Top 18 CMO Coaches to Learn From in 2026
Whether you're stepping into a new CMO role or scaling your influence, the right coach or advisor makes a measurable difference. They'll help you sharpen your strategy, strengthen your leadership, and drive real business impact. I've rounded up the top CMO coaches worth knowing—so you can find the right fit and start growing faster.
Top 18 CMO Coaches
Below are the profiles of the top CMO coaches, covering who they are and their approaches and perspectives.
Alan Gonsenhauser
Alan Gonsenhauser founded Demand Revenue after a career as a seven-time CMO, P&L general manager, and Forrester/SiriusDecisions advisor who has guided senior B2B marketing leaders for years.
His coaching helps CMOs move…
Alan Gonsenhauser founded Demand Revenue after a career as a seven-time CMO, P&L general manager, and Forrester/SiriusDecisions advisor who has guided senior B2B marketing leaders for years.
His coaching helps CMOs move marketing beyond tactical demand generation and toward business leadership. He works on CEO relationships, revenue accountability, go-to-market infrastructure, board communication, and proving marketing’s contribution to growth.
Kip Knight
Kip Knight founded CMO Coaches after senior leadership roles at P&G, PepsiCo, Taco Bell, eBay, and H&R Block, bringing decades of global operating experience to his executive coaching practice.
Knight built CMO…
Kip Knight founded CMO Coaches after senior leadership roles at P&G, PepsiCo, Taco Bell, eBay, and H&R Block, bringing decades of global operating experience to his executive coaching practice.
Knight built CMO Coaches around former CMOs who understand the role firsthand. His own work draws on global marketing and general-management experience to coach leaders on team performance, career decisions, influence, persuasion, and the broader demands of senior marketing leadership.
Grant Johnson
Grant Johnson is a CMO, growth advisor, and coach whose executive career spans IBM, Symantec, Pegasystems, Kofax, Billtrust, and Emburse across companies from early stage to enterprise.
Johnson applies that operating experience…
Grant Johnson is a CMO, growth advisor, and coach whose executive career spans IBM, Symantec, Pegasystems, Kofax, Billtrust, and Emburse across companies from early stage to enterprise.
Johnson applies that operating experience to mentoring CMOs and advising companies on growth. His work emphasizes marketing performance, differentiation, scalable teams, metrics, and helping senior marketers connect strategy and execution to revenue and enterprise value.
Andrew Garrihy
Andrew Garrihy is Group Chief Marketing Officer at OLX Group, leading marketing across 11 brands in seven countries after senior roles with Samsung, Huawei, DiDi, Qualcomm, and Vodafone.
Alongside his operating role,…
Andrew Garrihy is Group Chief Marketing Officer at OLX Group, leading marketing across 11 brands in seven countries after senior roles with Samsung, Huawei, DiDi, Qualcomm, and Vodafone.
Alongside his operating role, Garrihy coaches a small number of senior marketing leaders. His practice tackles board dynamics, organizational influence, budgets, AI disruption, career progression, and other CMO challenges with the perspective of an executive still doing the job.
Michael Linton
Michael Linton is an executive coach and former CMO of Best Buy, eBay, and Farmers Insurance who later served as Ancestry’s Chief Revenue Officer. He also hosts the marketing podcast CMO Confidential.
…
Michael Linton is an executive coach and former CMO of Best Buy, eBay, and Farmers Insurance who later served as Ancestry’s Chief Revenue Officer. He also hosts the marketing podcast CMO Confidential.
His coaching brings a general-management lens to marketing leadership. Drawing on CMO, revenue, board, customer experience, and brand roles, Linton helps marketing executives strengthen business fluency, navigate career changes, and operate more effectively at senior levels.
Josephine Lanzarone
Josephine Lanzarone is an executive coach and former B2B technology marketing leader whose career includes CMO and senior roles at Microsoft, Cisco, and Pluralsight across Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
With a master’s…
Josephine Lanzarone is an executive coach and former B2B technology marketing leader whose career includes CMO and senior roles at Microsoft, Cisco, and Pluralsight across Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
With a master’s in coaching psychology, Lanzarone combines formal coaching training with three decades of technology leadership. She works with marketing executives on performance, metrics, career transitions, team leadership, and connecting marketing decisions to tangible business outcomes.
