Catherine Mak
- Specialism: Global Marketing Leader | GTM Marketing strategies | Product marketing | AI Transformation | Growth Strategies for APAC and EU markets, across Financial services, Fintech, Saas, Events and professional services.
- Track Record: I had 20+ years of global marketing leadership across B2B and B2C, spanning financial services, fintech, SaaS and B2B publishing across APAC, the UK and Europe.
Earlier corporate profiles:
>>Citibank (APAC) – Head of Segment Marketing & Portfolio Management, leading customer strategy, product and portfolio growth across segments.
>>Bupa Global (APAC) – Regional Head of Marketing with full P&L responsibility, driving growth, acquisition efficiency and regional expansion.Recent Achievements for Start-up & Scale-up:
>>PEI Group (12-month contract) – Head of Marketing for Infrastructure Investor Network. Delivered record revenue in 15 years, tripled social following, doubled lead volume and increased digital revenue contribution by +11ppt.
>>Live Group / Envoku (approx. 12 months) – Head of Marketing. Built the marketing function from the ground up, generated £1M enterprise pipeline and scaled ARR from £5M to £9M within a year. Led end-to-end go-to-market for a new digital platform across the UK, Europe and APAC, securing £200k earned media and winning an industry innovation award within 7 months. - Offer: As a Fractional CMO and marketing transformation leader, I work with CEOs and founders to align strategy, structure, and execution so that marketing delivers real commercial outcomes.
? How I could help
1. Diagnose gaps in your marketing structure, performance, or strategy.
2.Build clear marketing roadmaps that align with revenue growth and investor goals.
3. Strengthen team capability and marketing operations for scale. - Catherine says: “I turn CEO ambition into action, bringing vision to life through clear strategy, structure, and marketing that drives scalable growth. I help businesses work out why their marketing isn’t delivering — and fix it.”
- Try me: linkedin.com
I became a Portfolio Executive because I kept seeing the same issue in growing businesses. The ambition was there. The product was often strong. But marketing had become reactive, fragmented, or too dependent on the founder.
After 20+ years across Citi, Bupa, PEI, and Live Group, I developed a clear understanding of how mature marketing functions should operate. At the same time, I saw that many SMEs were not ready for a full-time CMO. The portfolio model allows businesses to access senior judgement, structure, and direction at the point where it matters most.
Over time, I realised that most businesses do not need more marketing activity. They need better marketing leadership. That became the foundation of how I work with founders and leadership teams today.
One of my strongest examples was helping a 50-year-old business launch and scale a new SaaS and event-tech platform. I built the marketing function from the ground up, shaped the proposition, implemented CRM and automation, and supported growth from £5m to £9m ARR. The real success was not just the revenue, it was creating a marketing engine the business could continue building on.
Along the way, I’ve learned that growth usually stalls because the system is unclear, not because people are not working hard. Many businesses do not lack ideas, they lack prioritisation, positioning, and a clear operating rhythm. I’ve seen founders spread themselves too thin, junior teams asked to solve strategic problems, and marketing treated as a service desk for sales. That rarely scales. Good marketing needs leadership, commercial judgement, customer insight, and the courage to stop doing things that look busy but do not move the business forward.
It’s working for me now because I bring structure without slowing the business down. I enjoy stepping into complexity and making it easier to act. My background spans proposition, brand, CRM, PR, digital, events, sales alignment, and marketing operations across APAC, Europe, and the UK. That breadth helps me diagnose problems quickly, whether the issue is positioning, channel mix, team capability, systems, or leadership focus. I’m also hands-on enough to make progress quickly, which matters for SMEs that cannot afford months of theory.
Looking ahead, I believe senior marketing thinking should come earlier, not after growth stalls. I’d like more founders to stop seeing senior marketing leadership as something only large companies can afford. A full-time CMO may be too much, while a junior marketer may not be enough. A Portfolio Executive gives businesses senior direction without unnecessary overhead. With AI changing how quickly teams can execute, the real advantage is no longer having more people, it’s knowing what to prioritise, what to stop, and how to build a system that can scale.