Dennis Marlin

Dennis Marlin

Retired Senior Executive

Marlin Network, Inc. 

Biography

My career has been built around “honoring the worth of people”. I recognized early on that everyone has talents to share, you just need to provide a creative environment that they can trust in to share those talents. As a businessperson I have ideas to share, but as a leader I want to shepherd the thinking of creative people to achieve greater results.

As a Springfield native, I left the area twice to further my career but was always ready to return to the community I love. I started my career with Allied Stores (Heer’s Department Store) as a buyer merchandiser, then moved to the food industry in 1973 with Reckitt & Colman first in production and then sales and marketing. I gained experience in both Consumer and Business-to-Business marketing which led to my quest into the Advertising and Marketing community. In 1979 I joined a local agency and helped them develop their Foodservice Practice to achieve a leadership position in the market.

In 1985 I formed The Marlin Company offering a marketing approach built on the foundation of “Creative Thinking in Business” which combined uncommon creative solutions with strategic business thinking. This model gave us the opportunity to work with leading brands such as ConAgra, Sara Lee, Clorox, P&G, Bush Beans, Tyson Foods, Starbucks, Toastmaster, Nestle USA, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever to name a few. Over the span of nearly 30 years, we have become the number one Foodservice Agency in the industry and have expanded our growth to lead in other market and service segments through our six affiliate companies Marlin, deep, The Alchemedia Project, FoodIQ, Marlin Network Consulting Group and StarAwards.

In 2005, Marlin Network Inc. was established as a holding company to support our growing number of affiliates. At this time we evolved our business model to allow our affiliate leadership to focus on solving clients’ needs while our Network group focused on running our business in this ever complex business environment. We were recognized by Inc. 5000 over the past five consecutive years as one of the fastest growing companies in the country. In 2011 we became 100% employee owned and as a team we have received regional recognition for “Best In Class”, “Dynamic Dozen”, “Economic Impact”, “Best Places to work” and I was honored as “Man of the Year” in 2012.

I believe in giving young people an opportunity to start their careers in Springfield. Nearly 40% of our employees are graduates from Missouri State and our average age is 26.5 years. That same commitment carries into our community involvement. We support numerous local charities such as the Price Cutter Charity Championship through which we have helped raise nearly one million dollars to help local children. I currently serve in the business community as a Director of Oak Star Bank and Internationally through the agency organization TAAN World Wide.

I am married to my loving wife Denise and we have two children Kellen and Jayden still at home. I have two older children Greg and Jeff and two grandchildren. I love to play golf, boat and help coach sports for our kids. I attended Graceland University, University of Missouri Rolla, and Rochester Institute of Technology.