Rita Patel Jackson — Product Marketing & GTM Executive

About

I build the playbook, execute it to revenue, then take that pattern to whatever comes next.

I started my career writing code on AT&T's 5ESS switch, the system behind call waiting and three-way calling. From there I moved through cellular network buildout at Motorola, a wireless startup, and enterprise software, long before "AI" was a word anyone put on a slide.

That technical foundation still shapes how I work. I'm not a marketer who learned the technology. I'm a technologist who learned to build the market around it.

The pattern has repeated across IBM Watson's global ecosystem, GE Healthcare's first FDA-approved AI algorithm, MuleSoft's pivot to industry-led growth, Showpad's Sales Enablement category, and OpenText's post-acquisition GTM rebuild. Every time, I walked into a gap: a go-to-market function that either didn't exist or wasn't built for what the business needed next.

I don't just design the system and move on. I build it, hire the team, and execute it through to revenue. Then I take that pattern to the next mandate, sometimes a new company, sometimes the next role inside the one I'm already at. I learned to build the framework and iterate it for the next role at IBM, where I held six roles over eleven years, each one bigger than the last.

Career

Five companies. Five different starting points. One consistent job.

A quick walk through where I've built, and what it produced.

Aug 2022 – Dec 2025

OpenText

Senior Vice President, Product Marketing

Joined 30 days after a $3B acquisition closed, with no integration playbook in place. Built a unified go-to-market model across nine business units and a $5B+ portfolio, from the ground up.

$3.8B–$4.0B annual pipeline 250+ products rationalized 95% platform adoption in 6 months 100+ person team

Jun 2020 – Jun 2022

MuleSoft (Salesforce)

VP Product Marketing · Acting Chief Marketing Officer

Brought in to lead MuleSoft's pivot from a horizontal integration platform to an industry-aligned growth company, while running a 200-person marketing org as Acting CMO.

$40M new + $45M matured pipeline in 9 months 40+ person PMM function built from zero 15% pipeline growth, 10% spend reduction

Mar 2019 – Mar 2020

Showpad

Vice President, Product Marketing

Brought in post-Series D by the co-founder and CPO to build Product Marketing from scratch and define an entire category that didn't have a name yet.

Gartner MQ + Forrester Wave in 12 months $25M ARR supported 150% increase in sales engagement

Jun 2017 – Mar 2019

GE Healthcare

VP Global Marketing (CMO), Analytics & Artificial Intelligence

This is where I learned to build a brand. As the first CMO-level marketing hire for Analytics & AI inside a $19B regulated enterprise, I launched the Edison brand and led go-to-market for the first AI algorithm ever embedded in a medical device.

30+ AI applications launched in 5 months 3 FDA-approved AI algorithms Marketing org built from zero

Apr 2006 – Jun 2017

IBM Corporation

Executive Senior Director · VP, Product Management & Marketing

Eleven years, six roles of increasing scope. Started in offering management, learning industries, customer outcomes, developer relations, and partner ecosystems. That foundation led to founding IBM's global Watson ecosystem from zero, then leading Worldwide Cognitive Industry Solutions across 12+ industries.

300+ partners across 25+ countries $500M channel revenue $800M+ partner-influenced revenue

1990 – 2006

Where It Started

PLATINUM Technology · Computer Associates · Motorola · AT&T

Long before AI had a name, I was writing infrastructure code at AT&T and building cellular networks at Motorola. At PLATINUM Technology, I created the Product Marketing function before "product marketing" was even a term. When CA acquired PLATINUM for $3.5B, they brought me back to rebuild it there too.

22–33% revenue growth at PLATINUM Product Marketing function built twice CS & Math foundation, hands on the code

How I Work

A few things that stay true no matter which company I'm sitting inside.

I show up when there's no playbook.

OpenText had no integration plan. GE Healthcare had no AI marketing function. Showpad had no PMM team at all. I've built the missing piece six times now. It's not luck. It's the role I keep signing up for.

I build from zero, repeatedly.

Six companies where the function I now lead didn't exist before I walked in. Categories that had no name yet. Ecosystems that started at zero partners. I'm at my best in that exact gap.

I've been commercializing AI since before it was called AI.

From switch code at AT&T, to cellular infrastructure at Motorola, to IBM Watson in 2014, to FDA-approved algorithms at GE Healthcare. The thread runs three decades, even if the label is new.

The work shows up in the numbers.

$3.8B in pipeline. $800M in partner revenue. 33% revenue growth at a company most people have never heard of. These are business outcomes, not brand metrics, and that's the point.

Speaking

I talk about the gap between what technology can do and what the market believes it can do.

Most of my keynotes and panels come from the same well: three decades of building go-to-market functions inside AI, SaaS, and regulated technology companies, with the scars and the wins to show for it.

I speak to product marketing teams, executive audiences, boards, and PE/VC operating groups on commercializing AI, building GTM functions from scratch, and what actually happens after the acquisition closes.

AI Commercialization Category Creation Post-Acquisition GTM Building PMM From Zero Board & Investor Narrative

Press & Writing