WFA names shortlist for Global Marketer of the Year 2020

Clockwise from top left: Andrew Garrihy (Huawei), Fernando Machado (Burger King/Restaurant Brands International), Lisa McKnight (Mattel), Ivan Pollard (General Mills), Marc Pritchard (Procter & Gamble), Jane Wakely (Mars)

WFA has unveiled the shortlist for the 2020 Global Marketer of the Year, featuring global marketing leaders from General Mills, Huawei, Mattel, Mars, Procter & Gamble and Restaurant Brands International. 

An expert jury of 14  marketing industry leaders considered more than 30 eligible names as part of the shortlisting process, with each judge nominating their top six. The six marketers with the most votes have been shortlisted.

The shortlist includes:

• Andrew Garrihy, Chief Brand Officer and Western Europe Chief Marketing Officer, Huawei. Andrew has helped Huawei weather many storms in the last couple of years, both geopolitical and the pandemic. He’s also helped develop Story Sign, a text to sign language app that has transformed the lives of deaf communities around the world and across devices.
• Fernando Machado, CMO, Burger King/Restaurant Brands International. Fernando has expanded his remit beyond Burger King and now oversees the whole group, which includes Tim Horton’s and Popeye’s. This year his bold creative approach has been focused on driving business during lock down.
• Lisa McKnight, SVP and Global Head of Barbie and Dolls Portfolio, Mattel. Lisa has helped reinvent an iconic brand, updating the classic doll for the 21^st century with vastly greater diversity in the range.
• Ivan Pollard, Global CMO, General Mills. Ivan has taken a three Cs approach to General Mills; creativity, building a community and enhancing capability. He has also mixed precision marketing with the opportunities presented by big cultural events.
• Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Procter & Gamble. Marc has not only boosted P&G’s data-driven capabilities but he has also developed new ‘fix and flow’ agency models as well as ensuring that all communications meet the highest standards on gender equality and diversity.
• Jane Wakely, Lead CMO, Mars. Jane has been a critical part of Mars’ efforts to innovate digitally and creatively. Her current focus is to move petcare beyond the functional into a category that creates a better world for pets.

All six have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the last 12 months in the three key areas on which the award is judged:

1. Evolving their organisation to be more people-centric, better able to respond to consumer needs and building happier, more engaged teams internally;
2. Working smarter with partners, be they agencies or vendors, and ensuring that the whole team is aligned to the same goals;
3. Delivering inspiring work that genuinely makes a difference, be that cultural, social or for the business.

The next stage in the process will be a public vote – supported by The Drum, which is partnering the WFA on this initiative – and a jury vote with each element accounting for a half of the final score.

Industry representatives can vote for their favourite starting today and until 10 January 2021 at www.globalmarketeroftheyear.com. The winner will be announced in late January 2021.

Mastercard’s CMCO Raja Rajamannar, chair of the expert jury and WFA president, said: “Hearty congratulations to everyone on the shortlist for this year’s WFA Global Marketer of the Year. 2020 has been a unique year for everyone and as marketers it has required us to be more agile and flexible than ever, and find new ways to connect with consumers and drive business growth. All six have done this in hugely challenging circumstances.”

Stephan Loerke, CEO of WFA, said: “We always say that being a global or regional marketer isn’t getting any easier but 2020 has demonstrated that in new ways, requiring an unprecedented ability to adapt and be insightful and creative, while working with remote teams under huge pressure. Congratulations to all the six global marketers on the shortlist for leading by example when many would have struggled.”

This is the fourth year that WFA is running Global Marketer of the Year. Global Marketer of the Year 2017 went to Unilever’s Keith Weed, Raja Rajamannar was the winner in 2018 and Lubomira Rochet from L’Oréal won in 2019.