For more than 30 years, Sharon Reus has been shaping the corporate event industry with an approach that blends strategy, communication, and creativity. Now a leader at CPG Agency, where she has spent the last decade, Sharon guides her team in everything from building creative proposals to envisioning the agency’s future. “My job is to lead the team to do great work,” she explains. “That can be anything from working with them on creative proposals, helping to strategize about staffing, or looking at the future of the organization.”
Sharon’s professional journey has been anything but linear, though each chapter has deepened her commitment to storytelling and gathering people together. She began as a print journalist, driven by a love of words and narratives, before discovering how naturally her skills transferred to events. “My origin story in events came at the intersection of content and gathering,” Sharon reflects. “I started as a journalist… and at the same time, I’ve always loved getting people together. I realized corporate events were bringing people together to share messages, inspire, or update them. It is a perfect confluence.”
That passion for communication carried into an ambitious side venture: reviving a local teen magazine inspired by St. Louis’s Prom magazine of decades past. Sharon kept the idea alive in a folder for 18 years before finally making the leap, quitting her corporate job to launch Louie Magazine.
Sharon’s career has included teaching, coaching, and even a stint in television production. Through it all, one theme has remained constant: creativity as a means of connection. “If I had to summarize my career into one word, it’s creativity. That’s core to me. I have to have that in anything I’m doing.” Whether leading workshops, coaching entrepreneurs, or mentoring her team, Sharon seeks to inspire others to recognize their own creative potential.
Outtside of her professional life, Sharon’s creativity finds expression in photography, especially macro images of nature and textures. She also experiments with collage and painting, embracing the joy of play over perfection. Travel is another passion, with Santa Fe, New York City, and Vienna ranking as her favorite destinations. At home, she shares life with her husband, James, and their two cats, while her daughter Katie has joined her at CPG as an associate producer.
When asked for a recommendation for fellow Forum members, Sharon points to a book that shaped her own outlook: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. The slim, thought-provoking novel challenges readers to recognize the power of their own story and destiny—an idea Sharon has lived out in her career and her art.
Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn here.