The 12th annual Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs list recognises 50 chief marketers whose influence on brands and business around the world is outsized.
By Seth Matlins, Managing Director, Forbes CMO Network. Additional reporting by Liz Kneebone
Despite conventional wisdom suggesting otherwise, stone tool-making, which dates back 2.7 million years, is the world’s oldest profession. Marketing must then be the world’s second oldest, since someone needed to effectively communicate to someone else that the tools were available for purchase or in trade for an armadillo.
What’s changed about marketing in the last 2.7 million years? Everything and nothing. Creating and capturing demand in order to create a profitable customer remains a marketer’s fundamental job. This is just as it was in the Micoene epoch, even if it has gotten a tad more complex, and the tools more sophisticated than stone.
Today’s CMO is tasked with separating a few signals from a global cavalcade of noise in order to guarantee growth certainty in perpetually uncertain times. Traditional constructs and measures of what was once within a chief marketer’s control have gone the way of flip-phones, and marketing has become decentralized, disaggregated, democratized, and, far too often, siloed within enterprises, making the job of determining the optimal allocation of scarce resources—in order to create and capture demand—more difficult than at any time in history, at least until tomorrow.
Recognizing this, as we publish the 12th annual Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs list, when considering the ROI of a CMO’s influence, and with apologies to Shakespeare, “to do or not to do” may be the most relevant question. Because maybe the hardest part—the brutally hard part of being a great and influential CMO—is deciding what not to do.
Doing something is easy. Doing something that works is much less so. And in a world where opportunities are in far greater supply than the resources to take advantage of them, determining where and on what not to focus, not to spend, invest, or allocate time or capital; where and on what not to give attention, and when not to take a risk; when not to change course; when not to stick with the status quo (and when to); when to have the courage of conviction and when to let your convictions evolve; where, when, and how to apologize for that gone awry and when not, etc.etc. etc., etc. can all and often be the difference between business growth and business decay.
Sacrifice and focus are of course the essence of strategy and strategic discipline, but, today, creating and capturing demand is as much of a consequence of the road not taken, the thing not done, as that which is. And the effective exercise of CMO influence lies in finding the situational and circumstantial balance between “fortune going to the bold” and, with another nod to Shakespeare, “discretion (being) the better part of valor.” No easy task.
Reasonable conversations about the CMO’s evolving role and equally unreasonable click-bait headlines about its disappearance both mask and highlight the pressures facing CMOs. They are surrounded by C-suite colleagues who rarely have any marketing experience (and yet think they do) and who are far more expert in the black and white of numbers but not the fifty shades of grey coloring human attitudes and purchase behaviors.
Perpetually uncertain socio-economic conditions; exponential technological advance shifting geo-political landscapes; a new generation of consumers; the largest generational transfer of wealth in human history; the ebbs and flows of human anxiety, fears, pessimism, optimism, and hope, among others, all go hand-in-hand with those confronting the brands and businesses these CMOs help steward and of the CEOs they work with and for, can all hijack a CMO’s well laid plan in an instant.
All of this often finds marketing leaders reasonably feeling as if they are damned-if-they do and-damned-if-they don’t. Despite all this and so much more, the 50 chief marketers recognized on the 2024 Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs List, along with this year’s two Forbes CMO Hall of Fame inductees (along with their teams), rise above these challenges and constraints to drive their brands and businesses forward.
There is much to learn from what each and every one does and does not do to create customers. From how they are influencing the character and destiny of our industry, and indeed the world itself, as surely as they do the trajectory of their own brands and companies.
And like the increasingly complicated exercise of a chief marketer’s influence, our evaluation of it also requires context, and we recognize what one considers “influential” another might not.
So goes marketing, and as with every other aspect of it, reasonable people can disagree—which is why, along with our primary research partner, Sprinklr, and with essential supplemental data and analysis provided by LinkedIn, we take a broad, multifaceted, rigorous, and data-led approach to it, ultimately analyzing nearly 8 billion individual data points to get to the 50 chief marketers recognized here. (Find more on this year’s methodology here and in Sprinklr’s companion report.)
We invite you to get to know the 50 chief marketers on this year’s list, along with the two inductees into the 2024 class of the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame. The thinking, strategic approaches, leadership, influence, and impact of this year’s honorees deserve both recognition and, perhaps even more importantly, consideration. Each has our appreciation for their contributions to the art, science, and practice of marketing and the growth of business globally.
THE FORBES CMO HALL OF FAME
This is the third class of the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame, created in 2022 to recognize those chief marketers who have, or would have, appeared on our World’s Most Influential CMOs list five times. Given the massive changes to marketing, a recognition of this sort is an extraordinary achievement.
Coming into 2024, three chief marketers had been recognized on the list 4 times previously and were thus eligible for induction. Of the three, it is our privilege to induct two into the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame class of 2024, Andrea Brimmer, Chief Marketing and PR Officer for Ally Financial, and Dara Treseder, CMO for Autodesk, Both would have been recognized on the 2024 World’s Most Influential CMOs List a fifth time. Brimmer and Treseder join the 19 marketers inducted previously, all of whom are recognized for the enduring influence and impact they’ve had on the brands and businesses they’ve led, on our industry, and, often, on the cultural landscape itself.
Read More About This Year’s Inductees
The Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs List: 2024
#1-10
1. Marian Lee
Title: CMO
Company: Netflix (United States)
Lee is the CMO for the world’s largest streaming services company and one of the most culturally influential. With influence and remit across both the company’s B2B and B2C audiences, Lee also has oversight of Netflix’s marketing creative and customer experience strategy globally, with a marketing spend reported to be in excess of $2.5 billion (USD) annually. Among a portfolio of objectives, Lee is focused on driving viewership of the company’s content portfolio to some 270 million subscribers while also, since the company’s pivot to in-platform advertising, ensuring an “in-culture experience” for Netflix’s growing portfolio of advertisers. Her work is seen, and her influence is activated and expressed in 190 countries around the world. As the company expands into sports, gaming, and events, Lee and her team are committed to ensuring the brand’s ongoing place in the cultural firmament, creating fan-driven experiences, and supporting its massive slate of creators and content. Strategically, Lee is intent on marketing with fans and not simply to consumers; examples include promoting the new season of Bridgerton by immersing fans the world-over with early 19th century imagery and building the brand’s interactive Roblox “Nextworld” theme park, where fans are able to interact with I.P. from across the streamer’s content portfolio. Lee’s influence is helping make Netflix one of the few entertainment company brands that matter. The company recently reported year-over-year (YoY) subscriber growth of 9 percent and revenue growth of nearly 15 percent for the period ending March. As of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s market cap had increased by more than 56% YoY.
2. Tariq Hassan
Title: Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer (USA)
Company: McDonald’s (United States)
Hassan is responsible for the breadth of McDonald’s U.S. marketing portfolio, overseeing the digital, media, CRM, brand content and engagement, consumer insights, and menu strategy for the US market, which accounts for roughly 40% of the global sales of the world’s most valuable QSR brand. As leader of a marketing organization representing some 13,500 restaurants, Hassan has moved the company from a traditional calendar of activations, to a “fan-to-fan” strategy focused on driving the brand’s cultural resonance and relevance. Believing that “when culture calls, you have to call back,” Hassan and his marketing organization have created an ongoing dialogue with both the brand’s fans and its more casual consumers, helping deliver same-store sales growth for 15 consecutive quarters. His focus on the intersection of creative effectiveness and culture, has resulted in some of the most viral and influential marketing moments of the past year, including those leveraging the brand’s legacy IP, like the Hamburglar and Grimace. Weeks ago, the Effies named McDonald’s the most effective U.S. brand. For fiscal 2023, US sales growth was up 8.7% YoY.
