Stefan Willimann

CEO

Education: Tulane University

Hometown: Scarsdale, NY

Joined SIGMA: 2012

They say that college internships are important. Mine shaped my career for sure. As a marketing intern for the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, LA I got to experience and work closely with an NCAA Final Four Championship and an NFL Superbowl. To experience the power of marketing, advertising, live event interactivity, a global broadcast along with quantitative and qualitative research was nothing but awesome. It ignited my passion for measured consumer interactivity with products and services that I continue to get excited about today.

My early career was spent in electronic media working in various sales, marketing, and managerial roles within the radio industry. “Shock Jocks” were all the rage back then, a show or stations’ “ratings” were limited to time spent listening from diaries that listeners actually had to fill out daily. Wait… what did I listen to last Wednesday from 8a-9a? Hardly an exact science.

Curiosity and industry innovation led me from traditional marketing to focus more on digital video marketing and brand messaging, I started BroadcastMarketing/BMS Inc. a company I eventually sold and moved on to other opportunities at WorldNow, Inc. a company that built unified web platforms for media companies and CBS Broadcasting, Inc. where I worked to develop strategies for evolving traditional media into “multi-platform” and interactive experiences that were measured with real data points and accurate metrics for determining return on investment (ROI). CBS Broadcasting led me to form another company, News Simply Corp.; an online aggregated news network that was sold to an independent newspaper publishing company.

During my time at SIGMA, I have seen the shift in effective mediums and how that translates into data analytics. I knew data was going to lead the way to smarter business decisions before it was cool and am impressed each day by the innovative ways our team is able to translate data into actionable insights that drive ROI. It’s the most innovative, rewarding, and exciting experience of my career.

Passionate About:
Summers on Martha’s Vineyard with family and friends
Empowering our team at SIGMA
Possibilities and innovation

Two Truths and a Lie: 

  1. My dad played for the San Francisco 49ers.
  2. I broke my hip kiteboarding.
  3. 1776 is one of my favorite books.

Stefan Willimann