Pinterest picks new chief marketing officer and chief business officer

Pinterest has appointed Claudine Cheever (pictured left) as its new chief marketing officer (CMO), alongside the creation of a first-ever chief business officer role filled by Lee Brown (pictured right), as the platform looks to scale its global advertising business and accelerate growth in an increasingly performance-driven, AI-powered landscape.

Cheever joins Pinterest from Amazon, where she led marketing for the world’s largest online retailer. Her remit at Pinterest spans global marketing, creative and communications, at a time when the platform is doubling down on visual search, shopping and AI-led discovery. In a LinkedIn post announcing her move, Cheever said the role stood out not just for its scale, but for what Pinterest represents as a platform.

“What really hooked me is how Pinterest stands apart from other social and search platforms,” she shared, explaining that the platform is “rooted in intention, not reaction”. She added that users come to Pinterest to “save, curate, evolve their interests, and shop”, creating signals grounded in curiosity and intent rather than impulse.

That distinction, Cheever said, opens up “a more thoughtful and meaningful way to connect brands with people”, allowing Pinterest to reach users “at the exact moment when inspiration turns into action”. For marketers, she described this as especially powerful, calling it “marketing that is additive and helpful to people”.

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Pinterest CEO Bill Ready echoed that sentiment in welcoming Cheever, noting that the company has, over the past three and a half years, grown to a record 600 million monthly active users while transforming into an AI-powered shopping destination and performance advertising platform. He said Cheever brings a decade of experience leading marketing at scale, positioning her to help Pinterest reach its next phase of global growth.

Alongside Cheever’s appointment, Pinterest has named Lee Brown as its first chief business officer (CBO), a newly created role that brings sales, content, ads product marketing, programmatic and customer-facing operations under a single leader. Brown will report to Ready and is tasked with accelerating Pinterest’s evolution into a performance-driven advertising platform.

Brown joins from DoorDash, where he served as chief revenue officer, and previously led Spotify’s global advertising business, where he more than doubled growth. In his own LinkedIn post, Brown said he was drawn to Pinterest’s ability to bridge inspiration and intent at scale, describing it as a platform that goes beyond “pretty pictures” to help users move from ideas to action.

“Pinterest stands out as a place where user taste meets real intent, powered by advances in AI and performance advertising at scale,” Brown explained, adding that the platform’s commitment to making the internet “a more positive space for everyone” was a key reason for joining at this moment. Meanwhile, Ready said consolidating business-facing functions under Brown would help Pinterest “supercharge and scale” its global monetisation efforts, bringing teams closer together to better support advertisers and partners worldwide.

The leadership changes also mark a transition for Pinterest, with long-time chief revenue officer Bill Watkins set to depart at the end of Q1 2026 after nearly 12 years with the company. Under his leadership, Pinterest scaled from zero to more than US$4 billion in annual revenue. Watkins will support the transition before stepping down.

This comes just as Pinterest appointed Linda Lee (pictured) as its new Asia communications lead in December 2025. Announcing her new role, Lee took to LinkedIn to share that the new 2026 season was a new opportunity to learn and grow. "As a highly visual person, I've been an ardent user of Pinterest for years. As a company, I've witnessed how it deeply aligns with my values in responsible tech and AI, as well as child online safety. Finally, I'm here at this positive corner of the Internet. That's my work mission for the next chapter," she said. 

Just this month, Pinterest announced its annual drop of trending colours under the Pinterest Palette— Cool Blue, Jade, Plum Noir, Wasabi and Persimmon. “For a long time, the safest choice was to keep things quiet and neutral. Now people are ready for more,” said Xanthe Wells, VP of global creative at Pinterest. “Pinterest Palette is an invitation to be a little louder with how you feel—to play, to experiment and to let your world reflect the life you actually want to live.”

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