3. Frank Cooper, III
Title: CMO
Company: Visa (United States)
As CMO for the diversified financial services giant, Cooper leads marketing for the company’s products, services, and solutions in 200 countries and territories globally, and across their consumer, B2B, product marketing, and marketing services businesses. Since arriving at Visa from BlackRock in May 2022, Cooper has shifted the brand’s strategic focus and behaviors to better use Visa’s global platform and reach to “improve people’s lives.” For Cooper and Visa’s marketing, this is more than a mission, it’s the strategic anchor around which he’s building Visa’s brand beyond its roots in payment services. He’s reinterpreting how the company leverages and shows up with long-standing partners like the Olympics, while also bringing the company into new cultural strongholds like gaming and the Creators space. Visa’s market share is nearly 2x its nearest traditional competitor and the brand has over 4.3 billion cards, accepted at over 120 million merchants globally, in circulation. As of the company’s 2Q24 earnings report, global payments volume was up 8% year-over-year, , and the company reported revenues had increased nearly 10% versus the same period one year ago. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Visa’s stock was up nearly 25% YoY.
4. William White
Title: CMO
Company: Walmart (United States)
As CMO of the world’s largest retailer, one with over 255 million member- and customer-visits weekly, White is responsible for customer insights and the full range of marketing strategy, planning, and customer experience. White’s influence and marketing are changing how Walmart customers’ shop, and he has been central to the company’s on-going digital transformation, e-commerce evolution, and enhanced focus on the brand’s cultural and next-gen shopper relevancy. Among marketing’s true pioneers of content-embedded retail experiences, in the past year, Walmart turned a partnership with a major motion-picture release into a first-of-its-kind, made-for-social, shoppable mini-series, and created their own original content rom-com, which allowed viewers to seamlessly add products from scenes to their carts in real-time. The company also recently announced a new state-of-the-art, 80,000-square-foot production facility in Los Angeles, where they’ll create content ”at the speed of culture and retail.” This, along. with the on-going development of Walmart Creator, provides further evidence of the world’s largest retailer’s commitment to social commerce. During their May earnings, Walmart reported beating both quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, and reported e-commerce growth of 22% for its U.S. business. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Walmart’s stock was up nearly 30% YoY.
5. Asmita Dubey
Title: Chief Digital and Marketing Officer
Company: L’Oréal (France)
As Chief Digital and Marketing Officer for the world’s leading beauty company, and one of the two or three largest advertisers globally, Dubey is pioneering a new standard for consumer experience in the beauty category that is physical, digital, and virtual. With oversight for marketing for the company’s 37 global brands—including Lancôme, L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, and Garnier—Dubey’s influence is seen not just in the growth of the French conglomerate, but the behaviors of the category worldwide. Focused on “inventing the future of beauty,” L’Oréal’s marketing and operations forge an inextricable link between growth and social and environmental commitments. Dubey has helped transform the company’s marketing model, helping accelerate the contribution of new business models like social-commerce, and adopting new science, tech, and data-driven solutions, including embedding over 1.5 billion products with QR codes. In the past year, L’Oréal’s digital services drove over 100 million sessions, contributing to a massive share of category influence. The company reported like-for-like growth of 10.9% at the end of FY22. As of the close of markets on June 7th, YoY, L’Oréal’s market cap was up nearly 13 percent.
6. Greg Joswiak
Title: SVP Worldwide Marketing
Company: Apple (United States)
As SVP of Worldwide Marketing for the world’s second most valuable company and one of its cultural touchstones, Joswiak’s influence is seen across the breadth of Apple’s iconic products and services globally, including its evolving lineup of iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, the Apple Vision Pro, and AppleTV+. There are over 2 billion active Apple devices in use around the world, and Joswiak’s responsibilities include working to maintain the company’s reputation as a market leader as both it and the tech industry undergo a radical AI-driven transition. Beyond the launch of its new products, the company’s marketing continues to shape and influence culture and conversation. Recent advances in sustainability, including the promotion of the first line of carbon-neutral products in the new line-up of Apple Watches, bear witness to the company’s commitment to creating entirely carbon-neutral products by 2030. Despite a year of relative challenges for the company, following the company’s WWDC, as of the close of markets on June 13th, Apple regained the ranking as the world’s most valuable company, and its stock was up more than 16% YoY.
7. Marcel Marcondes
Title: Global CMO
Company: AB InBev (Belgium)
CMO of the world’s largest brewer since 2022, the almost 20 year company veteran oversees marketing strategy across the company’s brand portfolio globally. Marcondes’s responsibilities are many and include driving innovation throughout the brewer’s marketing, and for both global and regional brands, including Corona, Bud Light, Stella Artois and Brahma, among others, on an aggregated basis, ABI is one of the world’s largest advertisers. Focused on creativity as a growth driver, Marcondes influence can be seen across the breadth of the company’s culturally relevant, human-first marketing. He and his teams have broken new ground for creative and business partnerships, including one with the Chinese government designed to support lime farmers and new lines of business and growth in a country accounting for 25% of global beer consumption. In a recent report on the world’s most valuable beer brands, AB InBev brands held 4 of the first 5 positions, and Marcondes is the first CMO to be named WARC’s Most Effective Advertiser for three consecutive years. For FY23, AB InBev reported revenue was up 7.8%, and as of June 7th, the company’s market cap had increased almost 13% YoY.
8. Chris Davis
Title: Brand President and CMO
Company: New Balance (United States)
With a remit including product and demand creation initiatives at a global level, Davis oversees the breadth of New Balance’s marketing, brand, brand purpose, culture, and strategic roadmap. Under his marketing leadership and influence, the 118-year-old brand has undergone a massive turnaround and cemented its status as a quiet luxury staple. Davis keeps the brand at the beating heart of culture and avoids mimicking traditional category tactics, which is just part of why the brand consistently ranks among the top three on Hypebeast’s vaunted brand rankings. Finding ways to engage new generations and the fashion-conscious while not leaving behind its legacy as a “dad sneaker,” Davis and his team have driven partnerships and marketing creative that consistently breaks through the noise in a saturated market. From Teddy Santis, Klutch Sports, baseball icon Shohei Ohtani, Stone Island, and rapper Amine, Davis gives the brand’s partners license to create and promote. The privately-held company is seeing tremendous growth. Revenues have increased 96% since 2020, and they recently announced FY23 revenue was up 23% YoY.
