In an industry where communication is critical, Lake Forest’s Toby Wong has made an impact. Even after suffering a devastating health setback more than a decade ago, she continues to succeed not only on behalf of her clients but also herself.
Wong is a global consumer marketing executive and is also a member of several boards of directors, where she deploys her communications experience on behalf of the organizations.
“I enjoy solving problems and helping management teams to figure out the path,” she said.
Wong’s story began in Calgary, Alberta, born and raised by parents who fled Communist China and moved to Canada.
She attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, setting a foundation for her career.
“That is where I fell in love with marketing and decided to make that my passion and focus,” Wong remembered. “It was this idea of understanding consumer behavior, attitudes, and actions towards issues and products of brands that I find to be fascinating in terms of understanding them and then figuring out the path and voyage to bring them both together.”
In 1988, she was hired at Coca-Cola in what she deemed “her dream job” as a Diet Coke Brand Manager. She remembers overseeing marketing campaigns connected to the headlines of the time including the trade of NHL superstar Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.
Separately, she worked on a popular Diet Coke commercial tied into the first Batman movie starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Wong recalled that ad was warmly received by executives leading to her promotion to Coca-Cola’s national marketing for sports including the NHL, the NBA, the Olympics, and the Super Bowl.
“I was able to take my brand management skills into sports,” Wong recollected. “Instead of slapping a logo on a dasher board, I proved that the NHL could be a powerful sports property to grow Coca-Cola classic’s brand love, preference, and sales with core teenage male soda fans in US NHL markets, which happen to be Pepsi strongholds.”
Wong later moved on to marketing executive roles at a series of prominent organizations including Nike and the United States Olympic Committee with stops in Toronto, Atlanta, Beaverton, Oregon, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Los Angeles. She was Nike’s first female global women’s brand director and the first Team USA chief marketing officer for brand and revenue creation.
Wong believes there is a simple formula for her success.
“I’m able to look at complex data with big ideas and find what is the greatest impact. I try not to get caught in the minutia or the inertia, I try to find the big ideas that are going to move the needle of the business brand”, she said.
In March 2003, she launched her own business and initially moved to Lake Forest in 2005 where she has met some communications colleagues including fellow resident Brandon Faber.
“Toby is a special talent with her vast experience in marketing, communications and board work, as well as her endless contacts and tireless ability to connect people from entirely different worlds and collaborate for the goal of all,” noted Faber, who has had communications roles for the Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks and Bears. “She is intentional and always paying it forward. In our dealings, just when I think a question might be out of her scope or reach, she finds a connection in an impactful way and always delivers with a smile.”
Wong’s career was progressing very well until a Sunday morning in July 2011. Without warning, she was not able to hear.
“It felt like I had socks in my ears,” she remembered.
Wong was identified with a sudden sensorineural hearing loss with the cause unknown and was diagnosed functionally deaf within six weeks. She underwent double cochlear implant surgery including skull-drilling leading to a two-year rehabilitation process as her life was complicated by a contentious divorce.
“For two years it was shocking and sudden at a time when I was a single mom raising two kids trying to earn a living,” she said.
She admits there were periods of grief but that eventually led to determination.
“I decided to move forward in a way that was productive,” she said.
Today Wong’s hearing has improved with the cochlear implants, but she still can not hear clearly at times, particularly in noisy environments with multiple speakers. She mostly uses Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART) captions as her primary communications vehicle. This allows for in-person meetings where someone speaks into Wong’s phone, producing a text onto a screen that she can read.
Working around her hearing issues, Wong’s communications work today includes offering marketing strategies to clients and boards she serves that include advocating for people with physical challenges, mental health needs and for people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent.
Wong likes to remind corporations that one in four Americans have some type of disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It is bad business to ignore one in four,” she said.
Separately, she is part of a group trying to get Larry Kwong, the first NHL player with an Asian heritage into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“Toby brings phenomenal communication and networking skills to the table, achieving results I wouldn’t have thought possible,” added Chad Soon, a fellow member of that campaign. “She is responsible for winning the support of leaders across the wide spectrum of society–from grassroots community groups to government officials to sports governing bodies to respected voices in media and entertainment.”
Despite her challenges, Wong continues to try to make things better for many people, tapping into her business acumen and personal experience.
“I am always making sure we are doing the right thing,” she said. “I enjoy being on that level of problem-solving.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
