CMO Moves End June Edition

June's events starkly highlight the crucial role of effective leadership and the fear, uncertainty and doubt that ensues when there's a void at the top.

Enough politics, let’s get back to the leaders we care most about! Global CMOs working for companies of 200+ or more people.

Over the past 4 weeks, 22 new CMOs have been appointed, including 14 women and 8 men. 4 were internal promotions, while 18 were hired from competitors. Notably, 11 of these CMOs are stepping into the role for the first time.

Industries with the highest number of new CMOs are Software Development (6), Retail (3), and IT Services & IT Consulting (3). Geographically, California leads with 4 CMO hires, followed by Florida with 3, and both New York and Texas with 2 each.

Roblox & Microsoft

Roblox has named former Xbox marketing boss Jerret West the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Market Expansion.

West has been with Microsoft since 2019 as CMO of Xbox and CVP of Microsoft Gaming, managing a 200-person global team and over half a billion dollars in marketing spend. Before Microsoft, he held various senior leadership roles in marketing across different regions at Netflix, growing the platform in more than 40 countries, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.

Explaining why he took the helm at Roblox in a LinkedIn post, West said:

It's been months since Roblox’s former Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Barbara Messing, left in November.

Roblox is now splitting the role into two. Desiree Fish, who led comms and marketing, will step up as Chief Communications Officer, reporting to CEO David Baszucki alongside West.

In the Q1 results released in May, Roblox reported a net loss of around $271 million, even though revenue was up 22% year-over-year to $801.3 million. Average Daily Active Users (“DAUs”) were up 17%, and Hours Engaged were up 15% year-over-year.

In keeping with a theme we keep coming back to - “Advertising is eating the world.” lately, the platform has been busy rolling out ad products.

Immersive video ads were made available to all advertisers in May after 6 months of testing. This format, in addition to the portal and image ad formats in Roblox’s Immersive Ads offerings, provides growing monetization opportunities for Roblox creators.

Meanwhile, at Microsoft, West wasn’t the only one moving jobs. Just last week, Microsoft’s Chief Brand Officer and CVP of Brand, Advertising, and Research Kathleen Hall announced on LinkedIn that she decided to return to New York and take some time off before her “next adventure” after 16 years at Microsoft.

Inevitably, a major reshuffle will take place on the marketing team.

Xbox’s current VP of integrated marketing, Kirsten Ward, will now be elevated to lead a newly unified gaming marketing team under Microsoft’s game content and studios division led by Matt Booty.

Consumer CMO Yusuf Mehdi will lead the global creative, advertising, branding, and operations teams, working closely with Stephanie Ferguson, who oversees Microsoft’s centralized global sales and marketing engine.

Bryson Gordon, former Google Senior Director of Global Marketing, re-joins Microsoft as the new CVP of Media, Partnerships, and Agencies.

Alyssa Schutter joins from Amazon to lead event creative experiences. Whereas GM of Global Events, 26-year Microsoft veteran Vivian Eickhoff will lead event production and studios.

UK CMO Bonnie Pelosi takes on the expanded scope of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Since Takeshi Numoto was appointed the EVP & Global CMO in October 2023, we have tracked a few senior departures from the marketing team.

Ryan Asdourian, former GM of Americas Security Business Group left in March to join Lumen Technologies as CMO. Emily He, former CVP of Business Applications Marketing, left last month to take the CMO seat at Gong.

Microsoft has been pivoting to AI, and the bets paid off. For the quarter ended March 31, 2024, Microsoft reported revenue of $61.9 billion, a 17% increase year-over-year.

In an internal memo, Numoto told staff:

Dollar General

Discount chain Dollar General has named Tony Rogers their new Chief Marketing Officer.

Rogers joins from Signet Jewelers, where he served as CMO for almost two years. Before Signet, he was with Walmart for over 17 years in various senior leadership positions, including CMO of Walmart China, CMO of Walmart US, and Chief Member Officer of Sam’s Club.

Since CEO Todd Vasos returned from retirement in October last year, Dollar General has been pursuing a turnaround strategy, eliminating the vast majority of self-checkout and reducing new store openings amid a major executive shake-up:

• Julie Elmore, former Chief Technology Officer, left in December.

• Steve Sunderland, former EVP of Store Operations, left in January.

• Chad Fox, SVP and CMO, left in December.

• Tim Bartlett was promoted to VP of Asset Protection.

• Natalie McConnell joined as VP & DMM of Holiday Events, Toys, and Lawn and Garden.

• Jimmy Nguyen was promoted to VP & DMM of Health and Beauty.

More customers are visiting dollar stores in the U.S. The discount retail vertical, however, may be looking at competition from Chinese apps like Temu and Shein.

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