Women to Watch
U.S. 2020
×
 
 
 
 
 
×

Courtney Benedict

Senior Director of Marketing, Miller Lite

Courtney Benedict

Senior Director of Marketing, Miller Lite

E.J. Schultz

When Bud Light picked a fight with Miller Lite in its 2019 Super Bowl ads, Courtney Benedict was not about to let the attack go unchallenged. She helped orchestrate a response ad that co-opted Bud Light’s Dilly Dilly kingdom with a copycat version that ends with an actor playing the Bud Knight grabbing a Miller Lite. Its kicker: “In the real world, more taste is what matters.”

The approach is emblematic of the new energy Benedict has injected into the brand, which includes quick-response marketing that plays into current events. To reach young adult drinkers, Lite has “to be relevant to their lives, and our approach for doing so is to move at the speed of culture,” she says. Benedict was also behind a campaign that encouraged drinkers to unfollow Miller Lite on social media as Lite positioned itself as the “original social media.”

Benedict, who joined Molson Coors in 2014 after a stint at Unilever, has a big fan in Molson Coors Chief Marketing Officer Michelle St. Jacques, who calls her “a force to be reckoned with in marketing. She has a strong gut and intuition for her brands.”

What advice would you give your younger self?
I'd emphasize the importance of relationship-building in the workplace. In my first couple of post-college roles, I prioritized pure work and output over developing solid relationships with co-workers, and I completely missed the boat. Getting to truly know the people you're working with, and prioritizing understanding one another and each other's motivations and ambitions, is just as important as the work itself (and it proves extremely helpful in tackling the more urgent, all-hands-on-deck oriented tasks). Overall, I would teach my younger self the importance of a people-first approach.
What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?
Marrying my husband … it's just a constant re-evaluation of risk and reward :)
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
In short, inclusion is table stakes. Nearly all businesses have opportunities to be better and do better when it comes to demonstrating they value women and people of color, so continually addressing opportunities and issues head-on with empathy at the core is imperative. I personally think it's important for the industry to show these people in leadership roles. Seeing women and people of color in senior positions demonstrates that there's a strong path and future for all of us. For example, Molson Coors recruiting Michelle St Jacques to be the first female CMO in the organization proved that females can make it to the top, and that was particularly inspiring for me.
If you weren't doing your current job, what would you be doing?
This is a tough one because I love my job! For a while I considered law school and the attorney path, but I'm not sure that's for me. One thing that still interests me to this day is the idea of being a college professor. I had a couple of 'people and organizations' professors that I particularly connected with, and I very much enjoy teaching, coaching, and constant interaction with others, so I might be somewhere in academia.
What's the biggest change to your role due to COVID19?
While I was on maternity for the early part of the pandemic, it proved to be a large pivoting exercise for the Miller Lite team. Our campaign had been centered around reprioritizing in-person connections after years of replacing those with digital connections a la social media or otherwise. But in the era of the pandemic and social distancing, in-person connection is a bit tricky. We therefore quickly shifted our focus away from ourselves and to some of those closest to us in the community and hardest hit by COVID—bartenders—donating $1 million to the Bartender Emergency Assistance Program. And now we're working on getting back to the connections that matter most through “It's Miller Time,” and where there's much more to come!

Daria Burke

Chief Marketing Officer, JustFab

Daria Burke

Chief Marketing Officer, JustFab

Adrianne Pasquarelli

As a young child, Daria Burke enjoyed creating her own fashion magazines, complete with outfits and stories, so it was not surprising that she ended up pursuing the ultimate storytelling career as a marketer in retail. As chief marketing officer at JustFab, Burke is responsible for driving global brand awareness and marketing at the digitally native shoe seller. Though she joined the El Segundo, California-based company—which is owned by TechStyle Fashion Group—late last year, the Detroit native is already working to streamline the brand’s data science and media measurement divisions and to diversify its influencer marketing program. Burke’s background at L’Oreal, Esteé Lauder and Facebook positioned her well for the task, despite the retail challenges from COVID-19. She and her team of 75 handle the bulk of JustFab’s advertising in-house.

“Another area of focus for us is how our brand is going to stand as a champion of change and what that means to support and amplify messaging around women, around social justice issues and the things that we care about as a broader society,” says Burke, who founded Black MBA Women, an organization to further women in leadership, eight years ago.

What advice would you give your younger self?
Never accept the first offer. If you don’t go after it, you’ll never get it. And have more questions than answers. You’ll always learn more by acting vs. just thinking.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Leaving an incredible role at Facebook to move to LA and take my dream job as CMO of a fashion business! I’ve spent most of my adult life on the East Coast, mostly in New York City, and I had very much designed my life with New York in mind. I didn’t see myself going west, but there was no way I’d let this opportunity go!
What’s one thing the industry can do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
It’s really simple: promote and hire more diverse talent. In such a competitive landscape, it would seem that demand for diverse and inclusive leadership teams should be at an all-time high. Attracting top talent is a competitive sport, and consumers are going to vote with their dollar. Both are making very conscious decisions to align themselves with brands that get it. And countless studies have shown how diversity positively impacts business performance. So for companies to continue to miss out the quantifiable impact of having more people of color in leadership roles, especially now, is more than a blind spot. It’s a choice.
If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you be doing?
My favorite question! I’d be a broadcast journalist and an interior designer … so, I’d have my own interior design show?
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
Leadership under such extraordinary circumstances has required a shift in how we do almost everything. For me, that started with being extremely vigilant about maintaining the physical and psychological safety of my team. From the sample coordinator to the producers, photographers, and stylists, there are so many people whose day-to-day job requires being with product—and with each other. We had to formalize new ways of working to enable people to do their work from home. But a crisis of this magnitude has an immeasurable impact on everyone in ways you can’t anticipate. I’ve relied more on compassion and empathy than I have any technical skill I have learned in my career. One of the most important things I could do was to let my team know that their physical, mental and emotional health is more important than anything else and that their success cannot and will not be measured the same way as when things were “normal.”

Elizabeth Campbell

Senior director of cultural engagement, McDonald’s U.S.

Elizabeth Campbell

Senior director of cultural engagement, McDonald’s U.S.

Jessica Wohl

In her 16 years at McDonald’s, Elizabeth Campbell has pushed to switch roles roughly every two years. “I basically wrote a development plan that allowed me to do that,” says Campbell. Her drive is partly fueled by watching her mother earn her high school diploma in her 70s. “There’s nothing that people can tell me that I can’t do,” she says.

