CMO takes a look at the biggest marketing leadership appointments, departures and role extensions of this year
As the industry finally started moving out of the shadow of the pandemic and began turning its attention to growth, brand recalibration and a new post-Covid world, marketing leadership movements went up significantly.
Call it pent up impetus to make a change, the great resignation, a renewed quest for new horizons or simply modern marketing leadership movement, but we certainly saw some interesting CMO moves and extensions this year.
Here, as we say goodbye to 2022, CMO takes a look at several of the biggest marketing leadership departures and hires of the year.
Telstra confirmed IAG’s chief marketing officer, Brent Smart, as its new CMO following Jeremy Nicholas’ move into a different role.
The ASX-listed telco said Smart will be responsible for its brand, media, sponsor and award programs, consumer, small business and enterprise marketing and proposition development, marketing automation and internal design studio. He officially joined the team in September.
Read more about Smart’s appointment here.
There might be a host of brand achievements to her name, but Lisa Ronson says it’s her impact on people through authentic and caring leadership that’s arguably one of her greatest legacies as a CMO to date.
Ronson announced in August she’s leaving Coles after three-and-a-half years as its chief marketing officer in order to take her career in a new direction. The well-known and experienced marketing chief made the announcement on LinkedIn, saying she was proud of being part of the Coles team during what has been a challenging and unprecedented time, but knew it was the moment for a fresh challenge.
Ronson speaks to CMO here about her Coles milestones.
The Iconic brought on its first chief customer officer earlier in 2022, appointing Dean Chadwick to take on the CMO replacement position.
Chadwick was formerly Virgin Velocity’s chief marketing and commercial officer and spent nearly five years with the airline. Most recently, he was interim CEO of the frequent flyer program. He previously spent more than 14 years with American Express in a variety of roles locally and internationally, including VP of consumer acquisition, brand and marketing, chief digital officer and VP of innovation labs in the UK.
Chadwick’s work for Virgin saw him recognised in the top 10 of the CMO50 list of Australia’s most innovative and effective marketing leaders in 2019.
In this interview with CMO in November, Chadwick talks about some of his early wins at the pure-play retailer.
A bigger career discussion CMO pursued in 2022 was about how we foster greater consideration of marketers outside of category when we’re hiring.
In part 1 of this CMO special in-depth series, we explore the ongoing bias against senior marketers being considered for roles in new categories and industry sectors and speak to those who’ve directly experienced it.
Kate Whitney is switching meal kits for drinks in the new year and is joining Treasury Wine Estates as its first chief digital and technology officer.
The current Marley Spoon chief marketing and growth officer was confirmed as the senior executive taking up the role by Treasury Wine Estates in late October. The newly created position sitting on the executive leadership team oversees digital enablement and technology functions across Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) globally, including its brand-led divisions, Penfolds, Treasury Premium Brands and Treasury Americas.
Whitney boasts of 25 years’ experience in consumer marketing and digital transformation including a stint with Pernod Ricard in the US as director of digital.
We find out all about the new role and reasons for Whitney taking it up here.
FMCG giant, Kellogg, recruited Johnson & Johnson’s senior marketing chief, Leanne Bell, as its new marketing director across A/NZ in 2022.
The news came as SunRice confirmed former Kellogg’s marketer, Tamara Howe, as its new chief marketing officer.
As previously reported in CMO, Howe is stepping into the marketing leadership post following the departure of head of marketing and insights, Andrew Jeffrey, in January. Jeffrey had joined the FMCG in 2018 after senior marketing, strategy and category development roles with Coca-Cola, Campbell Arnott’s and Nestle.
Challenging the position of super funds on providing value and championing the power of choice are key prongs in the brand transformation strategy of Colonial First State’s new customer experience chief and former Samsung Australia CMO, Josh Grace.
In November, the wealth management business confirmed Grace officially as its group executive, customer office. The appointment comes after Grace spent several months working with former chief customer officer, Todd Stevenson, plus CFS chairman, Rob Coombe, in the business.
