A woman with shoulder-length dark brown hair, wearing hoop earrings, a black blazer, and a floral blouse, smiling against a white background.

Sarah Chodera

Founder & Chief Strategy Officer
Fractional CMO to leading financial, nonprofit, and cultural institutions

With more than 25 years of leadership across brand, creative, and strategic marketing, Sarah is trusted by leading financial services, nonprofit and cultural institutions to translate vision into meaningful market presence. Known for aligning strategy with execution, she has guided complex financial institutions and mission-driven organizations through moments of growth, transformation and renewed relevance. Her work is grounded in clarity, disciplined thinking, and the conviction that enduring brands are built where insight and execution meet.

Sarah has led the marketing organizations of global financial institutions.
Today, she advises firms navigating growth, transformation, and brand evolution.

Executive career

Nuveen, a TIAA Company | Head of Marketing, Brand and Advertising | 2012 - 2018

  • Elevated Nuveen brand in Cogent Advisor Brandscapes.

  • Built respected, thriving teams with top quartile performance in Organizational Health Survey.

  • Led Marketing change management through corporate acquisition and resulting increase in aggregated AUM from $225 billion to $1 trillion.

Mesirow | Chief Marketing Officer | 2018 - 2026

  • Unified brand across 16 disparate lines of business.

  • Drove enterprise adoption of new brand platform.

  • Expanded multi-channel marketing ecosystem.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management | Director of Retail and Institutional Marketing | 1997 - 2012

  • Built first robust GSAM retail and institutional marketing teams as assets under management increased from $150 billion to $900 billion.

  • Delivered coaching on brand strategy and customized messaging to 50+ of GSAM’s top clients — RIAs, Wealth Advisors, and Retirement Specialists — through the GSAM Global Wealth Management Institute.

  • Partnered with Goldman Sachs Corporate Communications on strategy and client communications during 2008 financial crisis.

Core expertise

Enterprise brand strategy

Media relations strategy and execution

Marketing transformation

Creative leadership

Integrated campaign development

Content distribution strategy

Organizational alignment

Financial services distribution

Industry engagement

  • Mesirow WomenConnect: “Women in Leadership” panel

  • Bounteous: Digital Innovation Panel

  • Financial Communications Society Roundtable: “Sales is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus”

  • Allianz Global Investors Marketing Offsite: Keynote address — “Best Practices in Building a Marketing and Compliance Culture”

  • Goldman “Mutual Fund University”: Trained new and experienced hires on Goldman culture and brand

  • Global sales meeting annual Marketing addresses and break-out training sessions

Ampersand partners with a select number of organizations each year, providing senior marketing leadership, strategic counsel, and executional depth.

We invite you to reach out and explore advisory inquiries, board participation, or speaking engagements.

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