The Odyssey taps Goldman Sachs’ Shalett as CMO

Social content platform The Odyssey has hired Lisa Shalett as chief marketing officer. Previously, Shalett worked at Goldman Sachs where she was a partner and most recently served as head of brand marketing.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK—August 19, 2015— The Odyssey today announces that Lisa Shalett, former Goldman Sachs Partner and Head of Brand Marketing, will take on the role of Chief Marketing Officer. The Odyssey is a millennial-focused social content platform. It crowdsources the ideas of thousands of thought leaders in their respective local communities, surfacing an otherwise untapped and rich diversity of viewpoints for an audience hungry for multiple perspectives.

The Odyssey’s rapid growth and high engagement levels demonstrate the powerful connection people feel with content that is locally relevant and organically shared across social media channels. The Odyssey was founded by CEO Evan Burns while he was a student at Indiana University, and launched online in June 2014. The site reached 10 million monthly unique visitors in less than 12 months, and is now close to double that amount. The Odyssey empowers writers in more than 250 communities nationwide to share their stories with a global audience.

Prior to joining The Odyssey, Lisa was a Partner at Goldman Sachs and most recently the Head of Brand Marketing & Digital Strategy, managing the Goldman Sachs’ brand throughout the financial crisis. During her 20-year tenure at Goldman Sachs, Lisa held senior leadership positions in five divisions and two regions, led revenue-producing and revenue-supporting businesses, managed global P&Ls and key client relationships, and helped to transform the way Goldman communicates with its stakeholders through advertising and content marketing, as well as establishing and evolving the firm’s digital presence.

“What first impressed me most about The Odyssey was Evan. I have had the privilege to work with many very talented people over the course of my career, and Evan is truly exceptional as a leader and visionary. The Odyssey’s model blew me away. The innovative ways it helps brands resonate with the millennial demographic addresses a pain point I had experienced myself in my former role and continue to hear echoed by CMOs and agencies everywhere. The opportunity to join Evan and his team as CMO, and to help The Odyssey emerge as a media industry leader was too compelling to resist,” says Shalett.

In her new role, Lisa will further raise the visibility of The Odyssey with brands and agencies as a critically important, smart partner in reaching and resonating with the millennial and Gen Z audiences. She will also solidify The Odyssey’s role as a technology company with a differentiated model in the ever-evolving digital media industry.

Evan Burns, founder and CEO of The Odyssey, said, “We are changing the way content is created, discovered, disseminated and valued, and it has been thrilling to see how well The Odyssey has been received. As we continue to grow, having talent like Lisa Shalett join us adds tremendous depth and expertise to our team, and brings a CMO’s perspective to the table in our work with advertisers and agencies. We are fortunate to have connected with Lisa at the exact time in her career when she was eager to make a major change and bring her considerable experience to the startup world. She is an integral part of the dream team I am assembling to take The Odyssey to its next phase of exponential growth.”

The Odyssey currently has over 3,500 writers embedded in more than 250 communities across the United States, a number that is projected to grow to upwards of 450 communities by the end of 2015.

About The Odyssey
The Odyssey’s social content platform crowdsources viewpoints from millennial thought leaders embedded in their local communities, surfacing a rich and otherwise untapped diversity of stories and real conversations to share on a worldwide scale with an audience hungry for a variety of perspectives. The platform empowers its thousands of writers to contribute what matters to them, and enables content to find its most relevant audience through organic social sharing. All Odyssey content undergoes a rigorous editorial process, leveraging the power of its proprietary MUSE technology combined with its editorial team. The Odyssey, which launched online in 2014, is growing explosively with a highly engaged millennial and Gen Z audience. Based in New York and Indianapolis, The Odyssey has a presence in over 250 communities nationwide, growing to 450 communities by year end.