Welcome to another special episode of the Marketing Vanguard podcast. Today, Jenny Rooney speaks with Marc Speichert, chief commercial officer at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.

Speichert shares his view on the importance of leading with empathy and care, how marketing leaders drive business growth, his enthusiasm for diving into and often creating new roles, and how delivering unscripted and unexpected acts of value creates “electric” experiences for Four Seasons guests.

“Having empathy and care raises the bar for yourself when you’re in a company, but it also makes you become a better leader, and a better human person in terms of how you show up to the company that you work with, but also to the broader ecosystem around you,” Speichert says on the podcast.

With over 20 years of experience across diverse industries, Speichert is passionate about marketing and enterprise transformation, consistently delivering value to customers and stakeholders. His career spans roles at Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal, Google, and GSK Consumer Healthcare. His expertise includes marketing communications, new business development, online marketing, and digital transformation.

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Key takeaways:

08:08 Leading with Empathy and Care — Empathy and care are at the core of leadership, both personally and professionally. Marc highlights how his time at Colgate and now at Four Seasons reinforced these values. He emphasizes that leading with empathy creates a supportive workplace and fosters personal growth. This alignment with company culture makes leadership impactful. It’s about how you show up for others, both in and outside of work and the lasting influence it has on how you connect with the world around you.