Bozoma Saint John

Bozoma Saint John is the Global Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix, the world’s leading streaming entertainment service with 200 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries, and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages.

Boz got her start in marketing at Spike Lee’s advertising agency, Spike DDB. She then went on to manage brands within the PepsiCo beverages portfolio, before becoming Head of Music and Entertainment Marketing at the CPG giant; followed by Head of Global Consumer Marketing at Apple Music & iTunes; then went on to serve as Chief Brand Officer at Uber; before taking on the CMO role for Endeavor (overseeing WME, IMG, UFC, Miss Universe, PBR, 160over90, etc).

Boz has been recognized for her breakthrough work by both the industry and her peers. Her career has been marked by induction into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement (2014), Billboard’s Women in Music Hall of Fame (2018, 2020), as well as recognition on The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100 list (2018) and on Forbes’ World’s Most Influential CMOs list (2018, 2021). Boz has also been featured on the cover of Adweek as “one of the most exciting personalities in advertising” and on lists ranging from Fast Company’s and Ad Age’s Most Creative People to Ebony’s 100 Powerful Executives, Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in Business, Fortune’s Most Influential CMOs, Business Insider’s 25 Chief Marketing Officers to Watch (2020), and Forbes’ CEO Next 50: The Up-And-Coming Leaders Set To Revolutionize American Business list. Most recently, she was ranked #1 on Forbes’ 2021 ranking of the World’s Most Influential CMOs.

In 2020, Boz launched a podcast alongside award-winning journalist Katie Couric, “Back to Biz with Katie and Boz,” which explores the ways thought leaders, CEOs, and innovators are responding to the societal shifts that have been ushered in by the coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, Saint John launched the #ShareTheMicNow Instagram initiative; alongside Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Glennon Doyle, and Stacey Bendet. On June 10, 2020, 52 Black women took over the Instagram feeds of 52 white women with large platforms, magnifying Black women and the important work that they’re doing in order to catalyze change. The campaign was incredibly successful, collecting 17 billion impressions. During the 2020 Spring semester, Professor Frances Frei of Harvard Business School used Boz’s successful marketing career as a case study in her MBA class, “Leading Difference.” Boz appeared as a guest lecturer for students and proved to be so valuable that she was asked to teach her own course, “Anatomy of A Badass,” during the January 2021 semester. She will also turn the pen from collegiate curriculum to writing her first book, a memoir titled “The Urgent Life: A Story of Love, Grief and Survival” to be published by Viking/Penguin Books in 2022. In June 2021, Boz was a Cannes Lions jury president, leading the Glass: The Lion for Change category with the specific goal of recognizing work that challenged gender bias and shattered the stereotypical images which remain rooted in marketing messages. Most recently, Boz gave a TEDTalk exploring “The Case For Optimism” – the theme of the Global TED Conference in Monterey, CA.

Boz serves on a number of advisory boards including Verizon Media’s Global Advisory Board, Girls Who Code, Vital Voices, The Council of Fashion Designers of America: Black Advisory Board, The Black Executive CMO Alliance, SoHo House, Saysh, the Tony Elumelu Foundation as well as Adweek’s Steering Committee. Boz’s philanthropic efforts include representing Pencils of Promise as a Global Ambassador to Ghana. In 2021, Boz was appointed to the Board of Trustees for Wesleyan University. She is the mother of a 12-year-old daughter, Lael, whom she cites as her greatest accomplishment. Originally from Ghana, immigrant to Colorado Springs, CO, adopted daughter of NYC, Bozoma now resides in Los Angeles, CA.