What makes a great leader? Celest Turner Hall found the answer from baseball legend Babe Ruth, who said, “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.”
“Great leaders have uncommon ‘sticktoitiveness’ and drive to achieve great things, even if it means failing sometimes,” Hall said. “They also inspire others to believe and achieve with them because they know there is power in having a great team. Lastly, they embrace the unknown with enthusiasm because they understand learning increases the chances of success.”
Hall is senior vice president of product marketing at EnterpriseDB (EDB), a database management firm. EDB serves more than 1,500 customers, including leading financial services, government, media and communications and information technology organizations.
Hall’s marketing career started during her last semester of college when she joined Ageon, a Fortune Global 500 life insurance, pensions and asset management company, as a customer communications coordinator. After years of success and promotions at Aegon, Hall moved to Johns Hopkins University to start up the first marketing department that served as an internal consultant to divisions across the university. Hall eventually switched industries, and BellSouth relocated her to Atlanta. Less than a year later, BellSouth was acquired by AT&T, resulting in widespread layoffs.
“That was a pivotal moment,” Hall said. “I could leave Atlanta or stay and figure out how to thrive in one of the best cities in America. I stayed and moved to Verizon a few months later.”
After a successful tenure at Verizon, Hall joined Intel, where she negotiated the first marketing deals with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Rogers Canada, supporting the launch of products with Asus, Acer and Microsoft. Hall found more success and continued to climb the ranks at Intel and later British software company Sage. That professional roadmap set the foundation for Hall to take her current role at EDB.
“My career has been defined by building success out of the unknown, so risk is threaded through each role I have taken,” Hall said. “Focused primarily in the tech industry across various sub-verticals, I have delivered several ‘first-evers’ and ‘best-evers’ for leading brands. From the first strategic partnership ever signed to launching new products to opening up new markets, I’ve had to make some big bets on how to make these initiatives successful. While my proverbial neck was on the line, the payoff for me has always been that I got smarter and faster at knowing what will and will not work (honing my success radar).”
