Grab CMO voted WFA Global Marketer of the Year

She was one of six finalists and selected following an expert Jury vote. The expert jury was made up of client-side industry peers from around the world as well as representatives from partner organisations Kantar and The Drum.

Cheryl was part of the original founding team at Grab and has been instrumental in shaping one of Southeast Asia’s most recognized and enduring technology brands. She leads the full marketing remit across Grab’s ecosystem – encompassing product marketing, communications and growth – while also driving the company’s sustainability agenda and customer experience operations across the region.

She also oversees the full business P&L for Grab’s loyalty programs, meaning she combines deep brand-building expertise with operational and commercial accountability.

Jury members cited Cheryl’s “grit, agility and pragmatism in being able to link marketing to business growth”, as well as her ability to prove that “marketing is a growth driver in an ethical and sustainable way”. She was also a short-listed finalist in 2019 and 2022.

“I’m incredibly honoured by this recognition, even if a part of me is still trying to make sense of it,” she said on receiving the award. “I didn’t start my career as a marketer, and for a long time I wasn’t sure there was a ‘right’ way to do this job. What I’ve learned over the past 13 years building the Grab brand is that marketing is often far more logical than it looks, that there’s rarely one correct answer, and that progress comes from being open to learning from people far better than you. This award reflects that journey and the power of marketing to help build an unknown startup into a trusted, everyday part of people’s lives across Southeast Asia, while staying grounded in real business growth and long-term impact”

“Huge congratulations to Cheryl, who is the first WFA Global Marketer of the Year to hail from an Asia-based brand. She compellingly demonstrates how powerful marketing can be when closely aligned with business growth. Her story should inspire other regional and global marketers to effectively lead brand building with commercial accountability,” said Stephan Loerke, CEO at WFA.

She was selected by the expert jury, following a judges’ debate, informed by the latest data from official partner Kantar from both BrandZ and its Blueprint for Brand Growth research. The award is also supported by The Drum.

Following her win, Cheryl joined David Wheldon on the Better Marketing podcast, to share insights from her career including her playbook on how to cross swim lanes for commercial impact. You can watch this episode here.

The other shortlisted candidates were:

• Manolo Arroyo, EVP and Global Chief Marketing Officer, The Coca-Cola Company;
• Edward Bell, General Manager, Brand, Insights and Marketing Communications, Cathay Pacific;
• Emily Ketchen, SVP and CMO, Intelligent Devices Group and International Markets, Lenovo;
• Kory Marchisotto, Global Chief Marketing Officer, e.l.f. Beauty & President, Keys Soulcare; and;
• Sean Summers, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Mercado Libre.
  
  

All shortlisted finalists are inducted into the WFA’s Hall of Fame.

“Grab has built a powerful brand that has lead to the creation of a whole new category across APAC. In recent years their marketing effort in Indonesia has resulted in strong increases in salience and meaningfulness setting it up for growth in the coming years”, said Mark Visser, Global Head of Consulting at Kantar.

Launched in 2017, this is the ninth year that WFA has run Global Marketer of the Year. The 2024 winner was Marcel Marcondes, Global Chief Marketing Officer at AB InBev. All previous winners can be seen here.