As senior director of brand and menu strategy, she helped launch delivery in the U.S. with plans such as a one-cent Big Mac offer. Collaborating with UberEats, Grubhub and Doordash pushed the Golden Arches to become more nimble. “It was probably the most challenging time, because it was reshaping the way McDonald’s thinks internally,” she says.

In her current role since November, Campbell gets to shape the chain’s social voice. “We’re not always going to get it right,” Campbell says. “It’s about how fast we can adapt and learn.” This year she’s strategized on details such as the notes tucked into more than 12 million Thank You Meals served to first responders and then on McDonald’s Black Lives Matter messaging. “What I call what is happening right now is a cultural revolution,” she says.

What advice would you give your younger self?
To say yes sooner. I think that we all go through life and learn our power probably later … I feel as though we need to start to say yes younger, and start to say it with power and own it.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
It was on an initiative internal to McDonald’s, working on delivery, challenging one of our internal leadership teams about a program we wanted to do. We would basically be giving away free food to drive new user acquisition. It was risky because I didn’t know a lot about delivery at the time, my career was on the line for doing this, and the conversations I had to have with a senior executive. We went ahead and did it, it was very successful but we also learned a lot from it.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
I would say just put them in those positions. Everybody wants to say we want to take a risk. It’s not. Just put the individuals into those positions and then listen to what they have to say. Allow there to be a space for them to be heard. There’s never a question when you want to put other individuals in positions, so why do we keep questioning this?
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I would be a backup dancer for Beyoncé and I would be sort of a voyeur walking around capturing images of humanity on my phone while I travel.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
It is more of a mindset change because everything we knew about the consumer has been thrown out the window. Some of that research isn’t going to remain true. How do you listen and learn in a different way about what’s going on in the world so that you can apply it to your job?

Mona Gonzalez

Managing Director of Pereira O’Dell New York

Mona Gonzalez

Managing Director of Pereira O’Dell New York

Lindsay Rittenhouse

Mona Gonzalez joined indie bicoastal creative shop Pereira O’Dell’s San Francisco office nearly six years ago. After two years on the West Coast, she moved over to the agency’s New York office and last July took the helm as its managing director—deservedly so. After she was named managing director, Gonzalez led the agency to generate 10 account wins in 100 days, including the Central Park Conservancy, Pillsbury and three AB InBev brands. In the past six months, the shop has seen 23 percent growth in new revenue. Gonzalez has led several impactful decisions during her time with the agency that have improved not just the profitability of Pereira O’Dell but its culture. After her maternity leave in the spring of 2019, Gonzalez spearheaded a new progressive parental leave and return policy. After COVID-19 forced the cancellation of traditional internships, Gonzalez reinvented Pereira O’Dell’s program to go virtual in an initiative she dubbed “Save the Internships.” Gonzalez says empowering employees to feel they can make the change they want to see at their companies is critical, and it’s why she “will stay at and why I believe in” Pereira O’Dell.

What advice would you give your younger self?
I’d like to tell Little Mona, ‘One day you will be at a place in your life when people find your differences intriguing; resist the urge to hide them.’
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
When I moved to San Francisco, leaving a perfectly good job and not having a new one lined up.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
The industry needs to get involved at the student level and we collectively need to do a better job of speaking to diverse generations about all the career opportunities in advertising.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I would be a journalist; journalism has always been super interesting. Or I’d be living on a farm with chickens. There’s a lot of beauty in the simpler life.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
The pressure’s on the role of managing director, and really agency leadership. It’s just as important to be emotionally supportive now. I think in older-school leadership, managing directors felt like they could opt out of certain conversations if they didn’t apply to the business directly. With COVID-19, people are looking at their employers for guidance more so than their government.

Flavia Guetter

Social Media and Digital Marketing Manager, Burger King

Flavia Guetter

Social Media and Digital Marketing Manager, Burger King

Luke Guillory

Flávia Guetter, originally from Brazil, studied in the U.S. as a high school exchange student and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami. After working for Anheuser-Busch InBev in Brazil, she aimed to snag a job at Burger King, which is owned by 3G Capital, an investment firm that also has ties to the brewer.

“When I moved from Brazil to the U.S., the first place I applied to work at was Burger King, because I was within the 3G culture. It seemed to me like a great fit,” Guetter says. She didn’t get a chance at Burger King, and worked at Samsung for two years on strategy in the Caribbean before landing at Burger King in 2018. “I was very aggressive with that dream I had of working at BK, and I finally got it,” Guetter says.

Since then, Burger King has been showing off more social media savvy. This year’s “The Moldy Whopper” showed the stomach-churning transformation of a Whopper left out to rot, which was intended to highlight BK’s decision to cut artificial preservatives. And 2019’s “Real Meals” promoted mental health awareness, saying “no one is happy all the time. And that’s OK.”

What advice would you give your younger self?
I feel like as a girl in the corporate world, I would tell my younger self that working hard, it's totally, totally worth it. And being resilient really pays off.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
That's for sure moving from Brazil to the U.S. Again, I did go to school here, went back to Brazil to do work at ABI, then decided to move back. Not a lot of people knew about me in the U.S. market. So definitely, the biggest risk that I've ever taken in my career.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
I can speak to my experience within BK. So at BK, we have a very good opportunity to speak up. And show our work to our leadership. So I feel like if you do work hard, you're able to be acknowledged within the corporation. So I think essentially: Don't be afraid to speak up and work hard, is really my recommendation for all the people of color and women
If you weren’t in your current role, what would you be doing?
I think I would pursue a career jogging and running. I do run marathons and half-marathons. I think I would be totally focused on that, while I'm still young-ish.
What’s been the biggest change to your role due to Covid-19?
We actually had to pivot very quickly. We had to transition all of our plans to prioritize, delivery and drive through. So I worked on social media with the agency that we have, shifting all the communication to delivery and drive thru as well as the new procedures we have now in restaurants. So that was a quick adaptation not only for the team but the agencies to work on.

Julie Haddon

Senior Vice President of Global Brand and Consumer Marketing, NFL

Julie Haddon

Senior Vice President of Global Brand and Consumer Marketing, NFL

I-Hsien Sherwood

Football is broadening its appeal. Under Julie Haddon’s leadership, the NFL’s marketing team has helped expand the fan base, which is now 47 percent women—an all-time high for the sport. The league’s 100th anniversary spot during Super Bowl LIII featured a cavalcade of NFL athletes from across six decades of the game, but the ball ends up in the hands of 15-year-old Sam Gordon, who founded the first all-girls tackle football league.

