PRIDE Industries Hires Marketing & Communications Expert Marielle Valdez-Fong

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Marielle Valdez-Fong has joined PRIDE Industries as Marketing and Communications Director, taking a leading role in the organization’s initiative to build local and national awareness for PRIDE Industries’ unique brand. As head of the company’s marketing team, she will develop key promotional strategies for the organization and its business and product lines while also providing guidance in their implementation and evaluation.

“I’m thrilled to join a social enterprise with such an important mission,” Valdez-Fong said. “By working with our lines of business to expand their customer base, I’m helping PRIDE Industries grow the jobs and services we offer to people with disabilities. For me, that’s truly inspiring.”

PRIDE Industries delivers business excellence with a positive social impact. The company optimizes customers’ business operations while creating sustainable career opportunities and training for people of diverse abilities. Every day, PRIDE Industries proves the value of its inclusive workforce model through operational success across multiple industries.

“As we transform PRIDE Industries’ marketing strategies, we welcome Marielle with her rich expertise and leadership to our team,” said Leah Burdick, Chief Growth Officer at PRIDE Industries. “Her diverse skill set and deep roots in both product and services marketing will help us establish a national brand worthy of our mission.”

Valdez-Fong boasts a career-long record of guiding companies in developing their value propositions and go-to-market strategies for a wide range of products and services. She honed these essential skills in senior marketing and product management positions in Silicon Valley. At Sybase, she was a key member of the release team for web.sql, the industry’s first tool to generate dynamic web pages from a database. As Director of Marketing at Engage3, Valdez-Fong was responsible for branding, content marketing, sales enablement, and demand generation strategies. Earlier in her career, she was part of the strategic XML team for data warehousing at Informix (IBM).

Valdez-Fong also brings an impressive entrepreneurial background to PRIDE Industries. She was the founder of Balikbayan Gear, a private label development company which counted among its customers some of the largest retail chains in the Philippines. She also co-founded MarketingValet, a 40-person offshore creative agency that produced marketing campaigns for Google, Adobe, Agilent, and Verizon Wireless. The success of these two startups led Entrepreneur Magazine (Philippine edition) to name Valdez-Fong one of its Top Ten Entrepreneurs in 2008.

Valdez-Fong is happy to use her extensive experience to further PRIDE Industries’ mission. 

“Five years ago, my brother had a stroke that resulted in his inability to go back to work,” said Valdez-Fong. “A disability is not always something people are born with; it can happen to any of us at any time. I’m honored to join PRIDE Industries and play a role in furthering our mission of creating employment for people with disabilities.”

Valdez-Fong received her bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Business and Economics) from De La Salle University in Manila and her MBA from Pepperdine University in Southern California. She is a member of the Forbes Communications Council, whose members are selected based on the depth and diversity of their experience as leaders in the communications industry.