When Kristin Harrer took the reins as global chief marketing officer of Vans one year into the pandemic in April 2021, her first big execution wasn’t a campaign so much as a thank-you to the creative communities who’ve helped the shoe and skate-wear brand become an icon of street culture for many decades.

With global COVID-19 cases on the rise again, 2022 is looking to be as unpredictable a year as the two before it. But one marketer who’s prepared for the challenge is Patrick McLean, SVP and chief marketing officer at Walgreens, whose efforts to help vaccinate the retailers’ customers in 2021 will continue well into the new year.

Kierstin De West’s June 2021 appointment as chief marketing officer at plant-based frozen-food company Alpha Foods marked a dual milestone for the six-year-old brand. Not only was De West the inaugural executive to hold a CMO title at Alpha, she also had the dual task of bringing its first major brand campaign to market.

Perhaps few marketers have rolled with the many punches of the past two years more closely than Norm de Greve, chief marketing officer of CVS Health. Not only did he spend the first weeks of the pandemic figuring out how to make a primarily retail business adapt to digital and delivery, he’s also spent the better part of the past year making vaccine education a central focus of his brand messaging to help the U.S. safely get back to in-person gatherings.

When Bruno Cardinali joined Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen as its chief marketing officer in March 2019, his first task was to help the Restaurant Brands International restaurant chain shift its perception as a bone-in, fried chicken-only destination and expand into more dining occasions. 

Lara Richardson likes to describe her first year as chief marketing officer for Crown Media Family Networks less in rebranding terms, and more in the language of a makeup artist.