PPB May 2021

But long before joining Overture Promotions, Gilley’s innate desire to lead started taking shape during summer breaks fromWake Forest University—where she was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Spanish—when she worked in the White House correspondence pool. It was here that Gilley reviewed and responded to letters received by the White House, and she also worked on one summer-long assignment in VIP Correspondence—letters prepared for the President’s written signature. During her first summer there she witnessed history, standing in the same room as President Richard Nixon on August 8, 1974, as he gave his resignation speech to White House staff following the Watergate scandal. She also spent one summer in the Bicentennial Office, during which she catalogued the gifts sent from civilians to President Gerald Ford. What followed was a varied career spent in managerial roles in a myriad of industries, beginning as an imagery analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, where she watched Soviet forces in Cuba and Africa, and researched and monitored international terrorism. She entered the marketing world at a high- tech specialty public relations agency three years later. When asked how she made the jump from the CIA to marketing, Gilley says that it was prompted by a move to Boston and the need to find employment, but she knew she wanted to work in marketing. Her 20-year high-tech marketing career includes stints at IBM’s Software Group, where she directed a 50-person team and managed a $10 million budget, and nearly six years as EVP for Miller/ Shandwick, where she managed half of the $8 million-dollar company. She has also held managerial and marketing roles for the Chicago Sky; The Cradle, the largest adoption agency in the Midwest; Tunes.com/RollingStone. com, right as online music was emerging; Midwest Young Arts Conservatory, a private, nonprofit youth music ensemble program; and Cognitive Concepts, an early literacy technology company. “My timing [in technology marketing] was such that I had a front-row seat to many breakthroughs and opportunities to learn from history-making entrepreneurs and leaders,” Gilley says. “I had an early experience turning around the struggling LA office of an agency—my first lessons in being nimble and transparent in crisis. My stint at IBM was about driving change, doing things differently, in what was a sclerotic communications environment; sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. But I won a Telly [Award] for a product announcement that generated worldwide press coverage, a first for an IBM software product.” She adds, “Post-motherhood [she is a mom of two], I did a few non-technology marketing gigs … all of which taught me the importance of listening, of problem-solving and process, and of being a leader who encourages and makes ways for her team to fly.” It’s safe to say that Gilley has done a lot—but she’s also been to a lot of places, too. Growing up, her father served in the U.S. Army, so she moved often, spending her childhood in Washington, Kansas, Texas, Massachusetts and Virginia, and also living in Germany. Gilley relocated a few times during her adult life too, living in Boston, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Austin and Washington, D.C., before settling in Chicago, where she currently resides. “I’m an Army brat, so I grew up all over the place,” she says. “I went to high school in Northern Virginia, college at Wake Forest University [in Winston- Salem, North Carolina], with a semester of study at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota (Colombia), grad school at University of Texas, then on to my first career kind of job at the CIA, where I monitored the Soviet presence in Cuba.” Gilley rides in a helicopter as part of her training while working for the CIA. "If the challenge is a brokenprocess, get stakeholders together towalk through the process and figure out ways tomake it work better.” JoAnn Gi l l ey | MAY 2021 | 77 THINK