16 Banking, Insurance and Fintech Professionals Named Among 2022 Top B2B Marketing Influencers

CMO Huddles, a community of business-to-business (B2B) marketing leaders, have released its selection of this year’s top B2B marketing influencers.

The 101 Top B2B Marketing Influencers of 2022 list recognizes the best marketing leaders from around the world who didn’t just survive this year’s challenges and uncertainties, but also managed to thrive.

These CMOs operate across a wide range of industries, from enterprise software, cybersecurity and healthtech, to legal, human resources (HR), and finance.

In the fintech, banking and insurance sectors, 16 marketing leaders made it into the list. These executives, which represent companies like Emburse, Marqeta and Tap Payments, have proven track records in increasing revenues and building brand awareness, and are being recognized for their drive, leadership and expertise.

Marca Armstrong, CMO, Passport

Marca Armstrong is the CMO of Passport, a mobility software and payments fintech company. Passport’s mobility management platform helps cities manage parking and mobility infrastructure, creating more livable, equitable communities.

Armstrong creates strategies for both B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses that build brand awareness and transform the customer experience while driving incremental revenue and profits. She leverages a rare blend of expertise in core marketing functions and keen understanding of how marketing drives other parts of an organization to quickly map, define and determine what will move buyers through their journey from consideration to advocacy.

Lauren Boyman, CMO, KPMG US

Lauren Boyman is the CMO of KPMG US where she leads B2B marketing function transformation across the firm’s brand and demand generation programs, leveraging newly selected and implemented marketing technologies. She joined KPMG US in 2020 after spending more than a decade at Morgan Stanley.

Boyman is a results-oriented, data-driven marketing and business strategy leader, with a background in management consulting and CPG brand management. She has led successful change-oriented launches that turn vision into strategy and execution across brand, marketing, and digital to achieve high impact outcomes.

Carlos Carvajal, CMO, Q2

Carlos Carvajal is the CMO of Q2, a financial experience company dedicated to providing digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance, and fintech companies in the US and internationally.

At Q2, Carvajal leads the company’s marketing vision, strategy, and initiatives to promote its brand and drive demand for Q2’s industry-leading digital banking and lending solutions. He’s also responsible for spreading the word about Q2’s people-first culture, unparalleled industry expertise, and the differentiated value and success Q2 delivers to customers.

Prior to joining Q2 in 2020, Carvajal spent over 20 years in transformational digital technology, working for companies like K2, a low-code automation solution leader, and Kony, now Temenos, a cloud-based provider of mobility, omnichannel, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems and services.

Joe Cohen, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, AXIS Capital

Joe Cohen is the chief marketing and communications officer of AXIS Capital, a provider of specialty lines insurance and reinsurance globally. At AXIS Capital, Cohen oversees enterprise-wide marketing and communications. He’s responsible for guiding corporate and brand reputation, marketing and advertising, digital marketing, financial communications, public relations (PR), and internal/change management communications.

Cohen is an internationally recognized marketing leader with a proven record of helping brands and organizations build relevance and drive business growth through B2C and B2B strategies on a global scale.

Jakki Geiger, CMO, Pyramid Analytics

Jakki Geiger is the CMO of Pyramid Analytics, a business intelligence software and data analytics company.

Geiger is a high-energy, growth-minded, customer-focused, and results-driven enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) global marketing executive. She has 20 years of experience building go-to-market strategies that drive rapid revenue growth, launched four venture-funded startups, built six new market categories and contributed to double digit growth for innovative enterprise software products at a mid-sized company.

Geiger is experienced in a variety of industries, including banking, financial services, insurance, healthcare, life science and e-commerce.

Danielle Gotkis, SVP Global Marketing, Pecan AI

Danielle Gotkis is the senior vice president of global marketing of Pecan AI, a predictive analytics platform helping business intelligence, operations, and revenue teams predict mission-critical outcomes.

She is a dynamic global marketing executive and commercially astute leader with 15 years of experience in laying the foundations of and scaling SaaS, artificial intelligence (AI) and fintech companies like Recurly, dLocal, Feedzai, PayNearMe, and others.

Gotkis enjoys developing holistic brand and demand generation strategies, applying creativity and analytical acumen, building and coaching teams, solving scale-up challenges, expanding into new markets, orchestrating impactful thought leadership programs, leading successful product launches, and forming lasting partnerships with Fortune 500 giants, global banks, national retails, telcos, and government agencies.

Charles Groome, VP of Marketing, Biz2Credit

Charles Groome is the vice president of marketing of Biz2Credit, a fast-growing fintech company specializing in small business loans. At Biz2Credit, Groome leads digital and traditional marketing programs for both of the company’s business units: small business funding (Biz2Credit) and enterprise banking software (Biz2X). He’s responsible for cross-functional initiatives that span branding, web design and user experience (UX), digital advertising, sales enablement, traditional advertising and internal communications.

Groome is an entrepreneurial-minded leader in marketing and advertising. He has a strong track record of generating web leads and sales opportunities in the SaaS, martech and fintech industries.

Deidre Hudson, CMO, Payability

Deidre Hudson is the CMO of Payability, a financing company that provides Amazon sellers and ecommerce sellers with daily cash flow, capital advances and the Payability Seller Card. At Payability, she is responsible for driving new customer acquisition and expanding the Payability brand.

