Executive Conversations

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Rob Freedman, VP of Marketing at EZO. Rob shares insights from his two-decade career in marketing leadership, including lessons from preparing companies for IPO and navigating high-stakes executive rooms. He discusses how the role of marketing has shifted from brand-led to performance-driven, and why CFOs and product leaders a...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Kathleen Booth, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Pavilion. Kathleen shares her perspective on why so many marketers today feel cornered—expected to own revenue without the resources, time, or internal alignment to succeed. She explores the short-termism trap, where overreliance on pipeline metrics erodes brand value and c...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Rick Egan, chief marketing officer at Beyond Inc., a public marketplace for home goods. Rick traces his path from SEO specialist to leading marketing at a listed company, explaining how that journey sharpened his focus on demand signals, technology fluency and stakeholder management. He unpacks the post-covid demand crash, why...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Dan Chapman, VP of sales and marketing at DocNow. Dan tells the story of walking into a startup that was generating one or two MQLs a month, then building a 90-day lead-gen engine that lit up the entire pipeline. He explains how owning both sales and marketing forces a single-funnel mindset, why every project must prove its re...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Igor Kranjcec, VP of marketing at Farseer and at the Sastanak conference. Igor traces his 15-year shift from traffic-obsessed marketer to revenue-owned operator, explaining how linking every marketer’s bonus to closed-won deals ended budget battles and vanity metrics. He breaks down the mechanics of joint sales-marketing deal...

Welcome to Executive Conversations, where we dig into the gritty realities of leading modern marketing teams. In this episode, Maeva Cifuentes sits down with Janet Jaiswal, chief marketing officer at Blueshift and long-time marketing advisor. Janet unpacks why her team now owns 90 percent of pipeline, how she killed the vanity of MQLs in favour of BANT-qualified “stage 1” leads, and what it really...

In this episode, Maeva talks with Amir Jabbari, the three-time CMO now steering growth at BimeBazaar. Amir explains how bouncing from FMCG to fintech to insurtech sharpened his creativity and pushed him to blend street-level observation with hard data. He breaks down why posture and facial cues matter more than click-through rates, how a brand-attitude study convinced a data-obsessed board to bank...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Rachel Weeks, former VP of Marketing. Rachel shares her experience leading B2B SaaS marketing teams and how she’s adapting to the rapid rise of AI across GTM functions. She discusses why AI should be treated like a junior hire, not a plug-and-play solution, and why marketers today are responsible for training not just their te...

In this episode of Executive Conversations Natalie Naik shares her experience launching a B2B marketing function from scratch inside a traditionally D2C-focused company. Natalie tells us how she navigated educating leadership unfamiliar with B2B marketing, especially around handling long sales cycles and fundamentally different KPIs. Natalie also touches on selecting the right channels for niche B...

In this episode, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Malte Landwehr, VP of SEO at Idealo. Malte shares how SEO isn’t just a channel, it’s the foundation of Idealo’s business model and what it actually means to lead SEO at executive level. He walks through how he filters out 75% of ideas using prioritization frameworks, how he scopes influence across five departments without direct authority, and how he ha...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Lindsay Kelley, VP of Marketing at Sonar Software.  Lindsay talks us through her techniques for advocating for marketing initiatives within the organization to secure necessary resources. They also discuss methods to develop and present budgets that reflect marketing goals and company targets and strategies to identify and col...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Jordan Hwang, VP of Marketing at OpenPhone. Jordan explains why marketing leaders must learn to "market marketing" within their organization to secure buy-in for initiatives. Jordan and Maeva also discuss expanding influence across teams and aligning stakeholders around shared goals. Jordan emphasizes that cross-func...

In this episode of Executive Conversations , Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Hannah Garner, CRO at Arctic Shores, about the real work behind getting leadership on board with a marketing strategy. Hannah explains why starting with budget is a losing game—executives need to agree on what "good" marketing looks like before numbers even enter the conversation. She shares how GTM leaders can sell...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Silvia Valencia, VP of Revenue Marketing at Docebo, about her journey from agency to in-house marketing. Silvia shares how her experience at Refine Labs taught her to manage buy-in, present strategic investment cases, and reallocate budgets effectively. Maeva and Silvia also emphasize the importance of starting relationships w...

In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Charlie Riley, Head of Marketing at OneScreen. They discuss the importance of establishing trust with internal stakeholders and the need to understand each department’s motivations so you can communicate the value of marketing in their terms. Charlie also shares insights into the challenges of being the first marketing hire an...

Mark and Maeva discuss navigating experiment overload in GTM strategies, emphasizing the need for trade-offs. The conversation covers the importance of aligning marketing and sales efforts, with a focus on multi-threaded outreach to decision-makers. Mark shares his approach to working closely with the VP of sales to present a united front to the co-founders. The episode explores how to use data ef...

In this episode of Executive Conversations Ana Laura and Maeva discuss the importance of building relationships and connections with leadership and key stakeholders within an organization. She emphasizes the need to bridge the gap between marketing and sales, focusing on mutual understanding and collaboration to drive business growth. Ana Laura also highlights the role of data in storytelling, usi...

Summary Executive Buy-In and Influence: Matt discusses the challenges of gaining executive buy-in and influence in a mid-market SaaS company. He emphasizes the importance of aligning marketing strategies with company goals and demonstrating ROI through data-driven storytelling. This involves convincing stakeholders that marketing initiatives are not only beneficial but necessary for long-term grow...

Summary  Mohamed Reza shares insights into how he navigates executive conversations and aligns marketing strategies with long-term goals. Discusses the challenges of securing executive buy-in and how he overcomes these hurdles using data-driven storytelling. Explains his approach to presenting budgets in a way that aligns with company targets, even when they’re challenging to quantify. Highlights...

Summary Communicating value effectively: Emphasizing that communication happens not just at the speaker's mouth, but at the listener's ear. It’s essential for marketing leaders to think about how they communicate value to executives and ensure it’s framed in a way that resonates with the listener's perspective. The power of framing and narrative: Marketing leaders must frame their contributions an...

“It’s not just about getting things done, but doing it in a way that doesn’t ruffle feathers while making sure people are on your side. “ Shana Haynie , Head of Content & Organic Growth at MoEngage In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva chats with Shana Haynie, Head of Content and Organic Growth at MoEngage North America, as she shares her experience managing content strategy across...

“Communicate- Be transparent, set expectations and then mitigate” Lisa Vecchio , GVP of Integrated Marketing from Aircall In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva chats with Lisa Vecchio, former GVP of Integrated Marketing at Aircall. She previously worked with Hootsuite and Expedia and shares her experiences navigating leadership transitions, adjusting marketing strategies, and working c...

"It's about finding creative ways to make an impact, even when budgets are tight. That's where true innovation happens. " - Tove Hernlund , Marketing Team Lead at Jobylon    In this episode, Maeva chats with Tove Hernlund , Marketing Team Lead at Jobylon , as she shares her journey from university to leading a marketing team. She discusses the importance of creative problem-solvi...

"Being confident and convicted gives other people the confidence that this guy might know what the hell he's talking about" Devin Reed , Founder, The Reeder   In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva chats with Devin Reed, founder of The Reeder, about architecting the perfect pitch. Devin shares practical tips from his experience, such as starting with a CEO slide, speaking...

“What’s more critical to me than reporting structures is strategic alignment. What is strategically and critically important to the business? “ William Chia , VP of Marketing at Styra In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes interviews William Chia, the VP of Marketing at Styra. They discuss the challenges of getting buy-in from various stakeholders in the go-to-market space. Wi...