Marketer of the Year: Burger King, Diageo, Grab, J&J, L’Oréal and P&G chiefs make shortlist

The next stage in the process will be a public vote. Industry representatives can vote for their favourite starting today and until early January 2020 on the WFA website. The winner will be announced in late January 2020.

See the full list below along with their nominations testimony.

Fernando Machado, chief marketing officer, Burger King

Fernando Machado has renewed the Burger King marketing model and created a brand that agencies recognise as a ‘great client’ because he’s ready to work hard for a fantastic creative idea.

Machado has spoken to The Drum over the past year on why bespoke agency models don't work and how he turned marketing around for the fast food giant.

Syl Saller, chief marketing and innovation officer at Diageo

Syl Saller is a leading voice on marketing leadership and the power of a diverse and representative team. She combines rigour with creativity in a way that enables the company to increase investment on the back of proven gains in return.

As part of her efforts to improve diversity within the industry, Saller has put pressure on Diageo's roster of agencies to shift the dial. After penning a letter to agencies she found that there is a strong representation of women in the leadership teams of its ad agency partners and has now focused its work on improving the stats within creative departments.

Cheryl Goh, group vice president of marketing and founding CMO at Grab

Cheryl Goh is part of the early founding team at Grab. Starting in Kuala Lumpur as a one-man marketing team, she has set up the marketing practice across Southeast Asia for Grab over the last six years. Today, she leads marketing in over 300 cities in eight countries, covering all of Grab's business verticals including transport, food, payments and logistics.

Goh has previously outlined to The Drum how she grew Grab to be a marketing leader in Southeast Asia.

Richa Goswami, global head of digital at Johnson & Johnson

Richa Goswami has been the driving force behind one the most disruptive, inspiring and celebrated pieces of work by J&J, Project Free Period. This project brought J&J multiple awards, including a Spikes Grand Prix for creative effectiveness, back-to-back Lions at Cannes and the inaugural D&AD Impact Prize Fund for an idea that can positively impact lives.

Goswami was named among The Drum's top 100 digital marketers in this year's Digerati.

Lubomira Rochet, chief digital officer, L’Oréal

Lubomira Rochet is leading the digital transformation of L’Oréal, creating a new model for the marketing organisation and boosting e-commerce revenues. Data now allows the company to deliver meaningful and relevant content to consumers.

Rochet, also a recipient of this year's Digerati award, recently revealed how effective L'Oreal's investment in AR tech has been.

Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer at Procter & Gamble

Marc Pritchard has ensured marketing powers P&G’s results, revamping its agency model, tackling media transparency and creating powerful ad experiences to address the challenges of brand citizenship.

Pritchard recently sat down with The Drum to discuss his career.

Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s marketing boss, chair of the Jury and WFA president, paid tribute to those shortlisted.

“As a global marketer facing similar challenges, I have profound respect for all six of them and for how they’ve demonstrated that marketing can transform their businesses, their relationship with consumers and drive growth,” Rajamannar said.

Stephan Loerke, chief executive of the WFA praised the six shortlisted candidates for their ability to “powerfully demonstrate that this is a role that can deliver real rewards for companies, consumers and society more widely”.

“Huge congratulations to them all,” he added.

This is the third year that the WFA is running Global Marketer of the Year. Global Marketer of the Year 2017 went to Unilever’s Keith Weed and Rajamannar was the winner in 2018.