Lakeside graduate lands sweet job in marketing field

A Lakeside High School graduate knew she wanted to be in marketing when she left the area in 1994.

Now, Molly Meek is the marketing manager for a new product with a familiar name - Snickers. Meek is employed by Masterfoods U.S.A, which is owned by Mars Inc., and she has one goal: to make the new Snickers Marathon Bar a success.

Meek, 27, earned her marketing and management degree from Georgia Tech in 1999 and went straight to work for Mars.

"I always knew I wanted to be in marketing, I just didn't know what it was called," Meek said. "What I am in is called brands management. Essentially, what I am doing is what I have always wanted to do. The role that I do touches everything from R&D (research and development) and manufacturing to advertising.

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"I am like the hub on the wheel. So you touch every spectrum basically."

Meek, who now lives in Hoboken, N.J., travels around the country promoting the new energy bar scheduled to begin shipping in October. She commutes an hour to work each day to Mars, which is based in Hackettstown, N.J., and is studying for her Master of Business Administration degree at New York University on the weekends. She hopes to complete her degree by May.

"It is a rough schedule, but it going to be worth it," Meek said. "I just keep going."

Meek's family has lived in Evans for nearly 18 years, but they are not from Augusta or even the South. Meeks mother is from Washington, and her father, Gordon, is from Maryland. The family spent five years overseas and has traveled extensively.

So living on the opposite end of the Eastern seaboard from her daughter does not bother Meek's mother, Carole.

"We have traveled all over the world," she said. "We have never lived close to our family, so I didn't expect our kids to live close to us."

Along with Meek's brother who lives in Washington D.C., the family gets together on vacations, such as one they took in July to a nearby beach.