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Up & Comers: Jessica Miller
Bringing a good brand and a good company to great
by Lucy Soto
October 23, 2007
She gained the skill as a self-described military brat learning the ropes in places as varied
as Guam and Maryland. She's honed it completing 10 triathlons, six marathons and an MBA while
working full-time. And now, she's using that same get-up-and-go talent to create innovative
consumer products for Goody, a division of Newell Rubbermaid Co. "I love fluidity and change," says
Miller, 34, whose Navy family moved when she was 2 weeks old from Philadelphia to California. Then,
to the island of Guam; a few times to the Maryland suburbs of D.C.; to southern Spain; and to
Florida.
"One of the things that drew me to Goody was it was a great brand, and at the time in the
business it was going through a rough patch," she says. "The fun part to me was coming in and
figuring it out and taking what was a good brand and a good company and helping make it great."
She leads marketing and brand management globally for the company's health and beauty
products. In the three-and-a-half years that she's been vice president of marketing, she has helped
create and develop new consumerdriven innovations.
Take, for example, the StayPut hair bands that don't fall out when you work out. The
accessories that blend to hair color. Or the hairbrushes that have special oils embedded in the
bristles for a little shine or end-of-day pick-me-up.
"She's highly competitive and with a tremendous amount of energy and passion," says David
Klatt, who, as Goody president, has worked with Miller since she joined the company in April 2004.
He recently became president of Newell Rubbermaid's new Global Technology Division.
"Her work ethic is incredible," Klatt says. "At the same time, she's strategic. She can think
through issues. ... Understanding the consumer, in this case it's women, understanding their
frustrations around current products and understanding their desires." Miller began learning the
business of responding to consumers while she was in college.
While majoring in advertising and public relations at the University of West Florida in
Pensacola, she interned at a small telecommunications company going through big changes – the move
from pagers to cellphones. Next, she worked for the U.S. Olympic Committee, getting exposure to
corporate sponsors like IBM.
Those experiences led her to the larger world of marketing. Then, her first job after college
exposed her to a little bit of everything. She joined a family-owned infant toy company as a
product manager designing baby shoes. "We didn't have a lot of resources," she says. "Six months
into it, I was on a plane to Hong Kong. ... You had to do product design, development, negotiating
prices."
Miller stayed with the company for nearly a decade. She learned a lot about the business and
a lot about herself.
"I absolutely love products," she says. "I love the product communication and marketing side.
Meeting a consumer need."
When she was younger, she wanted to be a journalist. Miller says her older sister, who now
lives in Washington, D.C., played editor. "I used to write stories, and she would type and bind
them for me. All the way through high school, I was very interested in writing and journalism.
That's how my major ended up being communications."
For other women working up the ladder or thinking about a career in marketing, Miller
suggests getting a business degree. This past May, she graduated from Emory with an MBA. "A lot of
what I've had to learn over the years is on-the-job finance. I didn't have any finance or any
accounting, all the things I wish now I'd had. And I still felt like I wanted a formal grounding."
Klatt has more basic advice about a career in consumer products – listening.
"You can't have all the answers," he says. "The more you listen, the better employee you'll
be. Whether it's with your employees or with customers, listening and understanding." Opportunities
at Newell Rubbermaid are about to multiply. The company is constructing a 14-story headquarters in
Sandy Springs. It moved its corporate headquarters from Illinois to Atlanta in February 2003.
"It's better career-pathing for everyone in the business," Miller says. "And it's great for
Atlanta."
For now, Miller is looking forward to a vacation with her husband, Dave, a Delta pilot. But
don't expect rest and relaxation. They're going to a whitewater kayak school, she explains,
laughing: "I just think I don't know how to sit still."
