Courteney Monroe

CMO, National Geographic Channels

Monroe defines professional success as “doing your very best and getting the very best out of your team.” We’d say she’s succeeding with flying colors. She drove marketing campaigns that handed Nat Geo its all-time highest viewership this past year, including for scripted special “Killing Lincoln,” its highest rated show in NatGeo history. She also headed extensive qualitative research on the core audience, and then helped incorporate it into everything from programming to media strategies to marketing to the on-air look and feel. Under Monroe, the net’s ad sales integrations grew 400% in the past year, given her push to expand both breadth and depth of key marketing partnerships. What’s next? Launching the initial phase of a new branding campaign.

Matt Lauer. Always dreamed of anchoring the “Today” show. He gets to meet and talk with so many interesting people and I love to talk!