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From left: Lisa Curtis, Mary Sadlier, Sue Tremblay |
Tufts at work
Mad Women of Providence
They’re noticeably better behaved than Don Draper and the other execs on Mad Men, but Mary Sadlier, J90, Lisa Curtis, E90, and Sue Tremblay, J91, have managed to make their mark in the world of advertising all the same. And now they’ve joined forces at (add)ventures, a branding and marketing firm based in Providence, Rhode Island, with branch offices in Miami and New York City and a client list that includes such big fish as CVS Health, Honeywell, Citi, Timberland, and Marriott International.
The story of the trio begins back in 2002, when Sadlier, (add)ventures’ executive vice president and chief strategy officer, found herself informally—during a summer vacation, no less—collaborating on a proposal with Curtis, then a manager of user experience research at Sapient Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two had known each other since the seventh grade in Seekonk, Massachusetts, but had never worked together. They turned out to be so simpatico and productive that (add)ventures soon recruited Curtis for a leadership role at the firm; she’s now director of research and interactive. Tremblay entered the picture in 2004, when she and Sadlier met as cohosts of an event with Tufts’ then-president, Larry Bacow. Last summer, she was hired as (add)ventures’ vice president of insights/analytics.
All three women trace their success at the high-profile company to seeds planted at Tufts. Tremblay, whose (add)ventures projects have included helping to create a digital presence for Beacon Council, which provides economic and business development services for companies working in Miami-Dade County, Florida, was an English major and an economics minor. She remembers “the knowledge and engagement of the professors” at Tufts, including those in the Experimental College, where she “was able to pick up a few key business classes that confirmed my interest in pursuing an M.B.A.”
As for Curtis, Tufts’ engineering psychology program developed her capacity to “think about an experience from the perspective of others.” At (add)ventures she has lent her know-how to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, building a dynamic, multilingual, user-friendly website—one aimed at improving the “typically frustrating experience” of shopping for health insurance. “I was thrilled to lead a truly user-centered design process,” she says.
Sadlier says she applies lessons from Tufts’ liberal arts curricula, which taught her to analyze information and ask good questions. “Double majoring in English and political science made me appreciate the value of being a clear, concise communicator—and gave me the skills to synthesize varying points of view,” she notes. Those skills came in handy when she helped the firm’s client CVS Health prepare for its announcement that it would stop selling tobacco products in CVS/pharmacy stores. The job entailed creating full-page ads for national media, developing a special web page with infographics and video, and producing a multimedia news release with video from CVS Health’s president and CEO.
Sadlier, Curtis, and Tremblay may not have known precisely where they were headed when they graduated from Tufts—at the time, (add)ventures was just getting started, and many tools of their future trade, such as social media, hadn’t even been invented yet—but no matter. When opportunity knocked, they were more than ready for it.