Meet Steve
Steve Kerns
Steve Kerns
Chief Marketing Officer
Steve Kerns is a 20+ year Silicon Valley marketing and communications veteran and executive with expertise in strategic integrated communications, technology storytelling, and agency business development and operations.
He has extensive knowledge of the enterprise, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets and has represented clients ranging from venture-backed startups to global corporations. Steve has managed and executed multidisciplinary work for global companies including Avaya, AT&T, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Huawei, JLL, Malwarebytes, RSA, Samsung, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, and VMWare. Across these efforts, Steve employed proactive corporate storytelling, product launch/media relations, executive thought leadership, change management, issues and crisis counsel, integrated approaches and people/team development to achieve client objectives and developed subject matter expertise across topics including 5G consumer services, 5G infrastructure, Big Data, cybersecurity, cloud computing, datacenter infrastructure, IoT, innovation centers, non-relational databases, PropTech, software-as-a-service, software-defined networking, smartphones/devices, and venture/startup communications.
In his current role as an executive leader at Big Valley, Steve’s responsibilities include leading the firm’s sales and marketing operations while also serving as a senior consultant to key clients. He will also evangelize Big Valley’s point of view on important technology and marketing trends.
Steve’s prior agency experience includes senior positions at Next Fifteen-, Omnicom- and WPP-held agencies and independently owned firms Edelman and WE Communications, as well as earlier positions in Silicon Valley-focused boutique firms.
Steve has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He has extensive knowledge of the enterprise, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets and has represented clients ranging from venture-backed startups to global corporations. Steve has managed and executed multidisciplinary work for global companies including Avaya, AT&T, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Huawei, JLL, Malwarebytes, RSA, Samsung, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, and VMWare. Across these efforts, Steve employed proactive corporate storytelling, product launch/media relations, executive thought leadership, change management, issues and crisis counsel, integrated approaches and people/team development to achieve client objectives and developed subject matter expertise across topics including 5G consumer services, 5G infrastructure, Big Data, cybersecurity, cloud computing, datacenter infrastructure, IoT, innovation centers, non-relational databases, PropTech, software-as-a-service, software-defined networking, smartphones/devices, and venture/startup communications.
In his current role as an executive leader at Big Valley, Steve’s responsibilities include leading the firm’s sales and marketing operations while also serving as a senior consultant to key clients. He will also evangelize Big Valley’s point of view on important technology and marketing trends.
Steve’s prior agency experience includes senior positions at Next Fifteen-, Omnicom- and WPP-held agencies and independently owned firms Edelman and WE Communications, as well as earlier positions in Silicon Valley-focused boutique firms.
Steve has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
What do you do?
I’m Big Valley Marketing’s first CMO. I am responsible for promoting our value proposition and enabling new ways for brands to experience our consultancy. I have a wide range of previous experience that is directly applicable to Big Valley’s current growth cycle. I’ve pitched and serviced some of the biggest tech brands, rolled up my sleeves with innovative startups, and ebbed and flowed with booms and busts. As Big Valley continues to march forward in its effort to put the Silicon Valley back into Silicon Valley marketing and communications, I get the great opportunity to tell stories about how our team is bringing that to life and to highlight the ways we help our clients show up differently.
Why Big Valley Marketing?
Across my many agency experiences, the moments when what I liked to do and what I was good at intersected the most were when the organizations I was working for were experiencing or targeting growth. Today, Big Valley is doing both. What Tim Marklein intended to create when he started his own shop in January 2014 has manifested into strong client momentum, expanding awareness about our differentiated approach, and an opportunity for us to take a big step forward as a business. We’re evolving how consulting for marketing and communications needs are delivered and executed, and the newness and effectiveness of our results keep me fired up every day.
What’s one thing fun or surprising/unexpected about you?
I genuinely like long walks on the beach and poetry. My pandemic experience included beach meditation on Coronado, campfires at El Capitan State Beach, and countless grains of San Francisco beach sand entering my home. And I have a stack of Pulitzer Prize-winning poets demanding my attention and celebration; here’s to you Wallace Stevens, Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Berryman, Robert Penn Warren, Elizabeth Bishop, Anne Sexton, and Mr. Mark Strand. Finally, I like to think I’m the most enthusiastic parent field prep volunteer in the entire San Francisco Little League!