In this interview, Grace shares his brand vision and plans
Mark Richardson finished up with the supermarket giant after a six-year tenure as marketing leader in early 2022, but it wasn’t until later in the year that a replacement was announced.
ALDI in November confirmed it had brought on Westpac’s Jenny Melhuish as its new Australian marketing chief. Find out more about the appointment here.
Seven West Media (SWM) chief marketing officer, Charlotte Valente, is currently packing her bags for Europe after leaving her post after more than three years with the broadcaster and media giant.
In a statement circulated to staff and sighted by CMO, SWM chief executive and managing director, James Warburton, confirmed Valente’s departure and her decision to travel overseas with her family for an extended sojourn.
In a significant step forward in terms of marketing functional capability, Endeavour Group is in the process of building out a centralised marketing hub.
The hub support key brand teams with skills in digital media, creative and customer insights. In December, four GM-level hires were announced. Read the full report here.
Digital transformation, more sustainable and inclusive experiences and deeper supplier connections are key ways Big Red Group’s CMO sees the Australian experience organisation achieving its growth ambitions.
Big Red Group (BRG) in July appointed senior marketer and business executive, Paul Connell, as its new chief marketing officer, tasked with leading the next stage of growth. The role oversees a portfolio of experience brands including RedBalloon, Adrenaline, Experience Oz, Lime&Tonic and Local Agent.
Connell spent the last two years as sales and marketing director (CMO) for Naked Wines. Prior to this, he was at Unilever, overseeing the homecare and refreshments portfolios in a range of senior roles.
In this interview, Connell talks to CMO about the new opportunities for growth at the experience business.
Joining the ranks of media companies with group CMO’s in the second half of 2022 was Nine. The ASX-listed company promoted its in-house creative team chief, Linda Dubois, to newly created chief marketing officer role.
The new position sees Dubois responsible for Nine’s group marketing and brand strategy with a remit to accelerate audience and revenue growth across its full portfolio including television, radio, publishing and digital.
Former RACQ GM marketing, Renee Davidson, joined the Allianz Australia insurance group to lead a new-look marketing function in 2022.
The appointed came after the business realigned internal teams around four new centres of excellence. Davidson reports to Australian chief general manager of consumer, Mick Winter. And joined Allianz from RACQ, where she’s spent the latest seven years overseeing marketing, most recently as its GM marketing and membership.
Read more about Davidson’s new role and remit here.
Another category switcher this year was Angela Greenwood. The former Optus senior director of consumer marketing joined Youi as its new chief marketing officer in June. She’d spent the prior five-and-a-half years with Optus, joining to oversee digital performance marketing and analytics before rising to senior director of consumer marketing in June 2019.
Read more about Youi’s CMO here.
Blooms The Chemist appointed a new chief marketing officer this year to build brand strategy and drive visibility as well as build out its marketing team.
Yvette Costi joined the network of pharmacist-owned businesses to spearhead brand growth and new marketing capabilities after previously consulting to the team. Costi has a wealth of marketing and brand senior level experience across large, global organisations including professional services firms, Unispace and Yoo; London residential property developer, Mount Anvil; and Crown Group Holdings. She’s also overseen design teams at Caro Communications.
In this interview, we speak to Costi about the priorities ahead.
Digital marketing might be hard but building a digital presence in places such as China is even harder for brands, Vijay Solanki says. Which is why the former IAB chief, digital and marketing leader and entrepreneur has joined martech player, Sinorbis, as its first CMO.
The former IAB chief and experienced marketer shares the personal experiences that led him to become the first marketing chief at Australian owned, China focused martech vendor, Sinorbis, in this CMO interview.
One of the more interesting CMO role extensions we saw this year was at retail fintech, Slyp.
The company extended the role of its head of marketing to chief of staff in a move it said would help streamline executive decision making around strategy and growth objectives. Jude Blankfield joined Slyp as head of marketing in October 2020. Prior to this, she was VP of marketing for ecommerce tech company, Rokt, and spent 10 years working in PR, marketing and events locally as well as in New Zealand and the UK. Clients over this time included Sony PlayStation, Procter & Gamble, V8 Supercars and Masterchef.
