• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 14, 2022

Ad industry association She Runs It has named its Women of the Year 2022. They are: Beatriz “Bea” Perez, SVP and Chief Communications, Sustainability and Strategic Partnerships Officer, The Coca-Cola Company; Elizabeth Rutledge, Chief Marketing Officer, American Express; and Linda Yaccarino, Chairman of Global Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal.

The prestigious award is bestowed on leaders who “set the pace for the industry,” and who “best embody the fearless spirit of the organization, which was founded in 1912 as Advertising Women of New York.

Lynn Branigan, President and CEO of She Runs It, stated, “These women have done as much for their companies as they have for their communities, their teams, and the planet, always leading with empathy, advocating for DE&I, challenging the status quo, pursuing sustainable business practices, and lifting others.”

She Runs It will honor the three Women of the Year recipients at an awards celebration on Wednesday, September 28 at Gotham Hall in New York. Ticket information can be found here.

Perez oversees a diverse portfolio and manages teams that support The Coca-Cola Company's business objectives. This includes commitments to global leadership in the areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG). Perez leads global external and internal communications, including digital media strategy for company-owned channels; global brand public relations; financial communications; and leadership communications. She also leads the strategic direction and business performance for the company's retail, licensing and attractions portfolio of assets.

Her prior roles included serving as CMO for Coca-Cola North America. Perez was named as the company's first chief sustainability officer in 2011. Her team went on to become the driving force behind the company's World Without Waste program. Her team also developed and led global commitments to advance water stewardship and women's economic empowerment, among other key ESG goals. In water, the company achieved its 2020 goals five years ahead of schedule, returning to communities and nature more than 100% of the water used to manufacture its beverages.

As CMO of American Express, and member of the company’s Executive Committee, Elizabeth Rutledge oversees strategic brand planning, media & content, sponsorships & experiences and customer insights around the globe, as well as American Express’ in-house creative agency.

Prior to becoming CMO, Rutledge had responsibility for managing the US Consumer Card portfolio, including the Platinum Card, as well as key co-brand partnerships, and the Membership Rewards program. Rutledge has been fiercely committed to supporting small businesses, supporting Small Business Saturday as it has become a national movement that has helped generate an estimated $163 billion in reported consumer spend at small businesses on the day since its inception in 2010.

Rutledge is an executive sponsor of the company’s Disability Awareness Network and plays an active role in the Women’s Interest Network, an initiative designed to connect colleagues seeking career development, and support mentoring programs that nurture diverse talent in the workplace.

She Runs It credits Yaccarino with transforming the $70 billion video ecosystem. Her 2000 plus global team connects established and emerging brands to hundreds of millions of viewers, driving economic impact across the industry. Yaccarino’s team has generated more than $100 billion in ad sales, helped NBCU establish new ad partnerships, launched an ad supported streaming service, expanded globally, and has built new company-wide data and ad tech capabilities. As the first ad chief to develop a unified trading platform she has united ad capabilities across Comcast NBCUniversal and Sky. 

Yaccarino has launched #WhyTrustMatters and #OurPartnershipCommitment campaigns calling for a return to values-based, trusted partnerships, underscoring the most important issues facing her contemporaries, plus serves as a leading voice for uplifting girls and women through campaigns like #ShesMy. 

As Ad Council Chair, Yaccarino partnered across the business and government community to create a campaign to educate millions of Americans on the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine. To use advertising to advance equity, she has helped launch initiatives including BOLD, a program for employing veterans, Scene in Color, a collaboration with Target to elevate emerging BIPOC creatives in film, and a partnership with Telemundo to release a Latina-centric storytelling guide.