Ashley Horne, Director, Corporate Sponsorships and Events, Mizuho Americas, won Excellence in Marketing and Communications at Markets Media Group’s 2023 Women in Finance (U.S.) Awards.

What was your reaction to winning the award?

What an honor! It was such a nice surprise, and I’m grateful to our Chief Marketing Officer Cheryl Gilberg and the team for nominating me and supporting my success. It was also an honor to share in the wider celebration of women on Wall Street – to be recognized alongside such incredibly smart and talented women is a true career highlight.

This year, you helped manage Mizuho Americas’ biggest ever sponsorship, the LPGA Mizuho Americas Open. Tell us about the planning involved.

The Mizuho Americas Open was a huge – but exciting – undertaking. It drew intense involvement and collaboration across all divisions within our firm. In fact, the reason why we chose to sponsor the LPGA and structure the tournament as we did, was because it reflected our firmwide values. The tournament featured Juniors playing along Pros, a first-class player experience complete with free lodging, a famous PGA venue that had never hosted an LPGA event, a top purse, and a charitable partner. It speaks to our focus on opportunity, equity, and advancing the next generation of talent.

Logistically, it required managing many interdependent vendor and partner relationships and overseeing diverse work streams that often had to cascade into the next, including planning hospitality and VIP experiences, hosting special events, ensuring smooth tournament operations, and developing onsite branding. It involved more than a year’s worth of hard work and a lot of teamwork, but in the end, I’m proud to say it was a major success, ultimately attracting 30,000 attendees, millions of TV and digital viewers, and even a post by Tiger Woods!

What are the greatest challenges when planning and executing an event?

When it comes to event planning, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected and always have a ‘plan B.’ I prepare as best as possible for every contingency, but some things are just out of my control. Maintaining calm under pressure can be tough when things go wrong, but it really is key to the job, and it takes practice.

What’s something you’re really proud of and why?

I started out managing special projects for the securities area several years ago. Now, I oversee firmwide events and major sponsorships with national audiences and am managing a team that has more than doubled in the past two years.