In-depth interviews with globally renowned leaders, sharing their personal experiences, insights, and lessons learned in building long-term success.
Career Spotlight – with Deborah Wahl
2 November @ 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
AUD139.90
Deborah is a Public Company Board Director and former SVP and Global CMO of General Motors. A dynamic leader with public and private equity board experience, she brings a breadth of capabilities to her governance roles.
As a global growth expert, Deborah made a career of shaping and implementing transformative corporate strategy. She aligned customer and company objectives to drive success with advanced data and analytics strategies to revitalize brands and drive growth. She has leadership experience across the automotive, QSR, healthcare and home building industries, enhancing profitability and stock performance.
She currently serves as an independent board director for First American Financial (NYSE: $6.5B market cap), Mediaocean and Safe Guard Products International. Her previous board experience includes Groupon (Nasdaq), Beyond Ordinary Events, ActionIQ, SGM (GM’s joint-venture in China), OnStar Insurance, and several key roles on marketing industry boards.
In her for-profit public board work she serves on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee at First American Financial and previously served on the Nominating and Audit committees at Groupon, where she also worked through a significant CEO transition to implement operational excellence and drive the company’s transformation forward. She played an active role in the start-up Beyond Ordinary events which achieved a successful sale to Hyve Group, provided market and customer guidance as ActionIQ completed its sale to Uniphore and worked with Vista Equity Partners on the Mediaocean board through a successful transaction.
She brings a wealth of large scale strategic leadership, brand building expertise, digital transformation and customer centric innovation to board service. Having led large-scale business transformations, she can provide guidance to organizations through change while ensuring operational excellence. Her experience on public and private boards has strengthened her expertise in corporate governance, risk management and stakeholder engagement. Leadership roles across several industries provides the agility and perspective necessary in this evolving business landscape.
She plays an active role in philanthropy with a focus on Detroit, serving as Chair of Friends of The Children – Detroit and as a former Trustee of the Cranbrook Educational Community. She previously participated on the Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital Board. She is also an active member of IWF (International Women’s Forum) and the Wellesley Business Leadership Council.
Deborah holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wellesley College, an MBA from The Wharton School and a Masters of International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute. She has consistently been recognized as a leader among CMOs, named to the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame and the CMO Club Hall of Fame. In 2021 she was awarded the Automotive Hall of Fame Influencers Award and was named to the Event Marketing Hall of Fame in 2023.