6sense and Athena Alliance Partner to Address Boardroom Diversity With Women in Marketing

Women currently hold only 14% of U.S. board positions. Partnership seeks to change that.

Today, 6sense, in partnership with the Athena Alliance, launched The Empowered CMO Board Book aimed at propelling female Chief Market/Marketing Officers (CMOs) to leadership positions where they can have the most impact: in the boardroom. The book provides venture capital, private equity, and corporate board executives with a curated list of more than 60 women CMOs who are qualified and ready to serve on boards.

With thousands of board members serving Fortune 1000 companies, just 26 of them (or 3%) are marketing professionals according to Spencer Stuart, and only 14% of total board positions are held by women.

At the 2021 Empowered CMO Retreat, Latané Conant, Chief Market Officer at 6sense, announced a commitment to drive the advancement of distinguished women CMOs by opening doors and creating opportunities. Recognizing the importance of sponsorship, 6sense invested in more than 100 women CMOs to join the Athena Alliance to accelerate their board readiness and develop their board candidate resume for inclusion in the Board Book.

“I really love that 6sense recognizes an issue and is taking action to address it. We saw a need for women CMOs in the boardroom and an opportunity with our Empowered CMO community, and we knew we had the right relationships to influence the next generation of board candidates,” said Conant. “We’re addressing both the lack of gender diversity and market expertise in boardrooms that are proven to hold companies back from the growth they deserve. It’s only our first step, but it’s a big one.”

Leaders at thriving companies can attest that a deep understanding of the “market” at the executive and board levels is critical. As more board chairpersons and CEOs recognize how important marketing, messaging, positioning, and the customer experience are to their companies’ growth trajectory, corporate boards seek to include those voices in the boardroom.

At the same time, research is showing that diverse boards are better at advising the companies they serve. Diverse boards foster more impressive innovation, especially in groundbreaking industries like tech.^[1] And there’s a positive correlation between women’s presence on boards and greater financial returns.^[2]

Yet many company leaders and investors struggle to connect with experienced women candidates who both increase a board’s diversity and bring market expertise. This collaboration between 6sense and Athena Alliance seeks to bridge this gap by making it easy for seasoned women marketing leaders and those filling board seats to find each other.

“Athena has supported over 400 women in gaining board seats, securing almost 1,000 interviews for women leaders along the way. We’ve guided and coached success on both sides of the table,” says Coco Brown, CEO & Founder of the Athena Alliance. “Athena is a perfect partner for this effort, not only for our experience in this area, but for our deep commitment to evolving the maturity of the modern boardroom. We are honored to collaborate with 6sense and Empowered CMO to create this revolutionary approach— a ‘board book’ of the most powerful women in go-to-market. This first release is just the starting point. And it will be received by at least 100 VCs and PE firms. That’s action.”

“Many company strategy problems come to a head in marketing,” said Carilu Dietrich, a former CMO and advisor to hypergrowth companies. “Seasoned marketing executives can add perspective and insight to help CEOs and boards tackle these critical issues and accelerate growth. Top CMOs have seen both the symptoms and the causes behind the numbers. This makes them a valuable complement to boards traditionally composed of life-time investors, CFOs and ex-CEOs. It’s exciting to see 6sense and Athena surfacing these talented women for new board openings. This program offers great value to CEOs looking for their next board member and to the women CMOs involved.”

For more information about the partnership and the organizations and women involved:

The Empowered CMO community was founded by 6sense to elevate women and the role of the CMO through open, authentic, and inspiring connections and conversations sparked at dinner events, the annual retreat, and online forums. This community of more than 500 of the most successful B2B women CMOs empowers members to realize their full potential professionally and personally.

Athena is a community platform that brings together women leaders, investors, CEOs, board directors, and corporations in one global, digital ecosystem. Women join Athena for executive coaching, board opportunities, exclusive events, one-on-one mentorship, and more. Athena also guides CEOs, venture firms, and corporations to evolve their approach to senior leadership development, to strengthen their boards, and to access the world’s top female leaders. For more information, visit www.AthenaAlliance.com.

6sense reinvents the way organizations create, manage, and convert pipeline to revenue. 6sense Revenue AI™ captures anonymous buying signals, targets the right accounts at the ideal time, and recommends the channels and messages to boost revenue performance. Removing guesswork, friction, and wasted sales effort, 6sense empowers sales, marketing, and customer success teams to significantly improve pipeline quality, accelerate sales velocity, increase conversion rates, and grow revenue predictably. 6sense has been recognized for its market-defining technology by Forbes Cloud 100, Gartner, and Forrester, and for its strong culture by Glassdoor, Inc. Magazine, and Comparably. For more information, visit 6sense or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

^[1] An, H., Chen, C., Wu, Q., & Zhang, T. (2021). Corporate Innovation: Do Diverse Boards Help? Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 56(1), 155-182. doi:10.1017/S0022109019001005
^[1] Post, C., & Byron, K. (2015). Women on Boards and Firm Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Academy of Management Journal, 58(5), 1546–1571. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0319