Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Vice President, Marketing and Brand Strategy
Black Onyx Management
Leanna Adeola is behind the brand positioning, marketing and creative execution of Indianapolis management consulting firm Black Onyx Management. She wasn’t hired to just fill the role but rather to define the role and her department. Hired as the company’s first vice president of marketing, she developed the brand strategy and marketing function from scratch within her first 90 days and later helped drive the company to record revenue in 2024. Her work varies from large tech companies to small entrepreneurs, where her ability to turn complex topics into concise concepts stands out. She also handles the marketing strategies for a Black Onyx affiliate, Edgewater Financial Group, and one of its partner brands, Impacto Strategies. Her perspective, her colleagues say, is regularly sought out by the company’s C-suite leaders. “I have the pleasure of continuously learning and unlearning humans,” she said. “Whether it’s observing how people think or watching how they make decisions, it makes me smile to find ways to connect to others and better understand them.”
Getting here: She worked as an account director at marketing and public relations agency Borshoff and as vice president of brand strategy and product marketing at strategy and design firm Innovatemap.
First job: customer service at Bed Bath & Beyond
Givebacks: She leads the sponsorship committee for New Direction Church Community Day, an annual event that serves 10,000 families and provides 5,000 book bags filled with school supplies and 500 pairs of shoes. She also helps startup founders with their brand and marketing strategies.
Influential people: Her grandfathers. One was a Yale University and Columbia University graduate who showed her what it looks like to use education and experience to benefit others. The other grandfather was a Kokomo entrepreneur who showed her “what ingenuity and grit looks like.”
Meaningful moment: Leading a nine-month video project that had audacious goals. The project involved aligning multiple team members—from creative directors to graphic designers to video production staff to a client team—on a shared goal.•
Check out more Forty Under 40 honorees.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.