Valued but not heard

20 May 2026

Elena Liquete considers why marcoms leaders are missing from the executive board in business schools.

Fresh from EFMD's Marcom, External and Alumni Relations conference in Málaga, one thought keeps circling in my mind, something that was felt throughout the conference but never quite said out loud.

In our recent Knowing Me, Knowing You research, 58% of marcoms professionals agreed that their function is recognised as strategic within their institution. Yet 57% do not sit on the executive or management board. That gap, between being valued and being at the table, is where the real problem lives.

If marcoms is responsible for differentiation, reputation, recruitment, stakeholder engagement and demonstrating institutional value, then excluding it from early strategic conversations reduces it to a delivery function. The risk is that schools lose access to market intelligence and strategic judgement precisely when they need it most.

Then there is a dimension that nobody at the conference named directly. Looking around the room and based on an indicative review of the attendee list, roughly 70% of the marcoms professionals present were women. That is consistent with the broader industry: marketing and communications has long been a female-dominated profession. Yet the institutions these professionals serve remain largely male-led. Only 27% of the world's top 200 universities are led by women. In the UK, women account for just 29% of Vice-Chancellors and 37% of executive team members.

So, we have a function that is predominantly female, operating in institutions where women remain underrepresented at the top. That raises a question worth asking: is the influence gap a marcoms problem, or is it also a gender problem? And if it is both, are we being honest about that?

What can female marcoms leaders do?

Waiting to be invited to the table is not a strategy. There are practical steps you can take to build your influence where it counts.

• Speak the language of strategy, not just communications. The most common reason marcoms is sidelined is that its contribution is framed in terms of outputs: campaigns, coverage, content, rather than outcomes. Connecting marcoms activity directly to enrolment, reputation rankings, stakeholder trust and competitive positioning reframes the function as a source of institutional intelligence, not just execution.
• Build relationships beyond the function. Influence rarely comes through formal reporting lines alone. The marcoms leaders who make it into strategic conversations tend to have invested in relationships across the institution, with the Dean, with academic leads, with the admissions and advancement teams. Being present, curious and useful beyond your own remit matters.
• Use data as a seat at the table. Market insight, competitor intelligence, brand perception data and audience research are things that very few people in a business school leadership team have access to or fully understand. Owning that knowledge, and presenting it in ways that inform strategic decisions, positions marcoms as indispensable rather than optional.

None of this is straightforward. And it should not fall on individuals to solve what are often structural problems. But the gap between recognition and influence will not close by itself.

Strategy requires a seat at the table. It is worth asking who is being left outside the room and worth doing something about it.