The CMO Podcast

Join us for one final episode to wrap up the year as Jim welcomes MJ DePalma, the Global Director of Cultural & Inclusive Business Impact at Microsoft. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates, Microsoft is now a $200 billion by revenue–and growing–company with 220,000 employees. The company has also made headlines more than usual this year with its investment in OpenAI.

MJ is a UCLA graduate with a psychology degree, and has worked at Microsoft twice in her career–once for four years, and now going on 10 years in her current stint. She has held her role as Global Director for more than five years. MJ has a gift for inspiring and motivating people, and looks to the Microsoft Purpose Playbook as the best tool to drive herself and her team to be more welcoming and inclusive.

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Today's guest on The CMO Podcast is Shira Feuer, the Chief Marketing Officer of Trinny London, the seven-year-old, digital-first, global beauty brand founded by Trinny Woodall. Founder Trinny Woodall has been an influential personality on the fashion and beauty scene since the 90s, when she started a Daily Telegraph Ready-to-Wear column with Susannah Constantine. The column morphed into the BBC series What Not to Wear. Since its founding in 2017, Trinny London has succeeded within the beauty space, leaning on its number one purpose – to give everyone the tools they need to feel their best.

Shira hails from Canada, where she attended McGill University, but had always felt a calling overseas. Shira began her career in banking, which allowed her to move to London...where she discovered quickly that a career in finance was not for her. From there, she dove into marketing, making her way to a seminal experience at Burberry, before joining the team at Trinny London in 2019. She recently celebrated five years as CMO of the company.

With the holidays upon us, join Jim as he welcomes a CMO who can find inspiration from everywhere, and tease a few great gift options for your loved ones!

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Jim's guest today on The CMO Podcast is Tamara Mendelsohn, the Chief Marketing Officer for Eventbrite. The 17-year-old global self-service ticketing platform for live experiences allows anyone to create, share, find and attend events. The app showcases music festivals, marathons, conferences, community rallies, fundraisers, gaming competitions–and even air guitar contests. 12 years after its founding, Eventbrite went public. The company’s purpose is simple: to bring the world together through live experiences. The company certainly delivers that purpose, with five million events last year, nearly 300 million tickets, 800,000 creators using the platform, and a yearly revenue approaching $300 million.

Tamara joined Evenbrite in 2009, when the company was only three years old, and she was appointed Chief Marketing Officer about 3 and a half years ago. Before Eventbrite, Tamara spent four years as a Senior Analyst at Forrester, where she specialized in ecommerce and multichannel retail. Tamara studied comparative literature and economics at Wellesley College, and earned her MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Tune in for a conversation with a CMO who loves connecting and community!

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Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Derek Yarbrough, the Chief Marketing Officer at the J.Crew Group, where he looks over the J.Crew and Madewell brands. J.Crew began in 1983–40 years ago–with its first catalog. Since then it has grown to a multi-billion dollar clothing and accessories business, with hundreds of specialty retail stores, about 150 outlet stores, and a thriving on-line business. With its sister brand Madewell launching in 2006.

Derek has been at J.Crew for about 13 years, and most of those years on the Madewell brand, before being promoted to CMO of the J.Crew group in 2021. After graduating from Stanford with an Urban Studies degree, Derek worked briefly as a consultant before joining the startup WalMart.com as employee #33. From there Derek worked in direct-to-consumer marketing at several companies with memorable names including, Hips&Curves.com, Flirtcatalog.com, and Abbey Roads Programs.

As the J.Crew celebrates their 40 year anniversary, Derek joins Jim to talk his entrepreneur career which led to the brand, and how inspired he is by the fans who have stayed true through all these years.

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How do you prepare to join the C-Suite after years of working as a marketing leader? Jim wraps up the final episode from the 2023 Deloitte University Next Generation CMO Academy with a roundtable panel discussion featuring Brad Hiranaga (Chief Brand Officer of Cotopaxi), Erica Taylor (Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Genentech), and Lisa Materazzo (Group Vice President of Marketing at Toyota Motor North America).

Brad Hiranaga is a returning guest to the podcast. He spoke to Jim in 2021 as Chief Marketing Officer at General Mills, where he spent 18 years. Now a year into his new role as CMO for Cotopaxi, a sustainable outdoor apparel brand, Brad looks to build on the mission of the founder, who–fun fact–named the company after a volcano in the Andes in central Ecuador.

Erica Taylor is Genentech’s first CMO. Erica actually worked at Genentech for 10 years before leaving to join another pharmaceutical giant, Gilead. Erica returned to Genentech in 2021 and was promoted to CO in 2022. She is also the first CO on our show with a PhD in Immunology.

Lisa Materazzo has spent over two decades at Toyota, with a brief intermission at AOL and Build-a-Bear, before returning to the company and ultimately becoming the Group Vice President of Toyota Division Marketing at Toyota Motor North America in 2021. Raised in a car-fanatic family, it’s extremely fitting that Lisa finds herself leading marketing for one of the most prominent motor companies in the world.

