The University of New Haven’s Marketing Club provides its members with opportunities to learn about real-world skills to ensure students can find success as future marketing professionals. On Monday, Nov. 4, the Marketing Club had Mastercard’s Executive Vice President of Global B2B & Product Marketing, Greg Boosin, speak at the German Club to give students an insight into how one of the top marketing leaders runs his marketing team.
Boosin has an MBA in marketing and finance from The Wharton School, the business school of Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, and has over two decades of experience in marketing and finance, having worked as the associate product manager for Banana Boat Sunblock and an equity research analyst at JP Morgan Securities.
With roughly 40 students of varied majors in attendance, Greg Boosin led a presentation that was divided into two main parts where he focused on discussing standard industry practices that marketing students are used to, and included many of his own lessons and rhetoric.
“The first part is lessons that maybe I’ve taught myself, ideally rhetoric a lot because I think it’s memorable,” said Boosin, crediting rhetoric and lessons on how he has used them to manage his team. While technology is a useful tool in many jobs, Boosin emphasized its use only as an enabler, and emphasized creativity as our last advantage.
In an interview with the Champions of Growth Podcast, Boosin said technology does not have “the real creative element of what is culturally coming to bear, and you want to in some cases ride that culture, in other cases, drive that culture.To do that, you’ve got to be a really empathetic and curious person.” For example, technology like artificial intelligence (AI) will not always have the latest updates in pop culture that humans will have.
Boosin used the second part of his university to display creative videos produced by Mastercard, as a way to reinforce his claims in the first part of the presentation. Dedicating some slides to explaining personal strategies he uses to do business, despite not having full control of this unit, as he said if the business aspect of a deal is not successful, then the marketing aspect should not be either.
During the presentation, several students took advantage of the opportunity to ask Boosin questions that ranged in topics from Mastercard’s values, their main business partners and how the company makes its money. Boosin made a consistent effort to emphasize the human connection side of marketing, and gave the students examples of his ideas in use.
The Kantar list, an international market research company based in London, named Mastercard one of the top 10 most valuable company brands in 2023. Mastercard is a household name and available in over 210 countries and territories.
Boosin’s presentation informs marketing students about how he runs his team and business at a world renowned company.
