CMO Moves August 2025
Despite whispers of a slowdown and murmurs of boardroom upheaval, the CMO hiring spree shows no signs of tapping the brakes. August brought 40 new marketing chiefs into the spotlight: 20 women, 19 men, and one non-binary leader among them.
Interestingly, only 3 of these appointments were internal promotions. The other 37 were recruited from outside, suggesting companies are leaning heavily on external fresh thinking over familiar faces. 16 are stepping into the C-suite for the first time, while just 4 made the jump from entirely different sectors - what we like to call “Industry Travelers”.
In the U.S., 29new CMOs were hired across 14 states, with California leading the pack(8), followed by Texas (6), and smaller showings from Colorado, Massachusetts, and a scatter across states like Florida, New York, and North Carolina.
Globally, England led international hiring with 3 new CMOs, followed by India and Australia with 2each. Germany, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Scotland each welcomed one.
Tech, unsurprisingly, continued to dominate with 14 new hires, most in Software Development. Professional Services followed with 7, then Financial Services and Retail with4 each. Restaurants added 3, while other sectors, including Media, CPG, and Government, saw a single new CMO apiece.
CMO Appointments by Sector
- Tech: 14
- Professional Services: 7
- Financial Services: 4
- Restaurants: 3
- Retail: 3
- Media, Sports & Entertainment: 2
- CPG: 1
- Construction: 1
- Manufacturing: 1
- Government: 1
- BioTech, Pharma, Healthcare: 1
- Hotel and Travel: 1
Spotlight on Recent Appointments:
- Crocs: Carly Gomez joins Crocs to drive brand-led growth amid tighter promo discipline, leveraging her Fabletics and Vans playbook of community-driven storytelling, creator-led social “showstoppers,” and DTC retail theater. Her mandate: fuel global sandals momentum and social commerce dominance while maintaining authenticity as cultural currency.
- HEYDUDE: Amondo Redmond takes the helm at HEYDUDE to clean up wholesale, sharpen storytelling, and rebuild profitability through narrative clarity and operational discipline. Known for culture-building and cross-channel execution, he’ll steer the brand toward sustainable DTC growth as it detoxes from paid-click dependency.
- UiPath: Michael Atalla steps in as CMO to reposition UiPath from RPA to “agentic automation,” drawing on his Microsoft 365 and F5 experience to craft clear, deal-accelerating messaging. His focus: speed-to-value storytelling and proof points that win against Microsoft’s Power Automate and Automation Anywhere’s cloud-native pitch.
- Strava: Subscription-growth veteran Louisa Wee joins Strava to convert millions of free users into paid subscribers, using Netflix-honed test-and-learn loops and FabFitFun-style community FOMO. Expect sharp value storytelling around AI coaching and athlete intelligence, balancing retention of hardcore athletes with mass appeal.
- Signet Jewelers: Former Crocs CMO Lisa Laich takes over at Signet to reinvigorate lagging sales with creator-led storytelling, data-driven merchandising, and a fandom-over-coupons ethos. She inherits strong cash reserves but talent gaps, and will aim to align five banners under one first-party data strategy amid pricing pressure from lab-grown diamonds.
- Epicor: Epicor promotes Kerrie, a product marketing leader and manufacturing podcaster, to CMO—signaling a pivot from spectacle to substance. Her mission: ground messaging in real customer outcomes, empower “citizen integrators,” and weave Cognitive ERP into client operations through partner-led enablement and empathy-driven adoption.
- HSBC: Returning to London after nearly two decades abroad, John McDonald becomes HSBC’s global CMO, tasked with unifying brand and marketing across diverse regions. With creative roots at Ogilvy and global banking experience at UBS, he’ll focus on operational cohesion, reusable assets, and trust-driven client growth.
- Azamara: Lisa Kauffman joins Azamara as CMO to merge retail storytelling with experiential cruise marketing, leveraging her Disney, Macy’s, and Celebrity Cruises background. Expect merchandising-minded campaigns that turn “Destination Immersion” into bookings through digital engagement, trade partnerships, and loyalty-focused content that sells.
Read more about each CMO and the scope of their new mandates via the links below:
