The countdown for this year's "CMO of the Year" Award has started: the Top 10, who are in with a chance of winning Germany's highest honour for the role of Chief Marketing Officer, have been announced. Now, it's up to the "CMO of the Year" jury to select the winner, who will receive their prize at a celebratory gala on 25 September in Munich. 

Munich, 29 August 2019 — The "CMO of the Year" Award is taking place for the sixth time this year, and has become a real industry highlight. The following candidates are in the running to be awarded this coveted trophy (in alphabetical order):

·         Dr. Martell Beck, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG)

·         Boris Dolkhani, Bosch

·         Julia Goldin, LEGO

·         Heiko Klauer, IKEA

·         Claas Meineke, EDEKA

·         Tarek Müller, ABOUT YOU

·         Bernd Rützler, Kärcher

·         Thorsten Scheib, Philip Morris Germany

·         Susan Schramm, McDonald’s

·         Hans-Christian Schwingen, Deutsche Telekom

Following the motto "by CMOs for CMOs" the "CMO of the Year" Council, which is made up of 80 Chief Marketing Officers from renowned German companies, nominated their Top 10 in an online survey. The winner will be decided by the 17 members of the "CMO of the Year” Jury during a session lasting several hours.

Since 2014, the prize has been awarded to Dr. Ian Robertson (BMW), Godo Röben (Rügenwalder Mühle), Hans-Christian Schwingen (Deutsche Telekom), Eric Liedtke (Adidas) and in 2018 to Karsten Kühn (Hornbach).

"Once again, in this sixth year, the jury has been impressed by the top quality of the field for the best CMOs and the abundance of stories", says the spokesperson for the jury, Capital Editor-in-Chief Horst von Buttlar. “Amongst the Top 10 there are some familiar faces, who have been on the short-list in previous years. But there are also many discoveries, surprises and success stories of men and women who have systematically built, nurtured or even reinvented their brands over the years."

The hosts of the „CMO of the Year“ Award 2019 are: Serviceplan Group, Media Group RTL Germany, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, G+J e|MS, Samsung Electronics and SpotCom in cooperation with: Capital, n-tv, HORIZONT, Institut for Marketing-LMU Munich.

About the "CMO of the Year" Award

The award was launched in 2013 by the partners of Innovation Day, in order to make a clear statement within the industry that the Chief Marketing Officer is the real pacesetter when it comes to business transformation. He or she is responsible for dealing with the constantly growing complexity and fragmentation of the markets and must be able to coordinate a wide range of different communication and marketing disciplines in a precise way while also focusing on the respective company's objectives.

Up to the Top 10 stage, it is the Chief Marketing Officers themselves who are responsible for nominations. The evaluation criteria focus on personality, success, image, innovations and internationality. The "CMO of the Year" jury, which selects the overall winner, includes members of the "CMO of the Year" Council, as well as selected marketing and media experts. The trophy will be awarded during the evening of the Innovation Day at the CMO Award Night.

The format has already been successfully exported to Switzerland, where David Allemann (On Shoes) was selected as the second ever "Marketeer of the Year" in February of this year. Exporting the format to other countries is also planned in the years to come.

About the "CMO of the Year" Council

The Council was established in 2017 to make the "CMO of the Year" Award a prestigious industry award. More than 80 influential CMOs from well-known German companies now come together to ensure that the candidates nominated for CMO of the Year are selected on a neutral basis.

Further information on the 2018 "CMO of the Year" Award can be found at innovationstag.de/cmo-of-the-year/.