Director Brand Strategy & Creative Leadership

The Director of Brand Strategy & Creative Leadership is a senior leader responsible for shaping, elevating, and protecting the M&T and Wilmington Trust brands. This executive delivers on a companywide brand vision, leads breakthrough creative development, and builds the systems, teams, and partnerships that bring a unified, modern, and high‑performing brand to life.

Sitting at the intersection of brand strategy and creative excellence, this role is accountable for helping to architect the brand’s future—translating business strategy into bold creative direction, inspiring teams to deliver exceptional work, and ensuring the brand resonates deeply with clients, prospects, and communities.

This leader will shape how the world experiences M&T and Wilmington Trust—building a brand that is modern, unified, and creatively dynamic. They will elevate the organization’s creative ambition, strengthen its strategic foundation, and empower teams to deliver work that breaks through the noise and moves the business forward.

Brand Strategy & Stewardship

• Drive the overarching brand strategy for M&T and Wilmington Trust, ensuring clarity, consistency, and differentiation across all touchpoints.
• Lead enterprise brand governance, visual identity evolution, and system implementation to strengthen brand equity and enable seamless adoption across lines of business.
• Serve as a key brand voice for the organization, ensuring brand strategy is tightly connected to business strategy and market opportunity.

Creative Leadership & Breakthrough Execution

• Set the creative vision for the enterprise and champion creative excellence that pushes the brand forward.
• Inspire and guide internal creative teams and agency partners to deliver next‑level, high‑impact work that elevates the brand and drives measurable business outcomes.
• Foster a challenger‑brand mindset—encouraging bold thinking, experimentation, and a can‑do approach to solving complex creative and strategic challenges.

Team Building & Leadership

• Build, develop, and lead a diverse, high‑performing team of brand strategists, designers, writers, and creative leaders.
• Cultivate a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability across the brand and creative organization.
• Empower teams with the tools, systems, and clarity needed to deliver exceptional work at scale.

Cross‑Enterprise Partnership & Influence

• Partner closely with business leaders, marketing teams, sponsorship, media, experiential, and content teams to ensure brand and creative strategies are integrated and effective.
• Manage and optimize relationships with external creative, media, and strategic agencies to ensure alignment, quality, and breakthrough performance.
• Serve as a connector and problem‑solver across the enterprise, ensuring brand and creative work accelerates business priorities.

• Bachelor's Degree

• 9  years of Marketing experience or relevant experience

• (Or in lieu of a degree, a combination of 13 years of higher education and relevant experience)

• 3 years of team leadership experience

• Experience in leading thru complex problems

• Has demonstrated strong working relationships with internal and external partners at all levels of the organization

• Proven decision-making ability to inform, educate and influence management and team members. 

• Proven track record leading brand strategy and creative excellence for a major brand or agency, with experience delivering breakthrough, award‑worthy work.

• Expertise in brand management, visual identity systems, brand governance, and enterprise‑level implementation.

• Demonstrated ability to lead and inspire creative and strategic teams in a complex, matrixed environment.

• Financial services experience preferred; challenger‑brand mindset strongly encouraged.

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