Brent Gleckler - CMO, Nestlé Purina North America
Brent Gleckler joined General Motors in 2001 as a college graduate in training, rotating through international logistics, marketing, supplier quality, and purchasing before becoming a material supervisor. Purina hired him in 2005 as an assistant brand manager on Veterinary Diets. Twenty-one years later, with one detour, he runs marketing for the North American business. He was senior brand manager on Fancy Feast for five years, then moved to Lausanne to run Felix for Purina’s Europe, Middle East, and North Africa business. Back in St. Louis he became a brand director, then spent a year and a half as general manager of Zuke’s in Durango, Colorado. He returned to lead marketing for the treats portfolio, then the market development organization, and then spent nearly four years as vice president and general manager of the Golden Products division, with full business responsibility. Purina named him chief marketing officer in November 2025.
Steve Chapman - EVP & Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer, St. Louis Blues
Steve Chapman launched the Mobile Mysticks of the East Coast Hockey League in 1995, after starting as assistant general manager of the Birmingham Bulls. He ran the Mysticks as president and general manager for six years, then led the Gwinnett Gladiators for fourteen years as president and minority partner, building them into one of the league’s flagship franchises and a perennial attendance leader. His fellow owners elected him chairman of the ECHL board of governors, a role he held for nine years. The Blues hired him in 2015 as group vice president for brand, community, and partnership development, where he delivered double-digit growth in corporate partnerships, record ticket sales, and new community programs including Blues for Kids. He also oversaw the 2017 Winter Classic at Busch Stadium. Since 2018 he has been executive vice president and chief revenue and marketing officer, overseeing sales, marketing, content, community outreach, and broadcast, and playing a key role in redeveloping Enterprise Center and building the Centene Community Ice Center.
Kyle Sanborn - VP Global Brand Strategy & Marketing Activation, Enterprise Mobility
Kyle Sanborn worked on the Enterprise Rent-A-Car account at Avrett Free Ginsberg in New York, after starting in promotions on Kraft and Dewar’s at J Brown/LMC Group. Enterprise hired him as a brand manager in 2007, and he has been there nearly twenty years. He brought programmatic display to the company and saw immediate return on reservations and loyalty sign-ups, built a governed self-service creative platform for local markets that is still in use, and started a product placement practice in film and television. He became director of marketing in 2012, adding content, social, and PR, then assistant vice president, then vice president of brand strategy in 2019. Since 2021 he has been vice president of global brand strategy and marketing activation at the company now called Enterprise Mobility, overseeing brand, design, insights, loyalty, media, creative, sponsorship, content, and social for Enterprise, National, and Alamo across the Americas and Asia. His sponsorship portfolio includes the naming rights to Enterprise Center, the NHL and 31 of its clubs, Disney, the PGA, and ten MLB teams.
Unitey Kull - CMCO, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Unitey Kull began in grantmaking, managing two cultural grant programs for Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs that served 300 artists and organizations a year. In New York she became executive director of the Manhattan New Music Project, where she secured a $4.63 million federal innovation grant for a partnership with the city’s special education district and presented concerts by experimental musicians including Colin Stetson and the International Contemporary Ensemble. The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis then kept her ten years as director of marketing, communications, and visitor experience, and annual attendance grew 88%. She also led a remodel of the museum’s lobby, café, and shop with a pro bono architecture firm. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra hired her in 2022 and named her chief marketing and communications officer a year later. She led the orchestra’s institutional rebrand with Pentagram and the reopening of Powell Hall as part of the new Jack C. Taylor Music Center, which brought record revenue and significant new audiences to a $42 million organization.
Emily Kircher - Partner & CMO, HLK
Emily Kircher learned brand planning on some of the country’s largest consumer accounts. She worked on SC Johnson at Draftfcb, Frito-Lay at The Marketing Arm, and Kraft Singles, Centrum, and Nexium at Leo Burnett, then planned pharmaceutical work at FCB Chicago. HLK brought her to St. Louis as planning director in 2018 for clients including Bayer Crop Science, Marriott, Build-A-Bear, and Schnucks. She became senior vice president of planning in 2020, leading brand planning, communications planning, social strategy, PR, and research. In April 2024 the independent agency made her a partner and chief marketing officer. She now leads new business and agency marketing as well as its customer experience, media, and strategic communications teams, and says HLK has won 80% of its new business pitches over the past two years while growing revenue 20% annually.
