Jay Basnight brings senior marketing leadership grounded in operating experience, accountability, and scale. His work focuses on helping organizations navigate moments of complexity — when growth slows, priorities blur, or the business has outpaced its marketing structure.
He has served as Chief Marketing Officer and senior digital leader across global retail, private-equity-backed businesses, and government and defense supply organizations. His experience spans enterprise brand leadership, digital transformation, demand generation, data and platform modernization, and executive alignment.
Jay’s leadership style is pragmatic and outcome-driven. He emphasizes clarity over activity, direction over motion, and results over noise. Marketing, in his view, is not a collection of channels — it is a system that must support revenue, margin, and long-term enterprise value.
Throughout his career, Jay has led organizations through inflection points including post-restructuring growth, digital turnarounds, platform consolidation, and go-to-market realignment. He has partnered closely with CEOs, boards, and private equity sponsors to translate strategy into execution and accountability.
As a leader, Jay is often engaged when:
• Marketing lacks executive credibility or alignment
• Growth has stalled or become inconsistent
• Digital platforms and data have outpaced the organization
• Teams are active but unfocused
• Leadership needs senior perspective without delay
His role is to establish direction, align stakeholders, and create momentum — while strengthening the organization’s ability to operate independently over time.
Jay supports organizations through full-time executive roles, fractional CMO engagements, and advisory relationships. In fractional and advisory work, he operates as a senior member of the leadership team, with clear scope, decision rights, and outcomes.
He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in Physics and Economics from Bowdoin College. His academic background informs a leadership approach that balances analytical rigor with creativity and judgment.
Based between Boston and Virginia Beach, Jay works with organizations across the U.S. and internationally. His leadership style is direct, collaborative, and focused on impact.
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