“It’s very notable and purposeful,” Haddon says. “She runs with the ball off into the future because the next hundred years very well should have a woman in it. Our fans like to see themselves in our work.” Haddon also co-produced “A Lifetime of Sundays,” a documentary featuring the league’s few female team owners, and brought actor Regina King on board to narrate the film. She is also the founder and an executive sponsor of NFL Pride, the league’s LGBTQ affinity group. “I said we should be in the parade,” Campbell says. “We should be making a statement. We should be showing up strong as an advocate of the community.”

What advice would you give your younger self?
Failure is OK, as long as you learn something from it. Fail by trying instead of failing by watching.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
I ditched my bat mitzvah when I was 12 years old to pitch a double header, because it was important that I showed up for my team. My parents would not have had it any other way. My dad still plays in three softball leagues. My mom's been going to baseball games for 47 years and is the longest Chicago Cubs season ticket holder.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?

I think inclusivity starts with the top. It starts internally. You can't have an external strategy that doesn't match your internal strategy. Knowing that our audience is made up of all different types of people, we have to be able to speak to that and speak to the lens of the voices that are representative of our employee base and our fan base. We have to challenge ourselves to ask every day, are we looking at this through the right lens? And if not, let's get the right people in the room to have that lens.

At the NFL, we've changed the Rooney rule [which requires hiring decisions to include a diverse slate of candidates] to make sure that it's not only including people on the field, but off the field. We've made a commitment to end systemic racism. We are looking at how we continue to learn, listen and become a more inclusive culture for our players, our partners, our fans.

If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
Screenwriter for SNL, and I'd be writing for Colin Jost and Michael Che 's “Weekend Update.” I’ve got some good ones.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
This time every year, I'm getting ready to start the season. My team is meeting about the brand spot, the brand approach for kickoff. Then we all locked down in March, and a month later we had produced the Virtual Draft. It's the incredible story of these young prospects going off to pursue their dreams, and how do we make sure that happens? We're just finding new ways to continue to test it. But we have to show up with heart and empathy and realize that everybody wants sports, but in a post-Covid world, so much has changed.

Whitney Headen

CEO, 19th & Park

Whitney Headen

CEO, 19th & Park

Jeanine Poggi

As co-founder and CEO of 19th & Park, one of the first Black woman-owned and operated agencies, Whitney Headen ​upended the agency model. She is a champion of true diversity, thinking about inclusion in every aspect of business. She’s also passionate about mentoring the next generation. Headen created the program The Life Currency, which focuses on professional and skill development in young adults. Growing up in Virginia, opportunities were far and few between, “and not everyone is as crazy as me to drive to another city and jump in,” says Headen. Her goal is to level the playing field by leveling access.

Headen never had any intentions of becoming an entrepreneur. But during her time climbing the ranks in digital marketing and sales, she realized she wasn’t able to service clients the way she truly wanted to under someone else’s brand. “I would have to leave to implement the change I wanted to see by building my own house,” she says.

What advice would you give your younger self?
As much as it seems like I did go with the flow so many times and went with my gut, I would tell myself to be a little less serious, a little more curious and have fun. We take ourselves too seriously and that’s where creativity goes to die.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
My whole life has been a series of semi-calculated risk and positive coincidences. The best risk is constantly betting on myself.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
I have been doing D&I work for a really long time and I think what the industry needs to do is abolish the traditional thinking of what D&I role is, and to think you have to hire someone based on their race, ethnicity or gender. It should be about who is equipped to do the job and we should focus on skill sets outside of what is on a traditional resume, like strategic and emotional thinking. We need to get out of the confines of what fits into these roles and you would be shocked how diversity numbers improve.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I would still do something philanthropic and giving back, but as a career I’d probably get into venture capital and investing. I am really interested in new development, innovation, seeing the pain points and how to grow companies. I also am a numbers person.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
My role hasn’t really changed. My day-to-day responsibilities are the same. The biggest change is the adoption of virtual. It’s removed all the fluff that typically comes with the advertising business and we are now really focusing on the opportunities and the solutions. We can’t take someone to a courtside game or a $500 dinner to build relationships and foster connections; it is a test of how good are you and how hard are you willing to work to make a solution in a less than ideal situation? What we will see coming out of COVID is a lot more emphasis on productivity, communication and strategic thinking, instead of some of the frivolity that’s been a staple of the industry.

Larisa Johnson

Head of brand and influencer media; senior director at Twitch

Larisa Johnson

Head of brand and influencer media; senior director at Twitch

Ilyse Liffreing

In 2018, when Twitch began to invest in marketing, Larisa Johnson was one of the gaming streaming platform’s first hires. She was charged with no small task: Make Twitch into a household name. She has certainly accomplished that. Today, the platform has 17.5 million daily visitors and 4 million streamers.

In building out the platform’s media marketing, Johnson has established her own in-house team, brought on agency partners, added influencers into the mix and helped lead the platform’s first brand campaign that showcased Twitch’s diversity beyond gaming.

Johnson’s media strategy has included growing the number of diverse streamers on the platform and amplifying those already there. A content partnership with Bustle, for example, highlighted female streamers. “There’s always new content and talent emerging and as a marketer, it’s our job to amplify those voices,” Johnson says. Making advertising measurable is another key objective. She recently partnered with Clear Channel Outdoor to track whether OOH could deliver website visits and conversions.

What advice would you give your younger self?
Do your best to ignore your inner "imposter syndrome." You are not a fraud, you deserve a seat at the table. Other people at that table that you may admire could be telling themselves the exact same thing. And what you would say to reassure them, you should also use to encourage yourself.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
I've taken two jobs that going in I knew already had an industry reputation for being quite challenging and they were. While both were some of the most high stress years of my life, I also learned and grew the most in those roles. Looking back, most of the accomplishments I'm most proud of happened in those roles and I learned how much I could truly push myself.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
It starts with employees holding their companies accountable. If you're the only woman in the room, verbally flag that immediately to everyone in the room. People in the majority just may not notice that. If you look around and notice any lack of diversity, ask questions in company meetings about what's being done to address it. Successful change movements often start from the ground up.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I'm still holding onto the dream that I will one day become a successful travel blogger. We all work 40-plus hour weeks so it's important to remember to take time off to explore and recharge. I always encourage my team to use all their vacation days.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
Adjusting to the change in the way people are consuming content. While they have more time to watch, all of the streaming space has risen to the occasion and it's very competitive who they will spend this time at home with.

