A conversation with Jillian Swift and Mary Horwath
When purpose, partnership, and participation align, marketing becomes more than a campaign; it becomes a catalyst for connection. That dynamic was on full display during a recent Marketers That Matter® Visionaries conversation with Jillian Swift, Chief Marketing Officer for Pentair Pool and Mary Horwath, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games. Pentair Pool is the official swimming sponsor of the 2026 Special Olympic USA Games, making their conversation as much a case study in partnership as it is in purpose.
With Marketers That Matter® Advisor & Chief Community Officer Kathy Hollenhorst leading the discussion, Horwath and Swift explored how brands can build meaningful partnerships, activate deep engagement across stakeholders, and create measurable value without losing sight of the human impact behind the work.
Purpose Starts With Your Brand’s Why
For most brands, purpose is what you build toward with a positioning statement, a campaign platform, a reason to believe. For the Special Olympics, inclusion isn’t something the organization layered onto its identity; it is the identity.
That distinction, Horwath said, shapes everything about how the brand goes to market. “The purpose is inherent,” Horwath said. “It is what the brand is all about.”
That clarity matters because the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games must operate as both a major sporting event and a broader brand-building platform. Held every four years, the Games bring together athletes from across all 50 states to compete over seven days. For Horwath, marketing the event means driving awareness, engaging volunteers, supporting partners, and bringing more people into the Special Olympics movement.
At Pentair, purpose runs through the product itself. The company’s focus on helping people move, improve, and enjoy water gives Swift a concrete foundation to build from. She extends that foundation through the pool business into themes of wellness, community, and accessibility.
“It’s about how you bring your thought leadership, your employees, your customers, and your community together to drive something bigger than what you do every day,” Swift said.
Purpose in Action
Both marketing leaders emphasized that purpose cannot stay abstract. Purpose must show up through stories, experiences, and participation.
For Special Olympics, athletes are the heart of the brand. Horwath said the most authentic storytelling comes from putting athletes at the center and letting their experiences guide how the organization communicates.
Swift found a natural entry point for that kind of storytelling. Pentair Pool became the official swimming sponsor of the 2026 Special Olympic Games because pools are also inherently about community, wellness, and inclusivity, Swift said. That alignment, she said, made the sponsorship a no-brainer.
Pentair brought that connection to life when Brian Henry, a former Special Olympics swimming medalist, spoke at the company’s national sales meeting. His story didn’t just inspire employees; it made the sponsorship concrete, showing how Pentair’s products touch real athletes and real communities.
Swift said the moment resonated on multiple levels. “It was not only so inspiring to understand an athlete’s journey to becoming a medalist, but also to understand how we were tying our purpose to this partnership, engaging, and getting our teams really excited about what this means,” she said.
Partnerships Need More Than a Signature
One of the clearest lessons from this Visionaries conversation: effective partnerships require sustained commitment.
Swift cautioned that brands sometimes assume the work is done once the sponsorship agreement is signed. In reality, that’s when the work begins.
“It takes resources, it takes planning, and it takes budgeting,” she said.
Pentair created a stakeholder steering committee to guide the partnership, engage teams across the company, and ensure the activation extends well beyond marketing. Employees participated in Polar Plunge fundraisers, customer activations, trade show experiences, postcard-writing efforts for athletes, and volunteer opportunities connected to the Games.
Horwath said that kind of companywide engagement is exactly what makes a partnership powerful. “This isn’t a marketing partnership per se,” she said. “This is a whole company-wide partnership.”
Measuring Meaningful Impact
Purpose-driven work can be harder to measure than traditional demand generation, but both leaders stressed that measurement still matters.
For Pentair, success includes employee engagement, donations, volunteer participation, customer involvement, earned media, social amplification, and brand affinity. Swift pointed to one example: Pentair grew its Polar Plunge participation from five employees raising $17,000 to more than 60 employees across three states raising $80,000.
