WFA reveals finalists for Global Marketer of the Year 2025

From left to right: Manolo Arroyo (The Coca-Cola Company), Cheryl Goh (Grab), Edward Bell (Cathay Pacific), Emily Ketchen (Lenovo), Sean Summers (Mercado Libre) and Kory Marchisotto (e.l.f. Beauty)

WFA has unveiled the six finalists for the 2025 Global Marketer of the Year award, featuring leaders from The Coca-Cola Company, Cathay Pacific, e.l.f.Beauty, Grab, Lenovo and Mercado Libre.

An expert jury of 17 marketing industry leaders considered more than 30 eligible names submitted by the industry as part of the process, with each judge nominating their top contenders. The marketers with the most votes have been named as finalists and all will be added to the WFA’s Hall of Fame.

The winner will be determined by the expert jury and named in January 2026, following a judges’ debate, informed by the latest data from official partner Kantar from both BrandZ and its Blueprint for Brand Growth research.

The award is also supported by The Drum, which will be publishing interviews with the finalists in December.

The finalists are:

• Manolo Arroyo, EVP and Global Chief Marketing Officer, The Coca-Cola Company: Manolo leads a global marketing network of more than 2,000 professionals and is recognized as the architect of the most radical marketing transformation in the history of The Coca-Cola Company, reshaping the portfolio of brands, innovation, modernizing its marketing and designing an industry-leading partnership with WPP. Prior to his current role, he served from 2019-2020 as both the Global CMO and as President of Coca-Cola’s Asia Pacific Operating Group.
• Edward Bell, General Manager, Brand, Insights and Marketing Communications, Cathay Pacific: Edward is responsible for the development of brand strategy, consumer insights, loyalty marketing and marketing communications for the Cathay Pacific group globally. He has spent the majority of his career in marketing strategy and later as a CEO for marketing and communication consultancies across Asia and Greater China. He is the recipient of the prestigious IPA and Jay Chiat awards for marketing effectiveness and strategy.
• Cheryl Goh, Chief Marketing and Consumer Officer, Grab: Cheryl was part of the early founding team at Grab and has been instrumental in shaping one of Southeast Asia’s most recognized and enduring technology brands. She leads the full marketing remit across Grab’s ecosystem – encompassing product marketing, communications, and growth – while also driving the company’s sustainability agenda and customer experience operations across the region. She oversees the full business P&L of Grab’s loyalty programs, making her one of the few CMOs globally who combine deep brand-building expertise with operational and commercial accountability.
• Emily Ketchen, SVP and CMO, Intelligent Devices Group and International Markets, Lenovo: Emily leads global marketing strategy and execution across Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group and Motorola – driving growth in brand and product demand, customer insights, sponsorships and creative direction. She also oversees marketing across international markets spanning EMEA, Asia Pacific, North America and Latin America. She has previously worked at HP, Publicis & Hal Riney and Dell.
• Kory Marchisotto, Global Chief Marketing Officer, e.l.f. Beauty & President, Keys Soulcare: Kory has helped catapult e.l.f. Beauty’s meteoric ascent to 27 consecutive quarters of net sales growth and market share gains, define and activate the company’s game-changing purpose platform, and grow e.l.f. Cosmetics in the US into the No. 1 favourite for Gen Z, and the No. 1 most-purchased cosmetics brand for Gen Alpha and Millennials. She joined the company in 2019, having previously worked at Shiseido, LVMH and Puig.
• Sean Summers, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Mercado Libre: Sean took on the CMO role in 2018, adding his EVP brief for Mercado Ads in 2022. Prior to this, he worked at Quaker and Tropicana and Twinings in the UK as well for Pepsico in both LatAm and the UK. He is also a Board Member at World Rugby Events & Media Company (part of World Rugby).

“This year’s finalists once again demonstrate the impact that marketing leaders are delivering for their brands every day. They are showing how it is possible to react and respond to the massive changes occurring in consumer behaviour and the media landscape, while also remaining true to the marketing fundamentals that are proven to deliver brand growth. Congratulations to all,” said Stephan Loerke, CEO of WFA. 

“The shortlist is a roster of great brands and the marketers who have helped to build them. Kantar is excited to bring a data-driven growth perspective on each of these brands leveraging BrandZ data and the Blueprint for Brand Growth framework to help inform the decisions made by all judges,” said Mark Visser, Global Head of Conulting at Kantar.

“This year’s shortlist showcases an outstanding group of marketers who are truly pushing the industry forward. Every finalist has earned their place on this global stage. We look forward to profiling each in the coming weeks to find out more about how they are delivering brand growth,” said Jen Faull, Deputy Editor of The Drum. 

Launched in 2017, previous winners of the WFA Global Marketer of the Year award include Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at L’Oréal, who won for 2023, and Marcel Marcondes, Global Chief Marketing Officer at AB InBev, who won for 2024.