After graduating with a BS in Environmental Engineering from Purdue University, Roehm began working at Bristol Myers Squibb, where she deployed her scientific acumen in an environmental engineering role. In the course of her time at BMS, however, she found that working behind the scenes was not as satisfying to her as sitting around the table making deals. So she applied to business school and was accepted to the University of Chicago. As a freshly minted MBA she landed a market analyst job at American Airlines, and from there moved on to the Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler.
It was here in the automotive industry that Roehm’s calling as a marketer really became clear. She was promoted seven times, from a position as Manager of Global Export Ops and Product Planning to Ford’s U.S. Cars and Minivans Director of Marketing Communications, where she led 200 people with a $200 million budget. Then she took on a role as DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge Director of Marketing Communications, where she oversaw a $2 billion budget and a 2,200-person workforce.
After this impressive stint she founded and helmed a marketing strategy consulting firm for B2B and B2C companies, where she advised a wide array of clients. Her expertise and portfolio soon attracted the attention of SAP, and before long she accepted a position as the prestigious software company’s Global SVP, Strategic Relationships, Marketing, and Chief Storyteller. From there she moved on to Abra Auto Body and Glass, where she leveled up to Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Experience Officer, a title she retains with her current employer, Party City Holdings, Inc. With each successive position, Roehm has leveraged dynamic leadership skills, diverse talents, and a future-focused mindset to fundamentally improve an organization. Her story is one of success.
But of course, as the Chief Storyteller herself will be the first to affirm, all great stories have their twists and setbacks. One obstacle that Roehm cites as foundational to her growth is her entrance into a male-dominated career culture, right on the heels of a male-dominated business school experience. She is open about the challenges that were part and parcel of being an outspoken, changemaking female executive, noting that it was often “very clear that [women] didn’t get the same opportunities” as their male counterparts. There were invisible barriers all around her, but time and again she figured out ways to achieve.
Finding success in a male-dominated culture started early for her, she says in a recent podcast. She recalls a Catholic education that seemed to reflect and prop up a “boys’ world,” one that she never felt entirely comfortable submitting to. Roehm remembers competing hard in sports and school, consciously and unconsciously doing her best to “beat the boys…to prove a point, more to myself than anyone else.” Her hard work paid off, and her aptitude for math and science pushed her into her engineering major at Purdue, where, once more, she took on and beat gender obstacles and stereotypes.
Growing up with a chip on her shoulder about her male classmates gave Roehm the resilience she needed to then take on the male-dominated corporate world of the 1990s. She forged her own successful path, and now she makes supporting other women integral to her own career journey—while also maintaining an awareness of the possibility of overindexing, which would be to the detriment of the men around her. Her own experience with unfairness has made her manifestly fair.
Julie Roehm’s story is one of strength in adversity, and the generosity and wisdom that comes from experience. And if the next chapter in her career journey is anything like its predecessors, it’s bound to be a good one.
