Fatima Israel Talks About the New Challeneges and Opportunities from COVID-19 at EY

Fatima is the Head of Brand, Marketing & Communications at EY. EY is traditionally known as an accounting and tax firm, however, Fatima says it’s much broader than that. With consulting involved, they can be described as professional services. EY is “glocal” (as Fatima calls it) to Vancouver and runs as its own entity, but they are supported at the North American level and the global level. There are campaigns, studies, and reports at the larger global level run by EY, as well as things they do just for Canadian businesses such as Canadian focused reports. Fatima considers herself a “Jane of all trades”, while some members of her team focus solely on demand generation, field marketing, or digital marketing or PR; Fatima gets to oversee all aspects of the business and relationships made. Fatima says she never dreamed of working in marketing, but rather it was a process of elimination, after trying different co-ops in school where her love for marketing began.

In this COVID-19 world, EY can no longer rely on trade shows and events for exposure, but Fatima sees the silver lining for its timing to allow for change and growth. They are looking to pivot into webcasts and virtual roundtables to bring together a dialogue. EY is also forced to make decisions that they would never have before, how do you make an impact in a way that’s never been done? Fatima is noticing a lot more storytelling and human connections in the marketing world lately. She is driven by issue-based marketing and making a statement and sees a lot of opportunities to connect customer stories and experiences from beginning to end and creating magic.

Fatima recommends these resources for inspiration:

• EntreLeadership Podcast & "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Boss
• Reading fiction novels

Written by Juliana Bermudez