Crossover Stars 2024

Crossover Stars is PRovoke Media's annual ‘Hall of Fame’ for those communicators whose career trajectory has extended beyond communications, marketing and sales into a broader core business function within their organisations. Our 10 Crossover Stars for 2024 have titles including CEO, partner, SVP, regional head, president and chairman.

Clarice Coppetti

Chief Corporate Affairs Officer & Interim CEO
Petrobras

Coppetti is currently in an unusual hybrid role at Brazilian state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras. A member of the Influence 100 in 2023, as the company’s chief corporate affairs officer, she has now taken on an additional leadership role, stepping up to interim CEO while the appointment of former Brazilian energy regulator Magda Chambriard as chief executive officer is approved by the board. The leadership upheaval this May came after Petrobras fired CEO Jean Paul Prates and chief finance officer Sergio Caetano Leite after a series of disagreements with the government. 

In her day job – which includes leading on sustainability and institutional relations– Clarice Coppetti plays a key role in Petrobras’ efforts to meet new expectations set out by Brazilian president Lula da Silva, who has called on the firm to reclaim its responsibility to the Brazilian people. 

The company has already made changes to its pricing policy. A member of the executive committee, Coppetti also is involved with the creation, and ultimately execution, of Petrobras’ extensive ESG plan, which includes the company committing to reducing its carbon footprint, use of freshwater and generation of solid waste, as well as protecting biodiversity including the ocean’s endangered species.

Conor McQuaid

Chairman & CEO
Pernod Ricard North America

Conor McQuaid is the second comms chief at Pernod Ricard to step into a leadership role at the brand. He replaces a previous member of our Crossover Stars list – Ann Mukherjee, the former global marketing chief at SC Johnson and the first women and person of color to lead Pernod Ricard’s North America unit. Mukherjee left the company in November last year to spend more time with her family. 

McQuaid took up the CEO role in January, having previously been EVP of corporate communications and public affairs at Pernod Ricard in France. But it’s not his first CEO role: after leading Pernod Ricard’s global business development function, based in Paris, between 2014 and 2018, he had a sojourn as CEO and chairman of Irish Distillers in Ireland. Earlier in his drinks brand leadership career, he led Pernod Ricard in South Africa. 

Cristina Jones

CEO
Black Girls Code

Former Salesforce CMO Cristina Jones left the tech platform last summer to take up her first chief executive role, leading Black Girls Code, a technology organisation whose mission is to place one million girls of color in technology industry by 2040; only 3% of jobs in the industry are currently held by Black women. Black Girls Code partners with schools, local organizations, and volunteers to offer computer programming education for Black girls, girls of color, and gender nonconforming youth of color aged 7-25. Its programs go beyond coding skills to equip participants with knowledge and confidence, to ensure the next generation of tech leaders is diverse and inclusive. It’s the perfect role for Jones, who has always been a vocal advocate for female leadership and Black women in particular: in 2020, she was named to the Ebony Power 100, and has been featured in the World Woman Foundation’s #ShesMyHero campaign.

Previously, as Salesforce’s chief engagement officer and then CMO, Jones stepped up the technology giant’s storytelling capabilities in order to help people and communities thrive. Jones’ team integrates customer advocacy, media partnerships and influencer strategies to better engage Salesforce’s community, which includes educators, philanthropists and community leaders.

Cristina joined Salesforce in January 2018 from 20th Century Fox, where she helmed Fox’s technology & creative strategy group, and held senior roles in the areas of marketing, technology and franchise distribution. At Fox, she focused on user behavior research to explore how technology can be leveraged to build authentic relationships and deeper connections between audiences and storytellers. 

Eugenio Simioni

CEO
Nestlé Suisse

Nestlé has had its fair share of controversies around the world, from its marketing of infant formula in Africa to its use of palm oil, and has worked hard to build bridges with stakeholders and to back up its claims of social responsibility with actions. From late 2015, Nestlé’s reputation was in the hands of group corporate communications and public affairs director Eugenio Simioni. In January 2020, Simioni moved into a broader leadership role, as chief executive of Nestlé Switzerland, returning to the role he previously held from 2011 to 2015. 

