Martz tops in business, community, family

MILES STERN
Editorial Intern

Carrie Martz isn't about to rest.

In the month since Martz, president and founder of the Martz Agency, a Valley advertising, public relations and promotion firm, was named the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce's Business Woman of the Year and recipient of the ninth annual Athena Award Oct. 4, she has taken on new commitments.

"Carrie says she'll do something and she does it," says Jamie Brody, a Valley attorney who enlisted Martz to chair a $1.9 million capital campaign to complete a facility for Sojourner's Center, a Valley shelter for survivors of domestic violence. The Martz agency has done public relations work for the center and designed its logo.

Brody says Martz is "well-respected and well-received in the community, and she is willing to roll up her sleeves" to complete a task well.

Martz and her 14-year-old daughter, Brooke, also recently became charter members of the Scottsdale branch of the National Charity League, a mother-daughter philanthropic group.

The peripatetic Martz talked with a reporter by phone while driving to the airport for a flight to Chicago, where she was slated to consult with the Chicago White Sox and Children's Memorial Foundation on developing a Home of Champions.

The Chicago project will be based on the Home of Miracles, an annual fund-raiser Martz founded, manages and promotes to benefit Phoenix Children's Hospital and Phoenix Suns Charities. The Valley program, which Martz says is the largest charity event in the state, raised $3.2 million in its first two years.

A 10-person committee of Valley business leaders named her this year's winner of the bronze Athena statuette in recognition of her professional leadership and accomplishment, response to adversity, leadership for other women business professionals and community service.

Martz says her post-Athena round of commitments helps her justify to herself the recognition she has received. "The award came as a huge surprise," says Martz. "I didn't realize that anyone saw what I was doing (in those areas)."

Martz's business achievements are on a par with her community activism and leadership. Three years after graduating from Arizona State University in 1980, she founded the Martz agency, now among the largest advertising and public relations firms in the state. The agency has 40 employees, $14 million in sales last year and a client list that includes the Arizona Biltmore and Rawhide.

Martz has been showered with more than 150 letters of congratulations from young women professionals, many of them strangers, since receiving the award. "Women tell me they want to follow my example, to get involved as volunteers," she says. "One young executive wrote to say she didn't think she could do it till she saw that I did."

The letter writer was referring to the fact that Martz, like many women professionals, has made a difference as a professional and as a volunteer, all while raising a family. Martz confesses that a two-week vacation in San Diego has been her longest work break.

Both her daughter, Brooke, and son, Cameron, 10, say their mother is a hard worker. According to Brooke, "Since Mom is very busy, our time together is very special." Cameron says his mother "makes it a point" to spend time with her children.

Martz credits her children for inspiring her continuing community involvement. They assist their mother at many community events. "I want to teach my kids to get involved in helping others. Not everyone grows up as comfortably as they have."

Martz became a volunteer for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation when Brooke was an infant. She has been increasing commitments since then, including involvement at Temple Kol Ami and with her children's Paradise Valley Unified School District.

While the Athena recognizes Martz's professional and volunteer achievement, she says another recent award touches her deeply. When Cameron recently wrote a biography of his mother for a class project, he named her "Hero of the Week."