Laura Pasternak

Principal, Chief Communications Strategist

Laura is founder and principal at MarketPoint, LLC, a marketing consulting firm that serves clients in the business-to-business, education and non-profit sectors. With nearly 30 years of marketing and communications experience, including work with major firms like Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc., and Thomson Corporation, Laura combines executive-level management perspective with strategic marketing skills to help organizations achieve their goals. She has led marketing and branding campaigns at regional, national and international levels across a wide number of industries. Her expertise includes strategic planning, brand management, market research, marketing strategy, customer acquisition, PR/communications and M&A brand integration.

In 2009, Laura traveled to Nairobi, Kenya as a U.S. Corporate Ambassador with Vital Voices Global Partnership to train African businesswomen on the value of branding. She continues to work with the organization presenting on various marketing and branding topics and serving as a mentor for the Vital Voices Grow Fellowship Program, a one-year competitive program to support growth-oriented women-owned enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa.

In 2016, Laura was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve on the Maryland Small Business Development Financing Authority (MSBDFA). She has served as a Board Member and Chair of the Mentoring Committee for Executive Alliance and on the Executive Leadership Team for the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women Campaign. Previous Board roles including serving as a Trustee for the Lyric Foundation Board in Baltimore, as an Advisory Board Member for University of Baltimore’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and as International Chair for the Baltimore Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Laura is a frequent guest speaker on branding and marketing topics, including seminars for the American Strategic Management Institute, the American Marketing Association, Berrett-Koehler, and the American Society for Training & Development, the Shapiro/Rouse Lecture Series, and the Public Relations Society of America. She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the American Marketing Association, and Women in Research. Laura has also been named to Maryland’s Top 100 Women for 2016 and 2019 by The Daily Record.