Karen Craven, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how public-sector marketing can build awareness, credibility, and trust. Her perspective is shaped by a career spanning journalism, government, public affairs, associations, education, and consumer-facing financial programs.

What the Conversation Covers
• Karen’s early career in journalism and how reporting shaped her approach to education, transparency, and public accountability.
• The career pivots that moved her from journalism into government affairs, marketing, communications, and public-sector leadership.
• How the Treasurer’s Office uses marketing to help residents understand programs tied to unclaimed property, college savings, retirement, disability savings, and community investment.
• Why public programs require clear communication, ethical marketing, multilingual outreach, and trusted community channels.
• How agencies can better understand government procurement, RFPs, partner selection, and the need to communicate complex programs clearly and responsibly.

Guest Bio
Karen Craven is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer. In her role, she helps lead marketing and communications for public-facing financial programs that serve Illinois residents, families, local governments, nonprofits, and communities. Her background includes journalism, public affairs, government, association leadership, marketing, and communications strategy.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Michael Klozotsky, Chief Marketing Officer of IMO Health, about how unconventional career paths can create stronger marketing leaders and better teams. Michael shares how his background across academia, bartending, and enterprise healthcare marketing shaped a leadership style grounded in curiosity, simplification, and a deep belief that different ways of thinking lead to better business outcomes.

What the Conversation Covers
• Michael’s unconventional path from teaching and academia into marketing leadership, and how that journey shaped the way he thinks about talent and leadership
• Why simplifying complex healthcare and enterprise technology stories is one of the most important jobs marketing can do
• How IMO Health is evolving beyond its legacy position and explaining its value across a broader healthcare and technology ecosystem
• Why Michael believes the best marketing teams include “weird thinkers” who challenge assumptions and approach problems from unexpected angles
• How he thinks about building teams, using agencies, and balancing human judgment with AI in a fast-changing marketing environment

Guest Bio
Michael Klozotsky is Chief Marketing Officer at IMO Health, where he leads marketing for a company focused on improving the quality and integrity of clinical data across the healthcare ecosystem. His career path has been anything but traditional, spanning academia, teaching, bartending, and leadership roles in complex healthcare and enterprise technology organizations, giving him a distinctive perspective on team building, storytelling, and strategic marketing.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

Dil Fernando, CMO of Freeosk, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how in-store product discovery is evolving into a more measurable retail media experience. Her perspective is valuable because she brings together experience in radio, music, entrepreneurship, CPG innovation, brand strategy, shopper engagement, and experiential retail media.

What the Conversation Covers
• Dil’s early career in radio and music, and how being on air taught her that attention is earned through timing, relevance, and storytelling.
• What entrepreneurship taught her about resilience, scrappiness, and understanding business from multiple angles.
• How her work in CPG innovation at MillerCoors shaped her view of experimentation, emerging technology, and scaling new ideas inside large companies.
• How Freeosk is evolving from a sampling business into a broader experiential retail media platform connecting sampling, media, shopper engagement, and data.
• Dil’s approach to agency partnerships, including why market understanding, strategic thinking, functional expertise, and useful insights matter.

Guest Bio
Dilini “Dil” Fernando is Chief Marketing Officer at Freeosk, a company helping brands and retailers create measurable in-store product discovery experiences. In her role, she leads brand, communications, positioning, partnership marketing, insights, and media analytics. Her background includes radio, music, entrepreneurship, business school, CPG brand management, innovation, and shopper marketing.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.