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CMO Moves Mid-December Edition
Ft. OpenAI, Nissan and Adobe
Michael Wright
December 18, 2024
In the first half of December, 19 new CMOs were announced, including 11 women and 8 men. Of these, 2 were internal promotions, while 17 came from external hires, with 9 stepping into the C-suite for the first time.
California emerged as the leader in CMO announcements with 5 appointments, followed by Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey, each with 2. 4 other states also saw new marketing leaders, bringing the total to a wide geographic spread.
Internationally, Asia was particularly active, with announcements in India, Malaysia, and Japan. Meanwhile, England recorded one CMO appointment during this period.
By industry, Software Development and Financial Services led the pack, each accounting for 3 new CMOs, followed by the Food and Beverage sector with 2. In total, these appointments spanned across 14 distinct industries, showcasing diverse demand for top marketing talent.
Financial Services: 3
Software Development: 3
Food and Beverage Services: 2
Construction: 1
Research Services: 1
Mental Health Care: 1
Motor Vehicle Manufacturing: 1
Gambling Facilities and Casinos: 1
Retail Apparel and Fashion: 1
Retail Luxury Goods and Jewelry: 1
Telecommunications: 1
Health, Wellness & Fitness: 1
Banking: 1
Insurance: 1
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OpenAI
Fun Fact. Of the 280+ (and counting!) CMOs appointed this year, up to December 1st , 25% were in tech - Software Development specifically. The power appointments in tech continue with OpenAI hiring its first Chief Marketing Officer—a clear sign the company is ready to scale its influence beyond Silicon Valley and into global boardrooms. For a business that went from disruptor to household name overnight, this feels like Chapter Two: the moment when OpenAI turns product buzz into a mature, sustainable brand.
Speaking of buzz, check out our graph below. It’s interesting to us that Microsoft’s CoPilot search interest exceeded OpenAI for several months this year...are OpenAI losing ground in the conversation to Microsoft’s CoPilot, because of the ubiquity of MS Teams?
This data from Google Trends:
With over a decade working at Meta, Rouch oversaw marketing for products like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, so she is no stranger to scaling platforms that shape how billions interact with technology. Her ability to connect innovation with human stories made her a standout leader in the tech industry. Her last role was CMO of Coinbase, where she spent 3.5 years - and she bid them a powerful farewell in a post on her Linkedin:
Working here is the hardest and the greatest thing I’ve ever done. With the toughest and smartest people I know. Over the past 3 years we’ve been tested. Financially. Legally. Reputationally. Politically.
Rouch steps into a whirlwind. OpenAI has managed to dominate headlines (for now) with little to no traditional marketing, relying on product excellence, press obsession, and viral word of mouth, that WOM sometimes connected to fear of a dystopian future where the robots have all the highly paid marketing jobs.
Our take? Rouch’s job is to make OpenAI synonymous with AI itself, just like Google once did, and held on for more than two decades, with search.
Her first 90 days will likely focus on internal alignment—discovering product roadmaps, partnerships, and OpenAI’s famously mission-driven culture. There’s a unique tension here: OpenAI is, rather famously, both a research institution and a commercial enterprise, and the CMO will need to strike a delicate balance. Scale the story without over-commercializing it. Build trust without losing the company’s edge.
Then comes the bigger question of brand narrative. Is OpenAI the democratizer of AI? The ethical innovator? The disruptive force ushering in the next industrial revolution? This answer matters. As AI saturates public discourse, OpenAI needs to define itself before the market—or regulators—define it for them.
Rouch will have to position OpenAI as the industry’s thought leader while managing growing scrutiny around ethics, fairness, and job displacement. It’s going to be a balancing act with multiple audiences, all expecting something different. We feel she brings scale, credibility, and resilience to OpenAI’s leadership team. They didn’t need flash; they needed substance. Rouch is exactly that. Her appointment as OpenAI’s first CMO is a masterstroke.
One thing is for certain. This hire signals that OpenAI understands that marketing is no longer optional. It’s time to shift from being a great product to being a global, enduring brand.
Want to know something else interesting? We looked at OpenAI competitors founded post-2020 and looked at whether there was a CMO hired.
Company | Founded | CMO Appointed? | Notes |
Anthropic | 2021 | No | Focus on AI safety and founder-led messaging. |
Adept AI | 2022 | No | Operates stealthily, minimal public branding. |
Inflection AI | 2022 | No | Founder-led communication via Mustafa Suleyman. |
Mistral AI | 2023 | No | Developer and enterprise-first positioning. |
2021 | No | Organic, product-driven growth. | |
Runway ML | 2020 | No | Product visibility in creative industries. |
Cohere | 2019/2020 | Partial (Growth/COO Role) | President handles strategic marketing. |
Some of the hottest GenAI companies—Anthropic, Adept AI, Inflection, and Mistral—are blazing ahead with multi-billion-dollar valuations, enterprise deals, and millions of users. Yet, there’s a curious absence: not one of them has appointed a Chief Marketing Officer. This is not an accident.
