James T. Acuff

Growth Executive

Connecting sales and marketing. Driving revenue growth.

Enterprise leadership at AWS and AT&T across demand generation, field and partner marketing, sales development, and sales.

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Experience at AWS and AT&T

James T. Acuff, growth executive
James T. Acuff (Jim), Dallas, Texas

Results

Growth, measured.

At AWS SMB Americas, field, digital demand, partner co-marketing, and sales development were connected around one growth plan.

Marketing-sourced pipeline, with an $8M marketing budget.

AWS SMB Americas pipeline
Starting pipeline$800M
Resulting pipeline$3B

Marketing-sourced pipeline increased from 800 million dollars to 3 billion dollars. Both bars share a zero baseline and common scale.

26% lower customer acquisition cost

Relative acquisition cost. Starting level = 100.

Starting level100
Resulting level74

Relative customer acquisition cost decreased from an indexed starting level of 100 to 74.

Selected growth stories

Three growth systems. Three different leadership problems.

AWS SMB Americas

Connecting demand generation with sales development

The growth system needed field, digital demand, partner co-marketing, and sales development to operate against one Americas revenue plan. Jim led the marketing organization and the SMB Americas SDR team, aligning the work before leads reached sales.

$800M to $3B in marketing-sourced pipeline, with customer acquisition cost reduced 26%.

Explore the case
  • Led 5 direct reports and collaborated with 20+ cross-functional partners across 4 business units.
  • Aligned 11 teams around one Americas revenue plan and 6 shared KPIs while managing an $8M marketing budget.
  • Managed agencies, vendors, and contractors alongside internal field, digital demand, partner, and SDR teams.
  • Built role-based AI training for targeting, segmentation, measurement, and daily marketing work.
  • Earlier, as Principal Marketing Lead (US SMB), owned US East SMB marketing-sourced pipeline and grew it from $150M to $380M.
Illustration: connected demand system
Field marketing
Digital demand
Partner co-marketing
SDR qualification
Shared destinationSales-ready growth

AT&T Field & Channel Marketing

Aligning field and channel execution

Five channels needed to work from one account-based plan across nine priority markets. Jim directed field and partner marketing for a 110+ person organization and connected enterprise verticals, reseller programs, and local execution.

65% pipeline growth across nine priority markets.

Explore the case
  • Unified field, digital, retail, contact-center, and partner/channel programs into one campaign plan.
  • Built reseller co-marketing and channel-enablement programs around shared field events, joint campaigns, and partner execution.
  • Directed enterprise-vertical field programs, including financial services in the Northeast corridor.
  • Worked with Iusacell on US-Mexico execution.
  • The 110+ figure describes the organization under his field and channel responsibility, not direct reports.
Illustration: channel alignment
Field
Digital
Retail
Contact center
Partners
9priority markets

AT&T B2B and B2B2C

Turning enterprise relationships into recurring mobile revenue

Enterprise relationships became a platform for consumer acquisition. Jim led the strategy connecting workforce programs, contractual marketing commitments, and six coordinated channels across a broad eligible audience.

$1B+ in recurring mobile revenue across programs spanning 10,000+ enterprise accounts.

Explore the case
  • Built a six-channel loyalty program reaching 52.8M employees, military members, students, and union members.
  • Directed enterprise workforce loyalty programs across 10,000+ accounts.
  • Connected B2B relationships with consumer mobile acquisition and recurring revenue.
  • The supplied résumé reports the revenue attribution. It does not provide a starting value or conversion-rate series.
Illustration: relationship to revenue
10,000+ enterprise accounts
Workforce loyalty
Six-channel execution
$1B+recurring mobile revenue
Experience

Leadership across sales, marketing, and operations.

The JL Garrett Group

Dallas, Texas

2026 to Present

Fractional Chief Growth Officer & AI Enablement Advisor

2026 to Present

Leads growth strategy and AI enablement for founder-led businesses across professional services, education, and technology.

View scope
  • Connects marketing, sales, and operations through growth assessments, prioritized execution plans, and revenue-linked scorecards.
  • Builds demand generation and marketing operations, including CRM workflows, partner and referral programs, campaign execution, and lead-to-revenue reporting.
  • Applies AI to workflows and process automation, translating business priorities into practical systems and team adoption.

Amazon Web Services

Seattle, Washington and remote

March 2022 to April 2026

Head of Field & Partner Marketing (SMB Americas)

January 2024 to April 2026

Led 5 direct reports and collaborated with 20+ cross-functional partners across 4 business units, with responsibility spanning demand, partners, SDR qualification, resources, and budget.

View scope
  • Aligned 11 teams around one Americas revenue plan and 6 shared KPIs.
  • Led the SMB Americas sales development team responsible for nurturing and qualifying leads before sales handoff.
  • Managed an $8M marketing budget plus agency, vendor, and contractor resources.
  • Built role-based AI training for daily marketing work.

Principal Marketing Lead (US SMB)

March 2022 to January 2024

Owned US East SMB marketing-sourced pipeline, growing it from $150M to $380M through AI-enabled targeting, lifecycle programs, and partner co-marketing.

View scope
  • The formal title covered US SMB. The documented pipeline ownership was US East SMB.

AT&T

Dallas, Texas

2007 to 2022

Head of Field & Channel Marketing

2015 to 2022

Directed field and partner/channel marketing for a 110+ person organization across enterprise verticals and multi-channel execution.

View scope
  • Integrated five channels, built reseller co-marketing and channel-enablement programs, and delivered 65% pipeline growth across nine priority markets through ABM.
  • Led enterprise-vertical field programs and worked with Iusacell on US-Mexico execution.

Head of B2B and B2B2C Marketing

2011 to 2015

Led the team and go-to-market strategy connecting enterprise relationships with consumer mobile acquisition and recurring revenue.

View scope
  • Built a six-channel loyalty program reaching 52.8M eligible employees, military members, students, and union members.
  • Directed workforce programs across 10,000+ enterprise accounts, generating $1B+ in recurring mobile revenue.

Head of B2B Sales, Mergers & Integrations

2010 to 2011

Directed the acquired company’s sales organization and customer operations through integration into AT&T.

View scope
  • Migrated 1M+ customers with zero service failures and delivered 400 to 500% of sales targets.

Director of Sales, Great Lakes Region

2007 to 2010

Turned around a consistently underperforming sales market within one year during a severe economic downturn.

View scope
  • Promoted from the regional sales leadership role following the turnaround.

Education and development

  • BBA, Marketing & Management, Liberty University
  • Certificate, AI for Marketing and Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
  • Certificate, Prompt Engineering for Marketing, Vanderbilt University
  • AWS Speaker Certified, Amazon Web Services, 2023
  • Founder & Executive Director, AI Scholars Lab, K-12 AI literacy program

Illustrative growth approach

Connect the functions. Grow the business.

Shared goals and clear handoffs turn separate functions into an accountable growth system.

AI can strengthen targeting, workflows, measurement, and team adoption. Leadership still connects the work to business outcomes.

From understanding to durable customer value
01Customer and market understanding
02Field, digital, and partner demand
03SDR qualification
04Sales execution
05Revenue and customer relationships

An illustrative sequence connecting customer and market understanding to demand, SDR qualification, sales execution, revenue, and customer relationships, with measurement feeding learning back into the system.

Contact

Let’s talk about your next stage of growth.

Jim welcomes executive growth-leadership and relevant advisory conversations with CEOs, hiring executives, and executive recruiters.

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Résumé
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