To excel in the field of marketing, you have to know how to network, build strong relationships and articulate ideas with confidence. These are professional skills at which Matthew Wasley, FOX ’13, shines. Today Wasley is a director at NYC-based startup, Knotch.
Photo by Photo credit: Jonathan Garcia
Your relationships are incredibly important—build a network of champions. Temple gave me that mindset and the opportunities to go out and make it happen.”
Working out of Austin, Texas, Wasley leads the strategic product marketing initiatives that are helping Knotch bring their data-driven technology to market. The company’s mission is to become the leading solution in content intelligence helping brands plan, measure and optimize their content marketing programs.
His courses at Fox more than prepared him for a work environment where his voice would be at the forefront of the products that he markets.
He recalled his first class with Mary Conran, associate professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management.
“Professor Conran really taught us to articulate our thoughts and ideas in front of people in ways that would be compelling,” Wasley says. “It’s a skill that if you can do it well, you really stand out and other people recognize it.”
“What I love about Philadelphia is that it’s this incredible hub for people to come together and share ideas,” said Wasley. “It connects different spokes along the Northeast and the people of the city benefit.”
He credits the city’s no-nonsense spirit with lending him an untethered drive.
“You’re going to go out and you’re going to have to take what you want,” he said, “and that’s an attitude that I definitely took from Philly and from Temple as well.”
Wasley also gives credit for his success to his modest upbringing in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, and to his mother (a working artist) and father (a mail carrier).
“One fueled my creativity and the other showed me what it meant to go to work and be out the door at 5 a.m., walking in the blistering sun or a numbing cold all day,” he said of his parents.
School: Fox School of Business
Degree: BBA, marketing, 2013
Industry: Digital marketing
Hometown: Schnecksville, Pennsylvania
“At the Fox School, you have everything at your disposal to really make it an incredible learning experience,” Wasley said. “And they foster an educational environment, but at the same time no one was really going to hold your hand.”
This approach allowed Wasley to become proactive in discovering opportunities at Temple. He volunteered at the American Marketing Association on campus and later was elected to the organization’s executive board.
In fact, a connection Wasley forged with David Shaw, FOX ’12, during his time with the AMA helped him land his first job. When Shaw later visited Temple to recruit students at a career fair, he remembered his former AMA board member well. Their relationship opened the door for Wasley to network with the lead recruiters. That, along with his stellar academic record, helped him earn a spot in the Commercial Development Program at Dupont, the position which launched Wasley’s professional trajectory.
—By Sujeiry Gonzalez and Cal Setar
