# Shirley Macbeth

> Shirley Macbeth is a Boston-area B2B marketing executive and Chief Marketing Officer at EXL. Across roles at Schwartz Communications, Sybase, Yankee Group, ACI Worldwide, Forrester and EXL, she has built a career around simplifying complex technology stories, aligning marketing with business priorities and bringing employees and customers into the work. She now hosts EXL's Make It Real podcast, where enterprise leaders discuss how AI moves from promising idea to practical workflow.

- **Role:** Chief Marketing Officer at EXL
- **Organizations:** EXL, Forrester, ACI Worldwide, Yankee Group Research, Sybase, Schwartz Communications
- **Education:** Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude; double major in English and French, Colby College
- **Known for:** Helped activate Forrester's Bold at Work brand promise after joining as CMO in March 2020., Helped simplify Forrester's go-to-market portfolio from more than 100 product permutations to 15 choices organized around five top-line buyer audiences., Led marketing work connected to the integration of Forrester and SiriusDecisions and the launch of Forrester Decisions.

## Career timeline

- **1993 onward** — Began her career in public relations at Schwartz Communications, later part of MSL.
- **Before 2011** — Held marketing leadership roles including Senior Director of Marketing at Sybase and Vice President of Marketing at Yankee Group Research.
- **2011-2020** — Served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing at ACI Worldwide, a payments software company.
- **2020-2024** — Served as Chief Marketing Officer at Forrester, leading brand activation, demand generation and marketing through the integration of SiriusDecisions.
- **2025** — Joined EXL as Head of Brand and Marketing.
- **2026** — Serving as EXL's Chief Marketing Officer and hosting the Make It Real podcast on practical enterprise AI adoption.

## Achievements

- Helped activate Forrester's Bold at Work brand promise after joining as CMO in March 2020.
- Helped simplify Forrester's go-to-market portfolio from more than 100 product permutations to 15 choices organized around five top-line buyer audiences.
- Led marketing work connected to the integration of Forrester and SiriusDecisions and the launch of Forrester Decisions.
- Established a formal customer experience focus at Forrester and used the company's own B2B customer experience index and revenue waterfall concepts in its marketing operation.
- Built a 25-plus-year career in B2B marketing across public relations, enterprise software, research and advisory, payments technology, and data and AI services.
- Hosts EXL's Make It Real podcast, interviewing enterprise leaders about operational AI adoption.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Hosted Carolynn Smith of Prudential for episode five of EXL's Make It Real podcast, focused on scaling AI in service organizations.
- **2026-05** — Hosted Tim Rafton for a Make It Real episode on using AI to solve problems without replacing core systems.
- **2026-04** — Hosted Samrah Khan for a discussion of agentic AI, changing workflows and the shift toward a human-on-the-loop model.
- **2026-03** — Hosted David Anderson of CNO Financial Group for a discussion of AI adoption, internal alignment and change management.
- **2026-01** — Launched EXL's Make It Real interview series as host and Chief Marketing Officer.
- **2025-01** — Joined EXL as Head of Brand and Marketing after serving as Forrester's Chief Marketing Officer.

## Links

- Website: https://www.exlservice.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shirleymacbeth

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/shirley-macbeth
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-14