Catherine Kaputa

Catherine Kaputa is an American brand strategist, speaker, and author. Kaputa popularized the topic of personal branding.

Born in Miami, Florida, Catherine Kaputa first pursued journalism at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism During her junior year, Kaputa had her first personal branding crisis and switched to Japanese art history, and graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s degree in art history. Her first job was at the Seattle Art Museum as a curatorial assistant in Japanese art. She co-authored the book Asiatic Art in the Seattle Art Museum

Kaputa entered the Ph.D. program at Harvard University. She was a Smithsonian Fellow at the Freer Gallery of Art, and won a two-year fellowship to study in Japan at Tokyo University where she co-translated the book Kano Eitoku from Japanese to English, and wrote the book’s introduction on Japanese Schools of Painting. Kaputa then had what she calls her second personal branding crisis and decided to abandon the Ph.D. dissertation she was writing and come to New York to pursue branding and advertising.

Kaputa learned brand strategy under the marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout at Trout & Ries Advertising. She was the management supervisor on the award-winning “I Love New York” campaign at Wells, Rich, Greene and for over ten years she was SVP, Director of Advertising and Community Affairs at Smith Barney, part of Citigroup.

In 2002, she launched her company, SelfBrand LLC, a brand strategy and professional development company focused on executives and professionals as well as entrepreneurs and their business. Kaputa is active as a public speaker on the topic of branding and personal branding.

Kaputa is the author of three books on branding and personal branding. Her first book, You Are a Brand! How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success shows people how to think and act like a brand, harness one's potential and take charge of one's career, business and life. The book won the Ben Franklin Award for Best Career Book 2007 and a bronze IPPY Award. The book has been translated into ten languages, and was recognized as a Top 10 Employee Training Book in China in 2010. A second edition of the book will be published in September, 2012.

Kaputa’s second book is on women and leadership: The Female Brand: Using the Female Mindset for Business Success, a how-to and how-to-think guide for women who want to maximize their potential.

Kaputa’s third book is Breakthrough Branding: How Smart Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs Transform a Small Idea Into a Big Brand, which targets entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and small businesses alike to show them the secrets of transforming a brainstorm into big bucks.