The CMO Podcast

Today's guest on The CMO Podcast is Nathaniel Ru, Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of sweetgreen, the fast-casual restaurant chain that serves creative, healthy salads. Fueled by the movement to reimagine fast food for a new era, sweetgreen's core values guide their actions and they aim to empower their customers, team members and partners to be a positive force on the food system.In 2007, Nathaniel founded the company in Washington, D.C., with two classmates from Georgetown University. Sixteen years later, the three are still running the company today–now with about 200 restaurants and 5000 associates. In 2021, sweetgreen went public, with a market cap of roughly $1 billion at the time of this recording. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nathaniel is the son of immigrant, entrepreneurial parents: his mother has Mexican heritage, and his father is Chinese. Within three months of graduating from Georgetown University, he and his co-founders had opened the first Sweetgreen on M street in Georgetown.On this episode, Nathaniel and Jim talk about how brands can work to make the overall customer experience better through technology and automation. Over the course of his career at sweetgreen, Nathaniel has learned how to build a brand with strong customer loyalty and facilitate a fantastic internal culture at the company.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's guest on The CMO Podcast is Anton Vincent, the President of Mars Wrigley North America. Anton oversees brands including M&Ms (Jim's favorite!), Skittles, Twix, Mars, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Orbit and many more.At about 100 years old, Mars is one of the largest private companies in the world with sales of about $40 billion. Of course, Mars markets confection brands, but it also touts a variety of products and services for people and their pets.Anton has worked at Mars since 2019, after spending the majority of his career – 20 years – at General Mills. Anton is a native of Jackson Mississippi; he earned a Bachelors in Finance at Sam Houston State University and an MBA in Marketing from the Kelley School at Indiana University. On top of his responsibilities at Mars Wrigley, Anton serves as a board director for International Paper. On this episode, Anton and Jim talk about the responsibility of big brands to drive & support culture. Anton describes his instrumental role in BECA (the Black Executive CMO Alliance), how he keeps the Mars Wrigley brand exciting and motivating from the inside out, and how his time at General Mills prepared him for his current role.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jay Livingston is the the Chief Marketing Officer of Shake Shack. While we use the term "renaissance" man or woman too much, this week's guest truly fits the description. A graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Jay's career has included a 20-year stint at Bank of America and two years at BARK, makers of BarkBox. He has now worked for more than four years at Shake Shack, a nearly-billion-dollar brand with locations in 19 countries. Jay also makes time for his "side hustles" - He is an active angel investor, helped start the nonprofit Unite America, and has executive produced three feature films.In this episode, Jay and Jim talk about Jay's "career meadow," moving from Bank of America to BARK to his current role as CMO at Shake Shack. They explore the importance of consistency in the restaurant industry, how his 2-year hiatus after 20 years at Bank of America helped him to refocus his career path, and his many ventures outside of business & marketing.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is the final episode of a three-part series inspired by the 2023 Marketing Leadership Summit at the Kellogg School at Northwestern. The Summit is an annual gathering organized by Kellogg faculty and executives from Egon Zehnder and McKinsey.For this special episode, Jim welcomes Freddy Adenuga and Kaitlin Loomis, two MBA students who attended the Leadership Summit and currently serve as co-presidents of the Kellogg Marketing Club.During this conversation, Jim, Kaitlin, and Freddy cover a wide range of topics, including authentic leadership, the characteristics of a great company culture, and how to appeal to the next generation of marketers. Plus – the podcast wraps up with a special interactive creative brief section, in which Freddy and Kaitlin ask Jim some fun questions and share their hopes for the future of marketing and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Karuna Rawal is the Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Nature's Fynd and Martha Williams is a consultant with Egon Zehnder specializing in the retail and consumer sectors.This is the second installment of three episodes inspired by the 2023 Marketing Leadership Summit at the Kellogg School at Northwestern. The Summit is an annual gathering, organized by Kellogg faculty, with executives from Egon Zehnder and McKinsey.Nature's Fynd is a remarkable company that emerged from NASA research on microbes in Yellowstone National Park, where they unearthed a groundbreaking nutritional fungi protein. This protein offers a sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture methods by significantly reducing resource consumption. The company has raised more than $500 million in capital, and its first consumer products are breakfast patties and dairy-free cream cheese. During this episode, Jim, Karuna and Martha discuss purpose, leadership, and resilience while reflecting on the summit. They provide advice on navigating career changes and Karuna shares what it’s like to be the CMO of a unicorn company.