Today marks the start of the Lunar New Year and the arrival of the Year of the Fire Horse. In the Chinese zodiac, the Fire Horse stands for momentum, independence, and unapologetic forward motion. Not reckless, but certainly not timid either. If that’s not a neat metaphor for modern marketing leadership, I don’t know what is.

For CMOs, 2026 is shaping up to be a year where clear positioning, decisive pivots, and visible conviction matter more than endless consensus-building. Comfort feels secondary. Progress is the priority. The first half of February captures this forward momentum.

In just two weeks, 28 CMOs have been announced globally: 13 women plus 15 men. 11 were promoted from within, while 17 were hired. Notably, 18 are stepping into the C-suite for the first time. That’s a significant shift, and a clear signal that boards are willing to place bold bets on emerging leadership.

As for cross-industry moves, only one CMO qualifies as an “industry traveler.” The broader pattern remains intact: CEOs still favor category depth over adventurous leaps across sectors, aligned with what we observed in 2025.

In the U.S., 21 CMOs were appointed across 12 states. California leads with 4 hires, followed by Texas with 3. Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio each welcomed 2 new marketing chiefs. Internationally, India announced 2 CMOs, while China, Finland, France, Korea, and Sweden each added one.

By sector, Tech continues to dominate with 9 new CMOs. Professional Services follows with 5, Financial Services with 4, and CPG with 3. Retail and Restaurants each saw 2 appointments, while Automotive, Construction, and Manufacturing recorded one apiece.

If the opening weeks are any indication, 2026 won’t be a year of quiet stewardship. The appetite for first-time CMOs is strong, category expertise remains prized, and the pace of change is steady and visible. The Fire Horse may be symbolic, the momentum is very real.

AMD has finally played its hand. In a move that signals they are done being the "plucky underdog" to NVIDIA’s empire, AMD has hired Ariel Kelman as SVP and Chief Marketing Officer. Kelman is a Silicon Valley "Boomerang" with a resume that reads like a history of modern cloud infrastructure: he built the marketing engine at Amazon Web Services (AWS) during its explosive growth years, served as CMO at Oracle, and most recently held the President & CMO seat at Salesforce.

Kelman’s arrival signals a pivot in AMD’s go‑to‑market philosophy: from fighting NVIDIA on performance specs to teaching enterprises how to migrate. He’s here to dismantle NVIDIA’s moat, which is built less on silicon and more on software (CUDA). We’ve tracked Kelman’s philosophy for years, and his "Education > Persuasion" mindset is exactly what AMD needs. In a recent interview, he argued that B2B marketing fails when it tries to "convince" rather than "teach," noting that "the biggest missed opportunity is people who forget about the benefits of education... they go too much to persuasion." For AMD, this means shifting the narrative from "we are cheaper/faster" to "here is exactly how you migrate your stack to ROCm”

Kelman is a marketer who regrets not finishing his Computer Science degree. He famously believes that "you can never have too much technical knowledge because you got to understand what the ground truth is before you start to figure out how to position it." This ground truth obsession will be critical as he reports not to CEO Lisa Su, but to Ruth Cotter, the SVP & Chief Administrative Officer, who also holds the keys to Strategy and IR. This reporting structure suggests a disciplined integration over a marketing takeover.

AMD hired a technical operator who sells "production-ready". At Salesforce, Kelman was vocal about the dangers of "flashy demos," noting that an AI agent that works "95% of the time" is useless to an enterprise that risks brand reputation on the other 5%. Expect him to use that exact wedge against competitors: AMD will be positioned as the reliable, open, enterprise-grade alternative to the closed ecosystems of its rivals.

Less than a month after filing for bankruptcy, Saks Global named Cheryl Han as its new Chief Marketing & Digital Officer. Han knows the team well. She was a leader there until she left in August 2025. Bringing her back so quickly sends a clear message. The board knew the old plan was failing. So they hit the emergency button to recapture someone they trust.

Han is a veteran of Neiman Marcus Group, where she ran the digital side of the business. The CEO of Saks, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, is also from Neiman Marcus. This means the team from the company Saks bought is now taking over to save the ship. Han has a big task ahead. She must merge the marketing and online store teams into one single group. This move has led to the exit of two other executives: Kristin Maa, the former marketing chief, and Emily Nahas, the head of digital.

The brand has an identity crisis. It is stuck in the middle. It isn't quite a high-end boutique, but it also isn't a fast, easy online shop. That middle ground used to make money. Now, it is the hardest place to be. Han's new title combines marketing and digital duties. This shows that Saks knows it cannot fix its problems with just ads. Marketing has to change how the business runs. It needs to fix the gap between what the website promises and what the store delivers.

Han's job is not about growth right now in the venture capital sense. It is about survival. Saks has one big advantage: a list of very wealthy customers. In this K-shaped economy, we expect Han to focus on them. She will likely push for more personal shopping. She will use digital tools to help human stylists serve clients better. She also needs to stop the constant sales that cheapen the brand. If she can use that customer list to build loyalty, Saks has a fighting chance. If marketing remains just a surface tool, Saks risks becoming known for its debt instead of its taste.

In a market obsessed with "change agents" and "turnaround artists," Chick-fil-A has delivered a masterclass in succession management. The chicken sandwich juggernaut has promoted Michael Lage to the CMO seat, succeeding Jon Bridges, who is retiring after a staggering 30-year tenure. This isn’t a changing of the guard; it’s a passing of the torch. Lage and Bridges are currently executing a methodical three-month transition - a level of continuity that is almost unheard of in the volatile world of C-suite marketing.

Lage is a Lifer who embodies the brand’s "people-first" ethos. He started his career at Chick-fil-A fresh out of college as a marketing coordinator before leaving to earn his MBA at Harvard and cut his teeth at Google and Facebook. But he came back. Why? Because for Lage, the work is rooted in servant leadership. "The No. 1 realization about great leadership is that it’s not about you. It’s about others," Lage has said. This aligns perfectly with the "stewardship" culture established by former CMO Steve Robinson, who defined the brand’s purpose as having a "positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A".

When Lage returned to launch the Chick-fil-A One app, he framed digital as a "force multiplier" for hospitality. His philosophy is that when you know a customer's story - their favorite order, their arrival time - you can care for them personally at scale. This mindset allowed Chick-fil-A to embrace mobile ordering without sacrificing the "my pleasure" culture that defines its drive-thru.

Promoting a VP of Field Operations to CMO is the ultimate signal that Chick-fil-A views marketing as an operational reality, not just a creative veneer. Lage has spent years on the road meeting with operators - independent franchisees who put up "sweat equity" and split net profits. He understands that a marketing campaign is worthless if it breaks the kitchen or stresses the team. His mandate now is to take this hyper-specific culture global expanding into Asia and Europe while ensuring the brand’s "good meets gracious" soul doesn't get lost in translation.