Siobhan Lonergan

Former Chief Brand Officer, Thinx Inc.

Siobhan Lonergan

Former Chief Brand Officer, Thinx Inc.

Adrianne Pasquarelli

It stood out for its boldness: The 60-second commercial, for feminine hygiene brand Thinx, imagined a world where men menstruate, too. Siobhán Lonergan, who as Thinx’s chief brand officer worked with BBDO to create the spot, cites it as one of her major accomplishments at Thinx, where she worked for three years before being laid off in a round of coronavirus-related downsizing last month.

“We reached a huge audience,” she says of the spot, which earned 58 million impressions and a Webby award. “MEN-struation,” along with other initiatives like a “Bleeding Tour” where the Thinx truck traveled cross-country and a new sex blanket product, helped further the company’s mission of breaking taboos around subjects like periods and feminine care, Lonergan says. The Irish-born executive earned her marketing chops working at agencies on brands including Ireland’s Ballygowan mineral water.

Now, she’ll apply her learnings from Thinx to a new role. “My goal is to balance my experience with big brands and entrepreneurial approach to brand building with a company in growth mode,” she says.

What advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t wait to grow into yourself. You already are who you are, you have all the tools you need to succeed within you, You just don’t know it yet. Go forth with confidence, don’t worry so much, embrace change, jump in!
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
In 2003 I packed my bags, left my steady agency job and travelled around the world for a year. That experience opened my mind to so many things and gave me a greater understanding of the world and people in it. I've never looked back!
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
It starts at the top, ensuring representation within the board of directors and leadership team as well as built into recruitment policies of each organization. If that is not the case then it is all our responsibility to fight for that. Ongoing racial equity programs to learn and dismantle prejudices and bias within our workplaces. Investment in young people, support scholarships and internships, specifically within advertising and branding, because industry experience is so important for career growth.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
Running my own business. I have lots of ideas for new business and brands, I’m especially interested in sustainable design. And if not that, a detective on a Scandi Noir crime series!
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?

Initially it was about prioritizing marketing initiatives to reflect what could be achieved remotely and balancing supply chain issues with the need to market and keep business moving forward.

Once that was under control, it was important to continue to inspire creativity within teams as it was tricky to maintain the usual fast flowing iterative idea process on video call. We solved by being even more prepared with briefs, sending them in advance, finding ways to make them more fun and engaging and encouraging time for individuals and smaller groups to have unstructured work sessions.

Surbhi Martin

VP-Marketing, Danone North America

Surbhi Martin

VP-Marketing, Danone North America

E.J. Schultz

Two weeks into her job as VP of marketing for Danone North America, Surbhi Martin met with her agency, Lightning Orchard. “The conversion quickly went to how frankly bored I felt with yogurt marketing,” she recalls. “We had not done anything disruptive across our brands in quite a while.”

That’s no longer a problem. Under her leadership, Danone’s Oikos Triple Zero yogurt drew buzz with its #YoGlutes campaign that paid tribute to the rear ends of National Football League players, including Saquon Barkley, set to the soundtrack of “Bubble Butt.” The spot, which ran during the livestream of the 2020 Super Bowl, drew more than 25 million online views. Martin also leads Two Good low-fat yogurt, whose marketing includes support of organizations that fight food waste.

Martin, who is of Indian origin, says she has a growing awareness of stereotypes the industry places on women of color. She cites the phenomenon of “just not feeling as heard or as visible, and maybe it’s because tonally your posture is to be more hesitant or suggestive versus assertive,” but “I’ve learned to evolve my style in a way that feels authentic to me.”

What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Trying to launch a global better for you and affordable soda brand (it failed, but I learned a lot). Making a Super Bowl ad about, um, NFL glutes … within 6 weeks.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?

Keep a more open mind about what it takes to be successful in this field. Don’t go for the usual profile. There are limited archetypes for women in this industry, and I sometimes wonder if the lack of diversity might partly be a failure of imagination to rethink what leadership can be and look like. I find it ironic that a creative field which requires imagination doesn’t have more diversity. We should bring the openness and big imagination we have in our approach to the work to the way we rethink leadership, and archetypes for female leaders.

I’ve really appreciated leaders who create open, inclusive and safe environments to show up as who I am. It minimizes the need to conform to a preconceived idea of leadership and I feel valued for who I am. Those leaders have usually gone out of their way to create inclusive cultures because they recognize it isn’t often the default and it won’t happen on its own.

If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I was a Model UN geek and if I wasn’t doing this job I’d work for the State Department.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
I spend more time reading and thinking about the structural shifts occurring in how we eat, shop and experience culture … and how these shifts will impact our brands and business. This is probably felt by many right now, but I am acutely aware of the realities of being a working parent. I’m now in need of a new approach to balancing the needs and demands of my role alongside those of my family.

Rona Mercado

Senior VP of Accounts, Cashmere

Rona Mercado

Senior VP of Accounts, Cashmere

Lindsay Rittenhouse

Rona Mercado had a thriving career in entertainment—working at an independent record label with artists including Snoop Dogg and Wu-Tang Clan and creating campaigns for major motion pictures—when she decided to leave it behind to help start Cashmere in 2003. Since then, she’s helped grow the agency from a four-person shop in Venice Beach to a 90-person creative collective.

Today, as senior VP of accounts at Cashmere, Mercado plays a vital role in cultivating the agency’s growing roster of brands that includes Google, Amazon, Apple TV+, Lego, HBO, BMW and Jack in the Box. In 2019, she led Cashmere, Ad Age’s Multicultural Agency of the Year, to 100 percent revenue growth. Understanding early on she had to adapt the business in the wake of the pandemic and create new streams of revenue, Mercado launched a virtual experiences division rooted in social and culture called “Nice Sweater.” She also serves as a role model within the agency and has an award in her honor: The Rona Mercado Award, given to one employee each year who went above and beyond for Cashmere.

What advice would you give your younger self?
Follow your gut, which is advice I’d still give myself now.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
I’d go back to taking that leap of faith with Cashmere.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
First of all, you have to put women in leadership positions. You have to go beyond filling the D&I role and thinking it’s a box that needs to get checked and then it’s done.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I really like learning, and I’m really passionate about the nonprofits, like [L.A.-based] Street Poets, I’m on board with, so I’d lean into—philanthropy.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
Supporting and showing your presence through a screen is different. There’s a lot of innovation that’s had to happen. It’s about staying innovative and how to thrive in this.

