“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends and spirit. And you’re keeping all of these in the air.
You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be... shattered. ”
Elizabeth Buchanan was born in Canada but grew up in Melbourne, Australia. She has three siblings, including one sister and two adopted brothers. In 2011, Elizabeth married Bruce Buchanan, whom she met in 2009. Together, they have five children, two dogs, and a cat. Currently, Elizabeth and her family reside in Brooklyn, New York.
Elizabeth commenced her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law degrees at Macquarie University and took a gap year to travel to London where she was offered a role at Saatchi & Saatchi. This inspired her to change course and when she returned to Australia she then worked as a media planner at Mattingly/Young & Rubicam and Euro RSCG (now Havas). In 1997, Elizabeth joined Yahoo! As one of the earliest members of the APAC team, she held several roles there over four years, including head of marketing services until 2001.
After her time at Yahoo!, Elizabeth founded her own full service digital marketing agency, The White Agency. The White Agency was responsible for the creative, media and production needs for clients including Telstra, Commonwealth Bank and Coca-Cola South Pacific. Elizabeth successfully exited the business when it was sold to STW Group (now WPP) and it is now known as whiteGREY. In 2012, Elizabeth joined the founding team at Rokt, an e-commerce technology company, and currently serves as the Chief Commercial Officer. In this role, she leads the strategy and execution of Rokt's go-to-market function, which will deliver $500M+ in revenue in 2024.
Elizabeth has more than 25 years of experience with major brands such as Yahoo!, Uber, and Omnicom, where she held the role of President of Global Transformation. In addition to her role at Rokt, Elizabeth currently serves on the boards of the NGO Vital Voices Global Partnership and S4 Capital.