At its 2020 CEO & CMO Summit Virtual, MMA Global, the industry organization dedicated to driving modern marketing and shaping the future, has appointed Deborah Wahl, global chief marketing officer of General Motors, as the incoming chair for the global board of directors. Wahl will oversee a MMA Global board comprised of senior marketing professionals across a wide range of sectors, as well as some of the most influential AdTech and MarTech executives. The board’s driving mission is to drive and affect positive change within the discipline of marketing through research, education and debate.
Wahl brings a wealth of industry knowledge and senior marketer experience to the board, having served as CMO for McDonald’s, Cadillac and Chrysler, but she’s also held senior marketing roles at Ford, Mazda, and Toyota in various positions and countries. She’s known for her keen eye in identifying organizational gaps in marketing and filling them with optimal solutions, which dovetails perfectly with MMA’s mission.
“I have been energized by the topics that the MMA Global board is tackling under the leadership of CEO Greg Stuart,” said Wahl. “My view is that we do need to work together as an industry, and MMA is a one-of-a-kind industry body. It’s clear to me that the MMA has a strong and fact-based agenda and approach to help CMOs to tackle the toughest issues in accomplishing their mission. No one is better positioned to clean up the increasingly complex digital marketing ecosystem.”
Wahl takes over from Karin Timpone, formerly global marketing officer of Marriott International, who will move to chair emeritus on the MMA Global board.
“I’m extremely proud to have Deb step up to head up our powerhouse board, which represents a real testament to how far MMA has come,” said CEO Stuart. “Ten years ago, we started with only one mid-level marketer, and by the end of this year we’ll have now grown to nearly 40 CMOs, now led by one of world’s biggest global marketers as our chair. One of the best things I heard from a current board CMO was ‘I don’t know how the MMA does it but you come up with topics I don’t hear anywhere else, and they matter to my business.’ I want to especially also thank Karin for her leadership during a most unusual time.”
Working with Stuart, Wahl’s tenure will focus on the following areas, programs and initiatives:
- Marketing Attribution Think Tank (MATT) – focused on supporting issues around multi-touch attribution (MTA) measurement and the gyration in Identifiers for measurement and tracking, in light of the phasing out of cookies and Apple IDFA
- Marketing Org Structure Think Tank (MOSTT) – directly correlating marketing organizational structure to a company’s financial performance
- Great Marketing Growth Debates – a series examining the major marketing growth frameworks as explained by the professors who authored them, followed by discussion and debate among the top marketers in the industry
- Data in Marketing Think Tank (DATT) – initiatives in development to support marketers as they aggregate, assess and apply data in their marketing strategies
- Brand vs. Performance research initiative – $2-million, ground-breaking research to help answer the age-old question of how branding affects long-term sales
- And other initiatives to clean up the digital ecosystem, including a Brand Safety Guide for marketers, a mobile attribution fraud assessment tool, and studies into the actual brand impact of the current AdTech ecosystem.