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alison Lewis is the Chief Growth Officer of Kimberly-Clark and Pree Rao co-leads Egon Zehnder’s Global marketing and sales practice. Egon Zehnder is a top leadership advisory firm, which includes executive search. Kimberly-Clark is a leading consumer goods firm, with revenue of $20 billion with brands like: Huggies, Kleenex, Cottonelle, Kotex and Scott. Both guests bring rich career paths in the CPG industry, with Alison having previously worked at Kraft-Heinz, Coca-Cola, and Johnson & Johnson, and Pree having worked at Unilever and Danone before joining Egon Zehnder over four years ago.In this episode, Jim, Alison, and Pree reflect on the Kellogg Leadership Summit and highlight themes from Alison's keynote speech on leadership. They discuss the importance of having a growth mindset, using criticism as a motivator, and the evolving titles and roles of CMOs.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dara Treseder is the Chief Marketing Officer of Autodesk. The company’s tagline is “Make Anything,” and their software has made a significant impact on a number of industries, such as architecture, construction, media, entertainment, and manufacturing. Based in San Francisco, the company's revenue is north of $5 billion and growing.As the leader of worldwide marketing, brand, communications, demand generation, and education business teams at Autodesk, Dara sets the strategy and goals for building the brand and marketing the product portfolio. Dara is a veteran in the industry, with previous experience as CMO at Peloton, Carbon, and GE Business Innovations & GE Ventures, and having led marketing and growth efforts at Apple and Goldman Sachs. In fact, last year, Forbes Magazine named her the #1 Most Influential CMO.In this episode, Dara shares insights on being a people-first leader and the importance of serving your team. She and Jim discuss what drew her to Autodesk, lessons she learned from her parents that she continues to carry with her, and the essential capabilities that marketers must possess to be successful.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As we wrap up Earth Month, Jim is joined by Marc Pritchard and Marchoe Northern of Procter & Gamble (P&G) to discuss their sustainability efforts. P&G is a 186-year-old renowned consumer goods company with $80 billions in sales. They host a portfolio of 25 billion-dollar brands, including Swiffer, Dawn, Pampers, Tide, and Oral-B. In recent years, P&G has taken a step further in their sustainable business practices by committing to achieving Net Zero Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2040.Marc, the Chief Brand Officer at P&G, and Marchoe, SVP and GM of P&G's North American Home Care division, offer counsel to marketers on leading sustainability initiatives in their companies and emphasize the significance of reducing the mental load for consumers in the sustainability space. They also discuss the changes at P&G since Jim left 15 years ago and share why this issue is so important to them.Listen as Jim, Marc, and Marchoe shed light on P&G's sustainability efforts and provide insights into how other companies can lead the way in sustainability.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sustainability has become more than a buzzword. People recognize the urgent need to protect our planet, and businesses are no different. Deloitte has stood at the forefront for over 20 years, helping organizations make progress towards delivering sustainable values and reimagining they way the work.In this Office Hours episode, Jim is joined by Nelson Kunkel, the Chief Marketing Officer of Sustainability, Climate and Equity at Deloitte. He and Jim have a wide-ranging conversation about a CMO’s role in the sustainability space, why sustainability has a ‘story problem’ and more.Discover more about Deloitte's sustainability initiatives at Deloitte.com/sustainability.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Paul Rivera, CMO and Partner at The SpringHill Company, discusses his journey and the importance of speaking to consumers. Suzanne Kounkel, Deloitte's CMO, shares insights on marketing trends. Topics include sustainability efforts, role of CMO, creativity in marketing, and 'keeping the main thing, the main thing'. Rivera reflects on leaving Nike for Beats by Dre and the lessons learned.