20 marketing leaders you should get to know in 2020

When it comes to organizations that are continuously successful in the world of marketing, they usually have one thing in common.

These organizations have very talented professionals at the helm, crafting innovative strategies that expose their products and services to larger and more expansive audiences.

These are the 20 marketing leaders you should get to know in 2020, if you haven’t already.

Neil Patel

What list of leading marketers would be complete without Neil Patel?

A New York Times best-selling author, one of the most sought after SEO specialists, and a marketing blog that generates over three million monthly views are just the tip of the iceberg of Patel’s achievements in marketing.

On top of that, his Marketing School podcast has over 1 million listeners and his YouTube channel on marketing has over 20 million views.

Bozoma Saint John

With a list of marketing accomplishments and awards that could fill an ad executive’s mansion, Bozoma Saint John recently made the move from Chief Marketing Officer at Endeavor to CMO at Netflix in June.

Beginning her career in marketing at Spike Lee’s advertising agency, Saint John has gone on to work for the likes of PepsiCo, as well as Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies such as Apple and Uber.

Adam Christensen

With 20 years of experience and success in communications and marketing for big name companies like Paypal, Juniper, and IBM, Adam Christensen is “one of the most sought after social media communications professionals in the high-tech industry,” according to one LinkedIn recommendation.

Currently, Christensen oversees all global Brand, Marketing and Communications for leading global cloud ecosystem and digital commerce platform, Ingram Micro Cloud.

Rachel Sheppard

As the Director of Global Marketing at the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator, Founder Institute, Rachel Sheppard is a key figure in Founder Institute’s “Public Health Fellowship” program.

In May the accelerator announced the new fellowship program which provides qualified applicants from anywhere on Earth that are building companies to solve public health issues with free access to the Founder Institute program and its Silicon Valley-based mentors.

Dan Wheatley

Dan Wheatley, Co-Founder of Straight Talk Consulting, works with organizations to achieve product market fit before transitioning into scalable and repeatable growth.

While Straight Talk Consulting could tick all the boxes of what a marketing agency does, the company takes a much wider view and oversees work in marketing, operations, sales and analytics to name a few.

Wheatly is also the Head of Operations at AlertFusion.

Anna Milaeva

For the past two years, Anna Milaeva has overseen marketing and communications for Coro Global, a fintech company focused on using distributed ledger technology to facilitate global payments, including payments made in physical gold.

In May, Coro filed for a $13 million IPO, as reported by Nasdaq, and the company is registered as a Money Services Business that is licensed to operate in the State of Florida.

The company is currently signing up users for its mobile app, which is slated to launch later this year.

Paxton Gray

After seven years working vital roles within 97th Floor, in June Paxton Gray was promoted to CEO of the award winning digital marketing company.

97th Floor was recently named one of the best places to work in 2020 by Inc., and the company is particularly proud to boast its Results Only-Work Environment (ROWE) and in preparation for becoming ROWE-certified, the company had each of its employees tested for their readiness at implementing the new strategy, and they “passed with flying colors.”

Jamie Petten

After having led marketing for Canada’s premier SaaS accelerator L-SPARK and co-founding the first-ever SaaS conference, SAAS North, Jamie Petten currently serves as President and Executive Director of the Kanata North Business Association, representing Canada’s Largest Technology Park with over 540 businesses and 24,000 employees.

Petten is also an advocate for women in tech, devoting time as a mentor in the Technovation program and serving on various boards such as Women in Communications and Technology.

Mike Hawkins

With a career in marketing going back to the late 90s, Mike Hawkins is the Co-Founder and Director of Marketing at Riddle, an intuitive online quiz maker and lead generation platform.

“Quizzes have proven to be a valuable tool – they’re one of the most effective ways to get leads and drive sales with opt-in rates of 20-25% (and up to 50%!),” Hawkins wrote in an article published on Socialnomics.

Stef Reid

Last year, Stef Reid stepped into the role of Director of Marketing at L-Spark after having been a Partner Marketing Specialist at Klipfolio.

