Forty Under 40: Amanda Rogers

Amanda Rogers wanted to be in advertising so bad she took a job as a courier with Blackwood Martin/CJRW while she was a journalism student at the University of Arkansas.

Hauling boxes, running errands, delivering artwork from company to client. Anything to get her foot in the door.

She was eventually hired as a traffic assistant. From then on, it’s been an upward trend, from account executive to senior account executive, and from operations manager to senior operations manager.

In 2013, after nine years with the company, she was named director of operations for Saatchi & Saatchi X. She leads a five-member team that oversees processes across offices in Springdale, Chicago and Cincinnati.

Having a hand in all of it suits Rogers just fine.

“I get to work with all the cross-functional leaders and I’m not focused in one area,” she said.

Her laundry list of skills is long: problem solving, strategic planning, coaching, management, data analysis, internal communications and relationship building.

“Someone told me I’m like a helicopter,” Rogers said. “I like to hover, but I also like to get in there and get my hands dirty.”

A mother of two, Rogers is president of the Root Elementary School PTO. She is also a board member of The C.A.R.E. Initiative, Saatchi’s charitable arm for disadvantaged children.

“Being a mother, it brings it closer to home,” she said.