Leading from the front: Informatica CMO

How Jim Kruger is redefining B2B marketing in the age of AI

In a world awash with data, expectations, and disruptive technologies, the Chief Marketing Officer’s job has become one of the most complex in the C-suite. For Jim Kruger, CMO at California-based Informatica, the solution isn’t just strategy: it is structural transformation. From owning the entire revenue pipeline to using AI as a force multiplier, Kruger offers a compelling blueprint for how marketing can lead.

This interview is part of HotTopics’ CMO 2.0 series; Jim Kruger is a recipient of HotTopics’ B2B CMO 100 2025 award.

Jim Kruger: CMO insights

• The CMO as Chief Growth Officer: Redefining accountability and ownership
• AI, data, and the discipline of strategic experimentation
• Building a culture where brand, strategy, and performance align
• Closing thoughts

The CMO as Chief Growth Officer: Redefining accountability and ownership

Unlike most marketing leaders, Kruger doesn’t just own the top of the funnel. He owns all of it. From awareness to revenue conversion, Kruger and his team are responsible for generating, nurturing, and delivering a billion-dollar pipeline. It is a mandate that he shaped in collaboration with his CEO—and one that few CMOs can claim. As he puts it, “most marketing organisations own pipeline for marketing-sourced leads, but I own the entire piece. If there’s an issue with pipeline in France, it’s my job to go fix it.”

This level of accountability has informed how his team operates. Gone is the arbitrary line between sales and marketing. Instead, there is an interdependence many other teams find difficulty attaining. Success is shared—or not celebrated at all.

“Marketing isn’t high-fiving at the end of the quarter unless the company hits its number.”

That sense of shared mission fosters deeper trust with sales, tighter integration with product, and more strategic conversations with the Board. It also drives internal clarity. Every meeting begins with a performance check against pipeline goals. And every team member is regularly reminded how their specific work contributes to the broader commercial mission. This is a hallmark of how Kruger defines his own leadership style: personal accountability.

AI, data, and the discipline of strategic experimentation

If Kruger’s pipeline ownership is about control, his approach to AI is about calculated openness. Informatica is well positioned at the crossroads of data infrastructure and artificial intelligence, but Kruger is the first to admit that the AI hype cycle requires discernment.

“There’s a lot of shiny objects. You can’t chase them all. You need to build with intention and integrate technology that will scale.”

Rather than rushing to adopt every new tool, he has built an “AI tiger team” of eight cross-functional marketers. Led by a UK-based field marketer, the group is tasked with evaluating technologies, prioritising use cases, and experimenting across markets. The idea is to blend top-down vision with bottom-up use-case validation. “They have a licence to experiment. Failure is fine. But we focus on the real levers of productivity and performance,” he discusses.

The team has already seen measurable wins. In one example, an AI-generated sequence of emails from business development reps led to a US$1.2 million deal—thanks to a fifth-touch message that would never have been sent manually, he adds.

Still, Kruger is cautious. The goal is not to adopt AI for its own sake, but to lay a foundation for intelligent, scalable marketing.

“We’re implementing six AI-driven solutions today, and evaluating over forty more. But we’re staying mindful about integration, workflow impact, and long-term viability.”

Building a culture where brand, strategy, and performance align

One of Kruger’s most defining philosophies is that marketing should not zigzag. In a world where trends shift quickly, he believes the most effective teams are those who stay focused, consistent, and integrated.

“Some of our campaigns took six months to show any momentum. If we had pulled the plug at month three, we’d have missed the upside.”

He applies that same patience and discipline to brand building—an area that, he notes, is often misunderstood or undervalued in B2B. At Informatica, the brand is not seen as ‘fluff’. It is a critical asset that shapes awareness, accelerates deals, and builds long-term equity. That position was led by its CEO, who, in Kruger’s own words, “gets” marketing.

“One of our biggest goals is to get on that initial list of three to five vendors a CDO considers. If we’re there, we’ve got a real shot.”

Internally, Kruger is equally focused on building a team culture where people feel empowered to grow. He encourages strategic questioning, fosters transparency, and connects every campaign to company-level objectives. “The journey is as important as the result. I want the team to enjoy the work, not just deliver the outcome.”

Looking ahead, Kruger’s strategic focus is turning to account-based orchestration by helping sales identify full buying committees and build relationships that go beyond one or two champions. It is a shift that reflects how complex modern B2B selling has become—and how essential marketing is to guiding it.

Closing thoughts

Jim Kruger’s marketing leadership reflects a strategic clarity, cross-functional accountability, and the disciplined integration of emerging technologies. In an age where the CMO is expected to be part storyteller, part technologist, and part revenue owner, Kruger has taken the bit between his teeth to be all three.

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