9. Tim Ellis
Title: CMO
Company: National Football League (United States)
As Chief Marketing Officer for one of the world’s most popular sports leagues, Ellis has responsibility for all aspects of the NFL’s marketing strategy, including research, content, advertising, branding, operations, and consumer engagement. Strategically focused on expanding not just the NFL’s growth, but the game’s appeal, accessibility, and relevancy to new generations and audiences globally, Ellis has been a key contributor to the growth of flag football and the NFL internationally. Rooted in creativity, courage and humanity, his body of marketing work, which includes the Emmy-winning Super Bowl LVII campaign “Run With It,” helped lead to flag football becoming an Olympic sport in 2028, and women’s flag becoming a high school varsity sport. Leveraging the league’s proprietary data and technology and in partnership with Disney+, ESPN and Pixar, Ellis helped spearhead a real-time, animated alt-cast of a game. This past year, the NFL accounted for 93 of of the top 100 TV shows in the U.S. and the privately held league reported that viewership rose 7% YoY.
10. Linus Karlsson
Title: Chief Creative Officer For Marketing and Communication
Company: Ikea (Netherlands)
With oversight of both the marketing and product development functions at the iconic furniture maker and retailer, which sees 850 million customer visits annually, Karlsson’s influence is written across the breadth of IKEA’s marketing strategy. Leveraging the brand’s historic equities and simultaneously introducing new modernized products and styles, Karlsson’s ambition is that IKEA be a positive social force, and he and his marketing and product teams are emphasizing sustainability at a time when many companies are scaling back their efforts or adjusting net-zero targets. To expand perceptions of the brand, the company’s marketing is placing IKEA in heretofore untapped luxury spaces, including the launch of a line of at-home gym equipment that debuted at Art Basel, and the brand recently announced the opening of an Ikea store inside Roblox. To staff this virtual storefront, the company is actively hiring a human-to-virtual workforce. Karlsson and the company continue building on the brand’s long-standing heritage in affordability and, in the face of continued global inflation, have reduced prices to better support their customers. The privately held company announced that 2023 sales were up almost 7% YoY.
#11-20
11. Asad Ayaz
Title: Chief Brand Officer
Company: The Walt Disney Company (United States)
As Chief Brand Officer of one of the most well-known companies and brands in the world, Ayaz oversees the global management of Disney’s portfolio of brands and franchises, including marketing campaigns, digital and social strategy. But, as President of Marketing for The Walt Disney Studios and Disney+, his remit also includes leading a global team responsible for all aspects of marketing for a diverse range of creative brands, including Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios. Ayaz spearheaded a first-of-its-kind partnership with TikTok, launching the Disney100 hub, which in its first month alone added over 170 million new followers across Disney’s social footprint, making a significant impact on the company’s community-building efforts. In 2023 alone, Ayaz oversaw the releases for nearly 100 film, television, specials, and brand campaigns, and his influence extends across the company’s IP franchises, including Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and others that are among the highest-grossing films in the world. As of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s market cap had increased almost 12 percent YTD.
12. Mathilde Delhoume
Title: Global Brand Officer
Company: LVMH (France)
Delhoume is the Global Brand Officer for the world’s most valuable luxury holding company, and its portfolio of globally iconic brands, including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Moet Hennessy, and Hublot, to name just four among its 75 Houses. Delhoume oversees six operating categories, including Media, Customer Research, Brand Image, and Content, all of which fall under what the company refers to as a Center of Expertise. Delhoume and her teams are focused on helping each LVMH Maison drive brand desirability, the hallmark of luxury brand relevancy and performance, and central to the company’s valuation. As leader of this center of expertise, Delhoume and her team help each brand sharpen positioning, enhance creativity, connect with customers, and balance long-term brand-building and short-term performance. Across its Maison’s, LVMH is reported to be one of the largest advertisers in the world, spending in excess of $10 billion (USD). Despite ongoing uncertainty across the global economy, as of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s market cap was up 4 percent YTD.
13. Esi Eggleston Bracey
Title: Chief Growth & Marketing Officer
Company: Unilever (United Kingdom)
Eggleston Bracey oversees marketing and growth strategies across the multinational FMCG giant’s portfolio of brands. On an aggregated basis, the portfolio adds up to Unilever’s being one of the world’s largest spenders on advertising annually. Intent on hastening the path to growth for the company’s brands by continuing to transform their marketing models, her influence is seen in the work being done to bring the company into the next generation of marketing. Eggleston Bracey, who also sits on Unilever’s Executive Board, developed a proprietary system, the “5S Model,” reverse engineering the path from sale back to the top of the funnel. Certain that businesses can be forces of good, Eggleston Bracey continues emphasizing equity and inclusion even as other industry leaders have taken a step back in the face of increasing politicization. Eggleston Bracey is focused on driving growth for Unilever’s top 30 brands; 16 of whom (including Dove, Hellman’s, and Magnum) are in what is referred to as the 1 billion Euro Club, while the growth potential of the other 14 places them among the most likely to become part of the Club. Unilever was recently named the Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year. As of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s market cap was up more than 10 percent YoY.
14. Zach Kitschke
Title: CMO
Company: Canva (Australia)
As the fifth employee at Canva, the online design and visual communication platform used by some 180 million people monthly, an increase of 28% vPY, Kitschke has built the company’s marketing organization from the ground up. With a remit including driving brand and growth internationally, product, content marketing, PR, and all components of communications and creativity, under his leadership, the company continues to empower individual creators and business creativity, evolving its growth strategy from its initial consumer focus in order to more actively focus on enterprise sales, a faster path to still greater scale. While the company’s products continue rolling out AI-driven enhancements, Kitschke is equally focused on integrating AI tools across Canva’s in-house marketing team. The privately held company’s growth trajectory has been consistently strong in recent years, with their latest annual report indicating that, at the end of 2023, 90% of the 500 largest companies in the world were using Canva. Over 2 million people registered for the company’s annual confab, Canva Create, held just one month ago.
15. Andréa Mallard
Title: Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
Company: Pinterest (United States)
Mallard oversees the global marketing, insights, and creative teams responsible for telling the Pinterest story to the platform’s multiple constituencies, including consumers, creators and businesses, around the world. With more than half a billion monthly active users, Mallard’s influence on the company’s growth and the health of its brand is evident in its most recent reporting that Q1 revenue growth was up 23%, nearly double the rate of the prior quarter. As social media platforms face increasing scrutiny for their impact on younger audiences, Mallard’s oversight of brand, experiential, content, insights, performance, and communications has helped position Pinterest as a beacon of a better and safer internet. The visual discovery and creation platform is one of the first to enhance privacy protections, introduce tools to help debunk disinformation and misinformation, and deploy AI-powered search functionality to deliver more inclusive body image results. Under Mallard’s marketing influence, Gen Z has now become the most engaged demographic in company history, per Pinterest’s last annual report. For the quarter ending March 24, the company reported a YoY revenue increase of nearly 23 percent. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Pinterest’s market cap was up more than 85% over the past 12 months.
16. Chris Tung
Title: CMO
Company: Alibaba Group (China)
As CMO of the Chinese multinational tech and e-commerce giant, a collective and enterprise servicing almost one billion users each month, Tung is focused on driving organic growth across the Alibaba portfolio, including Alibaba Cloud, Taobao, and Tmall. With responsibility for the breadth of commerce, consumer services, digital, and cloud products, his marketing influence for one of the world’s largest advertisers is seen in many places, including the ongoing integration of AI into the Alibaba platform in order to better personalize shopper experiences. The platform’s participation in China’s Singles Day drove sales nearing $100 billion (USD) in one day alone.The second most valuable corporate brand in China, the majority of the Group’s growth is being driven by international market expansion. In May, Alibaba reported that Q4 revenue rose 7%, beating analyst estimates. E-commerce sites Taobao and Tmall saw revenues increase by 4%, with both orders and gross merchandise value (GMV) growing by double digits.
