SME has appointed Tracy Cullen as the organization’s first senior director, Strategic Communications and Brand Management.
She will report to SME Executive Director and CEO Robert “Bob” Willig.
Cullen joined SME from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) where she served for six years as assistant vice president, Communications and Brand Management. She was hired at NEMA as a change agent to form the first fully integrated Communications and Marketing department in NEMA history directing corporate communications, membership marketing, and meeting planning teams as well as leading NEMA through a repositioning campaign that included brand modernization, infrastructure reconstruction, and material redesign. As the in-house strategist for 56 product sections, Cullen led sector-specific initiatives, including advocacy outreach, stakeholder engagement, and consumer education campaigns.
Prior to NEMA, Cullen led global marketing and communications initiatives for the Plastics Industry Association rising to senior vice president. There, she led the association through a name change, dues restructuring, and rebranding initiative. She developed multimillion-dollar event marketing campaigns for NPE, one of the largest global trade shows, spanning one million square feet and attracting 65,000 attendees, which fueled gate revenue of $1M. She also managed aggressive advocacy campaigns to fight material and product bans.