Laura Molen

President, advertising sales and partnerships, NBCUniversal

Laura Molen

President, advertising sales and partnerships, NBCUniversal

Jeanine Poggi

Laura Molen knew she wanted to sell TV ads when, during a career fair she attended while studying at Syracuse University, she watched NBC present its upfront sizzle reel to the college students.

Molen started her career at Turner when Ted Turner was married to Jane Fonda, who was vocal in the need to have more women at the company. “I saw that as an opportunity, so when jobs opened I pitched every one,” she says.

Molen says she was always inspired to move into areas of change, which led her to jobs in cable TV at a time when everyone wanted to be in broadcast. She helped launch UPN and later Spike TV.

Molen joined NBCU in 2013, overseeing sales of its cable networks. She was promoted to lead all of ad sales alongside Mark Marshall in November 2018 and expanded her role this year to oversee ad sales of NBCU’s new streaming platform, Peacock.

Molen is passionate about advocating for the accurate portrayal of women and girls in all media and has worked with the Development School for Youth NYC to help break the cycle of poverty.

What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell my younger self to be more confident in my self and my choices. I don’t have to play the role of the victim. I know what is the right thing to do in business and in life is and to trust that in myself and to be more confident.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
I left a job without a job to come to NBCU. I didn’t have the job at NBCU but I knew that’s where I wanted to be and needed to be honest with my employer as we headed into another contractual obligation. That could have gone really poorly, but it has been the best career decision of my life.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?

As an industry we need to really educate ourselves more about what it means to be fully open, accepting and empathetic of people who are different, and really train people to get educated and really stand for acceptance for different points of view and different types of people. I have found the more diverse a group of people I work with, typically the better business results we deliver. Part of that is having different perspectives makes people more confident, more comfortable.

I can speak from being a 20 year working mother. I was a VP when my daughter was born and I gave a presentation on why I should work one day a week from home. My boss was very traditional and people said I was never going to get it, but I told him what he could count on me to deliver for the company. I didn’t want to play the victim and feel like I have to work five days in the city, just because no one has done otherwise. A lot of times we are held to old standards in more traditional companies. People need to talk about working from home more. And now that we are all working for home we are finding people are liking not having to commute and they can stop and have dinner with their family and then go back to work if they have to.

If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I have a passion for building content that makes a difference. I have been fortunate in my current position and through the years to work with marketers on purpose led content. My husband has a production company and I joke with him that one day I will work with him and make purposeful content.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
I see a major change where we are working with our agency and client partners in much more deep and meaningful ways to really help marketers through this challenging time and help get their businesses on track.

Michele Morales

VP-Design Director, FCB Chicago

Michele Morales

VP-Design Director, FCB Chicago

Jack Neff

Michele Morales is a rare combination of designer and art director, having worked at a six-person design shop before becoming VP-design director of FCB Chicago.

“Being in an agency setting, I had the opportunity to marry the craft and detail focus of the designer with this conceptual side that I have,” says Morales.

She designed the 853-page “Gun Violence History Book” for the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, spanning 228 years. It was “quite literally thick enough to stop a bullet,” Morales says of the book, which won three Gold and three Silver Cannes Lions.

Morales also helped bring Blue Bunny Ice Cream from its small-town Iowa roots to a Soho pop-up experience that brought in 26,000 people and generated more than 442,000 impressions.

She’s been at the center of FCB’s 3% Movement effort, designing a space for inclusivity to foster conversations, and worked with Chicago’s “After School Matters” program to lead workshops introducing teens from diverse neighborhoods to advertising and design careers.

What advice would you give your younger self?
Find an agency and a team where your voice is heard and supported. That’s where you’ll do your best work. Create a space to introduce new ideas on processes and initiatives. Create an environment you’re proud to work in. I wish I had recognized my power to influence change sooner. And along the way, be kind. If you don’t see opportunity for this at your agency, leave. There’s a place out there where you can influence the culture and do great work.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
One of my most significant career risks happened when I acknowledged that I wanted to focus on design. I’ve always blurred the lines between art direction and design, and I’ve had both titles a number of times. Still, telling leadership that I didn’t feel like I was on the right career “path” was filled with highs and lows. I changed disciplines and it created new opportunities to grow my career.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?

Hire more people of color. Hire more women. Hire more women of color.

Not just one or two. Support us in creating a community and listen to us. I’ve been the token, and it’s a lonely place to be. Learn to give us recognition and tell everyone about our hard work. If we don’t have a community, you won’t retain our talent.

When different life experiences intersect, we learn new ways to connect with our consumer and the work becomes stronger. As you’re recruiting, recognize it as an opportunity to bring in new perspectives and diversity in gender, skin color, sexuality, disability and talent. If you don’t see that talent, go to high schools and introduce our industry to kids at an early age. If this isn’t happening at your agency, do the work and talk with leadership about how to make this happen.

If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I’d be wandering around the world somewhere with my backpack. Interiors are my second love, so I’d buy a few small properties in little towns and throw myself into designing those spaces. I’d rent them out, and probably do a little freelance work to pay my way and travel continents for months at a time. Along the way, I’d hope to connect with people who can share their experiences and to find ways to donate my time to small communities.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
Communication and transparency are a huge part of my leadership model. We need to acknowledge that everyone is experiencing COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter in their own way. Some people need time to process, some don’t. We’re craving interactions that we just can’t get from a scheduled video chat. My team is used to flagging each other down if we need a second pair of eyes to look at WIP logo type or the start of a design system. And on top of everything, we’re all still figuring out how to separate work life from home life. Re-learning our boundaries is key to finding new ways of communication in this time of COVID and BLM.

Sadie Novello

Chief Content Officer, GIPHY

Sadie Novello

Chief Content Officer, GIPHY

I-Hsien Sherwood

Sadie Novello originally joined GIPHY, the world’s largest GIF search engine, in 2018 to lead the company’s in-house production studio. But since her promotion to chief content officer, her role has become more multifaceted. “I’ve had the opportunity to take on so much more—adding content, partnerships, marketing and PR, and a lot of company-wide operational work,” Novello says. Under her leadership, GIPHY Studios tripled its project load, creating content for REI’s “#OptOutside” campaign, stickers for Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte season and GIFs for Wells Fargo’s NBA Finals campaign. She also launched the company’s first employee resource group, GIPHY ID, which leads diversity and inclusion efforts. To that end, Novello was instrumental in removing the company’s college degree requirement, removing a barrier to a talent pool that had previously been shut out. A mother of three, she has also been vocal in positioning family commitments as strengths rather than barriers to work and productivity. “It has been such a gift to work with incredible people and get to stretch my skills in so many directions,” Novello adds.

