In these extraordinary times of physical separation, I am reminded of the beautiful feelings of togetherness and purpose we experienced in March 2020 when I hosted the Siegel+Gale International Women’s Day celebration with 300-plus CMOs and guests across five cities: London, Zurich, New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
This year’s theme was #EachforEqual. Many issues discussed echo the topics close to our hearts at the moment–leadership, change, and hope.
If there is ever a time for inclusion, surely this is it. I’ve captured below the responses to our concluding question: “What is one thing we can do to help forge a more gender equal workplace?”
Los Angeles
“Lean into the discomfort.” – Lauren Kelly, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, Irvine Company
“Listen more.” – Leesa Eichberger, Former Head of Brand Marketing and Sponsorships, Farmers Insurance Group of Companies
“Recognize bias, acknowledge it, solve for it.” – Lori Pantel, Chief Marketing Officer, Fandango
“Be you, authenticity leads to trust, leads to safe spaces.” – Liz Powers-Charest, Marketing Strategy & Operations, Hulu
“Ask people what is holding them back.” – Lisa Tollman, Executive Director Head of US Marketing Operations & Innovation, Amgen
“I would say invite people in.” – Rikke Alderson, Vice President & Sr. Director Institutional Journey Marketing, Capital Group
“Control what you can.”- Kristin Patrick, Former CMO, PepsiCo Global Beverage Brands, PepsiCo
“Scale your leadership.” – Zoe Fairbourn, Head of Brand Partnerships, Hello Sunshine
New York City
“Make sure you understand. As quickly as possible…focus on it …and go after it with everything you can.” – Deborah Scarano, VP, Global Marketing, Pfizer
“In the sprit of the elephant in the room, hire, promote and sponsor a woman.” – Ukonwa Ojo, CMO, MAC Cosmetics
“Stay flexible and support the change.” – Stacey Feder, CMO, Hudson Yards
“It is a constant push, not a moment in time.”- Amanda Rubin, Global Co-Head Brand and Content Strategy, Goldman Sachs
“Sponsor and advocate. And ask the people you do it for to pay it forward.” – Soyoung Kang, CMO, eos
“Own your privilege, don’t deny it.”– Ed Dandridge, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, AIG
“Active listening; active sponsoring; active work every day….make yourself active.” – Kate Jhaveri, CMO, NBA
San Francisco
“Insist on a diverse slate for every role.” – Dara Treseder, CMO, Carbon
“Expect it, talk about it and measure it, so we can hold ourselves accountable to create change.”- Kathleen Tandy, Senior Director, Partner & Communities Marketing, VMware
“When you sit with the violins, you only hear the violins.” – Jennifer Temple, Chief Communications Officer, HPE
“The best breakthroughs occur when you get uncomfortable and to do that we need to be compassionate with ourselves and each other as we get uncomfortable to make progress.” – Karen Roter Davis, Leadership Team, X, the moonshot factory
“Make connections with empathy, so that you can truly understand the humanity of everyone.” – Vivian Wu, Managing Partner, Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
“Listen, advocate and participate.”- Randi Polanich, VP and Chief Communications Officer, KLA
Zurich
“Focus on talent, potential and leadership. Nothing else matters.”- Andrew Curran, Global Head of Marketing, Lindt & Sprüngli
“Listen more and talk less.” – Carrie Scott, Head of Corporate Brand & Reputation Management, Novartis
“Rule number one in marketing: listen, understand and stay curious.” – Hubertus (Huub) Devroye, Global Director of Marketing, Dow
“Start with yourself.” – Sarah Stokar, Consultant, Egon Zehnder
London
“We have to lead for the change we want to see in the world.” – Ruth Rowan, CMO, NTT
“If not now, then when?” – Raj Kumar, Group Brand and Reputation Director, Aviva
“Female rights is human rights. Leverage our differences to create value.” – Annia Spiliopoulos Eliades, Partner, Algean
“One hand forward, one hand back” – Aimee Peters, Global Head of Marketing, HSBC
