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Black Women To Watch

Bozoma Saint John: Pathway to c-suite

Season 0, Ep. 10

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. Over the course of her career, Bozoma has earned a formidable reputation as a trailblazing marketing and advertising executive. She has also held executive positions at Uber, Apple Music and iTunes, Pepsi-Cola North America, Ashley Stewart, Arnold Worldwide and Spike Lee's SpikeDDB.


Bozoma has been recognized for her breakthrough work by both the industry and her peers. She has been inducted into Billboard’s Women in Music 2018 Hall of Fame and in 2014, she was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement, where she currently sits on their Executive Committee. She was named to The Hollywood Reporter’s 2018 Women in Entertainment Power 100 list and 2016’s Executive of the Year by Billboard Magazine; she has been featured in Fortune Magazine’s Disruptors, Innovators & Stars 40 Under 40 feature, Billboard’s Top Executives 40 Under 40 and Power 100 lists, Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People, Ad Age’s 50 Most Creative People, Ebony Magazine’s 100 Powerful Executives, Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in Business, Fortune Magazine’s 2018 list of Most Influential CMOs, and made the cover of Adweek as one of the most exciting personalities in Advertising. In 2021, Bozoma was named #1 on Forbes’ World’s Most Influential CMOs list and the Harvard Business School published a case study about her career and leadership,“Bozoma Saint John: Leading with Authenticity and Urgency”.  


In spite of all of her professional success, Bozoma considers her greatest accomplishment to be mothering her 12 year old daughter, Lael. After the death of her husband, Peter, to cancer in 2013, Bozoma also took on the efforts of raising funding for cancer research and has been recognized by the TJ Martell Foundation for her devotion to the cause.  Bozoma’s other philanthropic efforts include representing Pencils of Promise as a Global Ambassador to Ghana and serving on the boards of Girls Who Code and Vital Voices.


Bozoma was born in Middletown, CT, but spent her early childhood in Nairobi Kenya, Washington DC, and Accra Ghana, before immigrating to Colorado Springs, CO when she was 12 years old.  She received her Bachelor’s degree in English and African American Studies from Wesleyan University (at which she currently sits on the President’s Advisory Council). After many years in New York, she currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

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