Nerdery Appoints New Leadership

Nerdery, a leading digital consultancy, announced the appointments of Laura Etches as Vice President of Marketing and Chris Cobb as Vice President of Design. With decades of experience leading strategic initiatives, they both will elevate Nerdery’s position in the market by helping the company expand its offerings and grow its client base.

“It’s an exciting time at Nerdery as we continue to hone our offerings and capabilities to best serve the digital needs of our clients,” said Mike Schmidt, CEO at Nerdery. “Under Laura and Chris’ leadership, our dedicated team of Nerds will receive the strategic oversight needed to drive innovative and impactful outcomes for businesses across the country.”

Etches joins Nerdery from Prime Therapeutics where she served as Vice President of Marketing, leading a 170-person team and managing a multi-million dollar budget to drive customer engagement and growth. In her more than 20 years of marketing experience in B2B, B2C and regulated industries, Etches has held various leadership roles in which she developed and implemented marketing and communications strategies to deliver successful outcomes. At Nerdery, Etches will oversee the marketing department’s strategy, planning and implementation of initiatives aimed at growing the company’s existing client base, including channel strategy, demand generation, lead nurturing, sales enablement and program development.

“The tech industry has always been quick to evolve, but we’ve reached a turning point where becoming digital-first is a priority,” Etches said. “Companies have become reliant on consultancies like Nerdery to build tech-enabled solutions that help them reach their end goal. I’m excited to join the team to help position Nerdery as a premiere digital consultancy, coupling its technology-centered approach with exceptional design to deliver meaningful product, platform and software solutions.”

Bringing more than 15 years of design and leadership experience, Cobb has worked with notable organizations including SapientNitro, Second Story, and most recently, Space150, where he has established a long track record of helping a broad range of clients solve their business challenges using technology and design. In his role as Vice President of Design at Nerdery, Cobb will be responsible for leading the company’s Experience Design (XD) capabilities and elevating XD as a core component of its overall business strategy and culture. Through a combination of client engagement and team development, Cobb will evolve Nerdery’s offerings to support XD market opportunities.

“I’m a firm believer that empathy enables designers and technologists to create truly meaningful, innovative experiences, and it’s our purpose to continually question and evolve the way we interact with the world around us,” Cobb said. “Having built my career on sound strategies and design principles that deliver impactful results for clients, I’m excited to establish a vision for Nerdery’s design capabilities and honored to lead the team toward the future.”

For more information about Nerdery’s leadership team, visit who we are.