In an era marked by rapid tech disruption and evolving business models across Asia, marketing and chief communications officers are no longer just brand guardians — they are growth architects.
The 2025 edition of Top 10 CMO/CCOs You Should Follow spotlights ten senior leaders whose insights, innovation, and influence are driving transformation across industries from fintech and hospitality to SaaS and consumer goods.
Whether it’s redefining tea culture in APAC, steering global brand purpose in IT services, or pioneering behavioral-science approaches to retail growth, these voices matter. Read on to discover who’s shaping the future of marketing and communications in Asia — and why you should follow these CMO/CCOs You Should Follow.
Highlights
Eugene Lee
Eugene Lee is a seasoned global brand-builder who, as of April 2025, became Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer for APAC at CHAGEE, the modern tea-lifestyle company.
With nearly two decades of commercial experience, he has dedicated his career to driving brand and business growth at local, regional, and international levels. While at McDonald’s, he held the role of International CMO for the IDL segment, overseeing 16,000+ restaurants across 80 markets and more than US $33 billion in annual revenue.
Moreover, earlier as Regional CMO Asia, he led brand strategy across 12 Asian markets, driving growth in some of the fastest-growing markets such as the Philippines, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and India.
As a multiple award-winning marketer — named Malaysian Marketer of the Year and Malaysian CMO of the Year — he blends business acumen with creative courage and brings a vital edge to the tea category’s transformation.
In his current role, he is charged with modernising tea culture, elevating CHAGEE’s international expansion, and positioning tea as a lifestyle choice rather than simply a beverage. Therefore, he remains a CMO to follow in 2025 for his ability to translate heritage categories into contemporary brand narratives across Asia.
Sumit Virmani
Sumit Virmani currently serves as Executive Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer at Infosys, where he leads the marketing and brand ambitions across the firm’s global footprint. With over 25 years of experience, he has shaped brand experiences and narratives across industries, regions, and market cycles.
While spearheading Infosys’ transformation into one of the world’s Top 100 brands, he also champions the intersection of brand promise, purpose, and performance — believing that true marketing effectiveness lies in that confluence. Furthermore, he holds board and trustee roles at the Infosys Foundation and other affiliated businesses, underscoring his leadership beyond marketing.
He has been recognised as one of the top 50 most influential CMOs globally by Forbes and acknowledged as a global marketing visionary by CNBC. Consequently, Sumit offers a compelling viewpoint for anyone following tech-driven marketing transformation in Asia and beyond.
Marwa Kaabour
Marwa Kaabour is a veteran marketing and communications leader with more than 25 years of experience, who currently serves as Group Director of Marketing and Corporate Communication at Al Masaood Group in the UAE.
She has established and led strategic marketing and communications functions from the ground up for a range of global and regional brands across industries such as automotive, energy, manufacturing, airlines, banking, and FMCG. In addition, she has a strong background in public relations, corporate communications, change management, and growth marketing, which gives her a broad and versatile skill set.
Moreover, her accolades include being named a Marketing Game Changer by Campaign Middle East in 2021 and being recognized as a “Highly Commended Female Marketing Leader” by the Women in Marketing Institution London in 2018. Therefore, Marwa stands out as a voice for marketing leadership in the Middle East with cross-industry relevance.
Tuhina Pandey
Tuhina Pandey serves as Director — APAC Communications & CMO for India and South Asia at IBM, where she combines her storytelling orientation with deep experience in marketing, communications, digital, analytics, and content. She believes that every tech story has a big heart, and thus she focuses on how people and impact sit at the core of technology.
Earlier, she led marketing and communications for IBM India & South Asia, and before that held roles in business intelligence, analytics consulting & sales, as well as media and journalism. Besides that, she has spent time in television business journalism and media training — a rare combination of broadcast communications and corporate marketing.
As a result, Tuhina brings a hybrid lens of business, creativity, and storytelling, making her a voice worth following for those interested in tech, marketing, and transformative communications in Asia.
Jitendra Jain
Jitendra Jain serves as Vice President, Strategic Loyalty, Partnerships, Revenue & Commercial Intelligence at Marriott International (EMEA), where he leads loyalty programme marketing, enterprise partnerships, co-brand credit cards, revenue strategy & analytics across 1,300 hotels, 30 brands, and 80 countries.
Before this, he held senior roles at Starwood Hotels in the Middle East, where he spearheaded digital, brand, and loyalty marketing across 59 managed hotels and a 45+ pipeline. Moreover, he publishes vendor-neutral field notes on practical AI for hotels at hotelemarketer.com — providing frameworks, checklists, and real-world case studies.
Therefore, Jitendra offers a compelling voice at the convergence of marketing, hospitality, loyalty, and AI-enabled commercial insight.