So, what’s going on?
AI startups have prioritized product, engineering, and scale over traditional marketing functions. Some have relied heavily on their charismatic founders, like Mustafa Suleyman at Inflection or Dario Amodei at Anthropic. Others, like OpenAI, have enjoyed press-driven momentum. We think others are simply hedging! The story is still being written, and no one wants a marketer overselling the punchline.
What we do know about Tech companies is that they have a tendency to copy each other, especially when the leader moves first. So, our first prediction for 2025 is that at least half of the companies in the table above will have an AI-savvy CMO in their seats by the end of that year.
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Nissan
In a big shakeup for the auto world, Nissan North America has brought back Allyson Witherspoon as its new U.S. CMO, announced in a Nov. 19 press release. She’s stepping in for Marisstella Marinkovic, who joined in March 2023 after a solid run at Kia but recently left the company.
This isn’t Witherspoon’s first rodeo. She was Nissan’s U.S. marketing head from April 2019 until her promotion to a global role in Japan in March last year. Now, she’s back in the U.S., just in time to tackle some serious challenges.
And there’s a lot to tackle - Nissan, is in trouble, and not only because of Trump’s tariff threats.
Nissan's challenges began to intensify in late 2024 as the company faced mounting difficulties in its core markets, particularly the US & China. By November, Nissan announced it would cut production of its main U.S. models by around 30% because of lackluster sales and rising inventory.
While competitors like Toyota and Honda capitalized on the rising demand for hybrid vehicles, Nissan’s strategy of focusing on EV, not hybrids, left it behind. As a result, Nissan resorted to costly price incentives and promotions, hurting profits. And we all know what that usually means...
More restructuring followed this time with 9,000 job losses, an estimated 6% of the workforce.
Financially, Nissan was in freefall, net profit for the April-September 2024 period plunged 94% (!!) The CEO took a symbolic 50% pay cut, and the CFO was redeployed to China.
Although they accelerated plans for plug-in hybrids, these would not materialize until 2026. Worse yet, the company continued its price-cutting strategy to clear inventory, which reinforced its reputation as a "cheap" brand.
While Nissan scrambled to address these challenges, a glimmer of hope emerged just yesterday with reports of merger talks between Nissan and Honda.
Witherspoon really has her work cut out for her in her newly expanded new-old role, and we wish her all the luck in strengthening the Nissan brand in a key market amidst a possible merger with a giant competitor and the looming threat of Trump’s ‘beautiful’ tariffs (In the first nine months of 2024, Nissan manufactured nearly 505,000 vehicles in Mexico, with a substantial portion destined for the U.S…)
“We’re fortunate to have Allyson rejoining the U.S. leadership team, which puts us in a strong position to make rapid progress in our efforts to transform Nissan’s image in this critical market for the company. We are at a critical juncture, requiring strong leadership for the brand and in our marketing efforts.”
Adobe
We all know Adobe, and they are a pioneer in creative software. An industry standard. They have an estimated 30m customers willing to pay for the right to use their software. And they are no slouch; they recently reported $5bn+ in profits.
Earlier this month, former Intuit CMO Lara Balazs succeeded Ann Lewnes as Adobe's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
Recognized by the AMA, AdAge, Cannes Lions, Forbes, and the CMO Hall of Fame, Ann Lewnes was a legendary CMO who spent 16 years architecting the company’s brand dominance—transforming it into a creative and enterprise juggernaut. Her personal passion for the arts deeply influenced Adobe’s brand ethos. That’s a tall shadow to step out from.
Lewnes was a builder of Adobe’s ethos, overseeing iconic campaigns, driving the pivot to subscriptions, and positioning Adobe as the champion of creativity and innovation. Balazs, for all her success at Intuit, is walking into a world where Adobe’s brand isn’t broken—it’s entrenched.
Although Intuit are expert in marketing to SMB, Balasz has to meet the challenge of keeping very vocal, influential creatives happy – so there’s a new, raw B2C element she may not be accustomed to thinking about lately (ed: She has experience at Amazon Prime and Nike)
As we see it, there’s a growth question: Adobe’s business model—rooted in subscription renewals and Creative Cloud dominance—is mature. How will she drive meaningful growth in a saturated market with hungry competitors? There is evidence that Canva (who serve 200m users and 95% of the Fortune 500) and Figma (whom Adobe tried and failed to buy) are capturing market share, particularly in the realms of graphic design and collaborative interface design. Meanwhile, ByteDance’s CapCut has captured 81% of the mobile video editing market.
For Balazs, this job isn’t about building a brand. It’s about honoring one amidst tough and agile competition. And that’s a much harder headline to write. Ask Nissan if you don’t believe me!
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