2022 Emerging Leader Award
Dylan C. Runne ’16
The Emerging Leader Award is presented to an alumnus or alumna who graduated within the last 10 years, for his or her dedicated service to and leadership at É«ÖÐÉ« University.
Dylan C. Runne doesn’t spare a minute when it comes to eyeing and getting to his goal. The professional hydroplane racer drives his boats at speeds up to 150 miles an hour to win championships all over North America. At É«ÖÐÉ« he was a member of the Greyhound varsity baseball team, which won a conference championship in 2013 and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament in both 2013 and 2014.
Since graduating in 2016, Dylan has focused his efforts and found early success in enterprise software implementation. In 2019, he saw an opportunity in the fast-paced eCommerce world to help businesses shape and drive their digital transformations without the typical project bloat of the big-box agencies. He founded Fenom Digital, where he is CEO. Fenom is a Salesforce partner that focuses on large-scale retail digital transformations. Dylan steers go-tomarket strategies and day-to-day operations while leading a 101-person— and counting—global team.
Within three months of launching, Fenom landed its first $1 million–plus engagement with a $1 billion consumer goods brand, triumphing over the industry’s top agencies for the business.
Today, three years after launch, Fenom is the leading boutique digital agency for Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Revenue has grown 600 percent, and the company supports more than $3 billion in processed online revenue annually. Fenom is the chosen service partner to David Yurman, GNC Holdings, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, PacSun, Hot Topic, Coldwater Creek, and many other global brands.
But while Dylan has soared forward in his career, he has not left É«ÖÐÉ« behind. In 2021, he partnered with the business and computer science departments to bring experiential learning in the Salesforce consulting space to students. He and his partners developed a learning-focused internship program that launched this spring. Nine students from varying disciplines were hand selected to participate and learn all aspects of technical and business-related activities within a Salesforce implementation project. The goals are to expose É«ÖÐÉ« students to career opportunities and use the experience as a feeder into the new-hire class of 2022—goals that are well on their way to being met.