17. Manuel (Manolo) Arroyo
Title: Global CMO
Company: The Coca-Cola Company (United States)
As Global CMO of the world’s most valuable non-alcoholic beverage company by market cap, as well as one of the most iconic brands in history, Arroyo is responsible for a marketing organization of almost 1,800 across 9 operating units, five beverage categories, and some 200+ brands, including Coca-Cola, Coke Light, Fanta, and Powerade. To drive growth in mature and emerging markets across the company’s portfolio, Arroyo is transforming the marketing organization worldwide. As a company known for its advertising, and one of the world’s largest advertisers spending billions annually, under Arroyo’s leadership, the portfolio is now emphasizing events over ads, and deploying a creator-led content strategy to meet new generations where they are. Arroyo’s transformation efforts, including the company’s active embrace of AI across his global marketing organization, are influencing others across industries as marketers consider next-gen structures and approaches. With over 2.2 billion of the company’s beverages consumed every day, Q1 earnings results for this year saw an almost 3% increase in YoY revenue for the company, surpassing analyst expectations. As of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s stock was up nearly 7 percent YTD.
18. Kofi Amoo-Gottfried
Title: CMO
Company: DoorDash (United States)
Amoo-Gottfried is responsible for driving growth and engagement at Doordash, the largest food delivery company in the United States—with a 67% share in the meal-delivery category (as reported for March 2024). His work across each of the company’s three-sided marketplace, which includes restaurants and other merchants like convenience stores, customers, and the “Dashers” who deliver, is focused on expanding perceptions of the app-brand and service, and elevating the company beyond being seen solely as a restaurant delivery partner. Understanding the power of culture and a massive media platform to help the brand do just this, Amoo-Gottfried and team are considered to have “won the Super Bowl” ad game with their traffic driving promotion delivering all the products from all the game’s ads to one customer, a clear demonstration that people can get far more than restaurant meals via the company’s app. Ideas like this and the creative work that led to DoorDash winning 23 One Show Awards, are showing up in and helping drive the company’s growth. Q4 2023 results showed total orders up 23% YoY, and its market cap is up more than 60 percent YoY.
19. Alex Schultz
Title: CMO & VP Analytics
Company: Meta (United States)
Schultz leads marketing, analytics, data science and engineering, and internationalization for Meta, the tech behemoth with an aggregated monthly user base of nearly 4 billion people. Given the company’s extraordinary reach and influence, scrutiny of what Meta does and does not do cuts across the public and private sectors, and Schultz is focused on continuing to position Meta as an innovator, from hardware to platforms, AI to AR, privacy to security. Equally concerned with ensuring WhatsApp remains a company growth engine, Schultz and his teams are focused on building brand awareness and consideration for the app in the U.S., expanding on its strengths in Europe and Asia. As the company continues rolling out Threads, Schultz is working to bring younger adults back to Facebook, while also countering some of the concerns about Instagram’s influence on teens by positioning it as a place that addresses loneliness. He is a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights within Meta and around the world. The company reported that for the quarter ending in March, revenues were up more than 26 percent vPY. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Meta’s market cap had increased 86 percent YoY.
20. Carla Zakhem-Hassan
Title: CMO
Company: JPMorgan Chase (United States)
Hassan is the CMO of the world’s largest bank, based on its market capitalization of over 575 billion dollars (USD), as of this writing, which is also one of the world’s largest advertisers. Hassan’s remit is broad and deep and includes oversight of a global team of more than 2,500 marketers and responsibility for the marketing of, among others, Chase, J.P. Morgan, Sapphire, and the corporate brand’s advertising, media, sponsorships, market research, and customer insights, impact marketing, and communications globally. A champion of marketing-led business growth for the financial services behemoth, over the past year, Hassan has leveraged the company’s rich data and insights into how consumers spend to launch the industry’s first bank-led media platform, Chase Media Solutions, as a way of better serving both JPMC’s B2B and B2C constituencies. Hassan’s influence extends as well to the firm’s sustainability and DEI efforts, and programs like their Second Chance campaign, are designed to remove the employment barriers faced by Americans with criminal records. For the period ending March 2024, the company reported revenues were up over 11% YoY. As of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s market cap had increased 42 percent over the prior twelve months.
#21-30
21. Detlev Von Platen
Title: Member of the Executive Board Sales and Marketing
Company: Porsche (Germany)
As the lead marketer of one of the world’s most iconic luxury automotive brands, von Platen is responsible for consumer experience and growth at Porsche. His influence on the brand’s strategy and community, with a particular focus on building the bridge between Porsche’s history and the future of the automotive brand, has led to the 93-year old brand being named one of the two fastest-growing brands in the world according to Interbrand’s annual ranking. With a conviction that in today’s digital world, retail experiences, especially for luxury brands, matter more than ever, von Platen is redesigning Porsche’s marketing in order to create an elevated community-based experience catering to the brand’s fans and customers alike. In a challenging economic environment globally, growth has been particularly strong in Europe, which was up 12% vPY, for the Volkswagen Group owned brand. According to Interbrand, in 2023, Porsche’s brand value increased 20% YoY, and as of the close of markets on June 7th, it’s market cap was over $37 billion (USD).
22. Alicia Tillman
Title: CMO
Company: Delta Air Lines (United States)
As CMO of the world’s largest airline by both fleet size and market cap, Tillman leads Delta’s brand strategy, global marketing, creative services and community engagement. Tillman is also a member of the company’s Leadership Committee, and her influence extends to shaping the global airline’s long-term vision and strategy. In a category where purchase has historically been heavily influenced by price, convenience, and rewards, Tillman is focused on driving growth and loyalty by bringing the brand’s story to life, Tillman, in her first year as the company’s CMO, is helping turn Delta into a consumer experience brand. Applying lessons from the luxury category in order to differentiate Delta’s brand and transcend airline-category limitations and perceptions, she has helped overhaul Delta’s SkyMiles program. Through a combination of unexpected retail experiences and a widened array of new member benefits, she has helped set a new standard for the category’s approach to loyalty and helped grow the company’s 30-year-old rewards program by almost 11 million users. For the quarter ending in March, the company reported revenue growth in excess of 7 percent vPY. As of the close of markets on June 7th , Delta’s stock was up 28.9 percent YoY.
