FEATURED ARTICLE

Jim Davey: From Chief Marketing Executive to Chief Marketing Lecturer

Interview by Tim Sweeney

Jim Davey has led marketing at Hasbro, Timberland, and Paramount Consumer Products, among others. Now, the former CMO is teaching graduate students what he’s learned. We picked his brain about the changing dynamics of marketing organizations and tried to steal a few lessons from the class he is teaching to the marketing professionals of tomorrow.

“To me, the headline for a marketer today, across any business, is complexity,” says Jim Davey, a 30-year marketing professional who has served as the CMO or senior vice president of marketing for iconic brands such as Hasbro, Timberland, and Paramount Consumer Products. From his days as a brand manager for LEGO in the mid-1990s to marketing leadership roles at Nickelodeon, Davey has seen his chosen profession evolve dramatically and rapidly. Regardless of the industry—whether it’s been toys or “Timbs”—he’s witnessed firsthand how new platforms, greater data, and increased personalization are demanding more varied skills and creating more areas to manage.