Babs Rangaiah
Babs Rangaiah founded cc:babs after more than 30 years in marketing and transformation leadership at IBM, Unilever, Paramount, and AGENCY.COM. He’s also a Columbia-certified executive coach.
Through cc:babs and CMO Coaches, Rangaiah…
Babs Rangaiah founded cc:babs after more than 30 years in marketing and transformation leadership at IBM, Unilever, Paramount, and AGENCY.COM. He’s also a Columbia-certified executive coach.
Through cc:babs and CMO Coaches, Rangaiah blends executive coaching with marketing consulting. He draws on transformation leadership to help marketers strengthen executive presence, navigate career decisions, lead organizational change, and translate modern marketing shifts into action.
Nathalie Trouillot
Nathalie Trouillot founded NT Consulting after senior marketing and operating roles at Disney, ESPN, Sony Pictures, Edmunds.com, and Xsolla, bringing more than 20 years of executive experience.
Trouillot’s work has expanded from…
Nathalie Trouillot founded NT Consulting after senior marketing and operating roles at Disney, ESPN, Sony Pictures, Edmunds.com, and Xsolla, bringing more than 20 years of executive experience.
Trouillot’s work has expanded from marketing leadership into executive coaching, mediation, and leadership transformation. She helps founders and executives address conflict, accountability, difficult conversations, organizational friction, and the personal demands of leading through change.
Nancy Zwiers
Nancy Zwiers is an executive coach and former global CMO whose career spans P&G, Mattel, Spin Master, and her consulting firm Funosophy, where she advised brands from startups to Disney.
Her coaching…
Nancy Zwiers is an executive coach and former global CMO whose career spans P&G, Mattel, Spin Master, and her consulting firm Funosophy, where she advised brands from startups to Disney.
Her coaching draws heavily on consumer insight, innovation, entrepreneurship, and self-leadership. Zwiers brings firsthand experience building brands and businesses to helping senior marketers develop themselves, approach calculated risks, and navigate leadership or career transitions.
Kathie Johnson
Kathie Johnson founded Accel Growth Partners after marketing leadership roles at Salesforce, Talkdesk, Sitecore, and Dassault Systèmes. She works with B2B SaaS and AI companies as an interim CMO.
Johnson combines interim…
Kathie Johnson founded Accel Growth Partners after marketing leadership roles at Salesforce, Talkdesk, Sitecore, and Dassault Systèmes. She works with B2B SaaS and AI companies as an interim CMO.
Johnson combines interim and fractional CMO work with executive marketing coaching. She helps leaders sharpen strategy, build scalable go-to-market motions, strengthen pipeline performance, and gain the clarity and confidence needed to operate at higher levels of marketing leadership.
Drew Neisser
Drew Neisser is CEO and founder of CMO Huddles, a B2B marketing community built on decades of work with CMOs, two books, a long-running podcast, and hundreds of senior marketing leader interviews.
…
Drew Neisser is CEO and founder of CMO Huddles, a B2B marketing community built on decades of work with CMOs, two books, a long-running podcast, and hundreds of senior marketing leader interviews.
Neisser turns that unusually deep exposure to CMO challenges into coaching and peer learning. Through one-to-one work and CMO Huddles, he helps senior marketers pressure-test strategy, navigate transitions, build their leadership profile, and learn from other practitioners facing similar problems.
Carilu Dietrich
Carilu Dietrich is an Andreessen Horowitz operating partner and former Atlassian marketing leader who has advised and coached executives on hypergrowth, go-to-market strategy, and scaling teams.
Dietrich’s coaching and advisory work grew…
Carilu Dietrich is an Andreessen Horowitz operating partner and former Atlassian marketing leader who has advised and coached executives on hypergrowth, go-to-market strategy, and scaling teams.
Dietrich’s coaching and advisory work grew from operating through Atlassian’s hypergrowth and IPO. She focuses on the hard parts of scaling: organizational complexity, operating rigor, executive decision-making, go-to-market design, and helping senior leaders handle growth without losing strategic clarity.
