At the June board meeting of Innovate St. Louis, Barbara Brinkman was named the new CEO of Innovate St. Louis. Barbara replaces Frank Stokes who earlier announced his retirement. Frank steps down after leading Innovate since its inception in 2007, during which time Innovate St. Louis has grown to include the IT Coalition, ITEN, Sourcelink, and Venture Mentoring Service.
Barbara brings a lot of enthusiasm to her new challenge to advance the bi-state St. Louis region's rise as a national and international leader in entrepreneurship and innovation. Prior to Innovate, Barbara took an interim role as Development Director for the School District of Clayton. Her executive career includes the role of Vice President of Marketing for Macy's and Famous-Barr. Her experience is in financial planning and budgeting, database and relationship management, loyalty programs and development. At Macy's she spearheaded changes in media and market mix to improve the return on investment ROI by 96%. She has a thorough knowledge in developing and executing a brand strategy both internally and externally. Barbara also specializes in business process improvement utilizing technology and team collaboration. In addition she has direct experience navigating and excelling through mergers and acquisitions. Working with the American Red Cross she launched the national Ready Rating disaster recovery program with the City of Clayton. She is pursuing further education and will graduate in May 2011 in the Executive Masters of Business Administration EMBA program at Washington University. She also received her Bachelor's degree from Washington University.
Barbara is very excited about all of the opportunities for growth that are available for Innovate and has already taken an active interest in ITEN, including attending our Second Thursday networking session in June.
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