23. Olivier Bialobos
Title: Deputy Managing Director of Dior Maison and Chief Communication and Image Officer, Christian Dior
Company: Dior (France)
Recently named the #1 brand on Business of Fashion’s prestigious Brand Magic Index, as Dior’s Chief Communications and Image Officer, Bialobos works to bring Creative Director Kim Jones’s vision for the Maison to life for shoppers across categories and around the world. Intent on finding the right balance between the iconic French fashion brand’s legacy and new means and methods for bringing it to shoppers globally, Bialobos’s focus is on driving desirability above all else. Along with Louis Vuitton, Dior accounts for the majority of parent company LVMH’s annual fashion revenues of €15 billion, and from Red Carpets and runaways to next month’s Paris Olympic Games, Dior’s presence continues to evolve. Embracing technological innovation to bring the brand and customers closer together, to mimic luxury shopping, Dior has created catalogs of virtual products viewable using AR technologies. Recent collaborations with Stone Island and ambassadorships with, among many other Olympic athletes, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah, illustrate Dior’s continued expansion beyond its haute couture equities into the world of casual luxury. In a difficult economic landscape for true luxury brands, Dior reported 3% organic growth for the first quarter of 2024.
24. Lennard Hoornik
Title: Chief Commercial Officer
Company: Jaguar Land Rover (United Kingdom)
Focused on delivering modern luxury experiences that are both immersive and exclusive, and which underscore the “difference between belonging and just buying,” Hoornik oversees a portfolio of iconic automotive brands, including Jaguar, Land Rover, Range Rover, Discovery, and Defender, for the Tata-owned division. Hoornik has spearheaded the transformation of Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) go-to-market approach from a brand-by-brand approach to a unified House of Brands, each in turn emphasizing the portfolio’s commitment to sustainability and luxury tailor-made for today’s consumer. Experiential Range Rover Houses meet the brand’s members and prospective ones where they are, from Sundance to Singapore, Whistler to Milan, each bringing the brand’s lifestyle focus to life. JLR has announced its plan to produce all-electric vehicles by 2025. If successful, the company will be the first luxury automaker to meet this milestone. For the full year ending March 31, 2024, the company reported retail sales were up 22% YoY.
25. Cristina Diezhandino
Title: CMO
Company: Diageo (United Kingdom)
Across 180 countries and over 200 brands including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Don Julio, and Smirnoff, Diezhandino’s remit includes the breadth of the company’s marketing, innovation, and digital transformation. Diezhandino’s influence extends beyond the brands the company, the world’s most valuable spirits enterprise, markets to how they market them, an approach she and Diageo call Progressive Marketing. Despite growing anti-ESG and DEI sentiment among some consumers and legislators in some markets globally, Diezhandino remains focused on driving sustainability and diversity in the creative world; from science-backed creative frameworks to Bailey’s new paper packaging, to on-going work to tear down stereotypes, and ensure gender equality in advertising and marketing from “script to screen.” Across the global spirits behemoth’s brand portfolio, the world’s largest by retail sales value. With oversight of the full marketing function and a team of almost 1,000 marketers around the world, Diezhandino recognizes that media is a canvas that can shape and reshape perspectives and uses it to do just that. As an illustration, over 42% of Diageo’s recent campaigns have been directed by women.
26. Hildegard Wortman
Title: Member of the Board of Management for Marketing and Sales
Company: Audi AG (Germany)
Focused on transforming the company’s digital ecosystem and the breadth of its customer touch points to better provide a modern, seamless, and personalized brand experience, Wortmann is also leading the acceleration of the Group’s sustainable transformation. An architect of both Audi’s and parent company Volkswagen AG’s sustainability strategy, Wortmann is leading the Group towards becoming a “nature and society positive mobility provider.” Wortmann is ensuring the company, and its brands, leverage the power of connected intelligence to better create direct, continuous customer contacts and drive growth. Wortmann and her team are leveraging personalization across the Audi portfolio to attract customers, including for sales of the Audi Q6 e-tron, whose features include an augmented reality heads-up display. In addition to focusing on driving brand value and connection, Wortmann has played an influential role in developing safe driving and EV infrastructure across Europe. In addition to her role at Audi, Wortmann is also a member of the Extended Executive Committee of the Volkswagen Group, with responsibility for sales across the Group. The company reported sales growth for Audi of 17% YoY for 2023.
![_0023_JillKramer1[3][14]](https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/665656042232c6039697fb04/960x0.jpg?fit=scale)
27. Jill Kramer
Title: CMO
Company: Accenture (Ireland)
With oversight of corporate and financial communications, analyst and media relations, research, insights, and analytics, Kramer leads the global professional services behemoth’s 2,000-person marketing team, worldwide. Kramer is a champion for how marketing and business leaders can take advantage of AI and focuses on bringing to life the “reinvention” that sits at the heart of what the company helps clients do. She spearheaded Accenture’s recent global brand campaign, Reinvented with Accenture, reflecting the work done for clients, and deploying a broad reach media campaign from OOH and digital to social media and events globally. Kramer continues pushing for the evolution of B2B marketing to embrace what she calls a “Business-to-Human” mindset. The company recently announced it had become the Official Business and Technology Consulting sponsor of the NFL, where they will help the league incorporate technology, data, and AI into every level of football. With nearly 800,000 employees across 49 countries and over 200 cities, Accenture’s diverse array of businesses influences business globally. For Q2 of FY 2024, Accenture reported new bookings of $21.6 billion, the second-highest in company history.
28. Tammy Henault
Title: CMO
Company: NBA (United States)
With oversight of all global marketing efforts for the NBA, one of the world’s most popular sports leagues, and its affiliates, Henault’s focus is on engaging fans worldwide and furthering the organization’s mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Henault’s marketing influence is evident in the league’s community, events, and experiential marketing focus, essential components of the NBA’s multi-platform fan-engagement strategy. This season, Henault and the league introduced their In-Season Tournament and continued engaging fans globally. Her Christmas Day campaign, “The Gift of Game” was named among the best (U.S.) holiday ads of 2023, and campaigns including “Playoff Mode” and “The Toast,” where basketball and cultural royalty bid farewell to the regular season, complement a strategy that also includes engaging with creators from around the world as a way to, in turn, engage with Gens Z and Alpha. The league just set regular season records for overall attendance, average attendance, and sellouts and is reported to be nearing deals with Amazon, NBC, and ESPN worth an aggregated $76 billion (USD).
29. Sumit Virmani
Title: CMO
Company: Infosys (India)
Virmani oversees all marketing for the Indian multinational information-technology giant, which was recently named one of the world’s most valuable brands by Kantar. With operations in 50 countries, the Infosys brand currently ranks as the world’s third-most valuable IT brand, according to Brand Finance. Virmani’s influence has led the B2B company to take a creatively-driven and human-first approach to marketing. He has placed strategic priority around customer experience and has made significant investments in partnerships with tennis globally, including properties and players, to reach and engage their B2B audience. The company provides in-match analytics and insights, enabling more personalized fan experiences, all bringing its value proposition to life. For example, the French Open recently announced it is using Infosys Topaz, an AI offering, to enhance their guests’ experiences. Virmani’s success with tennis led to the company recently announcing expansion into Formula E Racing, which will provide additional mission-critical illustrations to their B2B customers. Despite pushback on ESG and DEI efforts in some markets internationally, Virmani remains a staunch proponent of business’s role in driving positive social impact. As of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s market cap had increased 16.5 percent YoY.
