Kelly Wade-Arnel has enjoyed a career in advertising and marketing from both the agency and company perspectives. She began her career with Rapp Collins Worldwide in Chicago managing the account for the extremely successful MCI’s Friends & Family direct mail campaign. She then switched gears to the company side taking up the position of Marketing Manager for Mannington Floors, a top flooring manufacturer outside of Philadelphia. From there she returned to the agency side as the Director of Accounts/Business Development for an agency in Ft. Lauderdale, PDI Communications, which proved as a stepping stone to being the Marketing Consultant for its top client, iBill. iBill was an ecommerce credit card transaction company which sold to the publicly traded Intercept a year later. Ms. Wade-Arnel then took advantage of the housing boom as the Director of Marketing for Arizen Homes in Ft. Lauderdale. Over the past eight years, she also wrote three books, Why Assume The Position, SuperWoman and a biography of an Ohio businessman. Most recently she was the Director of Marketing for The Boxing Club chain of fitness centers in San Diego, California, where she led the strategy to change the company name as well as the rollout of 5 new centers.

Ms. Wade-Arnel moved to Asheville to raise her children in a great environment. She enjoys hiking, running, tennis, reading and travelling – and continues to write often. She is a volunteer for MANNA Food Bank, a member of the fundraising committee for the YMCA 2008 Strong Kids Campaign, and a sponsor for Child Africa and Women for Women International.