Michele Maguire Merrill, VP, Acquisitions, Think Services

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Michele Maguire Merrill, VP of acquisitions and integration at United Business Media's Think Services, landed her first b2b media job selling advertising at Miller Freeman in San Francisco. She was eventually promoted to ad director, and then to publisher in the mid-80s. She worked for both Miller Freeman and CMP (now UBM U.S.) twice each before they merged. At the time, b2b media was comprised mostly of men, while women were prominent in agencies. Maguire Merrill entered the publishing industry in the technology sector, which has always been open to women, she says. She experienced little to none of the glass ceiling phenomenon. "Tech remains open to both genders," she says.

Maguire Merrill remains enthusiastic about b2b as a career path. "What I enjoy about the industry is how much we learn about different businesses, the wealth of information we learn about start-ups, the contacts [we make]," Maguire Merrill shares. Change is also an opportunity for growth. "In our business, we've been very successful in migrating all of our businesses, which are service-based models, in the downturn of print."

Maguire Merrill helped launch two successful businesses in China in the past few years: the Game Developers Conference and the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) China, which is a center for business training certification and consulting for call center management. The Game Developers Conference is an annual gathering of professional video game developers, offering networking opportunities, awards ceremonies and an expo, which was reported to have had more than 18,000 attendees in 2008.

Maguire Merrill lives in Berkeley, Calif., with her husband, Eric, and their two boys, Ian, 14, and Grant, 16. She enjoys water and snow skiing, the outdoors and travel. One of her favorite spots to visit? Turkey. When not working, she reads Dwell, Organic Life and Wired.

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