What advice would you give your younger self?
That a winding path is as valuable, if not more valuable, than a straight line. I did not have a traditional career path going all the way back to high school, and did not follow the “rules” of success and career growth. So many people told me I was making a mistake by taking certain roles or making non-traditional choices because I had no long-term plan on what I wanted my career to be or look like. I just figured out early on that I should always be learning something, surrounding myself with good human beings, and adding value to the organization. Those coordinates are still my North Star.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Having my first child while I was still in college would seem like the biggest risk, but I actually think it was when I said ‘yes’ to roles that seemed terrifying to take on, or that I thought I wasn’t ‘ready’ for yet. I can’t stress enough how important it is to shut off the voice that tells us we aren’t qualified or good enough—and to shut it off early in your career. I will hire smart, creative, capable problem solvers, even when they have less direct experience for roles that require them to stretch—and every time they thrive.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?

Absolutely whatever is necessary. The stats are awful and every single leader in this industry has a responsibility to step up and take this on as a priority.

Opportunity means that the recruiting process needs to be reevaluated and often completely restructured at every level, from internships through the most senior hires. Companies must actively remove bias from the recruiting process, systematically change how recruiting happens to seek out—instead of wait for—a diverse set of candidates, and adjust policies like requiring a college degree, or removing other barriers of entry for marginalized populations.

Retention means the organization has to actively prioritize and constantly be evaluating if they are maintaining a safe and healthy environment and opportunities for career growth for everyone. Diversity and inclusion should not only fall to an ERG, it should be built into the fabric of the organization, and that comes from every single person at the organization understanding the importance—but especially the leadership team making it a building block of the organization, and holding ourselves accountable.

If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
Definitely something that combines problem solving, operations and team management. However, if I were to leave the industry entirely, it would definitely be home-building and renovation. I love the process so much and have had the luxury of doing it a few times over the years. It’s the perfect blend of problem solving and process, but also ends with such a tangible result.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
I have taken on a lot more operationally during this time, but really more than anything I have tried to be a soft place to land for the team for whatever they need. This is a time for us all to tap more deeply into our humanity and be truly empathetic toward what this is doing to people physically, mentally and emotionally. I try to lead by example, talking regularly about the challenges I have had during this time. I have been exhausted, scared and sometimes completely overwhelmed balancing my family’s needs with the demands of my role. I also don’t want anyone to think there is any stigma attached to building in time to take care of themselves and their families right now.

Stephanie Perdue

VP of Marketing, Chipotle Mexican Grill

Stephanie Perdue

VP of Marketing, Chipotle Mexican Grill

Luke Guillory

Stephanie Perdue began her career in entertainment at Fox, then moved into the restaurant industry and hasn’t looked back.

“The intensity and the agility and the creativity of the restaurant industry has really been integral to who I am as a marketer,” Perdue says. “There’s so many dynamics, from digital to physical locations. It just makes it an exciting industry to be a part of.”

Perdue says the changes required by brands during the coronavirus pandemic called for a “radical shift.” Going all-in on digital ordering, mobile ordering and carry out required a shift in the entire marketing plan. The loss of live sports and live music required even more changes to Chipotle’s strategy.

The brand shifted further toward digital, streaming and social, focusing on real-time marketing opportunities. The brand also went to a fully virtual version of its Chipotle Challenger Series, an esports competition streamed on Twitch and YouTube.

“Those are all things we never had imagined we would be doing if you had asked six months ago,” Perdue says.

What advice would you give your younger self?
I think it’s about trusting your gut, working on brands you’re passionate about, and that you get behind their mission. And most importantly, work with people you really trust, you respect and that make you better as a person.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

I think, for me, my career has really been about creating innovative ideas that don't exist. And so I try to look at what I'm working on and say, ‘What risk are we taking today to make the customer experience better?’ And so I hope that the biggest risk I've taken is not what I've done in the past, but what I'll do in the future.

With innovation, I think the key to success is failures. I can tell you a lot of times people may have looked and said, ‘Wow you're going to take on that project that the company has failed, you know, five to 10 times on?’ But, I think I think it's those failures that really create rich insights for success.

At Chipotle, I think it was creating menu innovation at a time where the brand really didn't do menu innovation. We've launched two in the past six months with carne asada and our queso blanco, and they've been the best new menu introductions for the company. So, I think the only reason why those have worked is because there's probably a lot of failures before those.

What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
I think a lot about how some of the best jobs are never listed. The importance of career advancement is really about referrals. I think about us as executives, we can really address structural issues in the industry by finding those opportunities for our network of women and people of color.
If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you be doing?
I feel like I work in the two industries I’m personally connected to. I love food, eating and trying new cooking. I’m obsessed with it. But maybe at some point, who knows, maybe I’ll have my own concept.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
As we moved to 100 percent digital, I think long term what we're thinking about is real food has never been as important as it is now. I think consumers are really desiring more out of the foods that they want. They're vigilant on where it comes from, and that's an important role for Chipotle to leverage in the future. Because we've created these digital habits now, most of our consumers are connected to us digitally. We're thinking, ‘How do we drive even more convenience and personalization through technology for this really digitally engaged consumer that we've had over the past few months?’

Ericka Pittman

Chief Marketing Officer, Viola

Ericka Pittman

Chief Marketing Officer, Viola

Ann-Christine Diaz

After 25 years of leading marketing across categories spanning CPG, beauty, food and beverage and luxury goods, Ericka Pittman is out to conquer a new terrain: cannabis.

As the chief marketing officer of premium brand Viola, Pittman is the first African-American woman CMO of a multistate cannabis company. After serving as CMO of Aquahydrate and as a top exec at Sean Combs’ Combs Enterprises, she joined the cannabis firm in December 2019—which means she’s spent the majority of her tenure at the brand under lockdown. In that short time, she has led activations including bringing New York’s Jue Lan Club to Chicago for NBA All-Star Weekend; “420 Daily,” a virtual programming series on Instagram; and launched the company’s social equity initiative, Viola Cares, with nonprofit Root and Rebound.

