Catherine Russell, CMP, VEMM and Jennifer Bauer met in 2007 while attending an industry conference in Vail, CO. A year later they found themselves in business together. Catherine and Jennifer have managed hundreds of events ranging from 15 to 5,000 attendees.

Catherine Russell, CMP, VEMM,  has the expertise, connections, and strategic vision to lead teams and produce unparalleled events on time, on target, and on budget. 

Catherine has earned the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and Virtual Event Meeting Manager (VEMM) designations through the internationally-recognized Events Industry Council and is the gold standard among the event professional global community. Catherine spent 10 years producing conferences and special events for McKinsey & Company, Inc.'s Boston and New York Offices and 4 years in marketing at Dell/EMC’s Hopkinton, MA headquarters. As VP of Corporate Marketing at Vestmark, Catherine formalized their corporate mission and core values, managed the brand, identity system and digital presence, and created the software company’s strategic meeting plan beginning with the launch of Vestmark's first annual customer conference. Prior to  founding CMR Global Events, Catherine led the marketing and brand strategies as the Director of Meetings and Client Partnerships for Mentor Meetings and Events.

Catherine is a member of the New England Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPINE) and the Senior Professionals Industry Network (SPIN). Her work as a Salary Negotiation Workshop Leader for the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and a member of Tri Delta’s Boston Alumnae Chapter helps collegiate women find their paths forward into the business world,. Catherine donates her time and talent to The Massachusetts Conference for Women, The Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts, and Saint John’s High School. She holds B.A. in Journalism, Mass Communications, and Public Relations from the University of Maine.

CMR Global Events continues to grow with her leadership, passion, honesty, creativity, integrity, kindness, and inspiration. Catherine has deep industry knowledge, an innate ability to foresee problems and build solution-based project plans. Her emotionally-intelligent communication skills and graceful response tactics in pressurized time-sensitive environments have turned unavoidable situations into positive outcomes while onsite. She maintains a forward-thinking big picture philosophy with a laser-focus on event goals and is a critical thinker who identifies the root cause of the problem before negotiating the most mutually-beneficial resolution stakeholders. Using her wide network of trusted professionals, Catherine has managed hundreds of events with anywhere from 15 to 5,000 attendees including corporate meetings, professional trainings, executive leadership programs, annual conferences, and black-tie galas for corporate and private clients. Catherine can quickly identify the most appropriate venues, speakers and entertainment, décor, transportation, and teambuilding activities to complement a creative theme or deliver a strategic goal. 

Catherine’s commitment to what’s most important ~ humanity, integrity, connection, and respect for cultural differences ~ is ever-present in her work. From her travels spanning 3 continents, Catherine's cultural awareness brings the balanced sensitivity  required to do business in today's global economy.

Jennifer Bauer was most recently the Director and General Manager for the Conference Division of Institutional Real Estate, Inc. where she launched and developed a new profit center focused on the production of industry conferences. Her work established four new conference brands serving different market segments and generated upwards of $3MM in new revenue with profit margins as high as 56%. Jennifer led a cross-functional team and developed a company-wide project management system which provided oversight and reporting metrics for overlapping project timelines and workload management of teams. 

Jennifer's Boston and San Francisco connection was born from her role as the Global Event Marketing Director at IDG. As the Director of Marketing for Gilian Technologies, Jennifer managed analyst relations and oversaw the company's corporate marketing plan, including advertising, events, public relations and the development and production of sales tools and collateral material, While projecting a consistent brand image and overseeing  trade show and lead generation activities, Jennifer worked with product development teams to create marketing tools that explained a highly-technical product in clear, visually-powerful terms. Previously the Director of Marketing for IDG Executive Forums and as a Field Marketing Manager for PowerBar, Jennifer managed a nationwide product sampling roadshow and spearheaded the launch of the PowerBar Harvest product line through an event-driven campaign that resulted in initial product demand exceeding the targeted number by more than 20%. Her custom event marketing programs for distributors and resellers, including grocery (Safeway), mass merchandisers (Wal-Mart), specialty (Trader Joe’s) and sports specialty stores drove product demand at peak production capacity.