A CMO who has been instrumental in the journey of transforming a cult challenger Aussie QSR brand through to global giant and an ASX public listing that’s generated a $3bn market cap has taken top honours at the first-ever CMO Awards.

More than 170 of Australia’s finest marketing leaders and industry luminaries descended on the Eveleigh at The Ground Ballroom last night to participate in the inaugural CMO Awards gala dinner, powered by Mi3. The new CMO recognition program is about recognising and elevating the excellence of Australia’s top marketing leadership talent and their teams. This year’s program was proudly supported by Platinum partner, Adobe, along with Gold Partners, Publicis Groupe and News Australia.

Winning #1 CMO of the Year was Guzman y Gomez global CMO, Lara Thom. For the judges, this was Thom’s year. GyG has been an unbelievable trajectory over recent years as GyG has spread its wings from challenger brand to IPO-listed QSR goliath, opening 190 locations across Australia, the US and Singapore since she joined. Which means over the last nine years, this CMO has been on the ride of her life.

Thom has led marketing, brand and commercial strategies through a period of extraordinary expansion. In FY2024, GYG’s total network sales reached $960 million, marking an increase of over $200 million from the previous year. Last year, GyG took its biggest step yet, listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in Australia’s most successful IPO of the year. Overwhelming demand led to an increase in the offer size to $335.1 million and upon listing, GYG’s shares surged by 36 per cent, elevating its market capitalisation to approximately $3 billion. It’s the largest ASX debut since 2021. With responsibility for all revenue functions, and now spending 40 per cent of her time internationally, Thom has been at the helm and right-hand side of co-CEO and founder, Steve Marks, every step of the way.

Through it all, she’s displayed a firm eye on the sales and revenue prize. Thom has pursued and made the ‘Clean as the new healthy’ brand platform a powerhouse market play for the business. She’s debuted GyG TV, experimented – and won big – across channels such as TikTok, and even worked closely with the exec team on the narrative prospective shareholders were treated to on GyG’s growth trajectory and market potential in collaboration with finance and legal.

CMO Awards: The top 5

Following Thom in the top 5 CMOs of the Year ranks was The Arnott’s Group CMO, Jenni Dill. In reading Dill’s submission for the CMO Awards, judges were quick to note just how much aplomb she brings to classic, 4P, FMCG marketing.

Through her five-year tenure at Arnott’s, Dill has been instrumental in building out new product lines such as Arnott’s gluten-free and reduced sugar ranges, expanding ecommerce opportunities, opening up direct consumer engagement and new retail placements, and lifting masterbrand value and equity, leading to more commercial value. All of this earnt her #2 in the 2025 rankings.

In third position was Tourism Australia CMO, Susan Coghill, who presented judges with a truly evolving story of how brand marketing is delivered. As she stated in her submission: “This entry isn’t about a shiny new campaign but about proving the power of consistency and long-term results for Australia’s vital tourism industry.”

In building the long-term ‘Come and Say G’Day’ platform, grounded in a wealth of insight – most notably what international audiences are looking for, not what 26m Australians want to see – visitor growth is 172 per cent higher than category, while spend-per-trip up 9.9 per cent. Total international visitor expenditure grew to a record $48.4bn. This has translated into $2.7bn in annual incremental tourism expenditure and 30 per cent lift in consideration.

Rounding out the CMO Awards top five are Commonwealth Bank CMO, Jo Boundy, displaying a wealth of diversity and strategic delivery; and IAG chief customer and marketing officer, Michelle Klein, for her pursuit of NRMA’s all-encompassing ‘A Help Company’ platform.

Notably, eight of the 10 marketing leaders recognised in the 2025 list are women. The top 10 CMOs of the Year also canvassed a mix of industry sectors including FMCG, QSR, banking and insurance, telecommunications and digital, plus many of Australia’s iconic, heritage brands.  

CMO Awards program criteria

The annual CMO Awards program has five key aims:

• Recognising Australia’s most progressive and effective CMOs and marketing leaders
• Rewarding and supporting successful, innovative growth strategies and ‘big M’ marketing delivery
• Building excellence and elevating the stature of Australia’s best performing marketing chiefs and their teams
• Supporting excellence across marketing, customer and business growth leadership
• Connecting an alumni of CMOs, marketing leaders and emerging marketing leaders.

This year, three CMO-level categories were awarded: Chief Marketing Officers of the Year, recognising 51 finalists and a top 25 list of Chief Marketing Officers of the Year, plus an SMB CMO of the Year (up to 200 employees), and First-Time CMO of the Year. All categories required entrants to complete the main nomination form and were graded by the main CMOs of the Year judging panel. These awards were open to the most senior marketing executive for an organisation based in Australia with a remit that includes the Australian market.

