Suggestions
Esther Bahne
VP Strategy and Innovation MINI; President MINI Business Innovation LLC
Esther Bahne is a seasoned business leader and brand builder with extensive experience in the automotive industry. She served as the Global Head of Marketing for MINI, interim at BMW Group, from April to September 2019.6 Prior to that, she held the position of Global Head of Brand, Strategy and Innovation at MINI from 2015 to 2020.5
During her tenure at MINI, Bahne led the reinvention of the brand as a lifestyle company. She pitched and executed a complete reset of the strategy, including a relaunch with a new logo, CI, VI, tonality, and marketing assets.2 Her efforts resulted in a renewed product portfolio, digitized marketing, and new sales and pricing setups.2
Bahne's career highlights include:
- Setting up innovation units for premium car companies3
- Founding URBAN-X, an influential start-up accelerator1
- Establishing a design center in New York City1
- Co-leading the world's largest co-living company as co-CEO1
With a background in journalism, Bahne developed strong storytelling skills and gained experience in strategic positioning and stakeholder management as the spokeswoman of the Audi Board.3 She describes her MINI role as a "dream job" that allowed her to rethink and recreate the brand.4
In February 2022, Bahne joined Rock Tech Lithium Inc. as a board member, bringing her automotive industry expertise and strategic vision to the cleantech company.1
Highlights
Marketers on the rise. Great take on what seems to be a trend: a wave of CMOs taking over as CEOs at leading brands.
◆ It used to be common for CEOs to ascend to the role from finance, or manufacturing. Now we're seeing marketing and communications execs take over at major fashion houses. ◆Caroline Pill, partner at Heidrick & Struggles, links this to companies adopting a 𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓-𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 posture: marketers “are on the pulse of what’s happening, and play a big role in knowing who the customers are”. ◆ If they also bring the "strategic skillset", and know "how to build an influential brand globally and drive revenues", you've got yourself a winner.
Well, what can I say. Hire me now. 😄
#cmo #brand #marketing #strategy #corneroffice
"We'd love to hire women, but in our line of business 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬." Heard that one before? In any line of business, come to think of it? Rock Tech Lithium is a clean tech company, with a mineral mining background. 3 of our 6 Board Members, our CFO, our Chief Compliance Officer and General Council, the ESG and Geology councils, a Lead Engineer, the experts who set up Brand, Marketing, Public Relations and Policy. And yes, our People & Culture team. We're all female. We have a (male) CEO who feels strongly that diverse teams are better teams. And he had no doubt he would find these women. Now, may I pay this team a deeply felt compliment, rarely have I sat in as powerful a room as when we get together. Are there 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 no female candidates out there? Or did you have the intent of finding a more diverse team, yet quickly settled for the "usual suspects" that looked like the team you already had? I'll leave you with that thought, and whish you a Happy Women's Day. Dr. Jutta Michelle Gahagan Kerstin Wedemann Sonja RossteuscherCharlotte Holzum Anna-Lena Jehle Anika Rajnai, PhD Jennifer Main Désirée Schulte Dirk Harbecke
#leadership #culture #womenintech #DEI
