Marketing Exec Covered Lot of Ground at Various Jobs

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Because her father was in the Air Force, Angela Courtin traveled the world as a child. She spent an extended period in Germany and went to high school in England. While some children are bothered by the disruption of moving, Courtin enjoyed it and cites the relocating as good preparation for a wide-ranging career with stints in entertainment, politics and media.

“I loved it. I got very comfortable acclimating and was never thrown off by any situation, which is good in the business world,” she said.

Courtin currently applies her business acumen at social networking site MySpace, where she was recently named senior vice president of marketing, entertainment and content. She handles marketing and promotions for MySpace’s larger clients and worked on a recent campaign for Disney’s “High School Musical 3.”

Working for an online company was probably not what Courtin had in my mind when she was earning her civil engineering degree at Oklahoma State University. But her undergraduate studies were fueled by a lifelong passion.

“I wanted to be an architect,” she said. “I’d play with Legos, build tree houses and I was an expert with cardboard boxes.”

Courtin reassessed her career prospects after graduation and returned to Oklahoma State to get an M.B.A. But she continued to pursue projects that she was passionate about and decided after graduate school to work as finance director on the 1998 campaign of Ralph Neas, the Democratic candidate for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.

After that campaign, Courtin changed paths again and decided to try her hand at Hollywood. She worked as associate producer on HBO series “Big Love” and served as vice president of integrated marketing for MTV Networks before jumping to MySpace.

Courtin has remained politically active and especially enjoyed the time she spent in 2004 working with Rock the Vote, a public service campaign that taps celebrities and music groups to encourage young people to register to vote.

“It was genius. It was the perfect combo of entertainment and politics,” she said. “It gave people the ability to affect the political process.”

Courtin is single and lives by the beach in Venice. In her spare time she likes to read and loves doing the New York Times crossword puzzle.

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