Menaka Gopinath
As Chief Marketing Officer, Menaka leads efforts to strengthen and enhance PMI’s global reputation, leading all aspects of brand, communications, and marketing. Menaka provides strategic counsel and leadership in telling our evolving story and sharing our unique value proposition with stakeholders worldwide.
Menaka has built a successful career as a strategic leader guiding Fortune 100 brands in engaging with consumers to build stronger customer-centric businesses. Throughout her career she has worked with a range of best-in-class brands including Coca-Cola, Apple, Nike, Uber, P&G, and Meta. She brings extensive experience in leading-edge growth and marketing initiatives, including applying advanced analytics, guiding growth marketing strategies, and building integrated, cross-channel programs. Menaka’s experience has followed a consistent thread of customer-centricity, from online marketing to loyalty programs, to consumer insights and social media, including setting up some of the first public online communities in the early days of social media.
Most recently, as President and COO of Graf Lanz, Menaka led a direct-to-consumer sustainable fashion brand, leading efforts to create and implement the strategic direction of the company’s long-term business model and revenue growth trajectory, as well as oversight of the sales, marketing, and merchandising initiatives. Prior to joining Graf Lantz, she led the Social Media Exchange (SMX) service line at Ipsos, one of the largest consumer insights firms in the world. While at Ipsos, she grew the SMX practice from a team of 20 to 100, with double-digit revenue growth every year.
Menaka is passionate about supporting purpose-driven initiatives in the business world – she is on the Board of Mentors for Monday Night Mentorship, a career accelerator for people of color, and while at Ipsos, served as a leader for the Women in Ipsos ERG, and helped to establish BRIDGE, an ERG focused on Anti-Racism. She has a BA in Economics and Communications from New York University and an MBA in Finance from the University of San Francisco.