Taking Her Team Towards Success

Kim Swanson is an experienced leader in the IP industry with just over 20 years of experience. As the Head of Commercial- Americas for Dennemeyer, she has built a strong, unified team focused on understanding customer needs, ensuring that there is always demonstrated long term customer value, and impacting positive change for clients and the company.Since joining in 2021, she has built out the sales team to include a small market segment as well as a Customer Success Management team. Aligning sales and operations, and incorporating the voice of the client and, analyzing market trends, have allowed her Dennemeyer team to create tailored solutions for all IP needs. All of this has been possible through Kim’s strategic mindset and Dennemeyer’sforward-thinkingapproach to serving the Americas market. The ability to serve the Americas from the Dennemeyer global platform is a passion for Kim and one that her team embraces in their daily work.

Kim’s team shared that she leads with honesty, fairness, and integrity. She knows that the success of her team is also her success. She accepts feedback with grace and patience even though, at times, she may disagree. Her team knows she fights for them and wouldn’t ask them to do anything she hasn’t done herself. Being a steadfast leader, Kim always guides her team toward success. “Knowing that success is a journey, not a destination is fundamental to continue to grow and think ahead of the market needs. It is also a word with so many definitions that change as you gain experience in your career,” she says. “Being true to what you say you will do and executing is one definition, but also communicating the road to get there for future endeavors supports all the learning. Ultimately, and all joking aside, success will be reached when I turn in my corporate shoes. This is why raising the next generation of leaders in this industry is critical.”

Goal-focused with a proven history of international team leadership and achievements, Kim has been setting the standards and maximizing returns to harnessing her team strengths to improve corporation-wide performance. Collaboration can build consensus among executive teams and stakeholders to promote transparency and influence positive change, which has been repeatedly proven. “Clear and effective communication with a wide range of stakeholders, including employees, customers, partners and shareholders, is the key,” she explains. “As stated, I lead by example, all with a keen eye that I amand my colleagues are setting Dennemeyer standards and influencing our teams to deliver excellence. In the service business, you get one shot. I am always confident we deliver on target or above for our clients.

Passionate about promoting learning and creative thinking to keep curiosity for leading-edge trends in the industry, self-development, and striving for change that builds and rebuilds the organization that serves the customers well and performs at its best. Kim advises everyone to be willing to take on new things even within their current role – gaining expertise in several areas will serve them well. “I started in the IP Business performing all the roles that my team plays, so having that front line experience supports them practically and hopefully inspirationally, as there is no limit to what you can do in IP.”

Dennemeyer uses the hashtag #OneDennemeyer because it embodies trust, respect, integrity, and high-quality service. From a people perspective, #OneDennemeyer also represents ownership and entrepreneurship; these pillars depend on the company. People helping people has always been the core of the intellectual property industry. “We are very proud of our sixty-year legacy of Dennemeyer attracting and retaining high-quality people. As the Head of Commercial for the Americas, my role goes hand in hand with building and developing teams that embody these principles. Successful leaders know that if you nurture and support your people, you will see success,” she explains.

Sixty years of evolution at Dennemeyer have shown the world that transparency and service excellence is the cornerstone to their success. “In the time that I have been with Dennemeyer I can point to one achievement that I know will continue our legacy is that we are building new technology which will take our IP services to the next level. The current mission of developing new business models and unique partnerships will make a big impact on how our business will expand and grow with the customers without compromising the service we are known for. This all circles back to listening to our clients and having a keen eye on the market evolution.”

The future Kim reflects on my father’s lesson of “Be the person who makes things happen”. Dennemeyer is this place with progressive leadership, forward-thinking and the nimbleness to adapt and change. Looking forward to seeing another 60 years for us!