After her surprise exit as General Motors global chief marketing officer three months ago, Deborah Wahl is settling into what she says is a permanent retirement as a marketer.
But that does not mean she is sitting still. She says she is staying in Detroit but has no plans to return to automotive, at least not full-time, and instead has taken a particular interest in ad tech via boards of directors placements.
ActionIQ, a customer data platform catering to marketers, is announcing Wahl as a member of its board of directors, which follows her May appointment to the board of Mediaocean, which provides tools for omnichannel media planning, buying and financial accounting.
Her placement on the boards of two ad tech players gives Wahl a new vantage point on an ecosystem that she dealt with on the client side across a career that included marketing roles at McDonald’s, Cadillac, Pulte Group, Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda and Ford.
ActionIQ, which plugs its offerings as bringing “order to CX chaos by putting unlimited data into the hands of marketers,” has a client list that includes the New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Albertsons, Dell and electric vehicle startup Rivian.
Below, Wahl elaborates on her GM departure and her board appointments—plus she describes why she is not a fan of Cannes, but is an advocate for Super Bowl marketing. And she picks the campaigns she worked on that she liked the most. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
