Mary Beth Martinez Continues to Make Herself Open to the Opportunity at Insomnia Cookies

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Mary Beth Martinez lives by one particular adage that continues to prove itself true. When opportunity comes knocking, and you feel uncomfortable about it, it’s probably the right one for you.

“That’s the way you learn, grow, and develop yourself professionally,” the current SVP of Legal at Insomnia Cookies says. “And that perfectly sums up my time on the People side of the business.”

Since last speaking with HE in 2023, Martinez has experienced more professional opportunities than some experience in a decade. She was tapped by Insomnia leadership to take over as the SVP of People when the team needed a new leader. Martinez had advised on employment law and compliance, but traditional HR experience? Not so much. But Insomnia wanted a different approach at a time when the company was growing by leaps and bounds. The company needed fresh eyes on People processes with an eye towards the future.

It was a true stretch role.

“Our CEO framed it as bringing a non-traditional HR leader to the team to think outside the box for a period of time,” the SVP explains. “We needed to build a top-tier People function that could take the company to the next level. We needed to elevate our talent and bring more rigor and scalability to our processes, our procedures, our policies, while staying true to our values and advancing employee engagement. It was the role that really taught me that the opportunities that make you feel the most uncomfortable will, upon reflection, be some of the most rewarding in terms of professional growth.”

Martinez tackled the role for fifteen months before returning to the legal department, now in an SVP role. And the attorney says she is all the better for having spent time in a true HR role. Martinez says she always prided herself on being a practical and business-minded attorney, but being truly embedded in the business outside of the legal department required her to focus on business growth, opening new stores, staffing those stores, and managing all the stresses of a quickly-growing business like Insomnia.

“I now have a director of risk and another attorney reporting to me, and I’ve really been emphasizing how important it is to understand the business here,” Martinez explains. “You need to be able to flex your style, understand your audience, and protect against risk while also contributing to the business’s ability to generate revenue. I brought back a more strategic and business-focused mindset from my time on the other side of the company.”

The SVP takes mentorship seriously. The lawyer has the instincts of a teacher, having mentored law students, spent time as a TA, and even serving as a student ambassador in undergrad. She’s always gravitated towards roles where she gets an opportunity to pass along her knowledge, and she jokes that she’ll likely spend her retirement years “collecting” diplomas. She loves to learn, and she loves to pass along that knowledge.

That may partially explain why Martinez is where she is, an SVP in her thirties, having stretched into difficult assignments and been made better by them. The lawyer partially agrees, but sees her rise as a reflection of the environment she’s thrived in.

“How can I not acknowledge the leadership here that has given me these opportunities?” Martinez asks. “Insomnia gives young leaders room to grow. We may have limited background in a role, but they’re willing to let us evolve into it. The company, and our CEO in particular, affords opportunities that I think other places wouldn’t. It makes this place special, in my experience.”

Whatever it is, it’s working. Insomnia has maintained an annual double-digit growth rate, expanded internationally, and rolled out buzzy marketing campaigns like its annual Fall PJ Party, all of which place new demands on legal infrastructure. Martinez says Insomnia’s willingness to embrace calculated risk, dovetailed with the attorney’s focus on operational playbooks and scalable infrastructure, is keeping the company nimble as it moves into the UK and Canada and continues innovating and evolving the brand.

It’s a lot for a three-person legal team. That’s why the SVP is adamant that while some legal departments may be seen as cost centers, her team is challenging the framing. Martinez says enabling store openings, vetting marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships, and protecting against data privacy issues—just these three items alone—are a silent force that keeps rapid expansion plausible and sustainable.

It should be noted that Martinez took on the HR role just months after returning from maternity leave. The job, which involved regular trips from New York to Philadelphia during the week, required discipline, patience, and, still, battling imposter syndrome at every turn. It’s made Martinez an incredibly compassionate leader and mentor, and, likely, it will make her an incredible GC someday. In answering why she isn’t currently pursuing GC or CLO opportunities, she says she has too many interesting new problems to tackle to think about it at the moment.

But it’s pretty easy to see. Martinez is one of a kind.

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