Since then, he has been vocal about the Swiss multinational food and drink company’s sustainability agenda, from reducing food waste to creating a diverse and inclusive culture at Nestlé. He was succeeded in the global communications leadership role last year by former North America lead Lisa Gibby, who once again has a place on the Influence 100 this year.

Simioni began his career at Nestlé in 1989 and had been head of internal audit function for the Nestlé Group and sales director for Nestlé in the Philippines, before taking on the market leadership role for the first time.

Isabel De Paoli

Partner, Healthcare
EQT Group 

Isabel De Paoli was named as head of group communications at Merck, the German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company, in 2015, and elevated to the newly-created role of chief strategy officer a year later, taking responsibility for the integration of strategy, innovation and digitalisation across Merck. 

After building Merck’s corporate science and tech ventures fund and launching business ventures investing in new technologies, in 2021 De Paoli parted ways with Merck to return to her private equity roots, joining the global healthcare team of EQT Group as a partner. At the time of her appointment, she said: “Teaming up with EQT will give me an even broader platform and perspective, especially given the focus on creating positive impact with each investment across the board. Investing in and developing the healthcare industry, in all shapes and forms, is a great opportunity to make life better for so many.”

De Paoli, a process and chemical engineering graduate, first joined Merck in 2006 as business development manager, chemicals, before promotion to head of strategic planning, oncology in 2009. Earlier, she had been a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, and had also worked at private equity firm Permira. She also has a place on the supervisory board of medical technology firm Carl Zeiss Meditec.

Jackson Jeyanayagam

VP & General Manager
Hey, Hei (AB InBev)

In 2022, Jackson Jeyanayagram moved into his first CEO role at ready-to-drink gin, juice & seltzer beverage company Hey, Hei, a start-up within Anheuser-Busch. The former long-time WE Communications and Taylor executive went in-house in 2015, but didn’t go straight to the marketing or communications team: he first took up a head of digital role at Chipotle. His first CMO post was in 2016, when he moved to online wholesaler Boxed, where his role covered everything from data science to operations, customer service, merchandise and supply chain, as well as overseeing brand marketing, paid media, content, SEO, influencer relations and internal and external communications.

Jeyanayagram moved beyond marketing in January 2019, when he became VP and general manager of direct-to-consumer at multi-billion-dollar consumer and professional cleaning products manufacturer Clorox. There, he oversaw the P&L for retail brands including Burt's Bees, Brita, and divisions including petcare and cleaning. 

He also serves on the board of non-profit Goodwill Industries and is an advisor to creative tech company Social Native and mobile marketing firm Button. 

Juan Manuel Cendoya

Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
Banco Santander

In December 2016, Juan Manuel Cendoya, the long-serving head of corporate communications for Banco Santander, was named vice chairman of the board of directors for Santander Spain, an unusual promotion for a public relations executive. He has now been with the firm more than 23 years. 

Cendoya was previously SVP of communications, corporate marketing and research marketing for the bank, leading the group’s internal and external communications, corporate marketing, corporate social responsibility, institutional relations, economic research and public policy and serving as a member of the bank’s global executive committee. He has played a major role in its evolution from a disparate financial services empire with more than 20 separate names to the global Santander brand we know today. Cendoya played a major role in that evolution. 

Kristin Lemkau

CEO
JP Morgan Wealth Management

Since she was named chief marketing officer at JPMorgan Chase in 2014, Kristin Lemkau has done everything in her power to dispel the misperception that financial services companies are stodgy and conservative marketers. She has worked with the firm for nearly 26 years, and in 2019 moved into a broader leadership role as CEO of JP Morgan Wealth Management. In 2022 she appointed former Merrill Lynch senior marketer Paul Halpern as her new CMO for US wealth management at the private bank. 

As CMO, her role included responsibility for company-wide brand strategy and advertising, sponsorships, market research and event marketing. After joining the company in 1998, she also had oversight of media relations and internal communications. Prior to JPMorgan Chase, Lemkau held communications roles with Allied Signal and Freeport McMoRan.

Matthew Gain

SVP & Head of Europe
Audible

Matthew Gain is in the unusual position of segueing straight from PR agency to corporate management, without an in-house communications role in the middle. At the start of 2016 he moved from Edelman Australia to Amazon’s audiobook company Audible. As country manager and head of Australia and New Zealand he helped to develop Audible’s offering across ANZ, before being promoted in mid-2017 to SVP and head of Audible APAC, Japan and India. 

