Frank Dudley

Frank Dudley is a marketing strategist, educator, author, and consultant specializing in creator marketing, commerce media, digital media innovation and the application of data, AI and emerging technologies to modern marketing strategy. He has taught graduate-level and executive education courses for more than 12 years at Medill. He also serves as a lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dudley’s teaching, research, and consulting focus on how brands, platforms, financial institutions and creators drive sustainable growth through integrated marketing strategy, creator partnerships, commerce media, customer experience innovation and marketing intelligence. His courses emphasize applied learning, strategic problem-solving and real-world case analysis, with particular attention to the evolving intersections of media, technology, content and commerce.

Prior to his academic and advisory career, Dudley held senior marketing and executive leadership positions across technology, media, research, travel and experiential marketing organizations. His experience includes serving as Chief Creative Officer at Viant, one of the most successful technology IPOs of the late 1990s; executive vice president at ZEFER, a pioneering digital services firm founded out of Harvard Business School and later acquired by NEC; and executive vice president and Chief Marketing Officer at Virtusa, which became a publicly traded company in 2007. He also served as Chief Marketing Officer for the Americas at Flight Centre, overseeing marketing for more than a dozen travel brands, as well as senior leadership roles at Guideline/Opinion Research Corporation and MKTG, the nation’s largest experiential marketing agency at the time, later acquired by Dentsu.

This extensive operating experience directly informs his teaching and research, particularly in the areas of growth strategy, digital transformation, customer experience, marketing innovation, analytics and organizational effectiveness.

In addition to his appointments at Northwestern and Penn, Dudley has served as a Visiting Professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, where he taught Integrated Marketing Communications Management in June 2026. His international teaching and consulting experience reflects a global perspective on marketing strategy, innovation and business growth.

He is president of the Financial Marketing Institute and advises organizations across banking, asset management, insurance, technology and consumer industries. He has designed and delivered executive education programs, professional certifications and customized corporate training initiatives for global organizations and leading educational platforms.

He is the author of the forthcoming book, Creator Marketing & Commerce Media: How Creators Can Build Brands and Drive Sales (Wiley), which explores the convergence of creators, content, platforms and commerce and provides strategic frameworks for marketers navigating the rapidly evolving media landscape. He is also developing a second book for Wiley, Marketing and Communications Management: A Systems Approach to Integrating Strategy and Customer Choice for Business Growth, which examines how organizations can align marketing strategy, communications, customer decision-making, and organizational capabilities to drive sustainable growth in increasingly complex and dynamic markets.

Dudley’s recent research and thought leadership examine the impact of AI and large language models on marketing strategy, personalization, customer decisioning, media planning and commerce media networks. These themes are actively integrated into his teaching, executive education programs, consulting engagements and publications.

A frequent speaker at industry conferences, corporate events, and academic programs, Dudley contributes thought leadership through keynote presentations, workshops, publications and executive education initiatives.

He holds advanced academic training in marketing, communications and business strategy, having studied at Saint Joseph’s University, the University of Oxford and Syracuse University. He resides in the Philadelphia area.