Ada Mockutė-Jaime from „Nordcurrent“ has been named “CMO of the Year ’26”.

“Thank you to the Lithuanian marketing community for this recognition. It is deeply meaningful to me because it reflects not only my personal journey, but also the work of the entire team. In 2025, my contribution as CMO to the company’s strategy focused on three main directions: identifying new growth opportunities, increasing the return on marketing investments, and data-driven product portfolio management. I believe that today marketing has a direct impact on business results and is becoming one of the main drivers of organizational growth. Great marketers grow where they are given the right environment to succeed,” says Ada Mockutė-Jaime.

During the awards evening at CMO Summit, additional recognitions were also presented. The newly established “Google AI Champion” award for artificial intelligence innovation was presented for the first time to Kristina Strimaitė from Hostinger. The award aims to highlight the most creative innovation solutions and demonstrate how artificial intelligence can drive business growth and market advancement.

The “Architects of Change” awards established by the CMO of the Year ’26 jury — recognizing outstanding contributions to organizational transformation and the implementation of advanced solutions — were awarded to Raimonda Gudaitė from Artea and Vytautas Romeika from PIGU.LT.

The “CMO of the Year” awards have been organized in Lithuania for twelve consecutive years and have become one of the most important professional recognitions in the marketing industry. The competition aims not only to recognize outstanding leaders, but also to strengthen the strategic importance of marketing within organizations.

Candidates were evaluated based on the size and sector of their companies, achieved business results, leadership competencies, and measurable contribution to organizational and brand value growth.

This year’s competition stood out for its strong participation and intense competition. The jury received 26 applications, from which 15 candidates were invited to the second interview stage. The ten strongest finalists advanced to the final round, where they presented their ideas and perspectives during public debates.

“In this year’s ‘CMO of the Year ’26’ competition, Ada Mockutė-Jaime stood out not only for her strong strategic thinking, but also for her clearly measurable impact on business performance.

Under her leadership, marketing at Nordcurrent became a key driver of growth — from identifying and successfully expanding into new Asian markets to improving marketing investment efficiency, which increased downloads and active user numbers while maintaining a similar budget. Today, Ada clearly demonstrates that the strongest marketing leader is one who can combine creativity, data, technology, and personal leadership,” says Giedrė Vilkė, LiMA Board member and jury member of the CMO of the Year ’26 competition.

“We are seeing a clear market shift: while previously the strongest marketing leaders most often came from the FMCG sector, today more and more standout marketing executives are emerging from technology companies. This shows that the marketing function is becoming increasingly connected not only to brand growth, but also to data, product development, digital channels, and business growth strategy,” notes Laura Duksaitė-Iškauskienė, partner at Master Class Lietuva and jury member.

This year, the European CMO of the Year was also announced for the first time during the conference in Vilnius. The title was awarded to Laurence Herbert from Puratos in Belgium.

“The presentation of an international award in Vilnius marks an important step in expanding the scale of this initiative and strengthening Lithuania’s role as a key regional platform for marketing leadership discussions and recognition,” says Jurga Varanavičius, head of Lithuanian Marketing Association (LiMA).

Ada Mockutė-Jaime, photo by Mantas Gudzinevičius.

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