The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) recently welcomed Erik Schonher to the newly created position of Chief Engagement Officer, Development and State Support. In this new role, Schonher will be responsible for bringing new focus and resources to leveraging NSPE’s integrated membership model and relationships with state society partners to increase the value and impact of membership and the performance of both national and its federation of integrated state societies.  He will also enhance communication and marketing initiatives across all levels of the organization.

“I am excited to bring my passion and expertise to the premier organization for professional engineers,” said Schonher. “There is a profound opportunity to build successful programs and outreach based on the new strategic plan and direction for NSPE, and to solidify and improve the impact and strength of our key state society partners for the betterment of the organization at all levels. I can’t wait to get started.”

With over 30 years of management and marketing experience, Schonher brings a key ability to implement strategies to increase membership, drive revenue, and accomplish strategic and financial goals. Schonher founded and ran two successful association strategic membership and marketing agencies and held a leadership position for 12 years with Marketing General Incorporated as Vice President. He has worked with over 50 associations as a marketing and strategy consultant. In those roles, Schonher achieved overwhelming success designing membership programs that generated a total of over $100 million in client revenue and increased renewal rates by 7% by designing and implementing new member onboarding programs and multi-channel campaigns utilizing social media, digital marketing, direct mail, and telemarketing to expand brand awareness, drive lead generation, increase new customer/member acquisition, and grow customer/member retention.

Immediately prior to joining NSPE, Schonher was the senior director, information services and analytics at The Humane Society of the United States, where he was responsible for managing the information services and data analytics departments.

“NSPE’s new strategic plan and the business and operational model now supporting it place an emphasis on driving growth at all levels of NSPE, to achieve greater mission impact,” said Mark Golden, executive director and chief executive officer of NSPE. “The addition of Erik to the team will enable us to collaborate more fully and effectively with our state society partners to achieve our goal of a single, integrated membership supported by seamless services provided through state and national societies and local chapters.”

In addition to his workplace achievements, Schonher is also an experienced public speaker, having spoken over 100 times at a wide variety of conferences and trade shows on marketing, membership, sales, analytics, journey-mapping, and systems. He has also authored over 30 articles and whitepapers on related topics. Schonher holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York at Fredonia, and an MBA from Pace University’s Lubin Graduate School of Business.