JF&CS News Winter 2013

An artist making a mosaic uses shards of pottery or tile, carefully placing each piece until it comes together as a beautiful whole. It takes precision and creativity to make it work. Senior Vice President of Marketing Robin Kahn brings this same inspiration and analytical skill set both to the mosaics she makes and to her new position here at JF&CS.

"A mosaic is a puzzle – it's problem solving and creative – putting pieces together," said Robin. "What I like most about marketing is that it's strategic, creative, and analytical. I can use both parts of my brain. I can see the big picture but look at data to determine success and failure and refocus accordingly. It's fun too."

Robin, who lives with her husband in Newton and has a daughter in college and a son in high school, joined JF&CS in July 2012. She has twenty years of strategic marketing and consulting experience helping companies such as Fidelity, Accenture, and IBM improve their customer focus. Prior to JF&CS, she was an independent consultant in market research and customer strategy. It was during this time that she worked for a nonprofit and became interested in using her for-profit experience to do something valuable for the community.

"JF&CS is a great place to apply my skills. I feel like my for-profit experience can be so useful to a nonprofit. People collaborate here to help so many who are aging, have disabilities, or have health issues. It's satisfying to know my work makes lives better," said Robin.

Robin's first priority is to create a better awareness of the agency's many areas of expertise and bring a greater focus to its marketing efforts. "We need to spend time marketing the services that clients need most and that make us indispensable to the community. Our messaging and services need to be strong, clear, and valuable," she said.

A self-described "exercise fanatic" who mixes it up with spinning, kick boxing, weight lifting, and speed walking, Robin holds an undergraduate degree in finance and math from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She started her career following food stocks at an investment bank but said, "It was too reactive for me. I wanted to be a catalyst to bring about change."

Robin plans on working closely with the JF&CS Performance and Quality Management (PQM) team to capture and analyze data about the impact of the agency's work. "PQM is one of my most important business partners here. I'm trying to communicate the impact of the work of JF&CS in the community. I believe in the power of numbers to answer the question, ‘Is this the right thing to do?'" With her ingenuity, Robin is sure to find the right answer.

For more information, call 781-647-JFCS (5327) or email your questions via our contact us page.