Ned Duggan - Global CMO & President, Bacardi Global Brands
Ned Duggan spent nearly five years as a capital markets officer at the Inter-American Development Bank before he ever touched a brand. Bacardi hired him in 2008 as a senior brand manager on Grey Goose in Coral Gables, and he has been there eighteen years. As brand director for Bombay Sapphire he delivered 17% sales growth and 24% revenue growth over two years. Promoted to VP of marketing for North America, he ran a ten-person team across Coral Gables and Toronto with portfolio revenue above $150 million and a budget over $32 million, growing Bombay Sapphire 3.6% in a declining gin category, lifting ST-GERMAIN 12%, and taking D'USSE VSOP Cognac from 25,000 to 94,000 nine-liter cases, a 280% gain. Impact Magazine named him a Rising Star in 2015 and again in 2016. He also built the company's Women in Leadership mentoring program. Four years in Bermuda followed, first on Bacardi rum and D'USSE and then as global SVP of marketing. Since September 2022 he has been global chief marketing officer and president of Bacardi Global Brands.
Lee Applbaum - CMO, Norwegian Cruise Line
More than 150 countries fell inside Lee Applbaum's remit at Patrón Spirits International, where he spent nearly six years as global CMO working between Schaffhausen and Southlake, Texas. Bacardi then widened his scope to include Grey Goose. Retail came first. He was EVP and chief marketing officer at Schottenstein Stores and then at RadioShack for more than three years, and later spent eight months as an independent consultant CMO for Target Australia in Melbourne. Aviation came after spirits: he joined Wheels Up as a board advisor, became its CMO, and played a key role in the on-demand private aviation company's 2021 public listing. He also co-founded Round 2 Spirits, a privately held venture built to develop disruptive and scalable spirits brands. Norwegian Cruise Line named him CMO in 2026, with brand strategy, guest engagement, and demand generation under him. He arrives with seven ships on order through 2037 and the company's private island, Great Stirrup Cay, newly expanded with a 19-slide waterpark.
Kim Miller - EVP & Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, ADT
At The Economist Group, Kim Miller held global responsibility for branding, customer acquisition and retention, communications, and company-wide data, research, and insights, reporting to the CEO. Her two and a half years there coincided with a run of recognition: Economist Impact and Economist Education won at the 2022 Digiday Media Awards, The Intelligence took Adweek's Podcast of the Year, and Economist Impact won Event of the Year at the British Media Awards for Sustainability Week. Music software followed at Native Instruments, where she ran branding, go-to-market, performance marketing, e-commerce, retail sales, CRM, content, and search. Then robotics. As chief growth and marketing officer at Aescape she led the full-funnel go-to-market strategy for a B2B2C wellness and AI robotics company that had launched only months earlier. ADT hired her as EVP and chief marketing and communications officer in January 2026. Subscription models are her specialty, honed over 25 years across technology, media, and retail.
Karen Jones - EVP & CMO, Ryder
Karen Jones joined Hewlett-Packard in 1987 and stayed seventeen years, working across Palo Alto and Houston and rising to VP of marketing. Logistics came next. She spent six years as SVP of marketing at DHL in Plantation, then three and a half as CMO of NRG Energy in Houston. Ryder System made her EVP and chief marketing officer in September 2013, and she has held the role for thirteen years, the longest single tenure on this list. Her record spans both B2B and B2C brand building, with a stated focus on revenue and EBITDA performance rather than awareness alone. B2B Magazine named her its Marketer of the Year.
Nathan Rosenberg - Chief Brand & Marketing Officer, Virgin Voyages
Warren the Lovable Loser was Nathan Rosenberg's work, one of the campaign ideas he developed running brand and communications for Virgin Mobile in Sydney in the early 2000s. He has now spent more than 25 years with Virgin, including seven years as CMO of Virgin Mobile Canada and a consulting practice serving Virgin Group, Virgin Money, Virgin Unite, and Virgin Galactic, alongside Condé Nast. At Virgin Voyages his scope covers the full commercial function: brand, business strategy, demand generation, the sales organization, AI transformation, internal communications, partnerships, media, and experience innovation. Travel + Leisure has named the line the World's Best Mega-Ship Cruise Line every year from 2023 to 2026. He introduced transparent pricing to an industry that had not used it, created Screw It Let's Do It Productions as the cruise industry's first entertainment spin-off, and staged Brilliant Lady's New York debut with 2,400 voices singing past the Statue of Liberty. His AI work, involving dozens of deployed agents and 40% faster campaign cycles, was featured at Google CMO Lab and at Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise global launch. Rosenberg was born in Sydney and lives in Miami.
