Drew Slaven

Drew Slaven brings marketing, branding, and communication expertise to Camp Southern Ground as well as continued support from the leadership team at Mercedes-Benz USA. Drew became vice president of marketing at Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) in January 2014. In this role, Slaven is a member of MBUSA’s executive management team with overall responsibility for marketing communications, market research and product management of the Mercedes-Benz brand in the U.S. He reports directly to Dietmar Exler, president and CEO of MBUSA. Slaven came on board with MBUSA in 2002 as department manager of communications planning. In 2007 he was promoted to his most recent post at the company, general manager of marketing services, where he had oversight of marketing communications strategies for the Mercedes-Benz and smart brands within the United States. His responsibilities spanned national corporate advertising, CRM and the Internet. Prior to joining MBUSA, Slaven gained a decade’s marketing experience working on both the agency and client sides. He began as a media planner for DDB Media Advertising in 1992, developing marketing strategies for GTE and American Airlines. Two years later, he moved to McCann-Erickson, overseeing the advertising of the Johnson & Johnson and Ferrero accounts. He then switched to the client side as manager of mass communications at J.P. Morgan Chase, responsible for consumer advertising for Chase Bank. Slaven holds a master of business administration in marketing from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.