This morning I had the privilege of joining Georgia’s marketing community at The Starling Atlanta Midtown for the 2026 GeorgiaCMO ORBIE Awards. It was a room full of leaders who earn trust the hard way — by building brands people believe, teams people want to follow, and results that hold up under scrutiny.
The ORBIEs, presented by GeorgiaCMO as part of the Inspire Leadership Network, honor chief marketing officers for leadership, community involvement, and excellence. As Ron McMurtrie, 2026 Chair of GeorgiaCMO, wrote in his letter to the chapter, Inspire connects CMOs, CIOs, and CISOs across more than 50 chapters spanning public, private, and nonprofit organizations across North America. That peer network — and the standard it sets — was on full display this morning.
My congratulations to today’s winners:
• Heather Balsley, Leadership Award — Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts
• Nicole O’Rourke, Global — Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, ZS
• Manish Shrivastava, Large Enterprise — Chief Marketing Officer, PulteGroup
• Ryan Mucatel, Enterprise — Chief Marketing Officer, AMB Sports and Entertainment
• Elaine Armstrong, Large Corporate — Vice President of Marketing, Goodwill of North Georgia
• Diana Léon Brown, Corporate — Airport Deputy General Manager, Marketing and Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Heather’s Leadership Award recognition stood out. In the program bio, she is described as having joined IHG Hotels & Resorts in 2007, serving as Global Chief Customer Officer beginning in November 2023, and becoming Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer in April 2024. In that role she leads brand strategy, positioning, marketing, commercial performance, customer data and analytics, and the customer experience across IHG’s portfolio of 20 brands, including IHG One Rewards. Before IHG, she spent seven years as a consultant with Marakon Associates. Leadership of that scope is trust work — the kind that shows up in how a brand behaves for guests, owners, and teams around the world.
Heather Balsley, Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts, accepting the Leadership ORBIE by video.
I also want to thank the people who make this community possible: Frank Bell, founder of the Inspire Leadership Network; Ron McMurtrie, Chair of GeorgiaCMO; and Lisa LaRoque, SVP of Inspire CMO. Peer communities like GeorgiaCMO remind us that the answer really is in the room — and that celebrating excellent leadership is itself an act of building trust.
Moments like this morning reinforce why I wrote Built for Trust (Greenleaf Book Group, July 27, 2027). Trust is not a campaign. It is a leadership practice — visible in how CMOs set direction, how they treat their teams, and how their organizations keep their promises when it counts.
Get the free preview and join the pre-order list for Built for Trust.
