Of the more than 200 appointments to marketing leadership roles in the first half of 2019, 48 percent were women — an all-time high — according to analysis from management consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
Norm Yustin, a managing director and partner at Russell Reynolds, shared the firm's findings in Forbes. The near-parity displayed in chief marketing officer hires in the first half of this year represents the highest proportion of female marketing executive appointments the firm has observed in any six-month period, he wrote. The previous high, 46 percent, occurred in the second half of 2016.
The analysis, which tracked appointments to chief marketing officer roles across all industries, also included several healthcare-specific findings. For one, more than half of all marketing leader appointments in the sector in the first half of the year came from outside of healthcare, down from 73 percent in the first half of 2018. Of those external hires, 40 percent came from consumer-facing businesses.
Additionally, healthcare marketing showed an overall increase in volatility: The industry made up 9 percent of all marketing leadership moves, up from just 4 percent in the second half of 2017.
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