Michelle Winkles

Michelle Winkles is a Partner and the Chief Marketing Officer at Mission Wealth, where she leads the firm's national marketing strategy, brand, digital marketing, public relations, and marketing technology initiatives that support both organic and integration-driven growth.

With more than 20 years of marketing leadership experience, Michelle is helping redefine how AI can accelerate growth for RIAs. She has led the integration of AI across Mission Wealth's marketing organization, building AI-powered workflows that enhance content creation, advisor enablement, search visibility, analytics, and operational efficiency while preserving the authentic human relationships that drive trust. Her work focuses on helping firms adopt AI responsibly to create more personalized client experiences, strengthen advisor marketing, improve business development, and drive measurable results.

A nationally recognized thought leader, Michelle frequently speaks at industry conferences, leadership events, webinars, and podcasts on AI, marketing innovation, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), digital strategy, advisor growth, and the future of wealth management. She is known for sharing practical, real-world frameworks that help firms confidently implement emerging technologies while keeping people at the center of the client experience.

Michelle is the co-founder of the CMO Collective, the RIA industry's first peer community for chief marketing officers, and founder of the Marketing Leaders Meetup, where marketing executives collaborate on AI, leadership, and the future of wealth management marketing.

Michelle was named RIA Chief Marketing Officer of the Year by the WealthManagement.com Industry Awards and has been recognized by the Pacific Coast Business Times as both a Top Woman in Business and 40 Under 40 honoree. She holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management, and Nonprofit Social Business from Antioch University Santa Barbara.