2025 Northwestern Alumni Medal

Judith Toland ’94

Fortune 500 marketing executive

Judith Toland

Judith Toland is an award-winning, transformational chief marketing officer with an engineering foundation. She has 31 years of experience across five industries—technology, chemicals, automotive, financial services, and health and wellness—and in five Fortune 500 companies—Meta (Facebook), Monsanto, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, and Wells Fargo.

In 2023, Toland was appointed vice president, global audience marketing at Meta, the global technology company. In this role, she straddles both the advertising and AI/Llama sides of Meta and is responsible for large advertiser, agency, partner, and developer audience marketing as well as product marketing, strategy, activation, and execution across Meta’s business brand globally. She has also served as head of the award-winning Meta Chicago office since 2020.

Previously, Toland held chief marketing officer roles with GE Capital, Wells Fargo, and Life Fitness after beginning her career as an engineer in the chemical and automotive industries.

Toland was an independent board director for Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC, from 2021 to 2023. She is a member of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, World Business Chicago, and Goodman Theatre nonprofit boards. At Meta, she is the executive sponsor of the Woman@ employee resource group and Meta Elevate, which is a growth program for underserved small businesses and creators. She also served as past co-chairperson of the GE Capital, African American Network.

A recipient of many industry and civic awards, Toland was recently named the 2025 Advertising Woman of the Year by the Chicago Advertising Federation. In 2023, she was recognized as one of the Top 50 Women We Admire in Marketing as well as Distinguished Alumni of the Year from the University of Michigan–Dearborn, her MBA alma mater.

Toland is a member of the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA) and served on her 25th and 30th Reunion committees. In February 2025, she participated in the Lavin Bernick Executive Chat Series at the Kellogg School of Management and has been a guest speaker for classes across Northwestern.

Toland earned a BS in chemical engineering from Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and an MBA in marketing from the University of Michigan–Dearborn.

Learn about the other 2025 Alumni Medalists.