Maril is a nationally recognized leader in communication, strategy execution and transformation. She’s pioneered a discipline that collaborates with corporate leaders to optimize business performance by engaging and mobilizing their workforce behind a company’s strategic goals, its culture and its brand. Her clients have included some of the world’s most recognized brands including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coca-Cola, DuPont, GE, Johnson & Johnson, and United Airlines.

Maril is CEO and founder of Gagen MacDonald, a leading strategy execution and change leadership firm. She’s also founder of Let Go & Lead, an online community dedicated to new philosophies and strategies for leadership. Until its successful sale in 2016, Maril was also the CEO of Son&Sons, a leading branding and identity firm.

Maril is a current board member of the Women Presidents’ Organization, a non-profit international membership organization for successful female entrepreneurs. She’s a past chairman and long-serving board member of the Arthur W. Page Society and the Institute for

Public Relations and serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Museum of Public Relations and the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Relations.

Maril previously served as Chief Communication Officer and Executive Management Committee member for Navistar, and its operating company, International Truck and Engine Corporation. She worked closely with CEO John Horne, to direct the company’s highly successful cultural turnaround. This was a key factor in Navistar’s resurgence from the brink of bankruptcy to being named in the Wall Street Journal’s “top 10 Performers” list and Business Week’s “Top 50 Companies.”

Prior to joining Navistar, Maril was vice president of communications for Pitman-Moore Inc., and held several leadership positions spanning operations, communications, and human resources with Bayer USA Inc., and The Standard Oil Company / British Petroleum. Her broad range of corporate experience has allowed her to claim “the white space between the silos” as her ultimate functional expertise.

Maril is a recipient of Arthur W. Page Society’s Distinguished Service Award and has been recognized by PR Week as one of the top 25 leaders in the industry, and one of “The 50 Most Powerful Women in PR.” She was also recognized as a “PR All-Star” by Inside PR. She is frequently invited to speak at major conferences and universitie