Research shows that female leadership drives performance at brands as women managers do more to support their teams.
At a recent Brand Innovators event on Women in Marketing, female marketing leaders from brands across sectors talked about their own personal career paths, how they are helping the women in their departments and their tactics for success.
Jeannette Liendo, SVP, Marketing & Communications at Mastercard Europe started her career at IBM and then went to Oracle, leaning into being a woman in the tech world. She took advantage of every opportunity that came her way including working in communications, sales and digital, as well as focusing on the U.S. and Latin American markets. This led her to her current role leading marketing for Mastercard Europe.
“I think a great marketer is one that can really leave you with an idea that’s compelling and that can hit you in a place that’s meaningful,” said Liendo. “That could be intellectual, that could be emotional, that could be societal but it leaves with you an almost mnemonic impression that makes you think about something powerful.”
Julie Yufe, GM, Growth Markets for Europe, AB InBev, has experience working on both the agency and the brand side of the business and in her experience has found that consumers have more in common than differences. She believes that being able to find what unites consumers in different cultures can help marketers scale their endeavors across markets.
“As a marketer, entrepreneurship is probably the number one skill that future marketers need to have because the world just keeps getting more complex and the challenges get bigger and bigger as you go in your career,” said Julie Yufe, GM, Growth Markets at Europe, AB InBev. “So, being able to flex the muscle and be creative and innovate is the key to successful impact in the future.”
Liz Caselli-Mechael, Head of Content & Digital at Nestle, recently relocated from the U.S. to Switzerland and shared how this experience has surprised her and how her new role is an opportunity to grow in a truly global and cross-cultural environment.
“As a leader, one of the ways I’d like to improve is by customizing my approach for an individual,” said Liz Caselli-Mechael, Head of Content & Digital, Nestle. “That is, being able to change my approach and read those feedback signals to continue to customize my approach to make it effective for the person and not just for you from your own perspective.”