The main category awards were judged by a 10-strong judging panel, while Best Growth Initiative of the Year was judged by a dedicated second set of judges. These include former marketing leaders, non-executive directors and industry luminaries.

This full list of year’s top 10 CMOs of the Year are:

1. Lara Thom, global CMO, Guzman y Gomez
2. Jenni Dill, CMO, The Arnott’s Group
3. Susan Coghill, CMO, Tourism Australia
4. Jo Boundy, CMO, Commonwealth Bank
5. Michelle Klein, Chief customer and marketing officer, IAG
6. Andy Morley, CMO APAC Uber & Uber Eats
7. Brent Smart, CMO, Telstra
8. Sarah Myers, GM audience and marketing, REA Group
9. Angela Greenwood, CMO, Youi
10. Joanne Smith, chief brand, innovation and communications officer, Blackmores Group

The full list of all finalists can be found here.

SMB CMO of the Year

This year’s SMB CMO of the Year honours went to Bradley Firth, CMO of Mountain Culture Beer Co.

Judges recognised Firth as a CMO who has implemented enviable marketing principles and strategy into this small Australian business of 75 staff. These efforts have fed into even more stellar business results, including an 38 per cent lift in topline growth year-on-year as a direct result of marketing’s efforts.

Firth was also recognised for his work building formal marketing plans with use of solid data and insight, commitment to brand strategy, and tough calls – one was to step away from a historical focus on indies to tap newer, curious drinkers through major retailers and on-premise venue, leading to a +55 per cent uptick through the trade channel.

First-Time CMO of the Year

The First-Time CMO of the Year accolade was bestowed on Kristy Rutherford, Marketing Director Australia and New Zealand, Pernod Ricard, who also ranked #19^th on the main CMOs of the Year tally.

Kristy told judges she didn’t believe she had the experience and resumé of many of the seasoned CMOs out there, but had seen the category for CMOs with under 2 years’ experience and braved it. And judges agreed Kristy had something to be proud about in first 20 months as a CMO. A can-do attitude, strong display of marketing aptitude made her an unanimous choice for first-time honours.

“I strongly believe that I’ve set a clear vision and agenda, and proven that you can turn a -30% reduction in headcount into the best thing that ever happened to your marketing organisation,” said Rutherford in her submission. “By embracing the 'More IMPACT' mindset, I have not only transformed market performance but reshaped our culture, unlocking our team's full potential - turning a business that was losing share to one that is now consistently winning share across all four segments."

CMO Awards finalists: Facts and figures

While CMO tenure commonly remains the shortest of the modern c-suite, the CMO Awards skewed towards recognising the value of those who have nutted it out longer than average and in terms of overall company tenure.

Across the total 51 finalists for the CMOs of the Year, this year’s average job tenure is 3 years and 3 months. Company tenure is even longer: 5 years, 4 months – albeit skewed by a few long-timers in their organisations.

Two-thirds of CMO Awards finalists this year report to the company CEO or managing director. The remainder generally report into a division MD or lead, or group executive. Just over six in 10 work for Australian majority owned or ASX-listed companies. Several private equity owned businesses across the finalists too, but judges recognised it generally does fall that those from locally owned organisations – with some category exceptions – seem to have more control over more Ps, the P&L, and ability to be more strategic – and therefore rank higher.

Across our finalists, just over half run marketing – or sometimes marketing and CX functions – of between 30 and 100 staff; whereas one in five have 20 or fewer staff.

The full list of all finalists can be found here.

Unlocking growth: The Best Growth Initiative of the Year

The inaugural CMO Awards also featured a fresh specialist award category to recognise leadership excellence pertaining to a strategic growth initiative: The Best Growth Initiative of the Year, brought to you by Publicis Groupe.

This year’s winner was The Arnott’s Group, for Arnott’s Gluten Free. Judges saw this a brilliant example of a business hitting on an exploding area of the market – gluten free – then turning the opportunity into a whole-of-organisation play to meet rising demand and deliver net new growth for the business.

Gluten free has become the most incremental launch for Arnott’s to date. Today, gluten-free biscuits make up approximately 10 per cent of the total biscuit market, with an impressive annual growth rate of 40 per cent. Remarkably, Arnott’s has driven 82 per cent of this growth in the past year alone.  Nearly 50 per cent of sales revenue growth on GF products has been realised in the last year off the back of new launches of classic favourites done GF like Tim Tams.

Amid 13 finalists, the judges also awarded three highly commended honours to:  

• Blackmores - Transformation of the Innovation Programme for significant commercial outcomes and improvement in marketing effectiveness
• Flintfox International - New product, new market: How Flintfox conquered SAP and DACH
• Intrepid Travel - From performance-driven to brand-led marketing: Only Intrepid

You can find all the profiles of our CMOs of the Year winners along with a host of content in and around the CMO Awards program in Mi3’s dedicated CMO Awards section here.