Academic demand gen at CompTIA scale

The context

After CompTIA acquired TestOut in 2023, I led academic marketing as Senior Director of Marketing. The scope was larger: Higher Ed and K-12 institutions across the US, new certification products to launch, and a bigger partner network to serve. The job was to keep growth going while bringing two marketing organizations and their systems together.

What I did

Ran the full funnel. I led academic demand gen across SEO, paid social, email, product launches, content, sales enablement and events. Inbound and outbound worked together, with new-logo, growth and retention programs running side by side.

Launched products. I led the inbound and outbound strategy for the CompTIA Tech+ launch: inbound through content and lead forms, and outbound across new-logo, growth and retention lifecycle marketing. Tech+ became the top campaign of 2024 with 728 leads. I also led marketing for the Network+, Cloud+ and A+ launches.

Grew outbound. In 2024 Higher Ed, outbound leads rose 163% while we attended fewer trade shows.

Helped partners find funding. I ran a federal-funding webinar series end to end (setup, lead capture and nurture) to help schools find grants for their programs. The webinars averaged 400+ registrants each and produced 130+ MQLs.

Systematized events. I built a tiered trade-show system with a request queue, so each event got the right level of marketing support and every lead was routed and tracked. Trade-show leads in the Secondary Ed (high school) segment rose 30%.

Went international in six weeks. I led a cross-department effort to launch 20 products internationally in 6 weeks, which brought in $250K in Q4 revenue.

Co-authored the strategy. I co-authored the 2025 Higher Ed and Secondary Ed go-to-market strategy with the VP of Sales: I owned marketing, she owned sales.

Results

• $53M+ academic business, with +10% growth in 2023 and +15% in 2024.
• +54% MQLs.
• Tech+: 728 leads, the top campaign of 2024.
• Outbound leads +163% (2024 Higher Ed).
• Funding webinars: 400+ registrants each, 130+ MQLs.
• +30% trade-show leads in Secondary Ed.
• 20 products launched internationally in 6 weeks, with $250K in Q4 revenue.

Why it matters

For marketing leadership: I’ve run full-funnel marketing for a $53M+ line of business inside a large organization, through an integration, and kept it growing. For demand gen: launches, outbound, webinars and events, measured from lead to revenue. For EdTech: I know how colleges and high schools buy, fund and adopt.