Happy 15th Anniversary CMG Partners

When I was a kid my Dad commuted everyday from Wilton, Connecticut to New York City on the train.  Many times I went to work with my Dad having to stand in the bar car at six o’clock in the morning where he would spread his paperwork out on the unused bar and work on the trip into the city.  We rode the same bar car on the way home, now full of Mad Men of the 1960’s and 70’s drinking and smoking.

One of my Dad’s best “train” friends was Dick Beatty, an Ad guy with Ogilvy and Mather.  Train friends turned into family friends and Dick’s wife Mimi and son Rich would come for Christmas dinner and Sunday lunches after church.  Rich was a year younger than me and we grew up together until the Beatty’s moved away to Lake Forest, Illinois when Rich and I were in high school.

Our parents had remained good friends through the years and fast forward to our first years out of college and Rich and I both ended up in Washington DC.  We picked up the sibling like friendship we had started at ages five and four.  Rich married his wife Susan, who to this day says I was not so nice to her at first meeting.  I was just used to the girls Rich would bring around not lasting long enough for me to invest my time in them, but Susan was different.  They had two wonderful sons, George and Burke.

I married Russ Lange and he too became great friends with the Beatty’s.  Rich, Russ and I all worked together in London on the BT project for Carter Marketing Group.  When we finished up that job I decided to retire since I was pregnant with Carter, but Rich and Russ joined forces and started a new company, CMG Partners as a spin off from Carter Marketing Group.  That was fifteen years ago.

Russ and Rich, whose names were often confused, would jokingly be known as Ralph, just one Ralph for the two of them, started out as partners adding people and locations throughout the years as client work grew.  Their strategic marketing consulting services have expanded to cover multiple industries and they continue to be experts on the CMO Agenda.

I am proud of what they have built but mostly I am overjoyed for the friendship that has bloomed through the years.  A business partner is a second spouse with all that the relationship brings.  So I want to say thanks to both Russ and Rich for fifteen great years and I look forward to many more productive and successful years together.  Happy anniversary CMG Partners and congratulations Russ and Rich.