Horwath said the USA Games also measure tangible outcomes such as signage, impressions, activations, volunteerism, and athlete engagement. But the larger goal is more ambitious: moving the conversation around inclusion forward.
“Have we created a shift in perception?” she said.
AI as an Everyday Tool
The conversation also turned to AI and the evolving expectations for marketers.
Horwath said AI has become especially useful in a lean nonprofit environment where teams need to move quickly. She described it as a tool for writing faster, researching more efficiently, and accelerating analysis.
Swift compared AI to earlier digital shifts such as email, search, and mobile technology. Her view: marketers should be using AI regularly so it becomes a natural part of how they work.
“If you’re not opening up Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT on a daily basis just to help with efficiency, you’ve probably missed something,” Swift said.
But both leaders were clear that AI does not replace the human judgment required for meaningful marketing. Purpose-driven brand building still depends on empathy, creativity, and human connection.
The Importance of Betting on Yourself
As the conversation closed, both leaders offered career advice to marketers rooted in curiosity and courage.
Horwath encouraged marketing professionals to take risks and seek out work that stretches them. “Bet on yourself,” she said. “The worst that can happen is you’re going to have learned something.”
Swift echoed that message, urging marketers to let go of imposter syndrome. “We all are learning and growing,” she said. “And we’re always going to be stepping into bigger challenges and bigger roles. Always lean into agility because it’s the journey that really matters.”
About the Visionaries
Jillian Swift, Chief Marketing Officer, Pentair Pool
Jillian Swift is Chief Marketing Officer for Pentair Pool, a leading company committed to helping the world more safely and sustainably enjoy water, life’s most essential resource.
With 20+ years of experience, Swift brings a proven track record of running effective, high performing marketing programs. In her current role, she is responsible for transforming Pentair Pool’s marketing culture by driving customer centricity, brand strategy, digital transformation and employee engagement.
Swift began her marketing journey with Penton Media where she quickly advanced to a managerial role overseeing top accounts including the American Red Cross, Emerson and The Hartford. As the Head of Marketing for global dessert ingredient provider, PreGel in North and South America, she helped secure the company as the leader in the frozen yogurt ingredient industry.
Prior to joining Pentair, Jillian held multiple leadership marketing roles at Electrolux, where she contributed to aggressive aftermarket growth, exceptional customer experience and brand storytelling for top brands including Frigidaire, Eureka and Sanitaire.
With a journalism degree from Ohio University as her foundation, Jillian has extensive marketing experience with both B2C and B2B companies, as well as in corporate and agency environments. Swift’s passion for marketing is only surpassed by her love for her 4-year old little boy, Anson, her family and friends, and a constant hunger for travel and culinary adventures.
Mary Horwath, Chief Marketing Officer, 2026 Special Olympics USA Games
An Ad Age Top 100 Marketer with over 35 years of sports business experience, Mary Horwath is a visionary strategist renowned for turning niche products into global movements.
Most notably, she orchestrated the rise of Rollerblade Inc., transforming a hockey training tool into a $100M+ cultural phenomenon. Throughout her trailblazing career, Mary has broken significant barriers, including serving as the first female Program Director for the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team and collaborating with dozens of iconic brands such as the NBA, Polaris, and Shock Doctor.
Today, as the Chief Marketing Officer for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games, Mary is dedicated to accelerating the global inclusion movement through powerful, truthful storytelling. Inspired by the Special Olympics athlete oath, her mission is to attract and engage a new generation of supporters, ensuring that every individual involved is “markedly transformed” by the experience. She considers it a privilege to contribute her expertise to this extraordinary community, aiming to leave a lasting legacy of inclusion and empowerment for athletes everywhere.
MTM Visionaries airs live on Zoom and is moderated by Kathy Hollenhorst, Advisor and Chief Community Officer for Marketers That Matter. In each episode, two new Visionaries share their game plan and how that impacts today’s teams, talent, and you.
Marketers That Matter® is a community of top marketing executives coming together to pioneer the future of marketing, sharing real-time experiences, and solving current challenges.
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