SDL Promotes Marketing to the C-Level

Lionbridge has its Chief Marketing Officer, Kevin Bolen, and now rival SDL has a CMO too, in the name of Chris Boorman.

According to the press release, “Boorman comes to SDL International following 10 years as Vice President of Marketing at Salesforce.com and VERITAS Software.”

The CMO is a new position at SDL and a sign that vendors need CMOs to better sell to CMOs on the client side. More than ever, marketing is driving Web globalization, bubbling up from managers to directors to VPs to CMO. It’s a positive sign for vendors like SDL that CMOs are now prioritizing Web globalization and allocating budget.

A question I often get asked is about the likelihood of a new Chief Globalization Officer (CGO) position being created on the client side. I get the feeling that companies are wary of adding any more C-level positions, period. But I’m also not sure a CGO would be such a good thing for many companies; all C-level people have to wear the globalization hat these days — from IT to product development to marketing.

But time will tell. If you know of any companies adding such a C-level post, please let me know.

And on the other end of the spectrum, I read in InformationWeek today that Google doesn’t even have a CIO or CTO position. Go figure.

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