Our Founder and CEO

Barbara Wichmann, ARTÉMIA’s founder and CEO, takes a decidedly international approach, something she credits to living in the Netherlands during her formative years. The country’s commitment to an ecological way of life, innovation-oriented attitude and multicultural population shaped her core values of sustainability and diversity.

These have served her — and ARTÉMIA — well as we navigate today’s dynamic, global markets. The agency stays true to its global focus by incorporating localization services in its offerings, thus ensuring that all content is culturally relevant – in the US and abroad. 

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in the Netherlands, Barbara earned a master’s degree in the U.S. She worked internationally as a consultant before founding ARTÉMIA as a women’s business enterprise (WBE) in 1995. In both capacities, she developed and executed strategic communications and marketing as well as VIP partnership development campaigns for clients on multiple continents.

She continues to prioritize DEIA in the areas of public outreach, CSR and ERG initiatives as well as national advertising and culturally relevant, in-language marketing programs.

Barbara has won coverage for her clients in such media outlets as ABC World News Tonight, CBS MarketWatch, CNN Headline News, CNBC, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, Univision/Telefutura, the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, sfgate.com, San Jose Mercury News, Sunset Magazine, along with major international media such as Le Figaro, Marie Claire, Der Stern, Wired Germany, Brigitte, FAZ.

Besides heading ARTÉMIA, Barbara chairs the Northern California Leadership Forum for the WBENC RPO, WBEC-Pacific (formerly AstraWomen’s Business Alliance), is the outgoing Chair of the WBENC Forum Government committee and is a member of the WIPP Education Institute Board of Directors. She currently serves on the Business Advisory Board of Toolworks, San Francisco Based social enterprise. In addition, she lectures regularly on sustainability and ESG in particular.

Barbara has also completed such prestigious executive training programs as: California Water Association’s 2022 Water Acumen Training Entrepreneur Refinement (W.A.T.E.R.), Council for Supplier Diversity’s High Performance Supplier training, Google Tuck Digital Excellence Program, Freddie Mac’s Vendor Academy, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management MDE Training, WBENC-Tuck Executive Training at Dartmouth, the CVS-RWU MBE Executive Training, and the AT&T -JFK University’s Growth Acceleration Program.