Building and cultivating relationships, delivering fresh perspectives, leading with humility and compassion, and the mind of a champion are the traits that have guided Charece Williams Gee and have shaped her reputation as a visionary leader and culture shifter.
Charece has successfully built a career as a brand & sports marketer, currently serving as Brand Director, Consumer & Entertainment Marketing at PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA). She draws on her relationships with creative agency executives, NBA & WNBA league, teams and athlete representatives, and internal PBNA stakeholders to create breakthrough ideas. Gee’s career at PBNA started in Portfolio promotions in conjunction with marquee events for the Super Bowl as well as the NBA before expanding her role to include portfolio and packaging innovation.
With 15+ post MBA experience on the brand, nonprofit, and agency side of sports, she also serves as a champion of diversity and inclusion. After taking the reins as Head of Basketball at PepsiCo, Charece spearheaded the signing of A’ja Wilson as the first WNBA endorser for Mountain Dew and made the brand the first ever sponsor for the WNBA 3-point Contest within the same season. Charece also serves on the National Advisory Board for MOSAIC, PepsiCo’s Black Employee Resource Group, helping to increase the representation and advancement of Black talent. Her accomplishments at PepsiCo were recognized in 2018 when she won the prestigious Harvey C. Russell Award, presented annually by PepsiCo’s CEO.
Charece’s fresh perspective has provided invaluable contributions on consumer campaigns that have positively impacted PBNA’s bottom line. In 2020, she was responsible for the first change to the NBA 3-point Contest in 30 years, when she conceived the Mountain Dew Zone ahead of the 2020 NBA All-Star Game. This new innovation resulted in over 5 billion impressions and increased overall share of voice for the brand by 50%. She followed this game-changing endeavor by developing Mountain Dew’s first-ever Women’s History Month campaign featuring three female professional athletes; an amazing feat for a brand historically focused on millennial male consumers.
Charece has been heralded for her tenacity and vision, her ability to sell in new ideas, and ability to push each company she has worked with to new heights. Throughout her career, Charece has held leadership positions in marketing, strategy, and business development at Wasserman, ESPN, and National Basketball Retired Players Association (NBRPA). While at the NBRPA, she initiated key changes to the bylaws that opened the association and its benefits to former WNBA players for the first time in its 20-year history. For all these reasons Forbes recently profiled Charece as a trailblazer who uses her Superpowers to empower women in sports.
A community leader, Charece serves on the Board of Advisors for both Hacker U and the DeVos Sports Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida, where she holds an M.B.A and Master of Sports Business Management. Additionally, she serves as a mentor for WEEN, a nonprofit seeking to develop the next generation of black women leaders in sports and entertainment.
A graduate of North Carolina State University, where she was Captain and MVP of the volleyball team, Charece has a championship mindset which she brings to every situation, earning numerous awards and recognition throughout her career. Of note, She was presented the She-Mogul Award by WISE Atlanta during the 2019 Sports Power Brunch during Super Bowl week. That same year Charece was honored as a recipient of the 40 under 40 Award by The Network Journal and the Rising Star Award from The Shadow League. In 2020, Charece was awarded the “Societal Spark” Bevvie Award, given during the PBNA Annual Marketing Awards program and new in 2021, she was awarded Crain’s NY Best in Marketing & PR.