30. Jonathan Bottomley
Title: CMO
Company: Calvin Klein (United States)
Bottomley has led a complete refresh of Calvin Klein’s approach to marketing, generating what the company has called historic brand engagement and business growth for this globally iconic lifestyle and apparel brand. The Calvin Klein brand was recently named #4 on the prestigious Business of Fashion Brand Magic Index, acknowledging the brand’s impact on both consumers and culture, achieving this despite not having had a named designer for five years, and until late May’s appointment of Veronica Leoni. Collaborations and partnerships with global stars, including Jeremy Allen White, which took the internet by storm globally and drove 30% growth YoY in underwear sales the week of its launch, Idris and Sabrina Elba, Kendall Jenner, Jung Kook, and BLACKPINK’s Jennie, have reinvigorated and refreshed the brand’s cultural cache and equity. Calvin Klein’s advertising aesthetic under Bottomley’s leadership continues to reflect the brand’s commitment to simple, high-quality products, and his marketing is a mix of art, science, and creativity. The PVH-owned brand reported a 4% increase in revenue YoY for FY23.
#31-40
31. Marissa Jarratt
Title: EVP, Chief Marketing & Sustainability Officer
Company: 7-Eleven (United States)
As CMO for the world’s first and now largest convenience retailer, Jarratt has responsibility for 7-Eleven’s brand strategy, cultural partnerships, customer insights, media, and visual identity, amongst other things, and also leads the company’s Sustainability office. Under Jarratt’s strategic influence, 7-Eleven is both redefining convenience for today’s consumers and modernizing its own brand across a retail network of 84,000 stores in 19 countries. Jarratt has evolved the brand’s consumer experience, with a focus on being both entertaining and culturally relevant. Her approach is illustrated by the brand’s award-winning “Take it to Eleven” campaign; a celebration of the joy that can be found in little things, whether a hot dog or the retailer’s iconic Big Gulp. Under her leadership, 7-Eleven is also increasing access to sustainable fuels, driving an overall reduction in CO2 emissions, continuing investments in renewable energy and sustainable packaging, while also working to address food waste and fight hunger in the communities where it does business. The multinational brand last reported quarterly sales growth of over 12%.
32. Heidi Cooley
Title: SVP and CMO
Company: Crocs (United States)
Cooley has led a brand transformation and helped drive the company’s turnaround since arriving as VP of Global Marketing in 2016. Now as CMO, and with oversight of a broad remit including global marketing and communications, creative, digital, social, and consumer insights, it is Cooley’s approach to collaborations and partnerships, in particular, that continues keeping the brand in the cultural conversation. Straddling the whimsical and the fashionable, mass and niche, collaborations with the likes of McDonald’s, Pringles, Barbie, and Balenciaga ensure ongoing cultural resonance and relevance with both the brand’s core audiences and new ones. As Gen Z’s purchasing power increases and as their brand loyalties are created, Crocs has managed to become a fashion staple and statement. Whether their core shoe is a fashion staple for high schoolers day-to-day, their Cowboy Croc, or their Big Yellow Boot collaboration with MSCHF, Cooley’s influence ensures word-of-mouth remains a fundamental brand-marketing resource. The company reported that Q1 24 revenues increased 14.6% YoY, and that DTC revenues had increased over 18%. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Crocs’s stock was up over 26 percent YoY.
33. Ulrich Klenke
Title: Chief Brand Officer
Company: Deutsche Telekom (Germany)
Klenke serves as the global head of brand and marketing for Deutsche Telekom. Because of his marketing leadership, the company reports that the Deutsche Telekom brand has witnessed a remarkable 84% positive growth and become the world’s second most valuable telecom brand. Believing that one company needs one brand, Klenke has been focused on unifying Deutsche Telekom’s messaging across its portfolio, which also includes T-Mobile, and in a joint venture with Vodafone, Orange, and Telefonika. On an aggregated basis, the entities collectively serve more than 252 million mobile customers globally. His influence across brand and marketing has led to ensuring that all markets speak with a unified voice and that the brand, regardless of market distinctions in brand names, is understandable across international borders, which makes marketing more effective and efficient. For Klenke, “Connecting Your World” is more than a unifying premise; it reflects the company’s promise to ensure everyone, everywhere, is connected. For the quarter ending May 16, Deutsche Telekom announced adjusted earnings growth of 5.8% YoY. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Deutsche Telekom’s market cap was up more than 20 percent YoY.
34. Don McGuire
Title: SVP & CMO
Company: Qualcomm (United States)
With oversight of global marketing across the U.S.-based semiconductor and software giant’s primary businesses as well as its consumer-facing brand Snapdragon, a suite of semiconductor products made for mobile devices, McGuire drives the company’s enterprise diversification strategy, bringing its brand, products and services into new markets, industries, and consumer groups. Leading the company’s brand, product and technology marketing, operations, communications, partner and channel marketing, as well as sales enablement and data science, over the past year, McGuire has honed Qualcomm’s go-to-market approach. He has integrated more direct consumer messaging across its brands and with partners, including those with Manchester United and F1. One month ago, Microsoft announced that Snapdragon products would be powering the launch of a new category of AI-driven 20 Copilot+ PCs, across leading brands, including Microsoft’s, HP, Samsung, Lenovo, and Dell. As of June 7th, Qualcomm’s market capitalization had increased by more than 77 percent over the past twelve months.
35. Fiona Carter
Title: CMO
Company: Goldman Sachs (United States)
Carter is the first CMO for Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s largest and most iconic financial institutions, with almost $3 Trillion in assets under management. Focused on building a modern marketing function within a 155-year-old enterprise that historically relied on a relationship-based, in-person marketing and sales playbook, her remit includes global marketing, advertising, content, and social media, spanning the breadth of Goldman’s brands and businesses. Carter has leaned into marketing’s unique ability to drive collaboration across divisions, demonstrating how digital marketing makes the company more effective and efficient, driving incremental growth. A fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion, under Carter’s leadership, Goldman has significantly increased its investments in diverse-owned and targeted media. She also reinvigorated the company’s 10,000 Small Business Program, where participants complete a program of intensive learning, networking and mentorship, funded entirely by the Goldman Sachs Foundation. 67% of US participants increase revenues, and 44% hire additional staff within six months of graduation. For the period ending in March, the company reported revenue growth of more than 12 percent versus the prior year. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Goldman’s market cap had increased by more than 35 percent YoY.
36. Jane Wakely
Title: EVP, Chief Consumer and Marketing Officer and Chief Growth Officer
Company: PepsiCo (United States)
With oversight of the FMCG behemoth’s Global Consumer organization, which includes more than 500 brands in diverse food and beverage categories, Wakely’s influence extends across marketing, R&D, category design and strategy, and insights. She also leads PepsiCo’s International Foods Global Group in support of the company’s efforts to accelerate growth in this strategic category. More than one billion times a day across multiple food and beverage categories, including snacks, waters, and sodas, PepsiCo’s iconic brands and products are consumed in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. An architect of the company’s pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) growth agenda, Wakely is committed to making sustainability and inclusivity mainstream, across the brand portfolio and around the world. In the past year, she’s advanced the company’s recycling efforts and transparency in PepsiCo’s supply chain to better support farmers around the world, as well as leading global sports partnerships to increase investments in girls’ soccer. With global leadership positions at international trade bodies including the WFA and ANA, her efforts influence the industry broadly. For the period ending in March 2024, the company reported revenue growth of 2.26 percent vPY across operations.
