CMO Moves June Summary

In June, 39 CMOs were announced globally, with 19 women and 20 men stepping into the role, continuing the slight male lead we’ve seen in recent months. Of these, only 6 were promoted from within, while the remaining 33 were hired from outside the company, which is great for business for headhunters like us but a poor showing for HR professionals all over the world!

For 16 of the new appointees, this marks their first time in a C-suite role, and 7 made the jump from entirely different industries - what we like to call the “industry travelers.”

In the U.S., 29 CMOs were appointed across 13 states. New York led the way with 10 new hires, followed by California with 3, and Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, Utah, and Virginia each with 2.

Internationally, Australia, Canada, and India each announced 2 new CMOs, while Brazil, England, France, and Israel reported 1 apiece.

Sector-wise, Tech continues to dominate with 13 new CMOs across Software, Online Learning, and Cybersecurity. Professional Services followed with 8, while Media, Sports & Entertainment, and Financial Services each brought in 4. Hotel and Travel also saw 3 appointments.

CMO Appointments by Sector:

• Tech: 13

• Professional Services: 8

• Media, Sports & Entertainment: 4

• Financial Services: 4

• Hotel and Travel: 3

• Retail: 2

• Manufacturing: 2

• BioTech, Pharma, Healthcare:1

• CPG: 1

• Government: 1

MONEYGRAM

MoneyGram, whose roots trace back 85 years to Travelers Express, is the Dallas-based service that lets people send money from their phones or a high-street agent and collect it, in cash or digitally, in more than 200 countries.

On 16 June, the company hired Lamia Pardo as its new Chief Marketing Officer.

I think the board is betting that her growth-first résumé will do exactly that.

Pardo helped launch Pangea Money Transfer, steered a $40 million ICO at crypto-wallet Consentium, and, most recently, pushed UK health-tech firm HeliosX to an eight-fold revenue jump in 3 years. Those are the sort of numbers PE owner Madison Dearborn likes to see.

She steps in at an awkward moment. Digital now accounts for just over half of MoneyGram’s transactions but only about 40% of revenue, so the margin gap is real. A 6-day cyber-outage last September still hangs in Reddit threads and risk disclosures.

Meanwhile, younger rivals keep flexing. Wise grew underlying income to about £1.4 billion last year and booked £565 million in profit before tax by serving up real-time FX with flat fees. Remitly, built for mobile migrants, lifted revenue 34% to $1.26 billion and swung adjusted EBITDA past $130 million in 2024. I bet Pardo is already paying close attention to both playbooks.

Competitors do indeed offer useful lessons. Wise proves that plain-spoken pricing and cheerful UX can turn cross-border payments into a subscription-like habit, while Remitly shows how referral loops can slash acquisition costs.

Neither firm has MoneyGram’s huge cash-out network (nor the 40,000 agents), but both have taught customers to expect speed, transparency and in-app rewards. If Pardo combines those touches with MoneyGram’s physical reach, the fee premium might feel easier to swallow.

My guess, is that her first move will be an analytics overhaul. After that, I think we’ll see price experiments in big corridors, a gentler loyalty layer to lift repeat use, and maybe an audit of Greg Hall’s Formula 1 and TikTok stunts to see what truly paid back.

If she can narrow the price gap, move more transactions to digital, and convince users to send a little more often, MoneyGram’s owners could have a cleaner growth story to shop by 2027. We will be watching!

MONDAY.COM

I knew Monday.com was up to something big when it lured Harris Beber away from Google Workspace.  Beber played a key role in tripling Vimeo’s user base and growing revenue by 400%, and integrated Waze into the $GOOG portfolio without it doing a “Nest Labs”.

Monday’s engine is revving already: management is talking in “billions” of annual run-rate after a fourth-quarter revenue jump to $268 million. It’s known for strong customer satisfaction, but its brand storytelling has room to evolve, which is likely why Beber was hired.

Among competitors, Beber is playing in a field with some tough adversaries - Microsoft Teams owns the default install with roughly 320 million active users. Notion grabs the creative buzz with a 100-million-strong fan base (2024). Asana, guiding to about $720 million in fiscal-25 revenue, sits in slow-growth mode.

Monday leads this pure-play pack on momentum, but it still needs a story that makes “Work OS” feel like the right choice for investment, and in a world where many employees get religious feelings about daily app UX - these decisions on corporate suites can make or break morale!

Beber knows how to write the script though. Turn the free AI credits into a daily habit, weave the new Service tool into every big contract, and maybe, just maybe, Mondays might actually become everyone’s favorite day 😝

And hopefully, he can address the frequency caps on their YouTube ads. I kind of had enough of seeing the same creatives last year.

WESTPAC

Think of Westpac as Australia’s mix of Wells Fargo and Chase. It started in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales and re-branded in the ’80s by blending “Western” and “Pacific.” Today, its big red W watches over 13 million customers and about A$1 trillion in assets.

Now Meta-seasoned marketer Michelle Klein is stepping in as Chief Growth and Marketing Officer. Westpac poached her from insurer IAG, betting her data chops can turn brand work into hard revenue. Acting consumer boss Carolyn McCann calls her “customer-centric and commercial,” which we read as polite code for “please boost sales fast.”

Klein walks into a creative tangle. A 50-page brief and too many executive stakeholders pushed long-time agency DDB out; indie shop BMF won in February. This pitch story is one of the most broken we’ve read about.

Tech is also mid-reset. In May, the bank hired Andrew McMullan to run data, digital and AI. Klein’s success hinges on syncing with him and wiring clean data into every campaign.

The brand itself needs a lift. Westpac’s value has slipped about 15% over five years, making it the laggard of Australia’s big four banks.

If you’re a martech vendor, the door is possibly open. A Meta-trained CMO plus a fresh AI chief means a top-to-toe audit of the stack. Show you move dollars, not just clicks. Job-hunters: Klein’s exit leaves IAG shopping for its next marketing chief, and Australia tends to be very open to overseas talent in general.

If she can tame the agency drama, solve the tech plumbing, and revive the big red W, Klein will write the playbook every bank board studies next year. No pressure, just 208 years of legacy on the line!

SAM’S CLUB

Sam’s Club has hired Chris Curtin as Chief Marketing Officer, bringing in a marketer whose resume spans Bank of America, Visa, Hewlett-Packard and Disney. He succeeds interim marketing lead W. Joe DeMiero, who stepped in after Ciara Anfield’s departure last year. The appointment arrives as the tech-savvy warehouse chain pursues an 8- to 10-year plan to double its membership base, add clubs and accelerate e-commerce while deepening its Scan & Go and personalised-advertising programs.

Curtin is one of only a handful of recent “industry travelers” to move into retail at the CMO level. As our regular readers will know, most 2024/25 appointments in the sector have come from inside retail or from adjacent consumer brands. His background in data-driven loyalty platforms and large-scale sponsorships signals that Sam’s Club wants an external perspective capable of turning its technology investments into a clearer brand narrative and measurable membership growth.

We hear that Curtin is known for running rigorous “pre-mortem” sessions. Risk-mapping exercises conducted before campaigns launch, which should help integrate merchandising, store operations and marketing around shared membership and renewal targets.

With this hire, Sam’s Club is betting that a financial services loyalty architect can supply the brand gravity it has lacked in its long rivalry with Costco and BJ’s.

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