COSTA MESA, USA // A self-proclaimed “Mad Woman” Marinella (“Mari”) has spent her entire career in advertising and loves it. After graduating college in Italy in 2003, Mari worked in the consumer and retail spaces, developing brands for luxury hotels and resorts. Her role was to create a vision of these hotels even before the properties were built.

In 2008, now in So Cal and ready to start a family, she identified a small agency, LehmanMillet. With little healthcare experience, Mari decided to give it a shot– pledging to give it “two years and two kids” to see how it went. Thirteen years later, Mari remains passionately curious about clients, patients, and the work. She finds it much more motivating than selling high-thread count bedding.

While Mari started as an art director, her passion for design thinking caught leadership’s attention, and they created a position for her – director of design. Mari pioneered new ways to present work and discuss the visual articulation of brand, elevating the entire development process of logo design systems, font treatments, color palettes, style guides.

She became VP, Creative Director in 2012, leading a team of five. She has since hired many and is immensely proud that many of her picks are still with PRECISIONeffect today. People like working for Mari, and they stay at the agency either working for her or becoming leaders in their own right. Due to her success, drive, and passion, Mari was promoted to SVP, Creative Director in 2016.

Mari has been in the West Coast office for over 10 years, turning its creative team into a powerhouse of talented creatives who support and push one another to greater heights and stay long term. The proof is in the business results for the agency—revenue that has grown 20%—and for clients.

One of Mari’s standout accomplishment’s Cologuard, now one of healthcare’s most recognized diagnostic brands. Mari was instrumental in creating the world of Cologuard and convincing the deeply scientific company to embrace the “smiling box” character now so widely accepted and understood as an alternative approach to colon cancer screening. One judge on an awards panel noted, “…the spot uses humor in a way that’s empathetic, which is unusual in pharma marketing.” This is the kind of approach Mari brings to her work every day.