Hudson has over 20 years of experience in the B2B, SaaS, and fintech industries, and has worked with some of the best-known global brands including Gartner, Tata Consultancy, Wolters Kluwer, Broadridge, 1010data, RCN and GrubHub. She’s skilled in demand generation, ABM, storytelling, and pipeline acceleration.

Grant Johnson, CMO, Emburse

Grant Johnson is the CMO of Emburse, a global leader in expense management, accounts payable and payments solutions. At Emburse, Johnson leads global marketing, overseeing marketing strategies, programs and tactics designed to increase market leadership, generate demand and enhance customer advocacy.

Grant has a storied history working in senior marketing roles for some of the best-known brands in technology, including FileNet/IBM, Symantec and Toshiba. Before joining Emburse, Grant was CMO of cybersecurity company Cylance (acquired by BlackBerry). Prior to that, he was the CMO of Kofax and CMO of Pegasystems.

Shirley Macbeth, CMO, Forrester

Shirley Macbeth is the CMO of Forrester, a leading global market research company, where she is responsible for elevating the company’s thought leadership profile and generating demand for its portfolio of research, consulting, and events.

A senior B2B marketing executive, Macbeth has 25+ years of experience with a proven track record in increasing revenues and building brand awareness for global B2B companies. Prior to Forrester, Shirley served as senior vice president, corporate marketing for ACI Worldwide, a global payments software leader; vice president of marketing for Yankee Group Research; and senior director of marketing for enterprise software giant Sybase (now part of SAP).

Alexandria McCarthy, CMO, Skience

Alexandria McCarthy is the CMO of Skience, a wealth management platform. At Skience, McCarthy leads the development of the strategic marketing and communication plan for the company. She is responsible for the daily demands of driving brand reputation and business growth along with defining a long-term vision for modernizing marketing and communications.

McCarthy is a results-oriented marketing and communications executive with more than two decades of distinguished performance in the financial services industry.

Prior to Skience, she was head of practice management for Orion after the acquisition of Brinker Capital where she was CMO at Brinker Capital Investments. In prior years, she served as an officer at The Guardian Life Insurance Company and RS Investments.

Peter Neiman, CMO, Amalgamated Bank

Peter Neiman is the CMO of Amalgamated Bank, which he joined in 2016. Neiman has a track record of driving transformational marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, having helped reposition Amalgamated Bank as America’s socially responsible bank and as the leader in six segments including unions, progressive political organizations, non-profits, foundations, sustainable businesses and human needs organizations.

Prior to that, Neiman spent nine years leading the repositioning of Unum’s insurance brands in both the US and the UK. Before that, he was a senior vice president at a number of large New York City advertising agencies including, Grey, JWT, Ogilvy and Bozell.

Over his career, he has created integrated marketing campaigns for thirty-five companies including financial industry giants Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, NASDAQ and Commerce Bank.

Martin O’Leary, Group Head Of Marketing, Tap Payments

Martin O’Leary is the group head of marketing of Tap Payments, one of the fastest-growing payment technology and fintech providers in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

O’Leary is an experienced international marketer working across Europe and the Middle East and has over 15 years of experience in digital banking, fintech, and online payments. He combines digital strategy, marketing technology and data analytics to create differentiated customer experiences that drive commercial growth and retention.

Jeff Otto, VP, Marketing, Marqeta

Jeff Otto is the vice president of marketing of Marqeta, a company providing an open API platform for other businesses to create, issue, and deploy virtual and physical payment cards.

His teams at Marqeta cover the spectrum of marketing functions across earned, paid, and owned media. They inspire and guide today’s innovators toward new, delightful payment experiences with the world’s leading modern card Issuing platform.

Ellyn Raftery, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, FIS

Ellyn Raftery is the chief marketing and communications officer of FIS, a Fortune 500 company and leading provider of fintech solutions for merchants, banks and capital markets firms globally. In this role, she is in charge with leading the strategic planning and execution of FIS’ global marketing and corporate communications programs as well as enterprise commercialization.

Raftery has more than 20 years of senior executive experience, focusing on developing integrated marketing strategies for Fortune 500 companies across a range of channels, industries and geographies and combining strategic business development and creative expertise to build global brands and increase sales.

Prior to FIS, she worked for CA Technologies, Unisys Corporation, and Ernst and Young.

Gary Sevounts, CMO, Malwarebytes

Gary Sevounts is the CMO of Malwarebytes, an anti-malware software. Sevounts is a full-stack growth CMO with a proven track record in building and scaling high-impact marketing teams and engines in venture capital-funded, private equity-owned, and public companies. His recent awards include the 2021 CMO of The Year in the KYC and Compliance Space and the 2018 Top 35 Marketing Executives by Wall Street.

Prior to joining Malwarebytes, Sevounts worked for Socure, a leading provider of digital identity verification and fraud solutions; Kount, a fraud prevention and Equifax company; Aryaka Networks, a company that provides wide-area software-defined network connectivity and application delivery; and Zetta, a company specializing in cloud-based backup and disaster recovery for small and mid-sized businesses, enterprises, and managed service providers (MSPs).