Cannes Lions 2024: Introducing Tejal Vishalpura, Gabrielle Wesley, Heather Freeland

Marketing Report is running a series of articles introducing speakers participating at this year’s Cannes Lions.

Tejal Vishalpura

SVP, Commercial Strategy & Marketing, Novo Nordisk

Tejal Vishalpura, PharmD leads the commercial strategy for Novo Nordisk’s innovative cardiometabolic therapy areas, to deliver transformative and human-centered experiences that put patient and customer needs first.

Tejal is passionate about advancing capabilities of employees in support of discovering the potential of modern medicines so that Americans living with serious diseases have an opportunity to unlock their full human potential.

Before joining Novo Nordisk, Tejal held numerous leadership roles at Novartis, including VP, Global Head of Capabilities and Learning and VP, Global Head of Marketing and Launch Excellence and was a member of their Executive Diversity Council. Tejal began her post-graduate career at Xcenda, providing corporate and brand strategy consulting for Biotech companies and held numerous leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline. Tejal has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from The Ohio State University.

Gabrielle Wesley

Chief Marketing Officer, Mars Wrigley North America

Gabrielle Wesley is an experienced brand and general management professional with 20 years of experience in both consumer and private label CPG.

She is a champion of identifying and validating new ways to reach consumers in an ever-changing marketplace and credits her success to her passion for One Demand partnership and being consumer-obsessed. As CMO for Mars Wrigley North America, she leads the multi-billion-dollar portfolio of iconic brands that include M&M’S®, SNICKERS®, SKITTLES®, etc. She began her career at Mars in the Petcare Division, where she led the Wet Portfolio.

Prior to Mars, Gabrielle enjoyed an extensive career in brand management at General Mills and ConAgra Foods. At General Mills, she managed a variety of brands such as Nature Valley, Green Giant, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Progresso. At ConAgra, Gabrielle led the largest global portfolio of Private Label Snacks and was a key member of the leadership team.

Heather Freeland

Chief Brand Officer, Adobe

Heather Freeland currently serves as Vice-President of Marketing and Chief Brand Officer at Adobe. She leads all of Adobe's brand marketing globally across the business, overseeing brand strategy and insights, integrated marketing efforts, brand advertising and media, and creative.

Prior to Adobe, she was Vice-President of Marketing at Lyft, leading the function across the company's rideshare, bikeshare, and feet lines of business and overseeing Brand, Product, Growth, Partner, and B2B Marketing as well as Creative. During her time at Lyft, she oversaw the reimagining of the Lyft brand, the reinvention of the team and its operations, and the resurrection of the business post-pandemic.

Previously, Freeland served as the Head of B2B Global Marketing Communications at Meta for 7+ years, where she led brand strategy, creative, product marketing and more, helping to transform the marketing industry through her launch of mobile and video advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and across the platform.

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