Samantha O’Neil
I am a Chief of Staff. I have spent the better part of two decades building the invisible infrastructure that makes it possible for leaders to do their best work. I know how to turn ambition into execution by combining operational rigor, design sensibility, and technical aptitude. I am doing that now at Merkle. Previously, I worked in various roles at Huge and MKTG.
Experience
+ GLOBAL CHIEF OF STAFF, 2024-CURRENT
Serve as strategic partner to the Global President, building and deploying the invisible infrastructure that enables leadership to execute at scale across a 12K+ person organization. Design governance systems, craft executive presentations, and orchestrate cross-functional initiatives that turn strategic ambition into actionable results.
Responsible for planning and managing administrative, financial, and operational activities. Lead day-to-day governance, project management, and orchestration across all aspects of the business. Partner with leadership across Merkle and dentsu, serving as liaison between teams and bridging work across organizational boundaries. Prepare the President for key internal and external engagements—developing presentations, emails, and correspondence on his behalf. Support the global evolution of the company’s Go-to-Market strategy by designing systems and processes that enable teams to build offerings, developing the UX/UI for our internal sales hub, and creating an AI agent that enables teams to discover materials across knowledge sites.
+ VP, GROWTH OPERATIONS, 2023-2024
+ VP, EXECUTIVE OPERATIONS, 2021-2023
+ DIRECTOR, EXECUTIVE OPERATIONS, 2019-2021
Advanced through three roles in five years, supporting C-suite leadership including the CEO, CFO, and Chief Growth Officer, while demonstrating versatility and creating systems that enabled teams to do their best work at scale. Built governance frameworks, project management processes, knowledge bases, and financial dashboards, while operating with the flexibility to own high-impact special projects that bridged operations, design, and technology.
- As Director, Executive Operations, supported the Global CEO while elevating administrative processes and training teams on presentation skills—proactively building the infrastructure behind onboarding processes, team mentorship, and an information-sharing ecosystem that made institutional knowledge accessible.
- As VP, Executive Operations, expanded scope to include special projects alongside existing responsibilities—leading two company rebrands that were delivered on budget and on time, while overseeing template development. Supported the CFO with designing board presentations, partnered with Creative leadership as Operations lead for the 300-person team, and partnered with the Commerce lead to incubate the discipline, resulting in team expansion from 3 to 6 employees in the first year, two market offerings launched, and a budget that came in under target.
- As VP, Growth Operations, brought structure to the Growth team’s pipeline by building reporting dashboards and architecting a pitch and marketing materials database—resulting in easier extraction of key information at critical times. Designed a creative project management process and platform, resulting in timeline clarity and reduction in designer over-burning.
+ CHIEF OF STAFF, 2008-2019
+ OPERATIONS MANAGER, 2007-2008
+ OFFICE MANAGER, 2006-2007
+ OFFICE ASSISTANT, 2004-2006
Fourth employee in a startup that scaled to 1,000+ global employees and through acquisition, became dentsu’s Sports and Entertainment practice. Held multiple roles over 15 years, growing alongside the business through years of transformation. Evolved from Office Assistant to Chief of Staff by facilitating business objectives, managing complex projects, and refining operational frameworks that enabled the founders to scale.
Provided administrative and advisory support to the US CEO and Global Brand President, facilitating business objectives and managing complex projects. Served as liaison between executives and staff across departments and external stakeholders. Managed operations team and physical office operations including repairs, maintenance, and desk assignments. Responsible for department budget and development of corporate policies. Oversaw two successful company moves for 100+ employees. Refined operational and policy frameworks, mentored administrative teams, and shaped administrative excellence that supported the company’s growth from founding through acquisition.
+ EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT, 2002-2003
Provided high-level administrative support to SVP, Public Relations and managed a wide range of strategic communications efforts including: distributing press releases, coordinating media interviews, creating pitch letters, curating daily recaps and internal communications for leadership, and managing finances.
+ ADVERTISING OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE, 2000-2001
Managed and optimized online advertising campaigns by partnering with clients to maximize performance and training employees to utilize the ad serving system. Planned internal communications for the Marketing department. Won company award for outstanding account service.
Expertise
Featured Work
JONES
SURVIVING HYPERSLEEP TO BECOME AN AGENT
TWO YEARS OF SEARCHING FOR FILES, FIXED IN ONE WEEKEND.
2,200 SESSIONS. 534 QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 115 HOURS BACK.
