke has spent twenty years at Rich Products, and her career there has moved steadily between marketing and running businesses. She joined in 2006 as an associate marketing manager for Asia, then moved through marketing management, business development, and international marketing and new platforms. As vice president of innovation and growth she drew on research and development to build new products. In 2022 Rich’s gave her a category business unit to lead, covering its toppings, creams, and culinary solutions, with responsibility for both their growth and the technology behind them. Since January 2024 she has been senior vice president of global markets marketing and business unit management. Before Rich’s, she marketed best-practice research to senior finance and legal executives at The Corporate Executive Board.
Jon LaPorta - Global Head of Brand & Market Communications, Pfannenberg
Jon LaPorta once changed one link on Pfannenberg’s US website from “Contact Us” to “Ask Us a Question,” and he has said daily inquiries jumped tenfold almost immediately. That instinct for simplifying runs through his work. He started as a graphic designer at Eastco Multi Media in 1996, became its creative director, then director of sales and marketing. Pfannenberg hired him in 2012 to rebrand its US materials for American buyers while staying within its German parent’s guidelines. He describes building a lookup table of more than 40,000 ZIP codes so every web inquiry is routed instantly to the right sales manager and local rep, adopting HubSpot early for B2B automation, and translating technical engineering language into what he calls a “street voice.” He took over inside sales as well, then helped bring the company’s marketing automation to Europe. In January 2026 Pfannenberg named him global head of brand and market communications.
Stephanie Perrotti - VP Marketing & Communications, BestSelf Behavioral Health
Stephanie Perrotti started in college admissions. After graduating from Hofstra, she became an assistant dean of admissions there and spent a summer selling for the Ron Darling Foundation at Citi Field. Sales at Simple Admit, an admissions technology company, followed, and she later served as a vice president at Video Network for eight years. BestSelf Behavioral Health hired her as marketing manager in 2018. She became director of marketing and communications in 2023 and vice president in February 2024. Her remit now covers branding, creative, social media, public relations, sponsorships, and support for the agency’s fundraising. She describes her motivation as telling BestSelf’s stories, supporting its staff, and contributing to the community it serves.
John W. Lambert - AVP Marketing, Communications & External Engagement, University at Buffalo
John W. Lambert joined the Buffalo Bisons as an account executive in 1992. He was the top group sales associate in 1996 and helped expand the team’s market into Canada. The University at Buffalo hired him that year to run sales and promotions for athletics, and he has been there for three decades. He rose through external relations and development, was named Division I-A Marketer of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators in 2001, and served as UB’s interim athletic director in 2012. He then moved into Student Life, leading its marketing, development, and communications. In August 2025 he became assistant vice president for marketing, communications, and external engagement within Student Life, where his team earned 2026 SUNYCUAD recognition for its work, including a veterans campaign. He co-chaired UB’s 2025 Communicators Conference.
Marilynn Militello - VP Marketing, Azuna
Marilynn Militello went from paid intern to account coordinator in four months at The Martin Group, the Buffalo agency, and later became a senior account manager there. She says she grew revenue on New Era Cap, the agency’s second-largest account, by 191%, and expanded one client’s budget from $650,000 to $1 million. In between agency stints she spent three years freelancing in New York in photography, branding, and marketing for clients including Todd English and the InterContinental. New Era Cap then hired her to manage licensed marketing. Azuna, a direct-to-consumer brand, named her vice president of marketing in September 2024. A Loyola University Chicago graduate, she is also a photographer, and when she’s not working she trains for fitness challenges or spends time with her golden retriever, Clooney.
Mary Cheney - CMO, ChannelSpark
Mary Cheney started in public relations at Roswell Park Cancer Institute while studying business at the University at Buffalo, writing press releases and helping promote patient treatment options. Guildcraft Arts & Crafts hired her as marketing coordinator after graduation and promoted her to director of marketing. She also spent nearly four years as marketing coordinator for Special Spaces Buffalo, work that earned her the Great Give Back Award from Bryant & Stratton College and WGRZ-TV. Then came almost ten years at VoIP Supply, running online acquisition, HubSpot, partner promotions, and public relations, and briefly serving as interim general manager. ChannelSpark named her chief marketing officer in July 2025, leading its push to become the marketing partner of choice for tech and telecom companies. She also sits on Daemen University’s business advisory council.
Amy Usiak - VP Marketing & Communications, United Way of Buffalo & Erie County
Amy Usiak started at Forbes in New York, then spent more than four years as an account supervisor at The Dilenschneider Group, the public relations firm. Back in Buffalo she worked on product launches for New Era Cap’s urban business unit and in PR at SKM Group, then spent seven years in corporate communications at Independent Health, covering internal communications for 1,000 employees and community relations. At Evergreen Health she is credited with establishing its corporate communications department, and she rose to senior director of marketing and communications. Her team there won a PRSA Buffalo Niagara Excalibur Award for the communications behind the 2024 Buffalo Pride Parade and Festival. United Way of Buffalo & Erie County named her vice president of marketing and communications in July 2025, and she sits on its executive team. She also serves on the board of Safepoint Holdings.
Staying Put
Buffalo marketers tend to stay. Thirteen years with the Sabres, eighteen with the Bills, twenty at Rich Products, thirty at the University at Buffalo, fourteen at Pfannenberg. Even those who left for New York or Palm Springs came back. That loyalty shows in the work. The best of it on this list comes from knowing an audience well enough to borrow its language, whether that’s a Sabres fan’s joke, a Bills game-day tradition, or an engineer’s need for a simpler answer. In a city that takes its loyalties seriously, the marketers who earn them tend to keep them.