The Marketing Academy reveals its 2018 fellows

Top marketers from brands such as The Walt Disney Company, The Wall Street Journal and Coca-Cola are among 19 marketing leaders who have been chosen to take part in The Marketing Academy’s prestigious Fellowship programme next year.

The nine-month programme is designed to provide a pathway for talented CMOs and marketing bosses by arming them with the essential skills required to transition into board and CEO roles.

Not-for-profit organisation, The Marketing Academy, developed the programme in partnership with McKinsey & Co and it is being sponsored by Facebook and Microsoft.

The curriculum, to be delivered by McKinsey alongside marketing leadership expert and Marketing Week columnist Thomas Barta and this year’s fellows, will focus on elements of board stewardship such as strategy, transformational change, corporate finance, organisational health, operational effectiveness and supply chain, during residential events and masterclasses in Europe.

There will also be a mentoring scheme where fellows will be assigned an executive coach by coaching faculty, Wisdom8. On top of this they will be granted access to an extended network of top business leaders.

The Marketing Academy’s founder Sherilyn Shackell says: “We firmly believe that CMOs are superb candidates to lead businesses but there is still distance between the leader of the marketing function and the CEO role. This programme provides an unprecedented and unique opportunity for leading CMOs to bridge the knowledge and skills gap to reach the highest levels on company boards.”

Hostelworld’s outgoing CMO, Ottokar Rosenberger – one of 67 marketers to complete the fellowship – is the most recent to move into a general management or board-level position.

Meanwhile, Weetabix’s Sally Abbott was recently promoted from marketing to managing director in the UK, while Santander UK CMO Keith Moor was promoted to its executive committee earlier this year.

The Marketing Fellowship will run for nine-months, starting in January next year.

Marketing Week is a founding partner of The Marketing Fellowship.

The Marketing Academy recently launched the The Marketing Academy Foundation, a new charity looking to help young people from all backgrounds get into marketing.

The 2018 Fellows are;

Anna Hill, CMO, The Walt Disney Company

Barnaby Dawe, global CMO, Just Eat

Jo Godden, commercial excellence director, Johnson Matthey

Kussai El-Chichakli, director marketing, Coca-Cola Germany

Lindsay Forster, customer marketing director, Aviva UK&I

Lisa Gilbert, CMO, IBM UK&I

Mark Sandys, global head of beer Baileys & Smirnoff, Diageo

Marta DeBellis, VP of marketing, Asia Pacific, Adobe

Michael Inpong, global CMO, Muller Dairy

Nick Robinson, CMO, Kerry Foods

Polly Cochrane, EVP & group marketing director, Warner Bros

Rahul Welde, global VP digital transformation, Unilever

Rick Lawrence, category director, Mondelez South East Asia

Simon Jackson, CMO, Gamesys

Suzi Watford, EVP & CMO, The Wall Street Journal

Tom Malleschitz, CDO, Three

Toni Wood, CMO, DFS

Tricia Weener, global head of marketing, HSBC

Zarina Lam Stanford, head of marketing, SAP Asia