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Karen Brooker is the Vice President of Growth Strategy at Marketing Card Technology (MCT), bringing over 25 years of B2B experience to the role. Throughout her career, Karen has excelled in delivering innovative ideas, solutions, and overseeing production to meet the needs of various organizations. In her six years of leadership in sales and marketing, she has consistently demonstrated a positive attitude and a commitment to integrity, earning the respect of her clients through her dedication and professionalism.
Karen’s extensive experience in the card industry has equipped her with specialized knowledge in print theory, card design and production, as well as the marketing of branded card products. Since 2008, she has been actively involved with the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), an organization focused on education, networking, and collaboration within the industry. Her leadership was further recognized when she served on the ICMA Board of Directors from 2017 to 2018. Karen has also contributed to the industry through numerous presentations on topics such as plastic card manufacturing, gift card market trends, Big Data, mobile payment technologies, and card personalization.
A lifelong learner and passionate writer, Karen has pursued various forms of writing since childhood, ranging from personal reflections to professional documents like web copy, emails, and press releases. She values continuous education, having paused her Strategic Management M.S. program at Kelley Direct to take numerous courses through Coursera. When she’s not traveling for work or leisure, Karen enjoys the tranquility of her small-town home near Chicago, where she continues to embrace new learning opportunities and personal growth.
Marketing Card Technology (MCT) is an EMV-Co approved, U.S.-based, minority-owned provider of plastic and paper cards for payments, access, ticketing, ID, membership, and marketing promotions. With decades of experience, MCT’s account team expertly manages card and direct mail programs for organizations of all sizes. Based in the Chicago suburbs, this founder-managed and customer-centered company excels in secure payment cards, RFID access cards, personalized direct mail, and more.
Chris: Welcome back to the Think Factory podcast and I’m your host Chris Santomassimo from OGC Solutions and we power the Think Factory podcast and I’m excited to talk today with Karen Brooker. Karen is the Vice President of Growth Strategy with Marketing Card Technology in Downers Grove, Illinois. Welcome to the podcast.
Karen: Well, I’m happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me, Chris.
Chris: Well, I think then I’m excited to talk to you because this is sort of a special prep related episode, because MCT really is in a special niche being in the marketing card arena. I think one of the few folks that do that as the central part of their business. So tell us a little bit about AMC and what you do and how you’re helping your customers.
Karen: Right. MCT has been in the business for a little over ten years, but our founders and our key staff have been in the business for quite a bit longer than that. I have been in card manufacturing and print for over 30 years myself, which I know dates me like with different back in the days of the fax machine.
It was the simpler time. It was. It’s funny, you and I think about the days of art boards and, you know, kind of flipping through the overlays to see the elements of your design. And life is quite a bit different now, which, you know, it’s interesting, we don’t have as many colleagues in print as we used to. And the designers that we work with are frequently designing primarily for digital and only to a small degree for printed pieces. And so that’s where I think having the experience makes the biggest difference because we’re able to kind of fill in the gaps with that design background for our customers where they don’t necessarily have that strength with print.
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