Netflix CMO Named Most Influential Chief Marketing Officer

Netflix’s Chief Marketing Officer, Marian Lee, has been named Forbes’ World’s Most Influential CMO for the third year running. 

The list, drawn from an analysis of 10 billion data points across nearly 3,000 companies, honours the top 50 marketing leaders who are driving the greatest impact on business, brand and growth globally. 

“This recognition is not mine alone,” Marian says. “This belongs to the storytellers – the creators, showrunners, directors, writers and our creative executives who pour everything into making work that actually matters. Our job in Marketing is simply to honour what they've built.”

Marketing at Netflix

Before joining Netflix, Marian spent nearly eight years at Spotify – first joining as Head of US Consumer Marketing, then progressing to Vice President and Co-Head of Music. In this role, she led a global team which focused on delivering high quality experiences for Spotify users, artists and their teams.

She then joined Netflix in 2021 as Vice President of US and Canadian Marketing, taking on the CMO role one year later. 

During this time, she has helped transform Netflix’s marketing strategy with an increased focus on the fan experience bringing in real world events and immersive experiences, as well as a focus on localised marketing to ensure storytelling remains consistent across international content. 

“We’re always told to focus on the fan,” Marian shared at Licensing Expo 2026. “We don’t start with revenue. We want our teams to think, ‘What do our fans want?’, and meet them where they are.”

At Netflix, Marian has said that her goal for the marketing organisation is to continuously drive cultural conversations and connect with audiences globally. 

“Marketing at Netflix is not a support function,” she says. “It is a creative act that drives real business results. And the people I get to do that with make me better at everything I do.”

The most influential CMOs of 2026

Other honourees included Emily Prazer, Chief Commercial Officer of Formula 1, Frank Cooper III, CMO of Visa, Tim Ellis, CMO of the NFL and Mark Weinstein, CMO and Head of Luxury Brands at Hilton.

According to Forbes, this year’s list saw three key themes crop up – marketing becoming real time brand management, entertainment going from a marketing tactic to the operating system for brand relevance and AI changing the way marketing teams work. 

“The CMO role has never been more dynamic,” Mark says. “We sit at the intersection of customer insights, creativity, culture, data and technology.

"But strip it back, and the job hasn't changed: be the chief advocate for the customer and the chief storyteller ... all in service of sustained, profitable growth.”

Alongside the list, Forbes also inducted nine marketing leaders into its CMO Hall of Fame, which recognises the leaders who have appeared on its most influential CMO list five times. 

Inductees include Manuel Arroyo, Chief Marketing and Customer Commercial Officer at Coca-Cola; Cristina Diezhandino, CMO at Diageo; and Julia White, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President at Amazon Web Services.