Jill Monson
Jill Monson: 35
Director of Marketing, Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding
“If you can hear me … go shhhhhhhhh.”
This is, for all intents and purposes, Jill Monson’s ‘line.’ She utters it to quiet people down and get things moving at events ranging from chamber After-5 outings to Springfield Armor basketball games. And she says it often; she has become the region’s preeminent emcee.
But Monson has been doing a lot more than making a name and a line for herself these days. She’s made a career move — actually, two of them. Her new business card announces her as the director of Marketing for Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding. Meanwhile, she’s taken a major entrepreneurial step, opening her own business called Inspired Marketing & Promotions, which handles everything from consulting work in social media to event planning to public relations.
Monson said she chose that name for a reason: She was inspired by the recent death of her mother at the age of 56. “Her passing showed me that you just don’t know how many days you have left,” she told BusinessWest. “So you have to make the most of each and every one of them.”
Looking back on what she’s done to date, it’s clear that Monson has wasted little, if any, of her time. She has always been busy professionally, mixing a day job — first in radio with several area stations and then in various marketing capacities — with announcing and emcee gigs. And she’s always been extremely active in the community. She’s on the board of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield, is an executor for the Springfield Museums, serves as a diplomat for the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, and volunteers as the sales coordinator for the Rays of Hope walk. She’s also active with Keep Springfield Beautiful, Habitat for Humanity, and the Home Builders Assoc. Home Show.
So while she’s becoming known across the region for quieting crowds, Monson is making her mark as an entrepreneur and proponent of Springfield and many of its institutions. And that point is coming across loud and clear. —George O’Brien
