Deborah Wahl on why she left GM and what’s next for the former CMO

After her surprise exit as General Motors global chief marketing officer three months ago, Deborah Wahl is settling into what she says is a permanent retirement as a marketer. But that does not mean she is sitting still. She says she is staying in Detroit but has no plans to return to automotive, at least not full-time, and instead has taken a particular interest in ad tech via boards of directors placements. ActionIQ, a customer data platform catering to marketers, today will announce Wahl as a member of its board of directors, which follows her May appointment to the board of Mediaocean, which provides tools for omnichannel media planning, buying and financial accounting. Her placement on the boards of two ad tech players gives Wahl a new vantage point on an ecosystem that she dealt with on the client side across a career that included marketing roles at McDonald’s, Cadillac, Pulte Group, Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda and Ford. ActionIQ, which plugs its offerings as bringing “order to CX chaos by putting unlimited data into the hands of marketers,” has a client list that includes the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Albertsons, Dell and electric vehicle startup Rivian. Below, Wahl elaborates on her GM departure and her board appointments—plus she describes why she is not a fan of Cannes, but is an advocate for Super Bowl marketing. And she picks the campaigns she worked on that she liked the most. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. When you left GM, outsiders saw it as a sudden and surprising move. What happened? It’s been something I've been planning for several years, as everyone should do, is plan the arcs of their careers and their lives. So this was sort of something that I was looking at the right timing, and then with GM with everything going on, and with the opportunities that were presented, that was the right timing. And I also felt like, you know, we did the work that I had come in to do. I think I really helped GM get on a next path. We did all the branding for the corporate, the EV positioning, and then worked on transforming the processes and the way the marketing works. So for me, it was a good time, it's always hard to leave and make those decisions. When you left GM it was described as a retirement. Do you ever see yourself working full-time again? When you look at it, I've done it for 40 years. And I've really made some stakes in the ground. And I think I've really worked hard to add a lot of value to any of the companies I've worked with, but there's a lot more to do in life. Outside of serving on boards, what are you looking to do? I have a 12-year travel plan for all the places I haven't seen yet. And I have the for-profit boards, like ActionIQ, Mediaocean. And then also, I have two things in Detroit that I'm really working on. I'm [on the board] of Friends of the Children Detroit, which really works at breaking the cycle of poverty in Detroit with children, and then an educational board too, which is the Cranbook Community. So that's enough for right now. It's actually way busier than I thought I'd be. Oh, and then I'm on the Beyond Ordinary Events board, too. So we'll see where all of this leads. Are you going to Cannes? No. I never went very much anyways. I think it's an enormous expenditure. Most of the companies I've worked with, we're always in transformation mode, and really watching expenses and all that. It feels like automakers usually don’t go to Cannes much. It's extravagant. Those industries are always really watching expenses. Cannes Lions coverage Follow our live blog here Sign up here for email updates See all of the Grand Prix winners here While at GM you were a big fan of Super Bowl advertising. Why? There's not a lot of big gathering places left anymore, and live sports are about the only place that you can use traditional TV to garner large, significant audiences that can change behavior quickly. Look back: GM and Netflix teamed up on a 2023 Super Bowl ad Why did you decide to join the board of ActionIQ? I think the big challenge for marketers to show the value that we create, what we do, is to be able to target really well. And we've talked about the pipe dream for years of knowing every customer from, you know, when they're kind of an unknown entity all through the purchase cycle, to understand what messages they need, what would be the most beneficial at the right time and deliver it to them in the best way. So we've all been working on databases. And it's frustrating. I mean, it's hard work to use. And there are a lot of issues when you look at privacy and everything else. So when I was introduced to ActionIQ, they have sort of taken so many of those challenges and jumped over a lot of the obstacles. Forrester reported last year that only 25% of business-to-consumer marketers use a customer data platform (CDP)—although it forecast broader adoption soon. Why has adoption been slow? Because it's still hard. Most companies kind of built their data structures one by one over the years. And either they're ancient, or, you know, they've been kind of cobbled together as new needs have come. So then to put that all together is really hard work. Last question. Let’s get reflective. You've been involved in plenty of campaigns over the years. What was your favorite? It's like choosing your favorite child. At Mazda, I did the strategy for Zoom-Zoom, that is taking us way back. I loved that. At Lexus, we transformed the “Relentless Pursuit of Perfection” and modernized it and brought it to the next level. And then at GM, “Everybody In,” we won many awards and really I think established a whole different direction. And I'm very proud of that work.

Deborah Wahl on why she left GM and what’s next for the former CMO

Featured Stories