Viola was founded in 2011 by NBA vet Al Harrington and is built on a foundation of promoting social equity and minority representation, evident in Pittman’s most recent projects, which include a partnership supporting “Bike Rides for Black Lives” with the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office Department of Human Civil Rights.

What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell my younger self to buy my book, “What Mommy Never Told You: A Woman’s Guide to the Next Phase of Life.” (Shameless plug.) In all honesty, I always say that I would tell myself: Run your race. Everything is exactly as it should be. And most importantly FAIL FAST!
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
The biggest career risk I have ever taken was making the decision to leave advertising and shift career tracks to enter the marketing community, while well into a successful career in sales. After meeting with several industry colleagues, I was told I would NEVER reach executive level status in marketing without attending Wharton or Kellogg for an MBA specializing in the category. I never took any of that advice seriously (thank God) and decided to take a role (and significant pay cut) at Combs Enterprises at the internal agency Blue Flame. My role as VP of Brand Strategy was the smartest decision I’ve made in my entire career. My career with that organization resulted in seven promotions in nine years. The rest is history.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
The industry should simply HIRE more Blacks and females. I always say the easiest way to diversify your talent pool is to hire at the executive level in the direction you want your overall talent pool to reflect. In addition to diversifying hiring, the industry can engage recruitment environments that engage a talent pool that is reflective of women and people of color.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
If I wasn’t the CMO of Viola I would be focused on my recently published book, created to encourage women of all ages to triumph through transition and explore all facets of their life to achieve their greatest selves. My mission is to help women advance their dreams and ambitions into reality.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
The biggest change in my role has been the inability to communicate with my team and our consumers face-to-face. Our brand is experiential in nature. It is important to make a real-life connection culturally with our audience to continue to educate them on the industry as well as occasions to engage Viola and all of the things we represent. That said, finding unique alternative ways to connect during this time has been quite gratifying for us all. We will continue to put our consumers and customers first in our initiatives and evangelize safety first through all of our efforts.

Joy Robins

Chief Revenue Officer, The Washington Post

Joy Robins

Chief Revenue Officer, The Washington Post

Garett Sloane

The Washington Post has completely restructured its sales team since Joy Robins took the top revenue role.

“We reorganized the sales team last fall to be more focused on the client first,” Robins says, “really thinking about how they could better solve business challenges as partners rather than as media sellers. That is something we’ve really been deliberate about.”

The Post developed an agency partnership team. Robins also points to work The Washington Post has done with brands including Rolex and AT&T, where the advertising relationship is deeper than just running an ad.

In the news business, it is necessary to educate brands more about where they fit into the broader conversations going on, and how their messages are received when surrounded by subjects like coronavirus and questions of social justice.

“One of the things that I’ve really focused on over the last year is helping advertisers and agencies understand that news is actually the ultimate place for brands as they navigate things like trust and sentiment and intent and purpose,” Robins says.

What advice would you give your younger self?
I'd push through fear of failure and insecurity and take comfort in knowing that when harnessed properly they're providing the fuel for determination and work ethic that will ultimately lead to success. But I'd also tell my teenage self to listen to my mom more because she was usually right.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
It was the first time I decided to leave a really great and stable job on the TV ad sales side [at The Weather Channel] for a sales team that actually didn't already exist at the BBC, and not only to take on television but also a digital role.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
There's so much truth to the statement that, "If you can see it, you can be it." As an industry we've made great strides over the past few years when it comes to creating programs and support networks for women. In the latest ANA survey, 52 percent of senior level marketers are female, and it's widely accepted that having a gender balance team is good for business. But we've got to apply that same effort to making this industry feel inclusive for people of color. It starts with being more accountable and creating processes and practices, but it can't stop there. We need to create clearer career paths and take a more active role in sponsoring and mentoring people of color in our industry and in our companies in order to foster retention and advancement.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I'd run and own a small hotel on a beach.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
Aside from the fact that I've gone from traveling 50 percent of my time to zero, pre-pandemic the majority of my time was spent focused externally, making sure that our team was set up to support the business goals of our advertising partners. Since mid-March, while I've remained focused on how we're delivering value to our clients, I've been dedicating significantly more of my time to be internally focused. Helping the teams get through the crisis with a sense of purpose and maintaining a feeling of connectedness, through an increase in internal communication, has been critical to continue to deliver strong performance. And also to perpetuate a culture of care, which I think is really important to reinforce at a time like this.

Carmen Rodriguez

Chief Client Officer, GUT

Carmen Rodriguez

Chief Client Officer, GUT

Alexandra Jardine

For Carmen Rodriguez, leaving David Miami to join GUT last year was a no-brainer. She was joining Anselmo Ramos and Gaston Bigio, with whom she’d worked since David Miami itself was a startup and where, as she puts it, “I had found my people.” In just two years the fledgling GUT has won business from the likes of Philadelphia cream cheese and Popeyes and has even added new clients in the pandemic, being appointed by Headspace to work on its first TV campaign.

One of the industry’s most awarded account management leaders, Rodriguez has always been passionate about creativity (she even once wrote a Super Bowl commercial script that was pitched to a client), and actively encourages younger account managers and strategists in the agency to speak up about creative ideas.

Having joined the industry as a “very outspoken” 17-year-old intern, she’s never been afraid to champion brave projects. When her creative team at David came to Rodriguez with the idea for Burger King’s Google: Home of the Whopper, she recalls: “I wanted to cry, knowing all the conversations I would have to have with lawyers, but I knew we had to do it.”

What advice would you give your younger self?
I would say: keep studying, learning about creativity. Keep watching all the reels from Cannes. It will pay off in your future. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Don’t worry when people say you speak up too much, standing up for yourself, and for others, it’s a good thing. Keep having fun. Also, you might not believe this, but one day you will work with two crazy Ecuadorians that will pitch a script you wrote for the Super Bowl.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
The biggest risk I have taken actually led me to be here today. I left everything behind to move to Miami to help my husband open his restaurant because we wanted to move to the U.S. And if I hadn’t done it, I would have never met my partners at Gut.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
I would say: Get out of our way. Give us space, give us a safe environment to speak up, to say what we think without being judged or discouraged. Let us be ourselves with our strengths and fragilities without labeling us. The industry should also pay more attention to Account Management and celebrate it more. Listen to your account teams, give them space to be creative, to work closely with you. There are only a few award shows that invite account teams to judge. That needs to change now.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I think I would be working as a diplomat. I love challenges, overcoming difficult obstacles, and dealing with almost impossible missions, as well as being able to explore different points of view on the same subject and influence decisions using the power of negotiations.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
I am a very “in-person” person. I like being present, having meetings with clients face-to-face, and also being with my team. So, it has been a real challenge for me to be far from them, but there has been huge learning. It is a great surprise that we are able to do such great work remotely, and still be super-connected to the clients and the teams and keep up the energy and the engagement.

