Katie Vanneck-Smith
Chief commercial officer and global managing director
Dow Jones
News Corp has recently promoted Katie Vanneck-Smith to the role of chief customer officer and global managing director at Dow Jones. Her promotion is testament to the role she has played in overseeing News UK’s transformation from publisher to ‘club’, with content behind a paywall and exclusive offers for subscribers. “I’m proud of the team for defying other people’s conventional wisdoms,” she says. “When we said we were going to do this three years ago, everyone said we were mad.” She is open about her desire to be a chief executive. “Great CEOs are great leaders. I aspire to be a great leader,” she says.
Best advice: "The best advice I've received in my life – as with many things – was from my Mum. Maternal mottos make up my backbone and the two most important would be: 'If you don't ask, you don't get' and 'There's no such word as can't.'"
