Yahoo Finance Obituary: Movado Group CMO Mary Leach, 57
The Movado Group’s chief marketing officer and senior vice president of global marketing Mary Leach passed away last Thursday at the age of 57. The cause of death was cancer.
Leach spent more than two decades at Movado, beginning in 1999 as the company’s vice president of advertising and rising to become its lead marketing executive, responsible for all promotional aspects of Movado’s business as well as its many licensing partners. During her tenure, Leach forged lucrative partnerships for Movado with Derek Jeter, Kerry Washington, Tom Brady, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Pete Sampras and Amanda Seyfried, while making time to mentor up-and-coming leaders within the company.
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Leach worked closely with Movado chief executive officer and chairman Efraim Grinberg, who said of her passing: “Mary joined our company over 20 years ago and rose up to become Movado Group’s chief marketing officer. Over that time, Mary became a trusted partner of mine. I could always count on Mary to give me her unvarnished opinion and let me know what she really thought. Over her tenure at Movado, Mary created many great campaigns that helped drive the success of Movado Group. Our most recent Movado TV commercial has quickly made the Movado SE a bestseller and this was created under Mary’s leadership.”
Grinberg added in a company-wide letter that, “Mary has been an important part of Movado and she considered this company a part of her family. Many people who worked for or with Mary looked up to her as a mentor in both their professional careers and personal lives. This is a huge loss for all of us and for me, personally.”
Leach is survived by her husband David Leach, sons Paris and Wyatt, her mother Anna Maria, brother Joseph and sister-in-law Silvana, brother-in-law Giovanni Gizzo, nieces and nephews; Amanda, John Anthony, John Luca, Nicki, and Rosanna.
A viewing service has been set for March 2 from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Edwards-Dowdle Funeral Home in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. The Leach family requests that any flower arrangements be purchased through local florists during this difficult economic time. Alternatively, donations can be made in Leach’s name to Women Who Code.
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