BUILT WITH PERSONALITY. DESIGNED TO SCALE.
Details
Jones is an AI agent built in February 2026 to solve a multi-year knowledge gap. Two internal knowledge sites had been operating in parallel for several years, forcing teams to search multiple places for sales materials, case studies, and offering details. The standard path to searchability across both was a lengthy migration project, so I built a bridge instead.
I developed a solution in Microsoft CoPilot Studio that created an intelligent search layer across both sites, so sales teams could get the right information easily from each environment. I deliberately worked within our existing infrastructure so every staff member could access Jones from day one—no special platform or engineering support required. I invested time in creating the agent because the long-term impact of solving a systemic problem mattered more than a fast patch. Then I built the experience around it: a name, a logo, a color palette rooted in our brand identity, behavior instructions refined until his personality felt less like a corporate deployment and more like a knowledgeable colleague who happened to know where everything lived.
2,200 sessions. 534 questions answered. 115 hours back. Jones has since been featured in our AI enablement best practices across the organization. Jones is infrastructure with a personality—built to last, designed to scale, and fun to use.
A new kind of team member
Over one weekend, I built Jones’ visual identity to complement my organization’s brand colors, programmed his behavior instructions, and pointed him at existing content in internal repositories and select external sites.
Expertise
Praise
“I am blown away… can I tell [your manager] you need a raise because you will single-handedly save our company thousands of man hours searching for stuff.” Colleague feedback
“Seriously, this is more than a band-aid…this is probably the best solve we have had to the content issue.” Colleague feedback
“I just want to share how good Jones is at helping us work out how to share [our materials] with clients and frame it…#bemorejones” Colleague feedback
“Jones has the best personality. I wish I’d been looking over your shoulder when you built it!” Colleague feedback
EXECUTIVE
STORYTELLING
HIT THE DECKS
71 PRESENTATIONS IN ONE YEAR.
EVERY AUDIENCE. EVERY STAKES LEVEL.
REPEATABLE SYSTEMS. UNREPEATABLE QUALITY.
Details
Executive storytelling is the work that lives behind every All-Hands that lands, every leadership summit that moves people, every board deck that earns trust. As a design-minded storyteller, I shape narratives in partnership with the Global President and senior team, and work alongside our communications team to ensure every message lands.
In a single year, I produced 71 executive presentations spanning every format and audience: All-Hands, company summits, regional check-ins, corporate strategy decks, and executive leadership sessions. Every one carrying the weight of what leadership needed to say.
The standard never changes regardless of the volume. Leadership has to walk into every room fully behind what they’re saying. That has meant scrapping decks midway, rewriting narratives from scratch, and employing a design sensibility that eliminates the need for dedicated resources while maintaining polish. The work is finished when the voice is unmistakably theirs.
Expertise
Praise
“You make some of the best stuff here.” Leadership feedback
“This is the best business review deck, homegrown, in my 8 years here.” Leadership feedback
“Just wanted to let you know that this is email feels like true leadership.” Colleague feedback
GOVERNANCE
RESET
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE CALENDARED
GOVERNANCE IS THE FRAMEWORK BEHIND EVERY DECISION.
INHERITED THE BEGINNING. BUILT THE REST.
ALIGNED THE CADENCE FOR THE LEADERSHIP ORGANIZATION.
Details
Governance is how an organization sets direction, makes decisions, and stays aligned on what matters. In my current role, I inherited the beginnings of a governance structure in 2024 and turned it into a functioning framework—then iterated on it a year later when the data revealed what needed to change. The first version established the meeting architecture, decision-making model, and communications approach for a global leadership organization spanning regions and functions.
By early 2026, I had enough data to iterate on sessions that revealed duplication and inefficiency. I came back with a revised model—canceling what was redundant, re-establishing Executive Leadership sessions, and creating room for initiative meetings and off-week check-ins. Every change was tied directly to the company’s strategic priorities, so the meeting cadence and the company’s direction were the same conversation. I saved our leadership team 40 hours a year by making these changes. Governance extended beyond meetings too—I took ownership of the global budget, establishing financial practices and documentation rigorous enough that Finance could reconcile our files without chasing anyone for information.
Making complexity disappear is what good governance looks like. What followed was a shift from reactive status updates to proactive strategic discussion—and a leadership team that finally had the structure to think ahead instead of catch up.
