These inaugural awards recognize marketing leaders who demonstrate exemplary strategies focused on customer-led initiatives
TORONTO, ON – June 6, 2023 – Influitive Corporation, the leading provider of engagement software for customer marketing, advocacy, and online communities, today announce the winners of the first-ever Fearless 50 and Elite 18 customer-led marketing leaders and CMOs award program.
The Fearless 50 and Elite 18 awards recognize visionary marketing executives and leaders who prioritize a customer-first agenda above all else through innovative strategies and programs and their relentless pursuit of success through exceptional customer experiences. The full ungated list can be downloaded from Influitive’s website.
“So many business articles today stress the importance of customer-led growth, improving customer satisfaction and customer experience, and the importance of putting your customer front and center in everything you do,” said Dan McCall, CEO at Influitive. “I want to thank our judges who clearly demonstrate this mindset and congratulate our winners. You are putting words into action and it inspires our industry.”
The first-ever Elite 18 customer-led CMOs of 2023 are*:
- Allison Breeding, CMO, Apptio
- Amy Heidersbach, Chief Marketing and Community Officer
- Amy Messano, CMO, Altair
- Aruna Ravichandran, SVP and CMO, WebEx
- Brion O’Connor, CMO, Gong
- Catherine LaCour, CMO, Blackbaud
- Chris Kozup, CMO, Darktrace
- Dara Treseder, CMO, Autodesk
- Esther Flammer, CMO, Wrike
- Genefa Murphy, CMO, Five9
- Jeanette Volpi, Chief Communications Officer, Workday
- Katherine Post Calvert, CMO, PagerDuty
- Kathie Johnson, CMO, TalkDesk
- Latané Conant, Chief Market Officer, 6sense
- Maria Pergolino, CMO and Board Member
- Meredith Albertson, CMO, Zylo
- Mika Yamamoto, Chief Customer Engagement and Marketing Officer, F5
- Sara Varni, CMO, Attentive
- Shannon Duffy, CMO, Asana
- Wendy Steinle, CMO, Domo
“Marketing often has the first touch in that entire customer journey and oftentimes the very last touch, so as you come full closed loop, marketing leaders set the pace for companies on how we interact with our customers and how we engage,” said Carrie Palin, CMO at Cisco and Elite 18 2023 judge. “So these human beings being honored today are at the forefront of crazy innovation and doing wonderful things that we can all learn from.”
The first-ever Fearless 50 customer-led marketing leaders of 2023 are:
- Allyson Havener, VP of Marketing, TrustRadius
- Amanda Malko, Advisor and Executive Advisory Board Member, G2
- Amy Payne, VP Global Customer Partner and Events Marketing, TalkDesk
- Angela Wells, Head of Customer Advocacy and Executive Programs, Splunk
- Anna Griffin, CMO, Commvault
- Asha May, Customer Experience Leader
- Barbara Holzapfel, CMO, Genesys
- Bhaskar Roy, CMO, Workato
- Brenda Hodge, CMO, Nuance Communications
- Brittany Mullen, Senior Director, Global Customer Engagement, Genesys
- Callan Young, CMO, ON24
- Chris Powell, CMO, Qlik
- Claire Grove, Senior Director, Global Customer Advocacy & Storytelling, ServiceNow
- Dan Lowden, CMO, HUMAN Security
- Erica Messenger, Senior Director, US Higher Ed Advocacy & Community, Cengage
- Geetu Bhatnagar, Senior Director, Head of India Marketing, Oracle India Sales Limited
- Gillian Farquhar, Vice President, Customer Transformation, Qlik
- Gina Leranth, Senior Director, Customer & Product Marketing, Paycor
- Giulia Staffieri, Chief Marketing & Omnichannel, Leroy Merlin Italy
- Jamie Gier, CMO, DexCare
- Jeff Gladwish, CRO, iLobby
- Jim Fields, Vice President, Customer Advocacy, Workday
- Joe Chernov, CMO, Pendo
- Johann Wrede, Chief Experience Officer, Emburse
- Kalina Bryant, Head of Marketing and Partnerships, unapologeTECH
- Karen Steele, Founder of Steele-Alloy and Fractional CMO
- Kevin Lau, Senior Director of Global Customer Engagement, F5
- Leslie Paterson, VP, Customer Advocacy, BMC Software
- Liz Carter, CMO, Reputation
- Lydia Flocchini, CMO, Surepoint Technologies
- Lynn Lucas, CMO, Cohesity
- Mandy Dhaliwal, EVP and CMO, Nutanix
- Mandy Idol, Head of Marketing, XUP Payments, a brand of KeyBank
- Mary Kay Evans, CMO, Alida
- Melissa Henley, Vice President of Customer Experience, Luxion
- Melissa Potvin, Senior Director, Customer Platforms, Qlik
- Melissa Sargeant, CMO, AlphaSense
- Olga Noha, CMO, SplitMetrics
- Palmer Houchins, VP, Head of Marketing, G2
- Rebecca Stone, SVP, Cisco Meraki
- Rick Schultz, CMO, Databricks
- Robb Mapp, Senior Director, Customer & Influencer Relations, GitHub
- Sarah Acton, CMO, BILL
- Sara Strope, CMO, QuotaPath
- Sarah Danzl, CMO, Skillable
- Simmi Singh Corcoran, Vice President, CMS Marketing, Trimble
- Stefania Cugini, Senior Director, Global Customer Advocacy and Loyalty, VMware
- Tamir Sigal, CMO, Quadient
- Tessa Barron, VP of Marketing, ON24
- Tyler Calder, CMO, PartnerStack
“We are incredibly proud to recognize and celebrate the Elite 18 and Fearless 50 marketing leaders for their exceptional contributions to the customer-led marketing movement,” said Ari Hoffman, VP of Customer Marketing and Advocacy at Influitive. “Their commitment to leveraging customer advocacy and engagement strategies has set a new standard for marketing excellence, and we applaud their tenacity to drive a customer-first agenda above all else.”
About Elite 18
Winners for the Elite 18 list were determined by a judging panel consisting of 6 executive leaders in the B2B space, including Carrie Palin, CMO, Cisco; Christina Kosmowski, CEO, LogicMonitor; Erica Kuhl, CEO, Kuhl Consulting; Jay Nathan, CCO, Higher Logic; Laura Heisman, CMO, VMware; and Nick Mehta, CEO, Gainsight. The top 50 CMOs with the highest vote count progressed to the judging stage and were reviewed by all six judges. Winners were selected based on how each judge weighed the prioritization of their customer-first strategies, applied budget and headcount, and demonstrated tangible success.
About Fearless 50
Winners for the Fearless 50 list were determined by the marketing community during a public voting period from May 3-12, 2023. All votes cast were tabulated, and the Fearless 50 were determined based on their total vote count and influence scores as determined by the community. Nominees required a minimum role of Senior Director or above.
About Influitive
Influitive works with forward-thinking marketers and digital businesses who want a better way to engage customers and mobilize advocates to increase referrals, references, reviews, case studies, and more. Our easy-to-use SaaS platform combines industry-leading customer advocacy tools, expert services, and training with intelligent automation, gamification, and personalization features that drive extreme engagement and customer growth at scale. Global brands such as ADP, Cisco, IBM and HPE rely upon Influitive to help foster collaboration, build trust and deepen relationships with customers for top-line growth and bottom-line profits. Visit influitive.com to learn more.
*Due to a 3-way tie, we have 20 winners for the Elite 18 2023 list
