From Silicon Valley to Sydney: Michelle Klein on leading with curiosity and commercial clarity

From transforming Smirnoff to scaling Meta’s global customer and product marketing team, Michelle Klein now leads growth and marketing at Westpac. In this ADMA Spotlight, she reflects on uniting creativity with commercial impact, leading through failure and successfully navigating the age of AI and evolving customer expectations.

To start off, can you tell us a little about your career to date?

My career began with a backpack and a notepad, writing a travel column for The Sydney Morning Herald. That storytelling spark led me into digital marketing in the early 2000s, where I cut my teeth at one of the world’s first digital agencies, agency.com.

From there, I moved to New York and joined Diageo, where I initially led digital before becoming VP of Global Marketing for Smirnoff. It was an incredible run, where we were able to transform a declining category and build a brand world around a product that was famously hard to sell.

In 2014, curiosity called again and I joined Meta, then Facebook, starting from a blank slate to build what became the global product and customer marketing function. I spent almost a decade in New York and Silicon Valley, eventually leading an almost 1000-strong global team focused on enabling growth for businesses, creators and advertisers across Meta’s platforms.

Nearly 3 years ago, I returned to Australia and joined IAG. While the insurance industry is different, the challenge is familiar: using technology to transform experiences, exceed expectations and drive business, customer and community outcomes. 

In my time at IAG I had the privilege of doing that with one of Australia’s most iconic brands - NRMA Insurance, which is currently celebrating 100 years of help. 

Recently, I stepped into a new role as Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Westpac and have the distinct opportunity to build on the brand’s remarkable legacy while helping shape what comes next.

What have been a few of your professional highlights along the journey?

One of the most rewarding moments recently was building the newly formed Customer Experience and Marketing team at IAG, which spanned customer strategy, community impact, brand, performance marketing and complaints.

A powerful outcome of this was repositioning NRMA Insurance’s promise of Help to one of A Help Company - a rallying cry with tangible outcomes for Australians that has aligned everything from brand to employees, to community engagement. 

Another career standout was while I was at Meta during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As global uncertainty set in and businesses around the world began to shut down, my team spearheaded the development and rollout of a $100 million global grants program to support small businesses across 30 countries. 

It helped over 30,000 businesses keep the lights on, be that managing the rent, paying essential staff, or rapidly transitioning their businesses to digital services.

We followed on by launching a $100 million initiative specifically focused on diverse-owned businesses. It was a deeply complex piece of work - spanning policy, operations, regulation and customer experience - and was also one of the most purposeful and human-centric projects I’ve ever been a part of, and something I am incredibly proud of.

How important is maintaining and growing your marketing skill set in today’s marketing environment? How do you approach this for you and your team? 

The acceleration of digital maturity during COVID fundamentally reshaped customer expectations. If we don’t adapt and sometimes disrupt ourselves, customers will simply go elsewhere. 

Today, marketers need to be fluent across brand, data, performance, personalisation, technology and commercial strategy. It’s no longer enough to talk in impressions and clicks, we need to speak the language of the CFO and clearly articulate how marketing drives growth.

I often describe the modern marketer as a Swiss Army Knife - versatile, adaptable and always evolving. You build that toolkit across roles, industries and challenges, carrying the fundamentals with you and adding new tools to your own proverbial toolkit as the landscape shifts.

There’s a saying in Silicon Valley that “data wins all arguments” - and while I believe this, that’s not always the case. The best ideas don’t live in silos, they live in loops. Data might spark the insight but activity unlocks the emotion and the magic happens in the tension between the two. Today’s marketers need to be both analytical and creative.

Equally important is how we grow. I encourage my teams to embrace failure, talk about what didn’t work and be transparent about the learning. Creating a culture where people feel safe to experiment is how we develop future-ready leaders. 

What is the one thing you wish you’d learned earlier in your career?

I wish I’d embraced the idea of failure much earlier - not just intellectually, but practically. Early in my career, I made a decision that didn’t pan out the way I’d hoped. At the time, it felt crushing. But instead of hiding from it, I talked about it openly with my team. 

That moment - which happened at Diageo - completely shifted my perspective as a young leader. It taught me that owning your outcomes, even the uncomfortable ones, builds trust, resilience and ultimately growth.

I’ve carried that lesson forward. You won’t always get it right but if you’re willing to reflect, learn and move forward, the missteps become part of your momentum. That mindset has shaped how I lead and how I encourage others to do the same. 

The best leaders are the ones that encourage others to feel brave, to fail, who support them even when the path is unclear and who ensure the learnings are captured so everyone grows along the way. I have been fortunate to have learned from leaders with this mindset in my career. 

What is going to have the biggest impact on marketing over the next few years? How are you preparing for those changes? 

AI is reshaping marketing - from content creation to operational efficiency - but the bigger shift is how marketing is increasingly recognised as a core business lever. 

It’s no longer just about marketing metrics; it’s about being able to draw a direct line between marketing activity and commercial outcomes. That means marketers need to be fluent in customer insight and business impact. They need to be able to speak the language of the C-suite with confidence and credibility.

The other major challenge is what I call the “expectation escalator”. Customers aren’t comparing your brand to others in your category. They’re comparing you to everything else in their lives. 

If they love Instagram or they use an app like Uber where they can check out in two taps, they won’t tolerate friction-filled experiences from your service. The bar has been raised and the real challenge is helping brands exceed expectations shaped by the smartest, smoothest digital experiences people encounter - not just those in your own industry.

I’m excited about where Westpac is going – just recently the app was recognised as #1 by Forrester for the third year in a row, and we are laser focused on the customer experience, and the inextricably linked relationship between marketing, tech and data to drive positive outcomes.

What’s the best piece of advice you would give to a university graduate starting their first role in marketing?

Be curious, commercially sharp and brave. 

Marketing today requires more than just creativity or campaign thinking - it demands a strong understanding of how businesses work and the confidence to challenge ideas, ask questions and learn from mistakes. Don’t be afraid to speak up or stumble.

Bring people with you, learn from those around you and treat every experience - even the ones that don’t feel exciting - as a chance to grow your skill set. The less glamorous projects often teach you the most. Most importantly, be brilliant and lead with kindness. 

Why are organisations like ADMA so important for the wider media and marketing industry?

What I value about ADMA is its focus on data-driven marketing, which is only becoming more critical as the industry evolves. Marketers need to speak with authority on how data underpins decision-making, informs strategy and helps make the case for investment. ADMA plays a vital role in elevating that capability across the industry.

One of its biggest strengths is education. ADMA helps both emerging and established marketers deepen their skills and stay up to date with global shifts. That includes everything from marketing effectiveness to regulatory changes like privacy reform, where ADMA ensures the community has a clear line of sight on what’s coming and what it means for brands and businesses. 

It also creates space for Australian marketers to operate confidently on the global stage. From what I’ve seen and through conversations with Andrea and the team, it is clear that ADMA is shaping the Australian marketing industry to be well regarded and leading the way on an international scale. 

Last of all, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Most mornings, I start my day with a run by the ocean. There’s something about seeing the water first thing - it’s grounding, it resets me and helps clear my head for whatever’s ahead. That time outside gives me the space to reflect and get some perspective before the pace of the day kicks in.

I’ve always been curious by nature, so I love listening to a wide range of podcasts. Everything from business and tech to psychology and culture - I find it a great way to keep learning. Things are changing constantly but that’s the new normal, and I like to keep my thinking flexible so I can keep up.

Outside of all that, I’ve got young kids so any spare time tends to be joyfully chaotic and very full. They definitely keep me on my toes.