Where are they now? - Ariela Nerubay
In 2012 I applied and was accepted into the Evening MBA program at CSULB College of Business. The Evening MBA was close to home and offered the flexibility I needed being a full-time marketing executive and a mother of three beautiful daughters. Back then, I used to do a lot of business travel and evening classes were very convenient. My third and youngest child was born a few months before I started the MBA program. The reason why I decided to do an MBA in my 40s, with an already successful career, was twofold. First, I have always wanted to go back to school to earn a graduate degree. I find the learning experience of being part of a school program a rewarding one, plus everyone in my family has a master’s degree and I was not going to be left behind! Second, I wanted to venture into teaching. I have always been intrigued by the idea of becoming a college professor and I knew that I needed an MBA to do that.
Today, I have two jobs. My night job as an adjunct MBA professor at USC’s Marshall Business School, and my day job as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of one of the top 100 Retailers in the nation called Curacao. We have 12 retail locations across three states: California, Nevada and Arizona as well as our e-commerce site at www.icuracao.com. We offer credit to underserved communities as well as people looking to build or supplement their credit. We carry all of the top brands across home, personal and electronics products from Apple to Prada. As CMO, I head up a team of 30 people, a multimillion-dollar advertising budget and I am responsible for driving company revenue and meeting our annual profit goals.
COVID19 has had a major impact on my team’s daily tasks as we are now faced with an emergency that has no plan or precedent. We are all making decisions based on what we believe is in the best interest of our customers, associates and community. As a marketer, I find myself having to balance safety and community focused messaging with promotional offers. We must alert customers of the changes we make to schedules, processes and when applicable store or services closures. We have been working 12-15 hour days trying to catch up with all the communication we need to send out, on top of our regular marketing calendar. Because our stores are considered an ‘essential business’ as we sell equipment to work from home, we are open and fully operational. My team, however, is working from home and therefore coordinating a large group of people remotely is a challenge in it of itself.
Almost every class I took has been incredibly helpful in this situation. Being a CMO requires me to have strategic financial discussions with the CFO, budget management in collaboration with the company controller, legal discussions regarding HR management with the EVP of Legal and supply chain understanding when engaged with the head of retail operations. The strategic tools I learned across multiple courses have been and continue to be my go-to resources at my past and current job.
