Well, the VP of Marketing has to be a great marketer. If s/he is also an engineer that is great. Saying the VP of Marketing should be an engineer is like sayin

Well, the VP of Marketing has to be a great marketer. If s/he is also an engineer that is great. Saying the VP of Marketing should be an engineer is like saying the VP of Engineering should be a marketer. I think we want to have leaders that scale their functions, are aware of their personal shortcomings, and hire for those. In the case of a VP of Marketing who is not an engineer and in which there is a need for technical investments in the marketing function, let's hope that that person can hire a great technical lead. It would be the same if we had a VP of engineering with no business foundation. I would hope that person would hire a great product management staff or that he leans on whoever is the business thinker in the company. I think in general we would hope companies hire for diversity of skills at the time those skills are needed depending on the lifecycle of the company.