CMO Moves Mid-August Update

In the first two weeks of August, 17 new CMOs stepped into the spotlight: 9 women, 7 men, and one non-binary leader. Just one was promoted from within, while the remaining 16 were brought in from outside.

6 are taking on the CMO mantle for the first time, and only 2 made the leap from entirely different industries - what we like to call “Industry Travelers.” Dreaming of a big career pivot? Reality says no. The full-year number hovers around 10 percent.

Treat industry fluency like currency. Keep your badge in the same industry or move one door over. I know it is boring. It is also what boards are buying.

The US led the charge with 11 new CMOs across 6 states. California topped the list with 5, followed by Texas with 2, and Florida, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Washington each with one. Beyond the US, England welcomed 2 new CMOs, while Australia, Germany, Indonesia, and the Philippines each added one to their ranks.

Tech remains the biggest magnet for marketing talent, pulling in 7 new hires. Professional Services followed with 4, and Financial Services closely after with 3. New appointments also popped up in Media, Sports & Entertainment, Construction, and Hotel & Travel.

EPICOR

Epicor, the long-running ERP vendor for manufacturers, distributors and building-supply businesses, just promoted from inside, an all too rare event – she’s the only promotion this month so far. She’s been building product at Epicor, hosts a manufacturing podcast, and has spent 8 years wiring the company’s tech to real customer problems. That track record tells you what Epicor wants next: fewer PR fireworks, more practical, customer-facing work.

I noticed early in Kerrie’s interviews a practical streak. She talks about “listening to the voice of the manufacturing worker,” about upskilling, and about starting small with automation. She frames Epicor’s pitch as orchestration, not automation. In plain English: she’s not here to sell robots or slogans. She aims to integrate design, production, commerce, and service into a seamless process that minimizes friction and enables customers to achieve tangible results quickly.

Kerrie’s playbook appears to be built around partners and practitioners, rather than just demand-gen dashboards. I've noticed she frequently uses the term “citizen integrators” and heaps praise on consulting partners. That signals Epicor’s marketing will lean into partner enablement and deployable templates.

There’s a human thread in her public voice that matters for adoption and retention. I watched her podcast and read her LinkedIn note where she says Epicor is “weaving Cognitive ERP into the fabric of companies and communities alike.” She ends interviews with a prayer, talks about family, and uses phrases like “be kind, not nice.” I think those cues matter because technology adoption is won and lost on the humans being willing to adapt.

Contrast Kerrie with the outgoing CMO, Jenny Victor, who recently moved to Constant Contact. Jenny was the pipeline-and-spectacle builder…big events, analyst acceleration, share-of-voice plays. Her move signals she’s the classic growth/activation CMO. Epicor replacing her with Kerrie is a deliberate trade. They could have hired another show-maker; instead they chose continuity with a product marketing mindset and skillset.

HSBC

John McDonald’s hire reads like a return-home story with purpose. I clocked his note about moving back to London on October 1 after 19 years overseas, and I think that personal beat matters. A London kid who started at Ogilvy is coming back to run marketing at a global bank.

HSBC created a global CMO role that folds Brand and Marketing across four very different businesses: Hong Kong, the UK, Corporate & Institutional Banking, and International Wealth and Premier Banking. I noticed the announcement language…“putting our customers at the heart” and “becoming the most trusted bank globally”…and it reads like an operating brief. John’s job is simple to state: make HSBC sound and act like one bank. Easier said than done.

His resume matters for that task. Ogilvy gives him creative craft. UBS and other senior roles give him premium-client instincts. I think HSBC wanted someone who can marry brand lift with delivery. That means good creative and tight systems that work across markets, geopolitics and rules.

From what I hear… He’s measured and diplomatic. He’ll reflect on UBS later, thanks colleagues now, and frames the job as “simpler, more agile, client-focused.” That tells me his first months will be plumbing, not parades: harmonized briefs, reusable campaign templates, and joined-up customer journeys.

How will we know he’s making progress? Look for three things. First, cohesion: global assets actually get reused, not remade in every country. Second, wealth outcomes: net-new flows and share-of-wallet gains in priority markets, especially Asia. Third, digital fixes: a credible mobile roadmap and clearer digital journeys. Agency reviews? Probably. We’re watching – good luck to you John and I hope the reverse culture shock isn’t too serious when you land back in England!

AZAMARA

Azamara just hired a marketer who shops for ideas in the real world. Lisa Kauffman arrives as CMO with a brief that reads like product plus poetry: run marketing and comms, own e-commerce and product, feed the trade, lift loyalty, and make the small-ship “Destination Immersion” promise sing. I think the headline is simple - they hired someone who can turn storytelling into bookings.

Azamara’s marketing strengths- immersive itineraries, boutique scale, and agency alliances- fit the 2025 US cruise market’s selective, experience-driven sentiment. However, rising competition and consumer caution require focused digital engagement, smart partnerships, and agile messaging to keep Azamara top-of-mind among the growing cohort of “value-conscious luxury” cruisers.

Her resume explains why she’s the pick. Lisa ran marketing and experience at Starboard Group and has held senior roles at Celebrity Cruises, Macy’s, Disney, Perry Ellis and Royal Caribbean. That mix of Disney-grade storytelling, Macy’s merchandising muscle, and cruise know-how is exactly the profile you pick when you need content that converts and experiences that scale. I noticed the “retailtainment” line at Starboard… she thinks of trips like product assortments you stage, not just ads you run.

Her public writing proves it. She walks stores in SoHo and Chicago and writes back with quick ethnographies: which facades stop people, which in-store bars keep them in the door, which lines prove a concept converts. She doesn’t do creative for creativity’s sake. She asks: does this make guests show up, buy, and come back?

Expect tighter links between content and checkout. Expect campaigns built with a merchandising brain, guest journeys that nudge to shore excursions, shore-excursions that nudge to post-trip spend.

There’s also a human beat here. She’s a Miami native with a palmtree duet in her Linkedin hero image who does community work and mentors women leaders. That gives the hire a warm face and a practical culture note: she’s likely to push for frontline tests over ivory-tower ideation. I noticed she’s also fluent in Spanish, that’s a small but useful lever for Caribbean and Latin-market programming.

In sum: Azamara picked a retail-minded storyteller who knows how to stage an experience and then sell it.

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