Dr Kartik Nagendraa
Dr Kartik Nagendraa (LinkedIn Top Voice) is Chief Marketing Officer at Melento, an AI-native collaborative intelligence platform, and author of The Thought Leader Way, which was hailed by leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith.
With 20 years of marketing experience across IT services, education, retail, and consulting sectors, he has been recognised among the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Marketing by Thinkers’ 360 and named a Top Voice on LinkedIn. Furthermore, as a professor at Master’s Union, he is developing India’s first-ever B2B Technology Marketing course — focusing on SaaS, ABM, demand generation, and best practices.
Consequently, Kartik brings deep cross-sector insight on how marketing leaders should evolve for the tech-enabled era, particularly in Asia’s burgeoning B2B and SaaS markets.
Ignatius Untung
Ignatius Untung is Chief Marketing Officer at Biensi Fesyenindo in Indonesia, where he leads the marketing and commercial strategy for seven brands and more than 110 stores, while simultaneously driving digital transformation, merchandising, product development, and P&L responsibility.
With over 24 years of experience across marketing, commercial, and digital leadership roles in Southeast Asia, he has also authored Brain & Brand — Indonesia’s first book on behavioral science in branding — and hosted more than 350 podcast episodes on marketing, brand, and behavioral science.
Moreover, he advises and trains companies such as Telkomsel, Bank Mandiri, Pertamina, and Kalbe on behavioral marketing and brand growth. Consequently, Ignatius delivers a unique and powerful voice at the intersection of behavioral science, consumer strategy, and brand growth — and thus is a must-follow in the region’s marketing ecosystem.
Izra Izzuddin
Izra Izzuddin is the Chief Marketing Officer at Setel, Malaysia’s first fuel and mobility lifestyle app. With over 21 years of experience, she has shaped brands, led creative transformation, and driven impactful growth through marketing, across industries, from FMCG and media to aviation, fintech, and education, through notable roles with Nestlé, Media Prima, AirAsia, Firefly Airlines, Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Touch ‘n Go, and HELP Tertiary.
A passionate advocate of purposeful marketing, Izra blends strategy and storytelling to build brands that resonate deeply with people. At Setel, she leads the company’s brand transformation and business campaigns alongside a dynamic team of marketers, strategists, and innovators.
Her leadership and creativity have earned her multiple recognitions, including the CMO Award, CMO Asia, Women Leadership Award, Young Achiever honours, and other distinguished accolades.
Beyond campaigns and results, Izra is celebrated for championing authentic leadership, innovation, and women’s voices in marketing, inspiring the next generation to lead with courage, support, and the belief that the impossible can always be made possible.
Vinnie Romano
Vinnie Romano is CMO and Co-Founder of MySocial.ai, a platform that helps Marketing/PR teams enable executive-level social presence at scale while delivering measurable outcomes such as meetings, pipeline, and ROI.
With more than 20 years of B2B marketing and strategy experience in APAC and Europe, he built and exited his first agency and now focuses on executive visibility, demand generation, and content-driven engagement.
Moreover, as co-host of APAC’s B2B Growth Podcast, he shares the lessons from founders to CMOs and challenges conventional B2B marketing norms. Consequently, Vinnie offers a fresh voice for marketing leaders who are looking at executive branding, growth, and measurement in the age of social and digital.
Diana Boo
Diana Boo is the Chief Marketing Officer at Boost, the regional fintech leader. Known for her data-driven and customer-centric leadership, she has driven major marketing transformations across fintech, e-commerce, and media.
Since joining Boost in 2021, Diana has unified branding, marketing, and communications into a centralised team under Boost, strengthening in-house capabilities to serve all Boost businesses, including Boost Bank, Malaysia’s first homegrown digital bank.
With over 25 years of experience across Southeast Asia, her work has earned multiple accolades. In 2024, her leadership was recognised with the Malaysian CMO Award for Financial Services.
In her prior role as CMO at Lazada Malaysia, she led the team to win multiple Marketing Excellence Awards, including Marketer of the Year and Innovator of the Year in 2021. She continues to champion innovation and now serves as a committee member of the Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA).
Unrelenting in her pursuit of brand impact and marketing growth, Diana embodies the spirit of “Be Unstoppable” in marketing and communications, and continues to be a leading voice in redefining how brands connect with people in today’s digital economy.
Final Thoughts: The Future is in Their Hands
As marketing continues its evolution into a data-driven, tech-enabled strategic discipline, these ten leaders exemplify the shift from tactics to transformation. Their ability to bridge business strategy and creative execution, to harness digital and AI, and to amplify brand relevance in increasingly complex markets is what sets them apart.
Moving forward, expect them to continue shaping how organizations build trust, drive growth, and lead change across Asia and beyond. For professionals eager to stay ahead, following these CMO/CCOs You Should Follow is less about keeping up with trends — it’s about staying in step with tomorrow’s marketing agenda.
Highlights
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