Adweek, the leading source of news and insights covering marketing, media and technology, has announced an expansion of its wildly successful Adweek Executive Mentor Program. While the existing mentor program is available to mid– to senior-level marketers with ten or more years of experience looking for guidance along their journey to the C-suite, the Adweek Rising Mentorship Program welcomes marketers in the earlier stages of their careers.
Over the last two years, the Adweek Executive Mentor Program has gathered over 250 of the world’s top marketing leaders to provide guidance to over 350 executive mentees, with extra emphasis on providing opportunities to those from underrepresented groups. This initiative was born out of talks by the Adweek DEI Council as a major industry action to accelerate change.
Glowing success stories posted by mentors and mentees from the program on social media have highlighted the importance of supporting rising talent in the industry, an inspiration for the new expansion. Under the Adweek Rising Mentorship Program, two pods of mentees — those with one to four years of experience in the industry and those with five to nine years — are mentored both by Executive CMO Mentors and graduates of previous Executive Mentor Program sessions who want to pay it forward.
Each pod is formed by matching specific topics and networking opportunities to the mentees’ personal development or professional career track goals. Executive CMO Mentors will lead group sessions on topics selected for mentees in specific industries and DEI communities.
The 2021 Executive Mentor Program, sponsored by Catalina, continues to attract the greatest leaders in brand marketing. There are 170 mentors this year, primarily CMOs from such major brands as Activision, DoorDash, GE, Google, Lululemon, Nike, PepsiCo, Sephora, TikTok, Target and Verizon. Several new mentors added to the program include CMOs from Hyundai, Nestle USA, e.l.f. Beauty, Wendy’s and Versace.
The class of 175 Executive Mentees consists primarily of senior director to VP-level brand marketers with more than 10 years of experience, 70% of them women and 57% of them from the BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities communities.
“In the first two years of the Adweek Executive Mentor Program, we have been inspired by the level of enthusiasm demonstrated by the mentors, mentees, and the whole marketing community,” said Heide Palermo, VP, Head of Community at Adweek. “One of the great lessons to come out of the past year was how important it is to work together to face new obstacles. Our Executive Mentor Program and Adweek Rising Mentorship Program are based on the idea that when inspiring leaders dedicate themselves to passing the wisdom they’ve gained from experience on to the next generation of leaders, everyone in our industry benefits. We are excited to see what this new crop of mentees will achieve.”
Click here to learn more about the Adweek Executive Mentor Program.
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Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem. First published in 1979, Adweek’s award-winning coverage reaches an engaged audience of more than 6 million professionals across platforms including print, digital, events, podcasts, newsletters, social media, and mobile apps. As a touchstone of the advertising and marketing community, Adweek is an unparalleled resource for leaders across multiple industries who rely on its content to help them do their job better.
