CMO Moves Mid May Edition

This month, as we celebrate the joys of Mother's Day and Cinco De Mayo, many are also celebrating a career milestone on the CMO Ladder.

In the first two weeks of May, 11 new CMOs were announced. 6 are women, and 5 are men, with 3 promoted internally and 8 hired externally. Two of the CMOs are stepping into the role for the first time.

Regarding work arrangements, 8 will work onsite, 2 fully remote, and 1 in a hybrid setup. 

The Software Development industry led in CMO hires with 3 appointments, followed by restaurants with 2. Geographically, apart from 2 CMOs hired in California, the remaining appointments were distributed evenly across states like Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Kansas, New York, Ohio, and Oregon.

This year, we noticed an early surge in CMO appointments. In January alone, 24 CMOs were announced, surpassing the total count of CMO hires in May last year.

What could be fueling these shifts?

Contrary to the theory that trade magazines have been promoting – the demise of the CMO role- we are seeing the rise of the importance and popularity of CMOs across a broader range of industries and different sizes of businesses.

Tech startups are hiring CMOs, regional restaurant chains are hiring CMOs, breweries are hiring CMOs, insurance companies are hiring CMOs, brands are hiring CMOs, and holdcos are also hiring CMOs. The CMO title is becoming as ubiquitous as CEOs and CFOs in the world of business. The trend of remote and hybrid work setups is making CMO talent much more accessible - and less costly if you can snag one in a lower cost of living area.

Pizza Hut & Wendy’s

Nothing makes us happier at the CMO ladder than seeing the CMO elevated into a President or CEO role. We’ve noted those moves at New Belgian Brewing, where the long-term Marketing Chief was promoted to CEO in November last year, and at TPx, which hired Lumen’s former CMO as its CEO in March.

Now it happened again!

Pizza Hut announced last week that it hired Wendy’s global CMO Carl Laredo as its new U.S. president.

Carl spent 8.5 years with Wendy’s, rising from VP of brand marketing to his final role as global CMO, which he held for about a year. He was integral to building the company’s digital business and producing various marketing and content campaigns during his tenure.

Pizza Hut began as a single store in Wichita, Kansas, and finished Q1 with over 6700 restaurants nationwide, making it the second-largest pizza chain in America and a global cultural icon.

Meanwhile, at Wendy’s, Laredo’s seat was filled instantly with the activation of a successful succession plan. Lindsay Radkoski, the US Marketing Chief, was promoted to take over the global remit.

Radkoski joined Wendy’s in 2011 in an investor relations role, and after several marketing and finance promotions, she found herself in the top marketing spot.

Her somewhat unconventional route into the CMO spot may point to a greater need for accountability within the marketing function, and alignment with Finance. Wendy’s CEO credited Lindsay with a strong track record of growing the US and establishing a robust digital business.

When we look at the data, too few CMOs are PROMOTED into the role – most companies choose to recruit outsiders, often from direct competitors. Our data shows only 12.6% of the CMOs appointed in 2023 are internal promotions, the vast majority were hired from competitors.

Wendy's innovative use of humor, direct engagement with followers, and creative campaigns have set a high bar for social media marketing in the fast-food industry. Their recognition through industry awards and impressive engagement metrics further solidifies their status as a leader in the space.

With Lindsay set to add global scope to her US responsibilities, we are excited to see what breakthrough brand ideas she conjures up at a challenging time for fast-food joints.

The wider quick service restaurant (QSR) segment, which includes the top U.S. chains like McDonald's, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, and Taco Bell, is showing several signs of slowing growth despite overall strong performance in recent years.

Consumer behavior shifts, rising operational costs, market saturation and the need to constantly iterate on menus all contribute to this.

Twilio

In a major move in big tech, Chris Koehler will leave behind his 6-year legacy at Cloud Content business Box, which he helped take to $1bn in revenue in 2024, for the CMO job at Twilio.

Twilio is like the backbone of communication for many digital services. It allows companies to embed communication features into their apps and websites, making it easier to stay connected with their customers.

As the Chief Marketing Officer at Twilio, Koehler will be responsible for the global marketing strategy, focusing on expanding brand awareness and driving messaging and positioning across their Segment and Communications platforms.  

Koehler replaces Joyce Kim, who left Twilio for Zscaler after just under two years in the role.

Koehler's appointment is part of a broader expansion of Twilio's management team, which includes recent hires Inbal Shani from GitHub as Chief Product Officer for Twilio Communications and Thomas Wyatt from People.ai as President of Segment. These strategic additions aim to enhance the company's product innovation and market positioning.

Clearly a popular marketing leader, his post on Linkedin announcing his move to Twilio garnered over 3500 likes and 450 comments. He shared:

Our paid subscribers can access and download the full list of 11 CMOs appointed so far this month, plus the 106 CMOs announced earlier this year and 214 from last year.

Ciao!

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