In 2022, he moved regions to become head of Europe and managing director of Audible Germany, based in Berlin. He is responsible for leading Audible’s business and content investments across Europe, as well as setting and implementing growth plans, content plans, influencing and driving change across key stakeholders, improving processes to scale with high business growth and developing leaders across the business. 

Before joining Audible, Gain spent nearly six years at Edelman, first as general manager of its Sydney office, and then COO for Australia.

Paul Chibe

CEO
Pabst Brewing Company

Paul Chibe led marketing for global brands ranging from Quaker Oats and Wrigley – where he spent 10 years in various senior roles including overseeing the US gum and mints business – to Anheuser-Busch, serving as US chief marketing officer until 2014 before moving into broader business leadership. 

His first CEO role in 2015 was at Ferrero North America, whose brands include Nutella, Tic Tac and Kinder, before being promoted to global president of sugar confectionery in 2021. The same year, he left Ferrero for independent brewer Pabst, based in Texas, whose brands include Pabst Blue Ribbon, Lone Star, Old Style, Stroh’s, Ranier, Old Milwaukee, National Bohemian, Schlitz, Colt 45, and, through partnerships, Jack Daniel’s Country Cocktails, and Dragon’s Milk Barrel Aged Stout. 

At Anheuser-Busch, his achievements included setting new company directions in social media, creating the large-scale Budweiser Made in America concert series with Jay Z and launching the Bud Light Platinum and Rita brands.

In an interview with Forbes while he was at Ferrero in 2020, Chibe said that the difficulty of moving from marketing to general management was “there is an opinion that marketers don't have the functional context to move and make that transition,” such as understanding around supply chain, operations and the industrial processes related to managing a business. “The criticism always of a marketer is they worry about marketing but are not as worried about issues directly related to management of the business. And for those marketers that do think that way, it is a difficult transition to run the ‘mundane’ parts of the business. But if a marketer has the right attitude as they come along in their career, they can be quite well prepared to become the CEO.”

Simon Pearce

Special Advisor to the Chairman
Executive Affairs Authority Of Abu Dhabi

Entrusted with building and protecting Abu Dhabi’s reputation, Simon Pearce has a big budget and an even bigger remit. He is considered one of the UAE’s most influential officials and is particularly close to the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak (also the CEO of Mubadala Investment Company), for whom he helped “smooth the communication of the Manchester City Football Club takeover,” according to the Wall Street Journal (he is also a board member at the club). 

The EAA provides analysis and advice to the chairman of Abu Dhabi’s executive council across key government areas such as economic and energy affairs, legal and risk management, security and information management, and strategic communications. Since taking on the position in 2006, Pearce has overseen a significant revamp of the kingdom’s communications strategy, shaping the image of Abu Dhabi globally. He plays an important role in key assets such as the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix; he is on the board of Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management. 

Pearce came to the Middle East role after a life in the agency world, including a lengthy term at Burson-Marsteller, with positions on four continents, including as CEO of Australia; he is also vice chair of Melbourne City FC. 

Wrenelle Stander

CEO
Wesgro

As SVP of public affairs at South Africa’s Sasol Gas until 2018, Wrenelle Stander was a rare example of an operational leader who had made the transition into a senior communications role. In 2018, she made the even rarer move of returning to corporate leadership at Comair: she joined the aviation and travel company as executive in charge of its airlines division (Kulula.com and British Airways, which Comair operates regionally as part of a license agreement), before being made joint CEO of the airlines business. In 2019, she took up a joint CEO role and soon after became group CEO of the entire business. 

She was named chair of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa in 2020 but stood down in October 2021 to take on her current role as CEO of Wesgro, the tourism, trade and investment body for Cape Town and the Western Cape, with a mandate to grow the economy of the Cape and position the region to attract investors, filmmakers, buyers and tourists.

Before taking the communications role at Sasol, Stander served as its MD for almost four years. She previously served in public sector role, as deputy CEO of the South African Civil Aviation Authority, and MD of the Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company. Stander started her career in the NGO sector, including positioning the Minerals and Energy Policy Centre to be less dependent on donor funding.