I'm Kate Slyker, and I lead through my company, Authentic.

The name matters. It's how I show up and how I believe work gets done. Clear. Human. Real.

I'm a strategy and senior leadership executive with deep roots in marketing and communications. Over 25+ years, my career has centered on understanding people (customers, employees, communities) and helping organizations meet them where they are.

For more than a decade I sat in the C-suite at Alaska's largest telecommunications provider and a $1B publicly traded company. As Chief Marketing Officer, I led enterprise strategy across consumer and B2B marketing, brand, customer experience, product, communications, philanthropy, and digital. The work helped drive over $100M in incremental revenue, modernize a 30-year-old brand, and lead rapid customer response through events like COVID and the 2018 earthquake.

The work I am most proud of from that chapter, though, was the team. We became the highest-rated department in the company on our annual culture survey, and I was a founding sponsor of our internal women's network. Building strong, values-driven teams is something I care about deeply. It is the work that makes everything else possible.

The seat I held was also broader than the CMO title. Enterprise strategy, customer experience, digital transformation, and the operating decisions that come with a C-suite role were part of it. That shaped how I think about leadership: connected across functions, not boxed inside one.

Before GCI, I spent 15+ years at Alaska's leading advertising agency, eventually serving as Executive Vice President. Clients ranged across retail, banking and finance, seafood, Alaska Native organizations, telecom, healthcare, and tourism.

For me, authentic leadership is being real, staying true to who you are, and earning trust through facts and follow-through. The best brands, and the best teams, are built the same way.