Ask a Marketing Executive: Jamie Gier, most recently the CMO of DexCare

In the latest edition of our Ask a Marketing Executive series, we sat down with Jamie Gier, a 25-year healthcare industry veteran and most recently the CMO of DexCare, a digital health company. Jamie shares her definition of the role of the CMO. She also talks about how her experience as a single parent shaped her leadership style, the evolving use of AI in marketing, and her vision for balancing data, creativity, and meaningful connections to drive business results.

How do you define the role of today’s Chief Marketing Officer?

I define the CMO role through two lenses: as a growth architect and a meaning maker.

As a growth architect, the CMO is responsible for designing strategies, systems, and stories that connect the brand or product to tangible business outcomes, whether that’s revenue growth, net retention, or renewals. It’s all about how we grow market share and contribute directly to business performance.

The other responsibility of the role, which is less often discussed, is being a meaning maker – shaping understanding, building trust, and giving people a reason to care. It’s about contextualizing the problems we solve, helping our audience make sense of a crowded marketplace, and positioning our brand as the trusted solution. Buyers are overwhelmed by options, and our job is to help them feel confident in choosing us.

These two functions are deeply intertwined, and when done well, they fuel each other.

You’ve said your role as “Chief Mom Officer” has shaped you more than any job title you’ve held. Which parenting skills have helped you most in your career?

I love this question. Let me answer it from two perspectives.

First, early in my career before I became a parent, I didn’t fully understand the experience of working parents. I lacked the empathy needed to grasp what it means to juggle both career and caregiving responsibilities. That changed when I had my son. My empathy grew exponentially, especially because I’m a single mom.

Second, as a mom, my job is to raise a good human being; someone who will grow into a kind, responsible, and thoughtful citizen. My role as a leader is to create the right environment for people to thrive, both individually and as a team. I want to build a culture that helps people do their best work and have the greatest impact.

The healthcare landscape is changing rapidly in response to political shifts, industry consolidation, and the explosion of health tech. How has your marketing strategy evolved in response?

The healthcare industry is built on trust. Healthcare buyers and operators live in a world where system failures can cost lives, damage reputations, and have huge financial consequences.

Add to that the policy changes and mandates coming out of DC and other regulatory environments. Buyers are looking for more than products. They need trusted partners who can help them interpret policy, adapt to changes, and navigate a very noisy market.

Another major shift is how crowded the market has become. I’ve been in healthcare for most of my career. The number of buyers hasn’t significantly changed. But the number of vendors has exploded.

That’s why my marketing strategy always starts with the relationship. Prospective customers are buyers, not leads. We’re not just competing on product or price anymore. We’re competing for attention, belief, and strategic alignment. Earning mindshare is the first battle. Earning market share comes after.

This is why brand matters. Brand is the long game. It builds trust over time. And when you’re in healthcare, you have to play that long game while also supporting the short term. These are long sales cycles. You’re in the trenches with the sales team, helping them craft business cases and connect with buyers in meaningful ways. Today’s brand is tomorrow’s demand.

 

What is one skill you want everyone on your team to have?

If you are in a high growth company and have limited resources, hyper prioritization is really important to protect against being distracted by the latest fire drill of the day. And you should have a strong bias towards action against those priorities to create the momentum that helps to move the business forward.

I’d like to add one other thing – understanding how read the company’s financial reports. You need to understand the numbers, what they mean, and how they connect to the work you do. I want my employees to think like business owners because it drives the right behavior.

What’s your go-to question when you’re interviewing a candidate?

My go-to question is, “What’s a deal breaker for you when evaluating a company or role?” I turn the light back on the candidate. I ask this because I want to understand their values, their working style, and what motivates them or demotivates them in order to see if they’re a strong cultural fit.

What’s an AI use case you’re excited about?

Two come to mind. First, AI’s ability to aggregate vast amounts of information across sources could replace the need for expensive market research consultants. But it’s not just about aggregation – it’s about making sense of the data. With the right prompts, AI can surface insights, spot trends, and even suggest strategic implications, helping marketers move faster and smarter.

The other example is more analytical. Some of the MarTech tools I use are starting to incorporate AI agents and assistants to tackle a big challenge: we collect tons of data – buyer behavior, campaign engagement, and more – but it’s often stuck in silos. These tools can now retrieve data across systems, run complex queries, and translate insights into clear, actionable next steps. While assistants support decision-making through prompts and recommendations, agents go a step further – autonomously performing tasks or triggering workflows. It’s not just about surfacing insights; it’s about operationalizing them. That’s why more platforms are adopting AI-driven capabilities to help marketers course-correct faster and build more predictable pipelines.

What would be your dream job if you weren’t doing marketing?

I feel very blessed to have found something I love to do. If I weren’t doing marketing on behalf of a business, I would probably be helping people shape their personal brands. I would enjoy that, bringing the same care and strategy to personal branding as I do to corporate branding.

I also love food and travel. So, I could see myself being a tour guide who brings people together to break bread during adventures.