As Slyp’s first chief of staff, Blankfield is tasked with creating efficiencies in decision making for the fintech’s executive committee, supporting business strategy and laser-focusing decisions based on the goals of the organisation. She also retains her marketing remit.
Read more about the role and remit here.
As well as the promotion of chief customer officer, Stephanie Tully, to Jetstar CEO, Qantas also made big changes to its marketing leadership earlier in 2022.
Qantas confirmed it had united its airline and loyalty marketing under one chief marketing officer as part of a restructure of the team geared at better uniting the two sides of the business and improving marketing efficiency. Leading the way is former Qantas Loyalty CMO, Petra Perry, as group chief marketing officer.
Perry joined Qantas in 2016 and was promoted to the top marketing job across the Loyalty business in November 2019.
Read more about the Qantas changes here.
Regional accommodation network provider, G’Day Group, was also on the CMO hiring spree this year, selecting Sportsbet’s former head of engagement as its new chief marketing officer.
White boasts of more than 15 years’ experience in consumer marketing, including overseeing advertising, CRM, marketing, partnerships and retail marketing across Westpac, St George, Bank of SA and Bank of Melbourne.
With a remit across G’day Group brands and customer journeys, White will spearhead marketing strategy, customer growth and loyalty, analytics, digital marketing and brand.
Louise Cummins, one of the CMO50 for 2021, switched tax services for the not-for-profit sector and took up the chief marketing officer’s post at World Vision Australia in 2022.
Cummins had spent the last four-and-a-half years with H&R Block as marketing and digital innovations director, orchestrating a rebuild of its marketing technology and customer engagement capabilities. Prior to this, she held marketing roles across Optus, Australia Post, MGM, Fujifilm, Seven West Media and 3M.
Here, why find out Cummins’ plans as CMO of World Vision Australia.
Audible’s former director of brand and content marketing was also changing industries this year, switching audiobooks for the fitness sector.
Sara Dunsneath joined Fitness & Lifestyle Group as its new general manager of marketing and PR for A/NZ. She told CMO she saw it as an exciting time to be working in the health and wellness industry.
Read more of our interview here.
Nova created a new chief growth officer position in 2022 to oversee brand marketing and communications as well as audience growth through digital product, content development and data utilisation.
Adam Johnson officially took up the newly created, reporting directly to CEO, Peter Charlton. Johnson boasts of 17 years’ experience across media, digital and global technology sectors, and was most recently chief marketing officer for media and entertainment company, Global, based in the UK. The position covered brand marketing, communications, customer support, B2B marketing and the direct-to-enterprise division.
In this CMO interview, Johnson talks about his strategy and ambitions.
Toyota was another company with a new CMO in 2022 after appointing 20-year company veteran, Vin Naidoo, as its new chief marketing officer in Australia.
Naidoo replaced John Pappas, who was promoted to CEO of Lexus Australia. Naidoo, another long-term employee of the automotive group, has spent the last two years in Singapore, where he was general manager of sales and marketing for the Asia-Pacific region.
Eighteen months after launching its premium restaurant delivery service to Melbourne foodies, Providoor recruited its first chief marketing officer to drive growth.
Michael McCash joined the business from DoorDash, where he was senior manager of consumer growth marketing for Australia. His resume also includes senior marketing roles with HotDoc, Assembly Payments (now Zai), Australia Post, MYOB and Eftpos Direct.
In this interview, McCash tells us the learnings he's gleaned from DoorDash that he plans to bring to the new post.
Eight-year-old higher education and training business, Keypath Education, hired former NAB head of marketing and CX for everyday banking, Sheena Sudra, to head up its marketing and customer efforts across Asia-Pacific this year.
Sudra comes with 20 years’ senior marketing experience locally as well as in the UK and UAE. Her resume includes 10 years with National Australia Bank, where she started as a marketing manager and held several positions across credit cards, personal and home loans and emerging markets before rising to GM of consumer banking then head of marketing for everyday banking.
We find out more about the role here.
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