Tune in as these guests share how they prepared for the C Suite, what they got right and wrong in their career, and how they deal with imposter syndrome.

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The guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Carrie Ruddy, the Senior Vice President, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer of Trane Technologies–a 17 billion dollar by sales company focused on heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. But this is no ordinary HVAC company–they are 100% focused on helping solve the climate change crisis through innovative new products and services. Trane’s CEO attributes their strong business results to “a focused execution of our purpose driven strategy.” We’ll talk about that.

Carrie first discovered her passion for communications at the non-profit United Way, after completing her Bachelors at Colgate University, majoring in English and Philosophy. From there she made stops in several industries, including financial services and grocery/retail, before joining manufacturer Ingersoll Rand in 2014. In 2020 the tools business of Ingersoll Rand was spun off, and the remaining company was named Trane Technologies. In January 2022 Carrie was named Chief Communications and Marketing Officer of Trane Technologies.

Recorded at the Next Gen CMO Academy at Deloitte University, during a Texas heatwave, (it was 105 degrees!) It's only fitting that Carrie joined Jim in the crisp AC for her first ever podcast interview.

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Jim's guest on The CMO Podcast this week is Kelly Lohr, the Chief Marketing Officer for Orangetheory Fitness, the leading heart-rate-based workout that combines science, technology and expert coaching to help members live a longer, more vibrant life. Orangetheory’s history begins in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where founder Ellen Latham opening the first studio in 2010. Now more than a decade later, Orangetheory has expanded to 1500 studios throughout the US and 24 countries, with over one million members, and surpassing $1 billion in sales.

Kelly first discovered Orangetheory as a member herself, before joining the team in 2022. She brought her 20 years of marketing experience to the brand, including time at Freshly and Amazon Go. Kelly shares her remarkable personal story, as well as the story of a brand that sought to revive interest in in-person workout classes following the shutdowns of 2020 and 2021. Orangetheory has certainly achieved their goal; the brand is stronger today than it was pre-pandemic. 

Recorded at the Next Gen CMO Academy at Deloitte University in Dallas Texas, this episode features a conversation with a CMO who loves working out as much as Jim does!

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Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Ramon Jones, the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Nationwide–one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the United States. Founded over 90 years ago, Nationwide provides a full range of insurance and financial services products, including car, motorcycle, homeowners, pet, farm, life and commercial insurance. And we all know the jingle…”Nationwide is on your side.”

Ramon first began his journey at Nationwide in 2000, where he worked in a call center. He held multiple positions over the years and eventually rose to the position of CMO in 2019. Now several years into the role, he oversees the teams that advocate for Nationwide’s iconic On Your Side promise with customers, partners, and communities. He's also just recently been named as a 2023 Brand Genius by Ad Week. 

Recorded at the Next Gen CMO Academy at Deloitte University, tune in as Jim welcomes a CMO and fellow transplanted Pennsylvanian, who looks to support young and upcoming talent.

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One issue often explored on this show is how to build the trust and value of marketing within the broader C-Suite. For this week’s episode, Jim welcomes three C-Suite execs (who are not CMOs) to dive headfirst into that issue. Recorded live in front of an audience of emerging CMOs at the 2023 Deloitte University Next Generation CMO Academy, this episode features guests Susan Sheffield (Executive Vice President and CFO of General Motors Financial Co.), Deborah Gibbins (Chief Operating Officer of Mary Kay) and Surabhi Varshney, who leads Global Corporate Strategy for chemical giant Celanese. 

Susan Sheffield has had a long career in corporate finance and banking, with stops at JPMorgan and Wells Fargo Bank, before joining General Motors Financial Co in 2001. There, she rose through the ranks to become the Executive Vice President and CFO in 2018.

Deborah Gibbins first joined the Mary Kay brand in 2013 as their CFO, before shifting to COO in 2018. Before her time at Mary Kay, Deborah held multiple leadership roles at PepsiCo’s Frito Lay.

And finally, Surabhi Varshney was promoted in February 2023 to the global corporate strategy lead for Celanese, a $10 billion by sales leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials. 

Tune in for insights from three remarkable women on how to build the value of marketing, and how to be a successful C-Suite leader.

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Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Micky Onvural, the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at TIAA, whose mission is to help people find confidence in retirement. TIAA is an acronym for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association; it was founded 105 years ago by Andrew Carnegie, to help teachers with their financial security in their retirement. TIAA is now a Fortune 100 financial services organization, with revenue north of $40 billion, serving clients in academic, research, cultural, medical, and governmental fields.

Micky is a returning guest on The CMO Podcast–she joined Jim in October 2021 when she was the CEO of Bonobos, the apparel brand owned by Walmart at the time. This is Jim's first guest who was a CMO, became a CEO, and then returned to a CMO role. Micky is a graduate of Cambridge University, where she studied French and Spanish, before beginning a career that took her to L’Oreal, Kellogg’s, eBay, Trulia, Bonobos, and now TIAA. 

Tune in as Jim welcomes a CMO–who was a CEO–and discovered she would rather be a CMO!

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