Management
Vada Hill, Principal
Vada Hill and current U.S. Senator, Lamar Alexander. As part of the U.S. State Department’s South Africa Election Support Project, Hill worked with the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party to help this key constituency prepare for the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, and so, peacefully accept an inevitable African National Congress victory.
Following several years as a senior account manager at the advertising agencies of Ogilvy and Mather in New York and BBDO in Los Angeles, Hill joined PepsiCo and the Taco Bell ® Corporation. As Taco Bell’s Chief Marketing Officer, Hill was responsible for developing the renowned “Chihuahua” advertising campaign, making such phrases as “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” and “Drop the Chalupa” part of America’s vernacular. He successfully repositioned the brand and drove sales and profits through the launhas spent decades building brands and forging relationships with consumers.
As Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Vada was responsible for qualifying future marketing and product initiatives to increase homeownership levels -- particularly among Hispanic, African-American, new immigrants and female headed households. He developed seminal consumer, mortgage broker and realtor habits and practices research to guide more effective marketing and product development efforts. Vada's launch of a comprehensive survey of financial and mortgage related activities and behavior among 10,000+ households led to a breakthrough category segmentation model profiled in American Demographics magazine. He also launched efanniemae.com, the company’s corporate portal for all e-commerce activity. He also traveled to South Africa to aid its major banks in more effectively reaching black South Africans, through leveraging the financial insights gleaned from U.S. Hispanic and African-American consumers.
Before joining Fannie Mae, Vada was a brand manager at Procter & Gamble (P&G) throughout the 1980’s; successfully repositioning such brands as Cheer® and Dreft® laundry detergents and Luvs® diapers. Vada left P&G to run a Cincinnati area congressional campaign and then served in the George H. W. Bush administration as the special assistant to, then U.S. Secretary of Education ch of such products as Gorditas, Chalupas and Grande Meals, and the sale of over 35 million talking plush Chihuahuas.
Vada is a native of Cincinnati, a graduate of Harvard University and studied at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has traveled throughout Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Morocco and South Africa and is a collector of African-American fine art, Israeli bronze sculpture and fine wines.
He was selected by the Promotion Marketing Association as its “Marketer of the Year,” Advertising Age magazine as its lead “Power 50” marketer, and the winner of the Grand Effie and two Gold Effie awards for business building advertising. He is an owner of the Cincinnati Reds major league baseball team and served on the board of directors of the Denny's Corporation, Blue Chip Broadcasting and American Forests. He currently serves on the board of Procter & Gamble’s Futureworks division – which oversees such franchise based concepts as Tide Dry Cleaners and Mr. Clean Car Wash. He was also a member of the media/advertising/strategy team for Bush/Cheney 2004 – being a key contributor to the campaign’s wins in Florida and Ohio.