Executive Members only

CMO School

Being a CMO is a balancing act. It’s a role with outsized expectations, unclear rules, and very real consequences. CMO School is built for just that.

8 weeks • Thursdays 3:00–4:30pm ET • March 5 – April 23

Join 1,000+ marketing operators who've elevated their careers through CMO School.

74%

of graduates directly credit a Pavilion course with landing a promotion or new role.

88%

of CMO School alumni say it helped them better justify marketing impact to boards, CEOs, and their partners.

The Reality of the CMO Role.

You're accoutable to the board without full control.

You’re expected to drive growth, answer hard questions from the CEO and board, and defend decisions that depend on teams, systems, and signals you don’t fully own.

Marketing Is Judged on Impact That’s Hard to Prove Cleanly.

Attribution is messy, confidence from Finance is fragile, and you’re constantly translating progress into a story that makes sense.

Alignment Is Expected, Even When Incentives Don’t Match.

When cross-functional GTM breaks down, Marketing is often asked to fix what it can’t unilaterally change.

See How CMO School Helps

What Changes After CMO School.

See what executive marketers say after taking the seat with confidence.

I just completed CMO School from Pavilion—what an incredible experience. The depth, relevance, and real-world applicability of the content was next-level. I feel so much more equipped to drive board-level conversations with confidence.”

Ken Mafli

Director of Demand Generation at SurveyMonkey

Thank you, Pavilion, for the incredible CMO School program. It has helped me strengthen my strategic thinking, improve how I structure marketing teams, and clarify how I communicate marketing's impact at the executive level.”

Alexander Kotler

Principal at Alchemunity

CMO School from Pavilion was the perfect mix of actionable frameworks, strategic perspective, and community learning. I now approach C-level meetings with greater clarity, and feel more confident justifying spend and aligning cross-functional teams.”

Lisa Vecchio

Marketing Director, Demand Genration Campaigns at Hootsuite

I went through CRO School, Enterprise GTM School, and CMO School. Each gave me frameworks that fundamentally changed how I lead. But CMO School in particular helped me elevate my positioning in the boardroom and align Marketing with revenue goals in a more measurable way.”

Jonathan Moss

EVP, Growth, GTM Strategy and Pperations at Experity

My husband and I were going back and forth on whether or not the investment into Pavilion would be worth it at this point in time, and I left the first CMO School session 100% assured I was in the right place."

Jenifer Weber

Sr. Director of Demand Generation, Conga

CMO School is one of the best—if not the best—courses I've taken. It's practical, current, and delivered by experts who are truly eager to help."

Anna Robson

Marketing Director, Flexciton

Turning experience into executive credibility.

After decades in SaaS marketing, Adrian Chang used CMO School to rebrand his expertise, prove boardroom readiness, and land the VP role he’d been aiming for.

View case study

You Lead With a Clear Point of View

You stop reacting to questions from the CEO, CFO, and board and start framing decisions with a narrative you can defend.

Marketing Is Tied to the Entire Business

Plans, budgets, and priorities connect cleanly to pipeline, revenue, and growth tradeoffs, making conversations about spend and headcount more straightforward.

You Make Faster Decisions With Less Second-Guessing

With clearer GTM alignment and better context, you spend less time explaining and more time deciding.

CMO School curriculum

Actionable strategies and takeaways within every session. Please note; sessions are subject to change.

Don’t Get Fired: 15 Years of Lessons as a Marketing Leader

March 5

How the CMO role really works once you’re in the seat, the mistakes that get CMOs into trouble early, and the patterns that define strong and weak tenures.

Kyle Lacy
CMO @ Docebo

The CMO Career: Longevity, Impact, and Personal Strategy

March 12

How to think beyond your current role, manage visibility and pressure, avoid common career pitfalls, and define success on your own terms.

Joe Staples

Joe Staples
GTM Advisor | Adjunct Professor | Board Member | 22 yrs Chief Marketing Officer/SVP Marketing

Tip of the Spear: Planning, Budgeting, and Accountability

March 19

How to design a system-level GTM plan, earn CFO confidence with a credible budget, and build accountability that improves trust and decision speed.

Allison Munro
Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer @ Vena

Stories Matter: Messaging, Positioning & Product Marketing

March 26

How to create clarity across personas and products, align teams around a single narrative, and ensure launches and enablement reinforce the same story.

Dan Levy

Dan Levy
VP Product Marketing @ Camunda

AI CMO: What to Use and How to Use It

April 2

How to use AI to increase personal leverage, guide team adoption without chaos, and make smart decisions about what to automate and what to keep human.

Justin Parnell
2x Founder | 3x VP of Marketing | GTME | AI Agent & GPT Trainer | B2B GTM Strategist

We Are Better Together: GTM Alignment and Operating Cadence

April 9

How to align Sales, Marketing, Product, and CS around outcomes, clarify ownership across the funnel, and run a cadence that keeps teams moving together.

Mallory Lee
VP of RevOps @ Zipline

Org Design: Building a Marketing Team That Actually Works

April 16

How to design a marketing org that fits your company’s stage, prioritize the roles that matter most, and evolve structure as strategy changes.

Ruth Zive
CMO @ Voices

Own the Board Meeting: The CMO, The CEO, and the Board

April 23

How to build real trust with your CEO, understand what boards actually care about, and show up prepared for the questions that always come.

Latané Conant
CMO @ Parloa

FAQs

Have questions about CMO School and Pavilion? We have answers.

: A clearer point of view on the CMO role and how to operate it. You’ll leave with frameworks for planning, budgeting, GTM alignment, and board communication — but more importantly, better judgment about what matters, what doesn’t, and how to recover when things go sideways.
: CMO School is taught by current and former CMOs who’ve carried the role through growth, resets, board pressure, and change. This isn’t theory or recycled best practices — it’s perspective from people who’ve made real decisions with real consequences.
: Ninety minutes a week, for eight weeks. The program is designed to respect executive calendars and focus time on the conversations that actually move your thinking forward.
: No. This is a cohort of senior operators who are accountable for outcomes. Expect thoughtful debate, direct feedback, and shared context — not surface-level idea trading or motivational content.
: CMO School works because it sits inside a broader network of senior operators. Membership ensures you’re learning alongside peers with similar scope and accountability — and gives you ongoing access to those relationships beyond the course.

Built for CMOs Doing the Job in Real Time

If you’re carrying the responsibility and learning the role as you go, CMO School is built for you.