Brands
Top notch marketer Lara Balazs joins Adobe as CMO & EVP
MUMBAI: She’s found her corporate abode in Adobe. The cutting edge software firm today announced that former Intuit chief marketing officer (CMO) & general manager, strategic partner group, Lara Balazs has joined it as CMO & executive vice president. She will be having a direct reporting line to Adobe chair & CEO Shantanu Narayen.
At Intuit, Lara was really into it, re-imagining the company’s brand and go-to-market activities to support its AI-driven financial technology platform and elevated its brand awareness and reputation to new heights.
Balazs will lead the global marketing organisation responsible for Adobe’s renowned brand, Adobe.com, the company’s industry-leading events, campaigns, communications, social media and its best-in-class media operations and marketing insights.
“As Adobe continues to deliver industry-leading product innovations across content creation and digital marketing, Lara’s unique experience across B2C and B2B industries and deep insights as an Adobe customer will help us engage our growing universe of users more effectively while expanding Adobe’s brand reach and impact,” voiced Narayen,
Balazs’ marketing career spans key leadership roles at some of the world’s most respected brands such as Amazon, Visa and Nike, delivering innovative customer-centric marketing strategies that propel transformational growth. Among her notable achievements are driving the growth of Amazon Prime and Visa globally and leading Visa into the era of digital payments, with the launch of mobile-first products such as Visa Checkout and Apple Pay. At Intuit, she led the protax group to its highest, most sustained growth in years and drove the company’s highest brand awareness and corporate reputation in its four decades.
Named to Forbes’ list of the world’s most influential CMOs and a recipient of AdWeek’s CMO Vanguard award, Balazs is passionate about advancing the marketing profession and supporting the social impact of the industry.
Balazs holds a bachelor of arts degree in pre-law from the university of Washington and a master of business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Brands
Charlotte Wolf Tarfa named Coca-Cola VP people & culture – India & Southwest Asia
Takes charge of people strategy across India and Southwest Asia
MUMBAI: Charlotte Wolf Tarfa has been appointed vice president, people and culture for India and Southwest Asia at The Coca-Cola Company, stepping into a role that sits at the heart of the beverage giant’s growth playbook for the region.
In her new position, Tarfa will lead the people strategy across India and Southwest Asia, aligning talent, culture and leadership development with the company’s long term ambitions. Her mandate also includes building diverse, skills based leadership pipelines to support the business as it scales.
Announcing the move, she said she was proud to take on the role and partner with teams across what she described as a dynamic region.
Tarfa brings more than a decade of global human resources and talent development experience to the post. She has spent over four years with Coca-Cola, most recently serving as vice president, global talent strategy and succession, where she worked closely with senior leadership to shape talent plans across more than 200 markets.
Before that, she held senior talent and development roles within the company’s global functions, supporting thousands of employees worldwide. Earlier in her career, she spent six years at InterContinental Hotels Group, where she led corporate learning, leadership development and HR business partnering for global teams.
With experience spanning talent strategy, organisational transformation and leadership development, Tarfa now takes on one of Coca-Cola’s most dynamic markets, where people and culture are expected to be as central to growth as the brand’s iconic red label.
