Catherine Kaputa

Catherine Kaputa is a brand strategist, speaker and author. From Madison Avenue to Wall Street to the halls of academia, Catherine Kaputa perfected her ability to market products, places, and companies. She led the award-winning “I ♥ NY” campaign at Wells, Rich, Greene ad agency. For over ten years she was SVP, Director of Advertising and Community Affairs at Citi Smith Barney, and she taught branding and advertising at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Yet Catherine discovered that one of the most important applications for branding is not for products — it’s for individuals to define and own their career identity and create their own performance success. That’s why Catherine launched SelfBrand LLC, a New York City-based personal branding company and wrote the award-winning book, You Are a Brand! winner of the Ben Franklin award for Best Career Book and translated into over 10 languages. One of Catherine’s greatest passions is women’s leadership and creating more female leaders, the topic of her book, Women Who Brand. Her book for entrepreneurs, Breakthrough Branding won the Silver Medal in the Book of the Year Awards, 2012, Business Category. Her new book, Graduate to a Great Career, out in April 2016, is for students, new grads and young professionals looking for their first job and interested in launching Brand You.

Catherine is active as a speaker and has spoken at a wide range of organizations including Google, PepsiCo, Unilever, Microsoft, Intel, Citi, Whirlpool, Time Inc., Warner Brothers, Merck, GSK, Alcon and others. She gave the keynote talk at the Women’s Leadership Conference in Vienna sponsored by the U.S. State Department and Eurobrand. She has been featured in a wide range of media including CNN, NBC, MSNBC, The New York Times, Forbes and other media. Catherine is a graduate of Northwestern University and was a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University.