37. Lara Balazs
Title: EVP and CMO
Company: Intuit (United States)
Balazs oversees marketing and communications for this global leader in financial software and services, as well as corporate responsibility. In May, she announced that she would be leaving the company later in 2024. Her influence at Intuit, whose brands, including TurboTax, Credit Karma, Mailchimp, and QuickBooks, serve a reported 100 million consumers worldwide annually, is focused on building the company’s brands and reputation and driving what she calls “durable growth.” Committed to delivering Intuit’s “power prosperity around the world” purpose, Balazs’s influence extends to ensuring KPIs reflect commitments, and programs like Intuit for Education, where, in partnership with, among others, Khan Academy, the company provides free financial education resources to 50 million students and educators. Her influence and leadership have contributed to Intuit’s being recognized on lists, including the Greenest Companies and those recognizing the Most Innovative AI Companies. The company reported that for the quarter ending in April, revenues vPY were up nearly 12 percent. As of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s stock price was up more than 35 percent YoY.
38. Lisa Roath
Title: EVP and CMO
Company: Target (United States)
Roath has been with Target for 18 years and in the CMO’s role since July of 2023. With oversight of the retail giant’s core marketing functions, including marketing strategy and operations, creative, guest marketing strategy, retail brand experience, social media, and paid media strategy, she is committed to reinforcing the brand’s longtime place in culture as a fundamental element of its growth strategy. Recognizing that marketing is not just an organizational function but an essential element in how the retailer relates to its guests, Roath has built on Target’s brand positioning as shoppers’ “happy place” by showcasing stories the company’s guests have shared on social media about the “unique joys experienced in our aisles; those small moments of surprise and delight that add up to That Target Feeling.” Her influence over brand creative has brought Kristen Wiig’s Saturday Night Live “Target Lady” to life in the character’s first national ad campaign, partnerships with the likes of TikTok star Azai. and the recently launched DVF collection, which featured 200 new items from the iconic fashion designer. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Target’s market capitalization had increased by more than 11 percent in the past year.
39. Patricia Corsi
Title: (Former) Chief Marketing, Digital & Information Officer
Company: Bayer (Germany)
Recently announcing that she would be leaving Bayer after more than 5 years to join Kimberly-Clark as Chief Growth Officer in July, at Bayer Corsi’s influence extended across marketing innovation, strategy, and digital transformation for 7 consumer healthcare categories within the German multinational, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and biomedical companies. Corsi has worked to disrupt both culture and a relatively staid category with a degree of insight and creative courage for which healthcare giants are not typically known. Campaigns to un-censor and destigmatize the word “vagina” across social media for Bayer’s women’s intimate health brand Canesten, had influence and impact beyond the category. Partnership with the U.N.’s UnStereotype Alliance gives platform to Corsi’s advocacy for, among other under-represented groups, Latinx representation in the marketing industry. She has worked to influence brands and their partners to better and more accurately represent the community in front of and behind the camera, as well as within their marketing organizations. The company operates in 80 countries, and its portfolio includes over 170 consumer health brands.
40. Kenneth Mitchell
Title: SVP and Global CMO
Company: Levi Strauss & Co (United States)
After joining the 171-year-old company one year ago after a stint as Snapchat’s CMO , Mitchell has responsibility for spearheading the iconic brand’s marketing strategy globally. Mitchell is cementing the brand’s place in the cultural landscape around the world, as the company makes a strategic pivot to becoming a “denim lifestyle retailer,” a key element in Levi’s new CEO’s efforts to ensure the growth and fortunes of the business are driven by more than a wholesale model and jeans. During his tenure, he has driven the evolution of the brand’s “Live in Levi’s” platform, now in its 10th year, in order to celebrate, engage, and inspire the brand’s fans, community, and “doers and movers” to make “the floor”—and the brand—their own. As of the close of markets on June 7th, the company’s market cap had increased by more than 62 percent over the past year.
#41-50
41. Taylor Montgomery
Title: CMO
Company: Taco Bell (United States)
As CMO for the Yum! Brands subsidiary and QSR chain, Montgomery is focused on building the brand’s cultural resonance and relevance, and its ongoing place in the social conversation, all to drive growth. With a strategic focus on broadening the chain’s consumption relevancy beyond late-night, Montgomery is driving new relationships and new usage occasions for the brand and its customers. Leaning into Taco Bell’s identity as a “cultural rebel,” his influence includes working to “liberate” a trademark on the iconic phrase “Taco Tuesday,” not just for Taco Bell’s use, but so small businesses, restaurants, and mom-and-pop taco shops can use it as well. Partnerships with megastars including Doja Cat and Paris Hilton, creators, influencers, and LeBron James, who was central to the Taco Tuesday campaign, help keep the brand in the cultural conversation. For the first quarter, Yum! Brands reported that Taco Bell was the only one of its three core QSR brands to see same-store sales increase YoY and that the chain’s first quarter revenues were up 4 percent YoY.
42. Arnaud Carrez
Title: SVP and CMO
Company: Cartier (France)
Carrez oversees global marketing for one of the best-known and most highly desired brands in the world. With oversight for the Maison’s international product and communications strategy, global client marketing, and collaboration across its local markets, he has been among the industry’s leaders in embracing emerging digital and AR capabilities to redefine luxury shopping for the iconic brand’s global customer base. Carrez’s marketing approach is a culture-first one, both reflecting and shaping the culture of the brand, the Maison, and the world in which both interact with luxury consumers worldwide. Synonymous with love and its expressions, earlier this year, the Maison engaged Ambassadors including Paul Mescal, Jisoo, and Labrinth to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its Trinity collection. Carrez looks to moments like this and the brand’s heritage as opportunities to illustrate the timeless and timely quality reflected in everything the House does. Just weeks ago, Cartier unveiled its new, high-jewelry collection, Nature Sauvage, offering a modern take on the brand’s signature animal pieces. Earlier this year, Richemont reported that its Jewellery Maison had the strongest performance of any within its portfolio, growing +12% and +6% at constant and actual exchange rates, respectively.
43. Andreas (Drew) Panayiotou
Title: Global CMO
Company: Pfizer (United States)
The first Global CMO for the biopharmaceutical giant, Panayiotou’s influence is global, with oversight of all marketing activities across all of Pfizer’s markets and products. Focused on ensuring brand relevancy and visibility, Panayiotou is redefining brand perceptions, and how and where Pfizer shows up. He is helping lead the company’s deployment of a proprietary AI system, centralizing and optimizing its creative supply chain, enhancing collaboration with agency partners globally, and speeding the time to market for content development, approval, and delivery. In a first for the company, and in recognition of its 175th anniversary, Panayiotou led the brand to debut a new corporate brand campaign, Let’s Outdo Cancer, during the Super Bowl. The effort continues to evolve the brand beyond its essential role in helping address the Covid crisis, tying it to a new generation of patient-driven innovations. He and his team have also developed an DTC e-commerce engagement model, VaxAssist, to change how Pfizer reaches and serves patients, a first of its kind for the industry. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Pfizer’s YTD market capitalization had increased almost 4 percent.
