When Stephanie Dorman joined Mediaocean to run its client support team, the company was a small software startup called MediaBank. “We were maybe not as professional as we needed to be to support some of these large agency customers that we’d won,” Nick Galassi, Mediaocean president and chief financial officer, recalled.
That wasn’t the last problem she would fix. After MediaBank merged with Donovan Data Systems to become Mediaocean, Dorman served in senior client-facing roles for 10 years before she reluctantly agreed to run the combined company’s human resources department.
”We’d done some big acquisitions and they weren’t going super well,” Galassi said. “We were having personnel issues. She put the needs of the business first and she did an awesome job with it. She got everything working again. People love working for her.”
Once the HR department was running smoothly, Dorman moved from chief people officer to chief customer officer, which made her the main point of contact for all of its major agency holding companies. “Stephanie’s had a number of different roles at Mediaocean and she’s excelled at all of them,” Galassi said.
I knew what I didn’t want to be. … And I didn’t want to be in a position where other things dictated the choices I needed to make.”
Stephanie Dorman
Dorman grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, and (Roll Tide!) went to the University of
Alabama. After the pandemic, she moved back down south to be near her family.
She said she was never one to make five-year plans. “I knew what I didn’t want to be,” Dorman said. “I didn’t want to be lazy. I didn’t want to be poor. I didn’t want to be alone. And I didn’t want to be in a position where other things dictated the choices I needed to make.”
After college she wound up on Wall Street. A former supervisor moved to Yahoo’s Right Media startup and asked her to join him.
Bill Wise, the CEO of Right Media, left to start Media Bank. About a year later, he called, and she’s been there ever since.
Dorman won over Kevin McEvilly, senior VP for technology at ad agency Canvas Worldwide, with an unusual plan to use a special team to onboard the agency rather than the team that would support the agency.
“I was skeptical, but by the time it was done, I was a fan of the approach, but a larger fan of hers,” McEvilly said. “Her personality got me over the hump and then the outcome was really very solid. That personality starts with humor, but “we work at what needs to get done,” he said.
It’s part of the way Dorman is overseeing the transformation of client service at Mediaocean, including the implementation of artificial intelligence as a way to let employees focus on providing bespoke services instead of answering basic questions.
Lisa Painter, senior director, executive experiences at Zendesk, called Dorman “one of our favorite customers.”
It didn’t start that way. After installing Zendesk’s software, Dorman was furious about the service Mediaocean received and emailed Zendesk’s chief customer officer and chief technology officer, saying she wanted out of their contract. On the very same day Zendesk went public and rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, its management sent Painter to address Dorman’s issues.
“She did a great job,” Dorman said. “She has a talent for bringing people together.”
Dorman became one of the founding members of Mindshare, an executive community started by Painter for Zendesk clients that has grown to about 500 people. “A lot of people look up to her,” Painter said. “She’s really articulate. She’s also a very straight shooter.”
Leading the Way for Women
Adina Salah, senior VP, corporate operations at Mediaocean, said that when she started at the company, she was “struck by the positive spirit that [Dorman] exudes as a leader and a woman executive.”
Dorman has been “a game changer,” Salah said. “The amount of women leaders has grown within the company and they have a voice when critical things are happening.”
Dorman has a son, four stepkids, two grandkids and a beagle named Charlie. Her husband is opening a cabinet store and Alabamans are charmed by his British accent.
What’s next for Dorman? She said she’s in the process of trying to become a board director of a company or two in their early stages of operation or a nonprofit. “I’d prefer to work on something very different from what I’m working on today, where I feel like an outside perspective can bring a lot of help and growth.”
She’s leaning on some of her own mentors to help her prepare her board portfolio. “I just did my resume for the first time in 16 years,” she said.
