DMA brings in training guru Hamilton for board role

The DMA is aiming to bolster its skills development programme by appointing learning and marketing best practice advocate and former Chartered Institute of Marketing chair Kate Hamilton to its main board.

Hamilton, who was appointed a fellow of the IDM 20 years ago, started as a marketing manager at Royal Mail in 1992. Her early career included spells at T-Mobile, Avaya, Purple Labs and Myriad Group before she set up her own consultancy, KSM Consultancy, in 2004, offering technology marketing and business advice.

Over the years she has worked for numerous industry training and education organisations, including nearly 12 years at the Oxford College of Marketing, lecturing in digital marketing. Hamilton has also been a trustee of the Communications Advertising & Marketing (CAM) Education Foundation and spent six years working with the CIM.

She is currently vice-president of marketing at digital investor communications platform Proxymity and a board trustee of the Royal Institution.

At the DMA, Hamilton will support the industry body’s ongoing campaigns to diversify skillsets across the sector – helping marketers to develop a combination of data, digital, and creative skills to address rising skills shortages and deliver more successful business outcomes.

As part of the ongoing micro-upskilling campaign, the DMA is calling on senior management teams across the UK to introduce continuous learning cultures within their organisation. In addition, the DMA continues to partner with the Department for Education to offer the UK public Digital Marketing Strategy Skills Bootcamps, funded by the Government.

Hamilton said: “Throughout my career, I have championed lifelong learning and easier access to education for our amazing profession. To achieve our industry’s full potential, we must cultivate marketers who not only innovate and inspire, but equally, who advocate for best practice and sound ethics.

“This type of professional and personal development is central to the DMA’s mission to enrich people to help support industry growth – so I am delighted to embark on this journey with the board and DMA community to achieve these goals.”

DMA board chair Stephen Maher, who is also CEO of MBAstack, added: “Kate is already widely recognised as a learning ambassador to the creative industries. Her vast experience as a marketing leader, as well as an unrelenting passion for learning and professional development, will make her appointment invaluable to our community’s drive to create continuous learning cultures across every organisation.

“I look forward to receiving her wisdom on how the DMA and our array of skills development initiatives can produce intelligent marketers throughout the industry, from the classroom to the boardroom.”