44. Julia White
Title: Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer
Company: SAP (United States)
White leads all marketing functions including corporate, regional, and product marketing, global communications, product learning and community, pricing and packaging, and government affairs for this leader in enterprise applications and business AI. Intent on bringing emotive and story-driven approaches to B2B marketing, for a year and a half, White has been leading a process to revitalize and evolve the SAP brand in order to better reflect its role in the rapidly evolving business and technology landscapes. The result is a positioning that remains rooted in the company’s equity, but is modernized for enterprise today. The new tagline, “Bring Out Your Best,” reflects White’s influence and SAP’s commitment to providing solutions to the evolving challenges their enterprise clients face. White’s influence also extends to championing diversity generally and in technology specifically. The executive sponsor of Pride@SAP, the Black Employee Network, and its Business Women’s Network, she recognizes that in this new AI era, ensuring a seat at the table for everyone becomes only more urgent. For the quarter ending in March, the company reported YoY revenue growth of more than 8 percent, and as of the close of markets on June 7th, it’s market cap was up more than 43 percent over the past year.
45. Carrie Palin
Title: SVP & CMO
Company: Cisco (United States)
Palin oversees global brand growth and worldwide demand generation for the multinational information technology solutions company. Palin has influence and oversight of a broad marketing remit, including the company’s brand strategy, partner marketing, global field marketing, events, customer advocacy, digital customer experience, insights, and analytics. Over the past year, she has continued reinforcing and bringing the brand’s messaging to life while also ensuring its real-time relevancy in a rapidly evolving enterprise landscape. She continues expanding the brand’s reach and influence, efforts that, for the third year, saw Cisco named the #1 pure B2B brand globally by Interbrand. Strategic partnerships with the NFL and McLaren’s F1 racing team provide two examples of platforms and real-time showcases for the company’s mission-critical solutions and applications. Palin is a leading advocate for women in technology, and the “executive ally” of Cisco’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
46. Enrico Galliera
Title: Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer
Company: Ferrari (Italy)
Galliera’s marketing for this luxury automotive global icon finds ways to reinforce Ferrari’s ultra-exclusivity while still driving extraordinary growth. One of the most recognized brands in the world, Ferrari has long represented craftsmanship and performance and has been a penultimate totem of wealth and luxury. Galliera and the Ferrari leadership team have leaned into and fostered the brand’s exclusivity by limiting the number of cars in production. Equally, ownership of a Ferrari does not confer the right to do with the car as one pleases. Owners, including Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian, have reportedly been blacklisted by the brand for what was considered improper care and unauthorized alterations to their cars. From Lewis Hamilton’s joining the company’s F1 team, to a slow and purposeful drip of marketing surrounding the release of a 70th anniversary model, to creating a high-end branded experience with Airbnb, Galliera continues nurturing the brand’s equity while ensuring demand is always in excess of the brand’s deliberately limited supply. Ferrari reported FY 2023 net revenue up 17.2% versus the previous year. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Ferrari’s stock was up nearly 39 percent over the past year.
47. Chris Leong
Title: CMO
Company: Schneider Electric (France)
In her 10th year as Chief Marketing Officer for the French digital transformation and energy management giant, Leong’s influence includes responsibility for ensuring marketing output is a competitive advantage for the company, building a vital and purpose-led brand, and increasing what the company refers to as “customer intimacy.” As global industry continues grappling with the evolution to an electric future, Leong is a leading evangelist for the role the 180-year-old company’s products and service portfolio plays in driving their B2B customers’ businesses into this future. Leong’s marketing strategy is rooted in a conviction that “partnerships are at the core of our growth and collective progress,” and she uses these to illustrate the benefits of the shift towards global digitization, automation, electrification, and decarbonization, made even more important as energy consumption soars with AI adoption. A vocal advocate for the company’s commitment to ensuring no net biodiversity loss from operations by 2030, Leong ensures Schneider’s “behind the scenes work” on behalf of people, planet and enterprise profitability is brought to life. As of the close of markets on June 7th, Schneider Electric’s market cap had increased by nearly 38 percent over the past year.
48. Mike Katz
Title: President of Marketing, Strategy, and Products
Company: T-Mobile
Katz has oversight of how, where and when America’s second-largest wireless carrier by market share delivers products, experiences, and messages across its digital, product, supply chain, and wholesale platforms. With T-Mobile for over 26 years, Katz is evolving how the “Un-Carrier” shows up and serves its customers. At the center of building the company’s 5G future, Katz leads the efforts to ensure T-Mobile is differentiated from its competitive set. Focused on, among other things, “fostering partnerships and opportunities that catalyze growth,” under his influence, the brand has built strategic partnerships with Mr. Beast, the world’s number one creator, the PGA of America, where the company brought a series of 5G firsts to fans to create a better and richer experience, and with the stars of Suits, find the magenta-colored brand not just in culture but helping to create and enrich it for their customers. Katz’s influence includes having helped lead Project 10Million, the company’s signature philanthropic program, which contributed the equivalent of nearly $5 billion in wireless services for those without. As of the close of markets on June 7th, T-Mobile’s market capitalization had increased nearly 38 percent YoY.
49. Sofia Colucci
Title: CMO of North America
Company: Molson Coors (United States)
Colucci leads marketing for the breadth of Molson Coors’ North American brand portfolio, and has direct influence over brand strategy, marketing communications, media allocation, field activation, and championing the strategy for the company’s brands globally. Colucci drove the development of a proprietary, multi-touch attribution model connecting marketing outputs to sales impact, setting both an industry standard for measuring effectiveness, and leading to the company’s being named the most effective marketer in North America by Effies Worldwide. Colucci is continuously experimenting with ways to “hack culture.” Coors Light turned an off-hand comment from Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes into a scene-stealing promotion, reinvigorated Miller Lite’s tastes-great-less-filling debate, ran 1000 Super Bowl ads instead of one, and has turned the 150-year-old Banquet brand into a Gen-Z favorite, Colucci’s influence is making impact in-culture and on the bottom-line. The company reported that Coors Light, Miller Lite and Coors Banquet, were major drivers of its Q1 topline growth, with Coors Light and Banquet seeing double-digit volume growth, while Miller Lite grew in the high single digits.
50. Jonathan Adashek
Title: SVP Marketing and Communications
Company: IBM (USA)
Adashek’s remit for IBM, the multi-national tech and consulting services behemoth with more than 300,000 employees globally, is as broad as it is deep, with influence and oversight extending across full-funnel marketing, corporate affairs, ESG, and federal client business development. Under his leadership, the company unified its marketing and communications efforts around a single platform, “Let’s Create,” to better showcase how IBM’s portfolio of products and services can benefit enterprise infrastructure globally. As businesses generally and the marketing industry specifically grapple with the rapidly evolving role of AI, Adashek is a vocal advocate for the company’s place in the conversation and for embracing an open model as essential for ensuring ethical and responsible AI. An evangelist for how GAI helps accelerate the path to creativity and profitable growth, IBM sponsored the first-ever AI track at the SXSW Festival. Just one other example among many, at golf’s Masters Tournament, the company integrated technology from dozens of partners to turn enormous quantities of both historical and real-time data into insights that provided proof-positive illustrations of what AI and IBM can do for businesses. As of the close of markets on June 7th, IBM’s market capitalization had increased by more than 26 percent over the past 12 months.
This article was first published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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