Susan Vanell-Charpentier

Associate Director-Brand Building Purchases, Procter & Gamble Co.

Susan Vanell-Charpentier

Associate Director-Brand Building Purchases, Procter & Gamble Co.

Jack Neff

Susan Vanell-Charpentier wanted to be a marketer when she joined Procter & Gamble Co. 22 years ago, but couldn’t afford the requisite M.B.A. So she figured she’d try purchasing, let P&G pay for her degree, then move into marketing.

But she liked purchasing so much that she stayed. Now as associate director-brand building purchases, she has the best of both worlds, leading an effort that includes sorting what gets done in-house and with agencies, plus expanding global buying with women-owned marketing services shops.

“In TV media buying, the agencies do a really good job of that,” says Vanell-Charpentier, 44. “That’s a scale game, so breaking that out over 11 categories and having each of us do negotiations doesn’t make a lot of sense.” However, in planning, where agencies have to be educated on brand needs anyway, keeping it in house makes more sense, she says.

“Some agencies are really amazing with in-housing models. Carat has been amazing for us because they’ve helped us do different parts, and they’ve kept parts,” she says. “We’ve struggled at other times where [agencies] feel threatened.”

What advice would you give your younger self?
Get to know yourself and really understand who you are and really face the part of yourself that you like, accept the reality of what your strengths are but get to know the things that are tough and get to know those as well so you can manage around them. And I also would say slow down. Just in general I am super high energy, always on the move, foot on the accelerator all the time. I’ve learned that I can be really strategic, give better coaching, truly learn the lessons if I slow down and take time to reflect.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

Generally speaking I don’t think of myself as a huge risk-taker. I spend a lot of time in my head analyzing a situation … so that by the time I make a decision, I don’t see it as risky.

But she recounts a pandemic-era flight of risk taking in her personal life. “When we were in quarantine my husband and I were out walking,” she says. At one point, her husband told her, “I really don’t want to go home yet, let’s turn left instead of right.” They saw a house on a five-and-a-half-acre lot that they liked, as a result, “and 46 hours later, we had a contract on the house.”

What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?

Because of my work in supplier diversity, I have strong feelings about this. We as an advertiser have to play a strong role. We believe very strongly that better diversity brings better teams and better results. So we need to make sure that the people working on our accounts reflect the people who are our customers, our consumers. We have to first request that and make sure we are holding people accountable. But then we also have to support it.

For example, with women, the language for keeping them in the industry is flexibility. And frankly this industry has not done that very well. We’ve learned during COVID that you can do pretty much anything working from home. So this idea that we as women have to be in an office, have to put in certain hours, that’s really limiting when we’re also trying to do the job of being a mom and a wife and taking care of the house, which just naturally are tasks that fall on women.

For people of color, we have to promote an environment that helps them thrive. From what I’ve seen in the past two weeks, frankly we have a lot more racism in this country than I ever knew. Those of us in the majority have to become not just allies but champions. We have to speak up. We have to create cultures that are helpful to really force change. So we need to make sure agencies and publishers are measuring progress, that they are reporting that back, that they are asking for help, and we’re offering help. Because we know how to do it. As advertisers, we’ve done a pretty good job generally speaking. So we need to share those lessons with them and lift up this whole industry as well.

If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I’m a negotiator. I would be negotiating something. I remember very early on from when I was 8 years old having a big negotiation over a playhouse with my mom and dad, where it went from a one-story to a two-story with electricity, a fire pole and a balcony.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
The biggest one is the pace. I normally have two hours of commute a day. I’m not traveling now so the pace has changed. On top of that, the lack of sports from a media standpoint means we’re reworking a lot of plans. And how we really take advantage of and think through the fact that we are learning so much about working from home and being more mobile to me is another big change. How can we do work remotely? How can we be better partners and not have to be in New York all of the time?

Shayna Walker

Director of diversity and inclusion and campus recruiting, Horizon Media

Shayna Walker

Director of diversity and inclusion and campus recruiting, Horizon Media

George P. Slefo

Shayna Walker, director of diversity and inclusion and campus recruiting at Horizon Media, wears many hats. But Walker is doing even more behind the scenes to fix the ad industry’s diversity problems.

Getting more women and people of color in the ad industry has been talked about ad nauseum for decades, says Walker. “It is easy to talk about the need for change,” she says. “But what’s missing is consistent action. The real work lies in truly committing to ‘the how’ and disrupting the status quo to actually effect change.”

That change is seen with Walker’s efforts in partnering with two historical Black schools, Howard University and Morgan State University. In 2019, she spearheaded a partnership with the Association of National Advertisers Educational Foundation to participate in its Campus Speakers Program.

Thanks to Walker’s efforts, Horizon says 28 percent of the company’s internship employees were hired through diversity partnerships and more than 40 percent of the 2019 summer intern class were students of color, up 10 percent year-over-year.

What advice would you give your younger self?
Being you is your power. Embrace it and don’t ever forget that.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Quitting my first job without having another one lined up. From a financial perspective, it was a GOOD job. But the environment was toxic, leadership didn’t have my best interest in mind and I knew that I needed to work at a place that shared my morals and values. I blindly took a leap of faith and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made career-wise.
If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing?
I like to group as many of my interests as possible, even if they are not conventional—hence my current title of Director, Diversity & Inclusion and Campus Recruiting. I’d find a way to be a travel/food blogger, event planner and job readiness consultant.
What’s been the biggest change in your role due to COVID-19?
As a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) professional, I have to break this answer down into two parts. Before the multiple tragedies that reamplified the systemic racism in this country, and after. Before, the biggest change was figuring out how to keep the momentum of DEI going as the pandemic thrusted us all into crisis mode. Most of the focus was on the welfare of our employees and our clients. After, the biggest change has been the amount of visibility I’ve gotten, the drastic increase of hand-raisers that want to help, the amount of meetings and conversations that I’ve been invited to, the scope of my work and the extra accelerated pace of getting it done. It’s bittersweet, but my passion for this work continues to fuel me, pandemic or otherwise.
Illustration by Tam Nguyen. Photos courtesy of subjects. Web production by Corey Holmes.