Pam Didner
Pam Didner is a B2B marketing strategist, author, speaker, and founder of Relentless Pursuit whose career includes two decades at Intel and work as a fractional CMO and leadership coach.
Didner coaches…
Pam Didner is a B2B marketing strategist, author, speaker, and founder of Relentless Pursuit whose career includes two decades at Intel and work as a fractional CMO and leadership coach.
Didner coaches senior marketers on the shift from marketing expertise to executive influence. Her programs address C-suite communication, budget advocacy, strategic thinking, career advancement, AI-era leadership, and connecting marketing plans to the business language executives use to make decisions.
Graham Robertson
Graham Robertson founded Beloved Brands after 20 years leading brands at Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, General Mills, and Coca-Cola, rising to VP Marketing before moving into advisory work.
Robertson coaches brand leaders…
Graham Robertson founded Beloved Brands after 20 years leading brands at Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, General Mills, and Coca-Cola, rising to VP Marketing before moving into advisory work.
Robertson coaches brand leaders through practical frameworks for positioning, strategic thinking, planning, analytics, and marketing execution. His Beloved Brands playbooks and training turn decades of brand-management experience into tools marketers can use to make sharper decisions and build stronger teams.
Alan Gellman
Alan Gellman founded Convivo Leadership after a 30-year marketing and general management career that included serving as CMO of Esurance and executive roles across financial services and health care.
Gellman coaches C-suite,…
Alan Gellman founded Convivo Leadership after a 30-year marketing and general management career that included serving as CMO of Esurance and executive roles across financial services and health care.
Gellman coaches C-suite, VP, and director-level leaders on increasing their impact while building stronger teams and relationships. For CMOs, that includes moving beyond functional marketing leadership to influence peers, align stakeholders, collaborate across the business, and operate as enterprise executives.
Casey Slaughter Stanton
Casey Slaughter Stanton is founder and CEO of CMOx, a company focused on fractional CMO development and placement, built on more than a decade of hands-on marketing strategy and advisory work.
Stanton…
Casey Slaughter Stanton is founder and CEO of CMOx, a company focused on fractional CMO development and placement, built on more than a decade of hands-on marketing strategy and advisory work.
Stanton has developed training and systems aimed at helping marketers operate effectively as fractional CMOs. His work emphasizes strategic leadership over tactical execution, repeatable client-service processes, marketing accountability, and developing experienced marketers into stronger CMO-level operators.
Stacey Danheiser
Stacey Danheiser is co-founder and COO of Empressa AI and founder of Shake Marketing Group, with 15 years of Fortune 500 marketing leadership and several books focused on B2B customer value.
Danheiser’s…
Stacey Danheiser is co-founder and COO of Empressa AI and founder of Shake Marketing Group, with 15 years of Fortune 500 marketing leadership and several books focused on B2B customer value.
Danheiser’s broader work centers on developing marketers as strategic business leaders. Through consulting, writing, and her marketing leadership accelerator, she teaches customer-value strategy, executive credibility, internal alignment, and disciplined go-to-market thinking rather than activity for activity’s sake.
Neal Schaffer
Neal Schaffer is a fractional CMO, digital marketing consultant, author, speaker, and educator who leads PDCA Social and teaches executives at Rutgers Business School and UCLA Extension.
Schaffer combines fractional leadership with…
Neal Schaffer is a fractional CMO, digital marketing consultant, author, speaker, and educator who leads PDCA Social and teaches executives at Rutgers Business School and UCLA Extension.
Schaffer combines fractional leadership with coaching and education around digital-first marketing. His work spans AI, content, influencer and social strategy, helping organizations connect changing channels and tools to measurable business objectives while developing the internal teams responsible for execution.
Selection Methodology
We selected the leaders on this list based on their relevance, demonstrated expertise and impact, professional credibility, and ongoing contributions to the field.
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We look for evidence such as leading meaningful initiatives or delivering notable results within their organizations, developing influential ideas or practices, publishing research or educational resources, speaking or teaching, and other contributions that demonstrate impact within their work or the broader field.
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