Truly effective marketing leaders need to be able to zoom out from their day-to-day, operate with a curiosity and interest about the rest of their businesses and lead with clarity, rather than oscillating between fads and shiny new things, according to Salesforce’s ANZ CMO Leandro Perez.
Perez credits his much of his skills as a marketing leader to his time with The Marketing Academy. He’s one of only a handful of marketers to have completed The Marketing Academy’s Scholarship and Fellowship programs. While the Scholarship is a nine-month development program for emerging leadership talent in advertising, marketing and media, the Fellowship is designed to provide CMOs with board-level thinking and development in all elements of leadership and board stewardship to accelerate their ascension to CEO or board roles.
With applications for the 2025 Fellowship program closing on 30 May, B&T sat down with Perez to learn more about his career and time with The Marketing Academy. The Marketing Academy’s CEO, Sherilyn Shackell, recently spoke and hosted a Masterclass session at Cairns Crocodiles, presented by Pinterest.
B&T: Looking back at your career so far, what pivotal moments or decisions most shaped your path to the role you now have at Salesforce?
Leandro Perez: Early in my journey at Salesforce, I had the chance to step into a role that would ultimately reshape how I thought about leadership and impact. I was asked to lead our global corporate messaging—working closely with our CEO and executive team to define how we told the story of Salesforce to the world.
At the time, I knew it was a big responsibility. What I didn’t fully anticipate was how much it would expand my view: not just of our product portfolio, but of our company’s heartbeat—how we serve customers, how we innovate, and how we align around purpose. I had a front-row seat to boardroom strategy sessions, customer engagements across continents, and the constant balancing act between vision and execution.
That experience was transformative. It gave me a deep understanding of the business from the inside out—and taught me how to translate complexity into clarity. These lessons still guide me today in my role as CMO for Australia and New Zealand. I bring that same strategic lens to every campaign, every partnership, and every story we tell—always anchoring in impact, and always thinking globally while acting locally.
B&T: What have been the most surprising business and marketing challenges you’ve faced since joining Salesforce, and how did you tackle them?
LP: One of the most rewarding challenges I’ve faced was launching Agentforce regionally, a bold new narrative and go-to-market motion focused on the transformative potential of agentic AI.
After its global debut at Dreamforce in 2024, we introduced Agentforce across Australia and New Zealand—not just as a concept, but as a call to action. This wasn’t simply about new technology; it was about a fundamental shift in how people will work and how companies engage with their customers. The scale of change agentic AI represents is profound – and that made our job in marketing both more exciting and more complex.
The challenge was helping businesses move from curiosity to confidence. We needed to demystify agentic AI, make it tangible, and show how it could drive real outcomes today. That meant building a compelling story that was both visionary and practical, showing stories of our customers early success, and aligning our entire go-to-market engine around it.
We took the Agentforce message on the road—delivering a series of immersive events in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, and Brisbane. As each stop we let our customers get hands-on with the technology, and thousands of attendees left our events having built their very first Agent.
In parallel, we launched a new brand campaign featuring a high-impact Agentforce activation in Sydney, bringing the concept to life in a visually striking and interactive way through a showcase with our customer, TripADeal—attracting over 20,000 people, generating more than 1,000 agent interactions, and drawing 4,466 attendees into the space.
I was so proud of the cross-functional collaboration. It was a demonstration that success lies in clarity of message, trust in execution, and a shared belief in the future you’re helping to shape.
B&T: What advice would you give to marketers aspiring to transition into executive leadership roles?
LP: My biggest advice is this: expand your lens beyond marketing. Executive leadership is about understanding the full business—how value is created, how decisions are made, and how different functions come together to drive outcomes. Great marketers are already storytellers and strategists, but to lead at the executive level, you need to speak the language of the business, not just the brand.
Spend time with sales, finance, product, and operations. Get curious about how the business runs. That cross-functional fluency not only builds credibility—it sharpens your ability to influence at the highest levels.
Also, think deeply about how you show up as a leader. It’s not just about delivering results, it’s about lifting others, navigating change, and leading with clarity and empathy. The further up you go, the more your impact is measured by the success of those around you.