Expertise
Praise
“This has been the best [offsite session] we’ve ever had. The rest were [expletive begrudgingly deleted].” Leadership feedback
“You can see your ‘finger prints’ across many [initiatives]. I think you bring the perfect blend of business acumen and professionalism balanced with the innate ability to make the work environment fun and enjoyable.” Colleague feedback
“Your approach to the budget process was especially appreciated — providing us access to key documents on strategy and structure, walking us through proposals, and providing comprehensive notes. Your own financial files were easy for us to reconcile to our own, and gave us all the information we needed to ensure we could accurately represent the impact of targets and proposals on [the global] budget.” Colleague feedback
SALES ENABLEMENT SITE REDESIGN
SAME BRAND, DIFFERENT ENERGY
TURNED THE ACCENT COLOR INTO THE HERO.
CALL MICROSOFT, SOMEONE FELL IN LOVE WITH SHAREPOINT.
SO GOOD THEY REBUILT THEIRS TO MATCH.
Details
The site was a working SharePoint environment that had grown organically over time. Navigation had drifted, formatting was inconsistent, and finding anything quickly required knowing where to look.
The redesign started with a decision to take the company’s brand palette and turn an accent color into the main event. The result was a brighter and bolder expression of the standard brand—same DNA, different energy. Pages were unified thematically, navigation was rebuilt around how teams actually look for things, and key documents were pulled out and made self-serve. I rebuilt the visual identity and thirty site pages over three weeks.
The design system was built to scale—new content could be added without breaking the visual consistency. Case study and initiative pages got their own identity. Faces were added to resources, making it feel like a team rather than a folder. The result was a resource worth returning to—more joy in the experience, the kind of site that earns a bookmark.
Expertise
Praise
“It is astounding to me how much of an improvement your edits are. It’s night and day. This is great.” Colleague feedback
“The new design is killer. I love it.” Leadership feedback
“This is incredible, better than anything [we have] ever done.” Leadership feedback
“We are making our hub look like yours because the positive feedback [on the site] has been overwhelming.” Colleague feedback
MADE SOME
THINGS I LOVED
THE HUGE ARC
FIVE YEARS. THREE ROLES.
CURIOSITY AS A CAREER STRATEGY.
MADE THINGS THAT MADE PEOPLE’S WORK BETTER.
Details
Huge was a collective of makers. A design and technology company that valued craft, ambition, and the people willing to do the work. I stayed for five years because every iteration of the role proved it.
Two company rebrands supported from brief to launch—managing timelines, overseeing template development, and working directly within the CMS, both delivered on budget and on time.
Served as Operations partner to the 300-person Creative team—streamlining governance, harmonizing processes, and bringing consistency to how the team worked. This included a creative project management process redesigned from the ground up, bringing timeline clarity and ending designer over-burning across the team.
Provided operational rigor to a new Commerce discipline—developing a knowledge base, sales pipeline management, financial reporting, and Salesforce optimization, supporting a practice that grew from 3 to 6 employees with two offerings launched.
For the Growth team, built a pitch and marketing materials database in Coda, integrating Salesforce, Airtable, and Jira for self-serve pipeline access at the moments it mattered most.
And alongside all of it, mentored the executive assistant team informally, lifting the standard of the work across the board.
Huge made room for curiosity and the rest followed naturally—making existing things better, and occasionally building something new entirely.
Expertise
Praise
“Sam embodies all of our core values every day, and is absolutely selfless in her pursuit of enabling a high performing team where all of her peers feel valued, respected, and empowered to operate at their absolute best. Sam has created a level of Operations within Growth that has never previously existed, with tools and processes that have taken the team and ways of working to the next level. She operates with great efficiency, speed and quality, which is a rare and highly valuable combination.” Leadership feedback
Beyond the Day Job
Blonde Henchman
Built an e-commerce store from concept to launch. Designed the brand identity, product concepts, website UX/UI, and collection narratives—operations, design, and technology brought together in service of the idea that making sustainable choices shouldn’t feel like a punishment.
LESS WASTE.
MORE JOY.
The brand is built around the philosophy that you shouldn’t have to choose between loving your stuff and loving the Earth. Every product is print-on-demand—no overstock, no landfill. Ethically sourced materials, minimal packaging.
TWO COLLECTIONS. SO FAR.
One celebrates the unmeasured parts of being alive. One is for people who celebrate pizza.
STOP BY. SAY HELLO. BUY STUFF.
