Jonathan Copulsky is an innovative marketing leader, growth strategist, and thought leader with over 35 years of experience working at the intersection of brand, marketing strategy, content marketing, and marketing technology. As a CMO, consultant, and board member, Jonathan brings the ability to anticipate customer needs, reposition brands, architect fresh “go-market-solutions,” creatively apply new technologies, streamline customer-facing operations, build strong teams, and engage diverse stakeholders to deliver measurable and impactful results.
Jonathan has accumulated significant strategic, operational, and leadership experience through a series of corporate and professional services roles. He has also gained experience in governance, having been a senior executive with a NYSE corporation and a board member for not-for-profits. Jonathan currently serves on the board of Chicago Public Media and he recently joined the board of Openlands, a not-for-profit organization focused on protecting the natural and open spaces of northeastern Illinois and the surrounding region.
In 2011, Deloitte’s Chief Strategy Officer asked Jonathan to take on the role of Chief Content Officer, with responsibility for turning around Deloitte’s struggling research and publishing programs. After Jonathan assumed the role, Deloitte quickly gained widespread recognition as a leader in professional services thought leadership, rising from a #18 ranking to the #1 ranking according to industry analyst, Source for Consulting.
Thought leadership has been a constant throughout Jonathan’s career, with more than 35 bylined articles and interviews with leading business journals, such as The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Business Week. His critically acclaimed book, Brand Resilience, a brand risk management primer, was published in 2011 and he is currently writing a book on digital maturity based on a multi-year research collaboration with MIT Sloan Management Review.
Jonathan assumed the role of Chief Marketing Officer for Deloitte’s $7+ billion US Consulting business in 2015.
Jonathan is a member of the advisory boards of Applied Marketing Analytics and the Northwestern Spiegel Research Center on Integrated Marketing Communications and teaches marketing at Northwestern University. Jonathan also serves on the Advisory Board of Workplace Analytics LLC, a start-up that helps organizations identify deep attitudes that drive behavior.
On a personal note, Jonathan has completed more than 25 marathons and long-distance relays and shares his passion for long-distance running as a mentor and marathon training pace group leader.
Jonathan graduated from Haverford College and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his MBA from Stanford University, where he was also in the Public Management Program and was named an Arjay Miller Scholar, in recognition of outstanding academic performance.
Sneak Peek Into What You’ll Learn…
01:38 – Jonathan tells us more about his career journey that brought him from teaching high school to being a senior leader in a professional services organization.
06:14 – Jonathan explains how taking a step back in his career during allowed him to accelerate his career journey.
10:39 – Jonathan discusses his rapid career growth in consulting and how that affected his work-life balance.
14:10 – We learn more about Jonathan’s experience helping to turn a company around, selling it, and then leaving it without knowing what was to come next.
26:02 – Jonathan tells us about his 20 years at Deloitte and the various “Chief” roles he had and why he stayed with the company for so long.
31:44 – Jonathan explains how he cultivates authenticity and how he learned to be comfortable in his own skin.
35:32 – Jonathan shares the advice he would give to ambitious people early in their careers.
39:46 – We learn what Jonathan would say to someone who struggles with juggling work demands and family responsibility.
44:04 – Jonathan shares how running marathons and other outdoor pursuits contribute to his overall success.
45:55 – Brass Tacks— The lightning round of concrete advice and tips.
Quotable quotes:
- “What I discovered in all of this process is that sometimes when you’re actively looking for something it doesn’t really happen and sometimes, when you’re not looking, you’ve accumulated experiences and people ask you to do things…”
- “I wish I was smarter when I was younger in terms of being able to focus and be present in the moment as opposed to thinking about what’s next.
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