Michelle Wazlawek - CMO, Scott Credit Union
Michelle Wazlawek has managed marketing for some of the most recognizable brands in St. Louis. She started at First Community Credit Union and the American Cancer Society, then spent seven years at Anheuser-Busch, managing marketing communications for Budweiser, Bud Light, and Michelob ULTRA and later sports marketing. Enterprise hired her in 2006 to evaluate and negotiate sports and entertainment partnerships, and as marketing director she oversaw a $35 million annual budget for Enterprise and National, leading sponsorship strategy and agency partners. Scott Credit Union brought her back to financial services in 2021 as vice president of marketing and named her chief marketing officer five months later. She leads the credit union’s marketing and external communications, working closely with its chief experience officer.
Shuntae Shields Ryan - CMCO, United Way of Greater St. Louis
Shuntae Shields Ryan was the first marketing executive hired by Downtown STL, Inc., and she spent nearly seventeen years helping revitalize the center of the city. She built every marketing, communications, and PR program for downtown as a destination, created its visitor and dining guides, launched its first mobile app, and hosted and produced Downtown Buzz, a TV program that aired for nearly ten years. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis then made her its first full-time marketing and communications leader, and over nine years she turned the organization from a well-kept secret into a recognized name. In 2021 alone its coverage ran to 381 stories with $3.2 million in publicity value. United Way of Greater St. Louis named her chief marketing and communications officer in September 2022, leading brand and communications across a 16-county, two-state region. She is a St. Louis native.
Brenda Wilbur - VP Brand, Retail & Creative Services, St. Louis Blues
Brenda Wilbur has shaped how the Blues look for twenty years. She joined the team in 2006 as director of branding and creative after a year as an advertising coordinator at the American College of Healthcare Executives, and she held that role for eighteen years, overseeing the visual identity of the franchise across every season, campaign, and fan touchpoint. The Blues promoted her to vice president of brand, retail, and creative services in July 2024, adding the team’s merchandise business to her remit. She led the franchise’s 2025 brand redesign and new logo, among the most visible changes the team has made to its identity in a generation.
Paul Eschen - CMO, BizLibrary
Paul Eschen started as an SEO copywriter at Network Solutions, writing optimized copy for more than 50 websites, then ran search and web content for Maryville University. As a business development representative at Business Training Library he closed a $45,495 deal in his fifth month, the largest ever for the role. Ansira followed, where he managed CokeSolutions.com and internal sales communications for Coca-Cola North America. Maritz then gave him seven years, from digital communications strategist to vice president of growth marketing at Maritz Global Events, where he consolidated four marketing and proposal teams across two organizations into one group of 45. BizLibrary hired him as vice president of marketing in 2021 and named him chief marketing officer in August 2022, leading a team of 15 and a multimillion-dollar budget for the learning content company.
Noelle Reinhold - CMO, AEG
Noelle Reinhold dressed up as a sandwich during a brand management internship at HLK, supporting local Subway franchise owners. Before that she was a student brand manager for Red Bull at Missouri State, where her grassroots campus work was highlighted to managers nationwide. She worked in marketing at a St. Louis creative firm, a law firm, and Delta Dental of Missouri before joining Perficient in 2016, where over eight years she rose to director of demand generation and content marketing, launching account-based marketing and persona-based campaigns for the digital consultancy. Deck Commerce made her vice president of marketing in 2024. AEG, a St. Louis staffing and recruiting firm for IT and engineering roles, named her chief marketing officer in November 2025. Her stated sweet spot is turning complex technology services into stories buyers understand.
Where the Training Happens
St. Louis has an unusually deep bench of companies that know how to build marketers. Anheuser-Busch, Enterprise, Purina, Maritz, and the city’s agencies have trained generations of them, and many stay for decades: twenty years at Enterprise, twenty at the Blues, nearly two decades revitalizing downtown. Others take those lessons into credit unions, symphonies, learning companies, and staffing firms. The result is a marketing community that knows its own history, where a former Enterprise sponsorship director runs a credit union’s marketing and a former HLK intern now runs marketing for a company of her own.