CMO Moves September 2025
September brought in 46 new CMOs worldwide: 26 men vs. 20 women. A rare month, in fact, where the men outnumbered the women. Not something we see often.
Internal promotions, as is typical, were few and far between, with just 7 CMOs rising from within. The vast majority, 39, were hired from outside - companies are still looking for fresh eyes and ears rather than familiar faces.
Encouragingly, 21 of the appointees are stepping into the top marketing seat for the first time, although, reflecting a very conservative hiring environment only 3 made the leap from entirely different industries: our so-called “industry travelers,” crossing sectors with passports in hand. A clear signal to those considering an industry pivot, unfortunately.
Geographically, the U.S. saw 27 appointments spread across 11 states. Hiring remained steady, no major spikes or dips. But it was Europe that livened things up: 6 new CMOs in the UK, 2 each in France and Germany, and one in Sweden. Elsewhere, Australia and India each added three new names to the C-suite, with Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia adding one apiece.
In short, while the U.S. keeps a steady hand, it’s the global markets that are shifting gears.
On the industry front, tech continues to lead the pack in CMO demand, no surprise there. Retail followed with 8 new hires, while both Professional Services and Financial Services brought on 7 each.
CMO Appointments by Sector
- Tech: 14
- Retail: 8
- Professional Services:7
- Financial Services: 7
- CPG: 3
- Restaurants: 2
- Media, Sports & Entertainment: 2
- Construction: 1
- BioTech, Pharma, Healthcare: 1
- Hotel and Travel: 1
Spotlight on Recent Appointments:
- Coinbase: Catherine Ferdon joins Coinbase as CMO after leading growth at Block’s Cash App, where she mastered turning complex financial products into everyday tools. Known for making risk feel simple and trustworthy, she’s stepping into a politically charged, AI-driven environment to reframe crypto as a utility, not a gamble.
- Driscoll’s: Jiunn Shih becomes Driscoll’s first Global CMO, bringing a playbook honed at Zespri, Unilever, and L’Oréal that fuses purpose with performance. A believer in “good growth or no deal,” he’s set to globalize Driscoll’s brand with data discipline, sustainability leadership, and storytelling that blends conviction with commercial rigor.
- Monte Carlo: Wayne Jin takes on his first CMO role at Monte Carlo, the fast-rising data reliability startup redefining AI trust. Drawing on his experience at Grafana, GitHub, and Google Cloud, Jin will make invisible infrastructure intelligible — and turn “AI you can trust” into a category-defining narrative.
- Wawa: Doug Martin steps into Wawa’s CMO seat after nearly two decades at General Mills, where he turned everyday staples into cultural icons. A strategist grounded in human behavior, Martin will anchor Wawa’s national expansion by building repeatable growth systems rooted in insight rather than adtech hype.
- Bumble: Neela Pal, newly promoted to CMO at Bumble, is steering the dating app toward a more authentic, hopeful narrative after a turbulent year. Blending agency and client-side expertise, she’s focused on rebuilding trust and engagement through emotionally resonant campaigns and tighter, faster marketing cycles.
- Tonies: Brian Johnson, formerly of Rivian, becomes CMO of Tonies to scale its storytelling ecosystem for families. Known for bringing warmth to hardware-heavy categories, he’s tasked with expanding Tonies’ collectible magic into a mainstream phenomenon without losing its sense of wonder.
Read more about each CMO and the scope of their new mandates via the links below:
