About the ODP

Joel Mier, Board Chairman


Joel Mier

Joel Mier is the Chief Marketing Officer for two key channels of the Retirement & Protection business of Genworth Financial, a Fortune 500 financial security company based in Richmond, Virginia. He is responsible for the strategy, development, and execution of marketing’s efforts for the firm’s insurance product lines ($5.5B in revenue in 2009).

Prior to joining Genworth, Mier was Director of Marketing at Netflix, the industry altering online entertainment service. Mier was responsible for several acquisition channels which accounted for up to 25% of all of the firm’s new customers.

Before joining Netflix, Mier was Senior Business Analyst with Adobe Systems, makers of industry-leading software Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat. Mier was responsible for working with the product groups and ensuring that customer needs and voices were included in the development, planning, and prioritization of product lifecycles.

As a leading analyst with the Gartner Group covering the then-exploding PC market in the early 1990s, Mier was the first to identify the market expanding opportunity for a sub-$1,000 home PC (“What The Home Market Needs Is A Good, Cheap PC”, eWeek, January 15, 1996). Mier was also a daily fixture for several years on San Jose-based NBC affiliate KNTV’s morning news program, “Good Morning San Jose!,” representing the Gartner Group as a high technology and business commentator.

Mier is the author of the popular customer experience blog, Think For A Moment. In addition, Mier is an adjunct professor of marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University as well as a frequent lecturer on marketing, branding, and strategy at the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond.

Joel Mier lives in Richmond, Virginia, with his wife and two children.