And finally, stay anchored in purpose. The most effective leaders I’ve seen—and tried to emulate—know what they stand for, and they bring that consistency to everything they do.
B&T: What motivated you to join The Marketing Academy Fellowship, and how did the experience challenge or change your perspective as a CMO?
LP: What first drew me to The Marketing Academy Fellowship was the opportunity to connect with a world-class network of CMOs. I knew the program would challenge me, but what stood out most was the chance to learn alongside peers who were navigating similar challenges in completely different contexts. That kind of exposure sharpens your thinking—and humbles it too.
The Fellowship pushed me to zoom out. It’s easy as a CMO to stay focused on brand, pipeline, and campaigns. But the program encouraged me to think more like a CEO—to consider the whole business, from culture to capital allocation, and to develop a more enterprise-wide perspective.
It also deepened my sense of purpose. Hearing from leaders across industries about their personal journeys, successes, and failures made me reflect more intentionally on the kind of leader I want to be—not just for my team, but within the business and broader community.
The experience was transformative, and the relationships I built continue to be a source of support and inspiration.
B&T: Can you share a specific insight or learning from the Fellowship that you’ve applied directly to your work at Salesforce?
LP: One of the most powerful insights I gained from the Fellowship was the idea that leadership is about managing energy, not just outcomes. It really challenged me to think more intentionally about how I show up in high-stakes moments – not just as a decision-maker, but as a cultural signal for the team.
I put that into practice earlier this year during Agentforce World Tour Sydney, our flagship in-person event that brought together over 10,000 people. The scale, complexity, and visibility of the event could have easily tipped the team into execution mode alone. But I made a conscious decision to focus not just on delivering the event, but on how we delivered it—ensuring clarity of purpose, creating space for creativity, and making sure people felt energised, not depleted, in the process.
We led with shared ownership, celebrated quick wins along the way, and stayed close as a leadership group to maintain momentum. The result was an event that not only met our business objectives but left the team feeling proud, connected, and ready for what’s next.
That mindset—centring both performance and people—is something I now carry into every major moment.
B&T: The Fellowship emphasises board-level readiness—how has it prepared you for broader business leadership beyond marketing?
LP: The Fellowship challenged me to step beyond the marketing function and think like a CEO or board member. It expanded my perspective—giving me a deeper understanding of how businesses create long-term value, how governance shapes culture and strategy, and how to lead with both performance and purpose.
It wasn’t about learning to do more – it was about learning to think differently. I gained exposure to disciplines like capital allocation, enterprise risk, and board dynamics, which built my confidence to contribute meaningfully outside of marketing. It also reinforced the importance of clarity, curiosity, and asking the right questions at the right moments.
That shift in mindset was pivotal. Shortly after completing the program, I was invited to join the board of the AANA (Australian Association of National Advertisers)—a move that felt like a natural next step. The Fellowship helped prepare me for that responsibility, and gave me the tools and perspective to show up not just as a marketing leader, but as a business leader ready to shape the broader industry.
B&T: What emerging trends or industry shifts are you most excited – or concerned – about as you look to the future of Salesforce’s brand in Australia?
LP: One of the most exciting—and profound—shifts we’re seeing is the rise of agentic AI. We’re moving beyond AI as a passive tool to AI as an active collaborator – capable of driving workflows, making recommendations, and even taking action on behalf of users. That has massive implications for how people work and how companies engage with their customers.
This shift is at the heart of our Agentforce narrative. It’s not just a campaign – it’s a strategic repositioning of Salesforce around a new era of productivity, trust, and intelligence. And it presents a huge opportunity for our brand in Australia and New Zealand: to lead the conversation, build confidence in the technology, and help organisations see the real, transformative outcomes that are possible today.
The challenge—and the responsibility—is to ensure we lead with clarity, not hype. As this technology evolves, trust will be the currency. That’s why we’re focused on showing not just what AI can do, but how it can be used ethically, securely, and with human oversight.
Agentforce is helping us do that—anchoring our brand in purpose, innovation, and practical impact. It’s an exciting time to reintroduce Salesforce in Australia, not just as a CRM leader, but as a trusted AI partner for the future of business.
Applications for The Marketing Academy’s 2025 Fellowship program close on 30 May.
