Workday Has Named Sarah Kennedy Ellis Marketing Chief
The veteran executive will lead global marketing efforts for the enterprise cloud provider.
Updated on Oct. 5, 2026 in Advertising
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Workday has appointed Sarah Kennedy Ellis as its new chief marketing officer to drive global growth and brand strategy. She joins the enterprise firm with more than two decades of marketing experience.
Why it matters
The company hired the veteran leader to help communicate complex technological shifts, including its AI agent offerings, to its massive enterprise customer base.
Workday serves more than 11,500 organizations, with over 65% of the Fortune 500 currently utilizing the company's products.
The players
Sarah Kennedy Ellis
She is the newly appointed chief marketing officer at Workday who previously held senior marketing leadership roles at Google and Adobe.
Aneel Bhusri
He serves as the CEO of Workday and will manage the reporting relationship with the company's new marketing head.
Workday
This enterprise cloud company provides software for human resources and finance to over 11,500 organizations globally.
The details
Kennedy Ellis will oversee global marketing and communications, reporting directly to CEO Aneel Bhusri. She brings extensive experience from her previous leadership roles at Google Cloud, Google Workspace, and Adobe Experience Cloud.
Timeline
Sarah Kennedy Ellis begins her new role as Chief Marketing Officer on October 5, 2026.
Adobe completed its acquisition of Marketo in 2018.
Market Landscape
This appointment signals a focus on enterprise brand positioning as the company continues to scale. It follows a pattern established by the 2018 acquisition of Marketo by Adobe, which marked a major consolidation phase in the enterprise software marketing space.
Customers can expect changes in how the company communicates its latest AI agent updates and product offerings. The move aims to streamline how enterprise clients engage with the company's growth strategy.
The takeaway
New executive leadership often signals a pivot in how a company presents its technical roadmap to the public. Clients should watch for changes in product communication as the new CMO integrates her strategy for the company's AI offerings.
Further reading
Learn more about the latest shifts in the industry by visiting the Advertising section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by The AI Software Report.
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