Aruna Ravichandran, Webex by Cisco: Meet the 2024 Global Marketer of the Year Finalists

Aruna has earned a reputation as “the CMO who closes deals” turning her team into critical revenue drivers for Cisco’s Collaboration business.

She has led a strategic focus on data-driven decision-making, strong cross-functional collaborative approach that delivers for the business.

Two key examples are the overhaul of the Enterprise demand generation engine to develop go-to-market sales plays for pipeline acceleration and marketing-sourced pipeline generation. Within one year, the team engaged 20,000 new leads, comprising more than $2 billion in the active sales-engaged pipeline.  Similarly, a comprehensive account-based management strategy has generated more than $300 million in new Marketing–Sourced Pipeline.

For WebexOne, the company’s annual customer conference, she helped create a hybrid event that reached to 26,000 attendees, partnering with Product Development on groundbreaking new features to announce, curated VIP experiences for accounts that presented significant opportunities, and hired star-studded keynote speakers, such as astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson and legendary actor Robert De Niro.

Within her team, Aruna has focused on a strong culture that has resulted in a turnover rate of less than two percent, the lowest in Webex Marketing history. She has prioritised learning and development and sets aside a budget for conferences and events so her team can advance their knowledge.

She started her career with IBM, moving to Hewlett Packard Enterprises and CA Technologies before joining Webex by Cisco as CMO in 2018. Aruna is the first B2B marketer to be selected as a finalist for WFA’s Global Marketer of the Year.

Vote for Aruna here →

The 2024 shortlist for WFA Global Marketer of the Year also includes:

• Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, Chief Marketing Officer, DoorDash
• Asad Ayaz, Chief Brand Officer, The Walt Disney Company and President of Marketing, The Walt Disney Studios and Disney+
• Diana Frost, Global Chief Growth Officer, The Kraft Heinz Company
• Marcel Marcondes, Global Chief Marketing Officer, AB InBev