James L. Overturf

Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer,
Extra Space Storage Inc.

Extra Space Storage is the second largest publicly traded self-storage real estate operator in the U.S.

ME: Tell me a bit about yourself, your background and area of expertise.

James: I’ve been with Extra Space since February of 1999. Before I joined Extra Space I was in various marketing/advertising positions with companies such as IBM, 3Com, and Fidelity Investments. At Extra Space I’ve been involved in pretty much everything–marketing, operations, corporate communications, investor relations, pricing–you name it.

ME: When you worked with Heather Hughes, what were your company needs? Were they met? How?

James: I’ve worked with Heather at both 3Com and Extra Space Storage. Most of my day-to-day experience with Heather was at Extra Space Storage. At that time, Extra Space Storage was in the process of repositioning itself for growth and Heather was responsible for the development of Extra Space Storage’s initial brand strategy and how we communicated that strategy to current and potential customers through our retail spaces, marketing collateral and online. The company really had no expertise in the arena of customer research, branding and program execution and Heather did an outstanding job of creating a platform from which the company could grow and mature.

ME: What sort of problems did she help solve?

James: Heather did an outstanding job of making the entire company, especially the executives, think about who the company was at that time, what our customers thought we were, and how to bridge the gap. Many of the initial brand strategies remain relevant today, 13 years later.

ME: What was it like working with Heather Hughes? What could potential clients expect from her?

James: Heather is excellent to work with. She is open, honest and transparent in her communications and does a great job of crafting her communications to the people she’s speaking with at the time. She also has a great sense of humor and likes to laugh.

ME: Would you recommend Heather Hughes? Why?

James: Yes, I would. Heather is a consummate professional, is passionate, persistent and very smart. She is one of the best brand marketers I’ve known and I learned a lot from her in our time together.