Coworking with Kimberly Veale

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Kimberly Veale is SVP of marketing and communications at the Portland Fire, a WNBA expansion team. Prior to that, she was SVP, marketing and communications at another expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries. She has also worked for the Golden State Warriors and Seattle Storm.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? Working across both marketing and communications for a team means no two days look the same. Focal points range from driving fandom and growing the season ticket audience, planning community events, announcing partnerships, or shaping the look and voice of a team through social media and team channel strategies.

Add in the reality of building a WNBA expansion team, and there’s an extra layer of unpredictability. It’s fast-moving and, more often than not, a lot to juggle, but that’s also what makes it so rewarding. You’re helping build something from the ground up and can see the impact of that work in real time.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? I was part of leading the internal task force that helped bring the Golden State Valkyries to life, from the expansion bid through building the foundation of the team as the SVP of marketing and communications in their inaugural season. As a Bay Area native, it was a special and rare opportunity to create something entirely new and push the boundaries of how a team shows up in the Bay and the WNBA.

Getting the chance to do that again now with the Portland Fire is incredibly special. There’s nothing like the opportunity to set the foundation and identity of a team from day one.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? This spring, we unveiled the Portland Fire’s 2026 schedule with a campaign featuring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of Portlandia. Carrie and Fred have been such iconic faces of the Portland community that partnering with them was a perfect fit from the start. We shared the idea of leaning into Portlandia’s signature interactions and humor to unveil the schedule, tying in the 15th anniversary of the pilot episode’s airing, and they were immediately on board.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile? I love to cook, and learned how to cook from my dad at a very young age.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? It’s hard to not mention AI in relation to marketing trends right now. I’m most optimistic about combining first-party data and AI-driven personalization (of course, as someone who has led two startups in two years!). As the WNBA continues to grow at rapid rates, as a new expansion franchise, we’re focused on top-of-funnel strategies and broad awareness, but we need to quickly deepen relationships, build trust, and drive year-round relevancy.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? I love the Pantone Instagram account—it’s one of my favorites to follow and draw inspiration and ideas through. Having worked for two expansion teams now, Pantone has especially been beneficial in inspiring the full visual identity of each team and has done some really creative work with professional teams lately that is really well done.