Mary E. Adams, President
Mary is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) with more than 15 years in business. Mary’s expertise includes a focus on financial services association and event management, marketing, and communications.
Mary is passionate about empowering women in business. In addition to running ECG, she is the Executive Director for the Bergen County Professional Women’s Network. NJ’s BCPWN is a leading professional organization, including almost 2,000 women in its community, producing more than 25 annual events and valuable networking opportunities.
Prior to launching ECG, Mary was a professional sales representative for Merck & Co., produced conferences and established the Life Sciences division of Worldwide Business Research, and managed sales and marketing for an automotive engineering company in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mary earned her Masters in Business Administration from Fordham University in New York, where she graduated with honors from Beta Gamma Sigma, American Marketing Association and Phi Kappa Phi, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Laura Howe, Meetings Manager
Laura is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) with more than 15 years in event management. Good at wearing multiple hats, Laura is adept at being resourceful, responding quickly and creatively to find solutions to any challenge. She has planned and coordinated a wide variety of corporate and social events for Fortune 500 companies, national associations, and international clients.
Prior to joining ECG, Laura worked for Platts, a division of McGraw-Hill Financial (now S&P Global). She lead their North America Conference Operations and then later was responsible for their Global Event Operations.
Laura graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor in Science in Recreation Management and Policy and holds an Event Management certification from The George Washington University.
Kirsten Peterson, Associations Director
Kirsten brings a decade of experience from both the federal government and association management. Her specialties lie within association governance, strategic planning and program/project management. She is driven and multi-talented within the association industry and constantly explores emerging best practices to help organizations thrive and move forward on their mission.
Prior to joining ECG, Kirsten led the international governance efforts at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and also managed the IABC Foundation, the 501(c)3 arm of IABC where her work was nationally recognized by the American Society of Association Executives.
Kirsten graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth with a Bachelor’s in Liberal Arts with a Communications degree.
