Happy Cinco de Mayo! This week on The CMO Podcast, Jim welcomes the leader behind the explosion of avocado consumption: Alvaro Luque, the President and CEO of Avocados From Mexico. This 11-year-old non-profit organization was founded by the Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association and the Association of Avocado Exporting Producers and Packers of Mexico. As a result of the efforts from Avocados From Mexico, the avocado market has doubled since 2013, and 80% of avocados purchased in the US are from Mexico.

Alvaro has worked as CEO of Avocados From Mexico since nearly the beginning. He graduated from the University of Costa Rica and began his career in CPG marketing at the Scott Paper Company. Alvaro spent nearly eight years at Gruma, a market leader in branded corn and flour tortillas, working in Costa Rica, Venezuela and the United States. Tune in for a conversation with a leader who has built a brand in a brand-less category, while massively growing the industry.

For your celebrations this week, try Alvaro's recipe for guacamole: along with fresh Avocados From Mexico, mix in pistachios, dried cranberries, cotija cheese and roasted jalapeños.

Plus check out their GuacAImole experience for Cinco de Mayo: https://avocadosfrommexico.com/cincodemayo/

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To celebrate Earth Week, Jim Stengel welcomes Brad Hiranaga to The CMO Podcast. Brad works as the Chief Brand Officer of Cotopaxi, the colorful outdoorsy brand you likely see around on streets, in airports, and of course, in the great outdoors. It’s a fast growing brand; it has just about doubled its size every year for the past three years. Cotopaxi’s products include backpacks, hip packs, jackets, and other outdoor products and experiences.

Inspired by his time living in Latin America, Davis Smith founded Cotopaxi about 10 years ago in Salt Lake City. Cotopaxi is named after a volcano in Ecuador–where Davis lived–and the brand icon is a llama, for the quirky herd animals of the high Andes.

Brad is a returning guest on this show. Jim chatted with Brad back in December 2020, when he was the Chief Marketing Officer for General Mills. Brad worked at General Mills for over 16 years (four as CMO). He briefly worked as interim CMO for Beyond Meat after leaving General Mills, and he joined Cotopaxi in September 2022 as its first Chief Brand Officer. Tune in to learn why Brad chose purpose as this stop on his career and how Cotopaxi is looking forward as a sustainable brand. 

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With women's sports on the mind, Jim's guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Shelley Zalis, the Founder and CEO of The Female Quotient, or FQ, the ten-year-old company that curates experiences, media, and solutions that advance gender equality. The FQ is famous for its Equality Lounges at some of the most important global gatherings–like Davos, CES, SXSW, and the Cannes Creativity Festival.

One of Shelley’s mantras is “to conquer imposter syndrome you must believe in yourself," and she has vividly exemplified that conviction throughout her career. Shelley began her career in consumer research, and eventually founded a company in 2000 called OTX, a pioneer in the then-emerging field of online research. Then in 2010, Shelley sold OTX to research giant Ipsos and left in 2015 to found The Female Quotient.

Shelley is also the co-founder of #SeeHer, a movement led by the Association of National Advertisers to increase the accurate portrayal of women and girls in advertising and media. Shelley is a supreme connector, a tireless advocate, and a great storyteller.

Follow Shelley and her travels: https://www.instagram.com/shelleyzalis/

and learn more about the Female Quotient: https://www.thefemalequotient.com/

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Joining Jim this week on The CMO Podcast is Mauro Porcini, the SVP and Chief Design Officer of PepsiCo, the $91 billion company by revenue. Pepsi’s founding dates back to 1893 with the invention of Pepsi-Cola in a small town in North Carolina. In 1965, the Pepsi company combined with Frito-lay to become PepsiCo, and has become one of the most admired food and beverage companies in the world, with brands that range from Cheetos to Mountain Dew to Gatorade to SodaStream to Quaker. 

Mauro is the first Chief Design Officer to appear on the podcast. And speaking of firsts–Mauro was the first ever Global Chief Design Officer at 3M (where he spent 10 years) and PepsiCo, where he has thrived for the past 12 years. Mauro was born and raised outside Milan, Italy, studied at the National College of Art and Design, and earned a Masters at the Politecnico di Milano. Mauro is an evangelist for human-centric design and has an unrivaled artistic capacity and energy level. Not to mention, he’s stylish—with GQ Italy naming him one of the best dressed people in Italy. Tune in for a conversation with one of the top design thought leaders in the world.

Follow Mauro on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mauroporcini/

And pick up a copy of his recent book "The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People": https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/714051/the-human-side-of-innovation-by-mauro-porcini/

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The guest this week on The CMO Podcast is Michelle Froah, the Global Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer at The Educational Testing Service, or ETS. ETS is the largest private educational assessment organization in the world, serving 50 million people a year in 200 countries. You probably know them better for their products, which includes the GRE admission tests for graduate and professional school, and the TOEFL tests which prepare students for university study and immigration. ETS was founded in 1947 with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey.

Michelle is a veteran brand builder. She began her career in the 1990's in Manufacturing with Procter & Gamble, and then switched over to Brand Management at P&G, where she worked in beauty care. She left P&G after almost 18 years to work for Kimberly Clark in Asia, then returned to the US to work in senior marketing roles at Samsung and MetLife. About one year ago Michelle moved to the nonprofit sector, with ETS, where she has joined the executive team to help bring about a significant brand relaunch. Jim welcomes her to discuss this new ETS refresh, his own time at the company in the 1980's and how she looks to bring her good energy to each new project.

