Susan Hammes McBride

Founder, MadCat Consulting

MY STORY

I'm the founder of MadCat Consulting, where I embed with consumer brands as a senior paid media partner, building the strategy, running the channels, and staying close enough to the execution to see what's actually working.

I began my career at Young & Rubicam, MEC, and McCann Erickson, working on CHANEL, Campbell's, and AT&T. From there I joined American Express, where I eventually led more than $300 million in annual marketing investment and helped launch the company's first Meta media program.

Then I made a deliberate bet: smaller companies, closer to the P&L. Method, Sling TV, Madison Reed, and venture-backed Elemind, places where every dollar had to work. That range taught me that the principles don't change with company size. Whether the budget is $300 million or $12K the questions are the same: do we truly understand the customer, are we solving the right problem, and is every dollar creating real business value?

MY APPROACH

Growth is rarely a channel problem. It's usually a decision-making problem.

I think of myself as the conductor who also plays. I hold strategy across the full customer journey while staying close enough to the execution to see what's actually happening, in the account, in the data, in the work itself. That's where strategy and execution stay connected instead of drifting apart.

I'm also using AI to change how I work, accelerating analysis, building smarter workflows, and creating decision frameworks that make great marketing repeatable. Not automation for its own sake. Better decisions, faster.

HOW I WORK

Deeply collaborative. Comfortable presenting to a board and doing a trafficking QA in the same week. I go above and beyond as a default, not an exception, and I'm steady when the pressure is highest.

Always drawn to what's next, new platforms, building my own analytics dashboards, a better way to do something. I'd rather find it early than wait until everyone else already has.

OUTSIDE OF WORK

Duke alum, former Division I lacrosse player, and co-founder of Duke Women's Lacrosse. Based in Denver with my husband and twin daughters, when I'm not in a dashboard, I'm skiing, biking, running, or chasing them around a trail somewhere in Colorado.

Awards.


Brand Innovators Top 40 Women to Watch


CMO Award for Innovation

Marketing Agencies Association Gold Award

2008 & 2010


American Express Chairman’s Award for Innovation

2011 & 2012


Experience.

2020-Now

Founder & Fractional Leadership, Growth Marketing

MadCat Consulting


2021-2025

Director, Growth Media & Partnerships

Full Time Consultant to Employee

Madison Reed


2017-2020

Brand Growth Marketing Leader

Sling TV (Dish, LLC)


2015-2017

VP, Integrated Marketing

Method Home Products


2007-2015

VP, Media & Digital Marketing

American Express


1997-2007


Media & Marketing

Young & Rubicam, MEC, McCann Erickson