Jacob Fabbri, 39, works in Washington, D.C. as senior vice president of marketing at Fonteva. As a 2018 40 Under 40 honoree, Fabbri discusses his passion for the events industry.
What I do: My primary responsibility is building and managing the Fonteva brand and leading our global demand generation efforts. To do this, I lead a team of marketing professionals who support these efforts using a combination of tactics. In addition to guiding the marketing team, I am involved in the larger strategic vision of Fonteva, working alongside the other members of our leadership team.
How I got here: I began my career working in an association technology company just as the internet was emerging and very few people had interest or expertise in web marketing. By figuring this out early on, I was able to make myself invaluable and ride the wave as online marketing went from the fringe to mainstream. I continued to grow and learn as my responsibilities increased, culminating in my current role at Fonteva.
Greatest career accomplishment: Building from scratch and leading my current team of marketing professionals at Fonteva.
Impressive stats: Since I joined Fonteva, our marketing efforts have continued to drive growth, resulting in year over year revenue growth exceeding 50 percent. The company’s growth has led to additional recognition including being named one of only 30 premier partners for Salesforce (out of 1,200) as well as the No. 1 Salesforce.Org partner. I and my marketing team have been recognized for our work including the Web Marketing Association Web Award, MARCOM Award and DCALive CMO of the Year Award.
Specific improvement I’ve made: In addition to creating the marketing department, we created an annual conference for our customers: FUNcon, named after our Fonteva Users Network (FUN). Attendance doubled in size in our second year and is projected to double again this year. The growth has been great, but creating a moment of interaction between our users, team and partners has been an amazing experience.
What I am working on: Artificial Intelligence is the thing I’m most excited about right now as we are exploring ways to bring AI tools in our platform to support the everyday work of association executives.
What I do outside of Work: I participate in adult rec sports as an outlet for my competitiveness, and as a place to give back through charitable events put on by our league. I also enjoy mountain biking and the thrill of coming down the trail.
