CPM Member Spotlight: Kevin Degutis
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Although originally from The States, my family has moved to Melbourne after 14 years in New Zealand, just before Christmas to allow my wife to complete her training at Royal Melbourne Hospital. I love the outdoors but also am a tinkerer by heart and thrive on a creative process of “building” and “making”, both the strategy and visualisation involved and the doing as well. Looking at how to rework, retool, or create new is what energises my thinking. And energy is something I have lots of which causes me to often volunteer to roll my sleeves up, muck in and get my hands dirty.
As for my work history, it is a bit of a mixed bag. With my bachelor’s in International Business (Marketing) and a minor in Graphic Design I have been involved with both. To support my wife’s process we have moved as her training requires and thankfully, Melbourne is most likely our last stop. Prior to moving to New Zealand I held a role as Promotional Marketing Manager for Dunkin Donuts covering most of the Eastern Seaboard, east of the Mississippi River. However shifting throughout New Zealand meant roles as Marketing Design Lead for the largest realtor in Auckland for 4 yrs, but also a magazine designer for a local publication in the smaller idyllic setting of Nelson. Most recently, was a role in Hamilton as Marketing Manager for a sealants and adhesives company. It was this role which has set a path for the future roles now that I am able to work in Australia as of the beginning of March. It was a great real-life case study which coincided with the completion of my MBA this June and was a major turn around success, taking the company from 5 years of YOY sales decline to 2 years of 23% growth YOY.
So as I set myself up in Melbourne, I will be looking to involve myself with a marketing role once again and with any industry body. Thanks to being a member of the Marketing Association in New Zealand for the first time in 2016, which also entitles you to be a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing out of the UK, I found great value and return from the teachings and information they provide and would like to work to use the prime example I have from those learnings for others to benefit from in an educational manner as well.