Responsible for helping startups build digital marketing plans focused on accelerating the visibility and growth of the company, Reid says that her favorite part of being a marketer is working with people who inspire creative ideas that challenge the status quo.

Sudhir Bhatti

Having cut his marketing chops at prestigious firms such as Symantec, VMWare, and Informatica, Sudhir Bhatti co-founded GrowthPlug to help healthcare practices become modern, efficient and grow online by delivering a patient first experience.

Bhatti started his career in India where he was part of a startup that was acquired in 2010 and earned 1 million users through organic marketing — a technique he leverages to replicate success in the healthcare industry.

Keeley Walker

Making the transition from journalist and editor at papers like the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Express, Keeley Walker put her talents and insight towards entrepreneurship.

Last year, she founded her own marketing and communications startup, KW Comms, and she is also the Chief Marketing Officer at the luxury male grooming company, Hommage.

“First and foremost I consider myself a storyteller and this mentality is evident throughout all of my work,” Walker wrote on her LinkedIn profile.

Michael Burke

Michael Burke is Brand Manager at one of New York City’s fastest growing social startups, SelfMade, where he helps e-commerce companies scale their businesses and generate revenue through Instagram.

He is also the founder of the popular Instagram @talkshowents, and his work has been featured on Entrepreneur, and StartupBeat.

Jackie Hermes

Women’s Entrepreneurship Week Co-Founder and CEO and Founder of digital marketing agency Accelity, Jackie Hermes‘ one-woman consultancy quickly grew to 17 team members with “loyal clients all over the US.”

With Accelity, Hermes translated her background in business-to-business (B2B) marketing into successful relationships with B2B startups and small businesses across the United States.

Sudip Saha

As the COO of award-winning market research and consulting firm Future Market Insights, Sudip Saha is a growth-oriented business professional with vast experience in market research and project management across verticals in APAC, EMEA, and Americas.

Saha is a strong believer and proponent of innovation-based solutions, with an emphasis on creating customized solutions to meet varied client needs.

Jen Laloup

Mobile Growth Association CEO Jen Laloup has played a role in many key positions in high profile companies over the span of her career.

From Production Assistant on PBS’ The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and researcher at Wired to the head of a global community providing mobile marketing professionals with frontline content, education, and events, Laloup brings over 15 years of experience in media, publishing, and operations to the Mobile Growth Association.

Nooka Jones

Aside from being a talented DJ, Nooka Jones is a Producer of Human Interface at Apple.

Previously, Jones led Google’s creative lab in New York City, where he headed marketing and product design with Google’s talented product teams and large-scale projects.

And before that, he worked at Brooklyn-based Big Spaceship, where he was a strategist and lead projects for companies such as Lucasfilm, Wrigley, and Absolut.

Mychelle Mollot

Mychelle Mollot is an experienced software executive with over 25 years experience leading marketing, product marketing, product, market strategy, and go-to-market initiatives and teams.

She is the Chief Marketing Officer at Solace, the leading provider of real-time event-driven data streaming.

Solace helps large enterprises become modern and real-time by giving them everything they need to make their business operations and customer interactions event-driven.

Gautam Daswani

Gautam Daswani helps to oversee the marketing team at Talos Digital.

He has over 20 years of experience in marketing, management, sales, business development and operations across Miami and the United States, and has a focus on e-commerce platforms that are utilizing SAP and Adobe software.

Vlad Moldavskiy

After having founded Mabbly, Vlad Moldavskiy went on to head marketing at MorningStar.

Moldavskiy is also a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization composed of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs, and also writes for Venturebeat, Inc and Huffington Post in his spare time.

Jennifer Polk

As the Chief of Research and Vice President of Gartner, Jennifer Polk has spent the last seven years advising CMOs and marketing leaders on how to use digital marketing techniques.

Gartner research is cited by just about every tech and business news outlet on the planet, and Polk specializes in researching and advising clients on best practices, trends and technologies in personalization, digital commerce, and multichannel marketing, according to her LinkedIn bio.

Disclosure: This article includes clients of an Espacio portfolio company