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This week on The CMO Podcast, Jim wraps up Women's History Month with Natalie Sunderland, the Global Head of Marketing and Communications at the Bank of New York Mellon, or BNY Mellon. This is definitely the oldest company Jim has featured on the show; BNY Mellon was established in 1784 by Alexander Hamilton, and became the first company listed on the NYSE. BNY Mellon holds nearly $48 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration. In 2024 it was one of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies, scoring high in innovation and people management.

Natalie is Canadian by birth, studied at Queens University in Ontario, and joined American Express shortly after college. She stayed at AmEx for fourteen years, before moving to Citi for two years. Then she made a big jump in her career–she moved to California and joined the startup world, working at two fintech startups and one young health care company. In 2021 she decided to join BNY Mellon. As the company celebrates its 240th anniversary, Natalie joins Jim to talk about she works to build curiosity and pride within her team and beyond.

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It's tax season! On this week's episode of The CMO Podcast, Jim is joined by none other than Jill Cress, Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at H&R Block–the Kansas City-based company that has been helping people with their taxes since 1955. H&R Block is one of the most ubiquitous storefronts in America with thousands of offices–almost as many locations as McDonalds!

H&R Block has a big business in tax preparation–revenue is approaching $4 billion–but their ambition is changing to something larger, anchored in their purpose to provide help and inspire confidence in their clients and communities. Jim talks to Jill about about reframing a 70-year-old brand–its challenges, its opportunities–and what H&R Block is learning along the way.

Jill was a guest on the show way back in January 2020–when she was transitioning from her role as CMO at National Geographic to VP of Marketing at PayPal. Now Jill returns to talk about her time at H&R Block, just in time for you to finalize your own taxes.

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Happy Women's History Month! The CMO Podcast continues to celebrate key women leaders with Jim's guest this week–Deena LaMarque Piquion, the Chief Growth & Disruption Officer at Xerox, the 118-year-old workplace products and services company. Of course, Xerox holds a special place in brand history; like Kleenex, Google, and Coke, Xerox is one of the few brands that became synonymous with its category.

Today, Xerox is a $7 billion company, and more diversified than the company you likely remember. Its current slogan, “We make Work, Work” says it all. In January, Xerox announced a new operating model and organizational structure to accelerate its progress; Deena was elevated from Chief Marketing Officer to her current position as part of that reorganization. 

Deena is a first generation American; she studied Political Science and Government at Vassar, and earned a Masters at Georgetown in Foreign Service. Through a chance meeting at Georgetown with a CEO, Deena started her business career in Miami with Tech Data, a giant IT distribution company. Deena then spent 19 years at Tech Data before joining Xerox in 2019. Tune in for a conversation with a self-titled leader: "Mother, Inspirational Leader and Business-minded Executive. Dedicated to raising kind and productive kids.”  

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To kick off Women's History Month, Jim's guest today on The CMO Podcast is Lara Abrash, the Chair of Deloitte US. In June 2023, Lara was promoted to the Chair role, where she runs the largest professional services firm in the US, with about 170,000 people in her organization.

Lara has worked at Deloitte for about 18 years, beginning as an audit partner in 2005. She earned her Bachelors in Economics at SUNY Albany, and her MBA in Accounting from Baruch College. Jim welcomes Lara on the podcast to talk about how she has approached leading the largest professional services firm in the US. Then, the show takes an interesting turn. Lara is an unabashed believer in the power of sports in building future women leaders, and the enormous economic opportunity for brands in the still massively underdeveloped area of women’s sports.

Tune in for a conversation with an athlete herself–Lara still plays competitive softball–and learn how she looks to develop the next generation of women leaders through sports.

Check out the "The real MVPs of business": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5XqZ4PlQCg

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This week, The CMO Podcast celebrates Black History Month with a special episode centered on the incredibly fast start-up of an organization called BECA–the Black Executive CMO Alliance. BECA is the 3-year-old brainchild of founder & CEO Jerri DeVard, the former CMO of Verizon, ADT and Office Depot.

BECA is the only alliance created and composed of Black CMOs and CXOs to address the persistent diversity problems in America’s C-Suites and boardrooms. It has gained momentum in the short three years since its founding; its membership represents a collective market cap of $800 billion.

Jim is joined by three leaders whose lives have been impacted by BECA:

-Gail Petersen: Chief Marketing Officer & Executive Vice President, Global Marketing & Communications at Ecolab, a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions

-DeLu Jackson: Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer for the home-security company ADT

-Christina Marshall-Valdez: Director of Commercialization, Southeast Asia, SC Johnson–the large, privately held consumer products company. Christina is a BECA Future Leader who has recently graduated as part of the first cohort of The BECA Playbook.

Learn more about BECA at https://blackexec.com/

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Just in time for the month of love, this week's guest on The CMO Podcast is Michelle Crossan-Matos, the Chief Marketing Officer for Ulta Beauty. Founded in 1990, Ulta Beauty is the largest beauty retailer in the US, with sales in the $11 billion range, and growing. It offers a wide range of beauty products and salon services: 25,000 products online and across their nearly 1400 stores, from 500 well established AND emerging brands.

Ulta Beauty is not just big; the company is highly innovative in how they think about their store associates, their retail media, their loyalty program, and how they work with brand partners. 

Michelle was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. She graduated from the University of Strathclyde Business School before joining P&G in Europe. After 16 years at P&G, Michelle held CMO roles at Vertu, the luxury tech brand, and Samsung US. Michelle joined Ulta about one year ago. She has two middle-school-aged children, and splits her time between Puerto Rico and the Chicago area, where Ulta Beauty is based. 

Of special note: Jim had the previous CMO of Ulta Beauty, Shelley Haus, on the show in October 2020. Shelley was one of the brightest stars in the industry, and sadly passed away in the summer of 2022. So, it is with poignancy that Jim welcomes her successor.

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