The CMO Podcast

More and more CMOs are ascending to the CEO role. Starbucks, Hinge, Revlon, Avon, and Brinker International are all companies that have elevated former CMOs to CEO.
Joining Jim this week is a guest who joins that group. Diana Haussling is the Chief Executive Officer of hello, the bold, happy, design-forward oral care brand. Founded in 2012 by Craig Dubitsky with the goal of being a “friendly” alternative in the market, hello was acquired by Colgate in early 2020 for a reported $351 million. Today, hello products are found in over 55,000 retail stores across the U.S.
Before stepping into the CEO role, Diana served for four years as Chief Marketing Officer for North America at Colgate, where she led Marketing, Digital Commerce, and Direct-to-Consumer. Her career also includes roles at three other Fortune 500 companies: Campbell’s, General Mills, and The Hershey Company.
Tune in for a conversation with a leader who speaks candidly about insecurity, ambition, and why learning to talk about your strengths isn’t bragging, but necessary.
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What does it take to build a brand that cuts through the noise in a world where most people are trying to ignore you?
Jim’s guest this week is Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, Chief Marketing Officer at DoorDash, who has spent the last seven years helping transform the company from a restaurant delivery app into a multi-category commerce platform with over $14 billion in revenue and more than 3.2 billion orders in 2025. Today, DoorDash is one of the most recognizable brands in tech, with ambitions to become a “24/7 life assistant” for its customers.
Kofi joined DoorDash in 2019 as VP of Marketing before being promoted to the company’s first Chief Marketing Officer in 2022. In this role, he oversees marketing across consumers, merchants, and Dashers. Born in Ghana, Kofi came to the U.S. for college in Minnesota, where, as he says, he stumbled into marketing. He began his career at Leo Burnett, then worked at Wieden+Kennedy and Publicis, before moving to the brand side with Bacardi and Facebook.
After the recording, Kofi announced that he will be stepping down from his role at DoorDash in May, marking the end of an impactful chapter helping shape one of the most recognizable brands in tech and commerce.
Tune in for a conversation on risk, leadership, and building work that actually gets noticed.
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This week's episode is brought to you by IAB.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If culture moves at the speed of TikTok, then today’s CMO has to move just as fast.
This week, Jim is joined by Sofia Hernandez, Global Head of Business Marketing and Commercial Partnerships at TikTok. Since launching in the U.S. in 2018, TikTok has reshaped culture, content, and marketing. And its mission, to inspire creativity and bring joy, has fueled extraordinary growth, even as the company has navigated controversy and major shifts, including the recent acquisition of TikTok U.S. by a consortium of investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. The platform now reaches more than one billion users globally and has grown into a multi-billion-dollar advertising business, generating an estimated $33 billion in ad revenue in 2025.
Sofia has spent the past six years helping build TikTok’s business during one of the most dynamic growth periods in tech. In her role, she helps brands around the world show up effectively on one of the most culturally influential platforms in the world. Before TikTok, Sofia served as Chief Client Officer at the consumer insights platform Suzy and began her career in advertising at Publicis, later spending five years at BBDO. An activist at her core, Sofia also speaks openly about representation in tech, where Latinas hold roughly 1% of executive roles, and she is deeply committed to fostering inclusion across the industry.
Tune in for a conversation with a leader who believes today's CMOs must evolve into enterprise leaders who connect culture, creativity, and business results.
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Learn more, request a free pass, and register at iab.com/newfronts
Promo Code for free access: CMOPODNEW26
*Note: promo code is exclusive for brand and agency, brand marketers and media buyers. IAB reserves the right to cancel any registrations that don’t meet this criterion.
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This week's episode is brought to you by IAB.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To kick off Women’s History Month, Jim welcomes Lara Balazs, the Chief Marketing Officer and EVP of Global Marketing at Adobe. A company at the center of creativity, transformation and technology. Founded in 1982, Adobe is a software company that is famous for its creativity, innovation, and strong employee and customer-centric culture. Their purpose is to change the world through personalized digital experiences, and their offerings include the Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Adobe Express.
Lara is an experienced CMO. Before Adobe, Lara was the CMO at Intuit for six years, and oversaw a strong run, tripling revenue during her tenure. Over the course of her career, Lara has worked at Visa, Nike, Amazon, and Gap. At Adobe, Lara is leading the charge to help shape the iconic company into its next era of growth. Just one year into the role, she’s already refreshed the company’s mission to “empower everyone to create” and is leading one of the most ambitious AI-enabled marketing transformations in the industry.
Tune in for a conversation with a leader who believes we are entering the golden age of creativity…
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Learn more, request a free pass, and register at iab.com/ccs
Promo Code for $150 off ticket prices: CMOPODCCS26
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This week's episode is brought to you by IAB.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it take to revitalize a 150-year-old company? Jim’s guest this week, Conny Kalcher, has done it twice. First at LEGO during its historic turnaround, and now at Zurich Insurance as their Group Chief Customer Officer, where she’s proving that empathy is not a soft skill but a strategic advantage.
Conny spent 33 years at LEGO, where she helped navigate one of the most dramatic brand turnarounds in modern business history. Then in 2019, she joined Zurich Insurance, a company with over 200-country reach and a $100 billion market capitalization, to lead global customer loyalty and advocacy at a time when trust and humanity matter more than ever. And since joining, Conny has helped drive millions of new customers, a 35% increase in brand value, and measurable improvements in satisfaction and retention.
This is a conversation about renewing legacy brands, leading cultural transformation, and proving that empathy is not just good for people, it’s good for business.
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Learn more, request a free pass, and register at iab.com/newfronts
Promo Code for free access: CMOPODNEW26
*Note: promo code is exclusive for brand and agency, brand marketers and media buyers. IAB reserves the right to cancel any registrations that don’t meet this criterion.
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This week's episode is brought to you by Deloitte and IAB.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.