Victor Garcia - CMO, Union Bravo
A PhD separates Victor Garcia from most marketing executives. He earned it in business administration from Florida Atlantic University, with research on how data privacy is disrupting brand equity. His career began in multicultural media at The Bravo Group, handling AT&T, Chevron, Land Rover, and Kraft Foods, and he later established Hill Holliday's first multicultural media practice in Miami. Eight years at Starcom MediaVest followed, where he served as a trusted advisor to Burger King's global CMO. Publicis Groupe then made him EVP and managing director, and he spearheaded the group's regional Latin American headquarters, launched a CRM practice, and led a team of more than 70 across media, CRM, content, and data. He managed over 25 regional pitches with an 82% conversion rate. Since 2022 he has held a dual role at TelevisaUnivision, serving as CMO of Union Bravo, its corporate venture arm, where he leads media-for-equity strategies for startups including Fetch, Paysend, Notco, and Inter.mx, while supporting US sales teams.
Joe Schatz - CMO, Hard Rock International & Seminole Gaming
Casinos have occupied Joe Schatz for a quarter century. He spent more than eighteen years at Caesars Entertainment, starting as VP of marketing for Harrah's New Orleans in 2002 and moving through regional roles in Lake Charles, Shreveport, and Tunica. A stint as VP of international marketing followed, then the Central Division out of New Orleans. As regional vice president for the East Region he built the strategic marketing plan and budget for five casinos across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, three of them in Atlantic City, covering direct marketing, advertising, digital, promotions, events, and entertainment. His final Caesars role was senior VP of marketing strategy and regional CMO. Seminole Gaming hired him as chief marketing officer in 2019, and since January 2025 he has led marketing for Hard Rock International alongside it.
Christine Kotler - Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Baptist Health South Florida
Christine Kotler has built her entire career in South Florida institutions. She spent five years as director of marketing communications at the University of Miami before Baptist Health South Florida hired her in 2007 as assistant vice president of marketing and public relations. Nine years later she became chief marketing and communications officer. Twenty years at one health system is rare in any marketing discipline, and rarer still in a sector where brand trust is built slowly and lost quickly.
Matt Rubin - CMO, US & Canada, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
Matt Rubin came to marketing from investment banking. He worked in Bear Stearns' strategic finance group, then covered gaming, travel, and leisure at KeyBanc Capital Markets and FBR in New York, with a private equity internship at Huron Capital in between. At The SWI Group he was senior director of strategy and analytics for a private equity-backed online watch distributor with revenue above $150 million, where he introduced Tableau, built company-wide operational reporting, and identified algorithmic pricing as the lever for profitability. Restaurant Brands International hired him in 2015 into marketing analytics for Latin America. From there he ran marketing for Puerto Rico, then sales, development, and operations across thirteen Caribbean countries, then twelve countries as general manager of the Asia Pacific south division, and then marketing for Burger King and Popeyes across the whole APAC region from Singapore. Popeyes brought him back to Miami in 2022. He was VP of marketing, then VP of digital, then chief digital officer responsible for digital sales and restaurant technology, and since January 2026, chief marketing officer for the US and Canada. He holds an MBA from Michigan's Ross School of Business.
Bruno Cardinali - CMO, Pura Vida Miami
Thirteen years at Unilever taught Bruno Cardinali to move share points. He relaunched the AdeS soy beverage brand in Brazil and then Mexico, where it grew 32%, launched Knorr Quick in Brazil for a 770 basis point value share gain in four months, and introduced the first Knorr seasoning in Latin America, picking up 470 basis points in Brazil and 300 in Mexico within five months. Australia and New Zealand came next, where he led a team of eight across four food categories. Then New York. As global brand marketing lead for Pure Leaf he doubled the brand to $1 billion in retail sales value by early 2017, lifting penetration to 16.7% and value share to 14.3%. Restaurant Brands International recruited him to head marketing for Burger King across Latin America and the Caribbean, then made him CMO of Popeyes for three years. He spent three and a half years as global CMO of OAKBERRY Açaí before joining Pura Vida Miami as chief marketing officer in May 2026. Ad Age named him to its 40 Under 40, and he serves as an Adweek executive mentor.
What a Consumer Town Rewards
There is no software company on this list, and that absence shapes everything. These marketers measure share points, nine-liter cases, penetration rates, and guest demand rather than pipeline and ARR. Many of them learned the trade in markets where a brand has to earn its shelf space in Portuguese, Spanish, and English at once, and where the campaign that works in São Paulo may not work in San Juan. That grounding travels well. It explains why a rum company, a cruise line, a fried chicken chain, and a casino operator can all recruit from the same regional talent pool and each get someone who already knows how to sell something people can touch.