Kristen Lauria
Kristen Lauria is a proven transformational leader in the technology, financial services, healthcare, and consulting industries. Guided by her belief that the best innovation is sparked by diverse teams solving a common problem, Kristen is committed to building brands and businesses that tackle today’s toughest challenges. Kristen is currently a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company and is an Advisory Board Member for the MIT Leadership Center. Before her advisor roles, she was EVP and Global CMO of Cigna Corporation. At
the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she successfully launched Evernorth, a $100B health services brand. Kristen worked across Cigna’s B2B and B2C businesses with an entirely remote workforce to establish a full-funnel marketing operating model and recruited a distinguished leadership team. During her tenure, she facilitated a market strategy for the B2C Government business to optimize growth across markets, products, and channels.
Kristen has successfully led teams through growth and transformation for over two decades. Over 17 years at IBM, she led teams through significant technology shifts like the rise of mobile, the move to the cloud, and the establishment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a critical business tool. As General Manager, IBM Watson Media and Weather, she successfully merged IBM’s cloud video, AI, and weather data expertise, supporting over 10,000 clients with solutions to drive growth and workforce effectiveness. Under her leadership, the unit established the most advanced portfolio of intelligent video technologies on the market, supporting major sporting events like the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the 2019 Masters Tournament, the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and closed significant business with a prominent national broadcaster. In recognition of her ability to drive transformation, Kristen won the “Distinguished Leadership Award” by the Advanced Imaging Society in 2018 and the “Most Innovative Woman in Business Services” Stevie award in 2019.
At the forefront of Mobile transformation, Kristen was Enterprise CMO, IBM Mobile Solutions and Services. She launched the IBM MobileFirst brand in more than 100 countries. The brand reached the #2 position for brand preference with more than 2,000 client engagements in its first year. As a result, Kristen was instrumental in establishing a landmark partnership between IBM and Apple to
transform the future of enterprise mobility. With a promotion to CMO IBM Global Business Services, an $18B services company, she operated the Apple/IBM partnership and was accountable for joint
branding and business marketing.
Leveraging her position as CMO, Lotus Software, Kristen spearheaded IBM’s market entry in Social Business. Through an award-winning campaign, Lotus Knows, she ignited Lotus’s return to growth. The campaign won the “best ad campaign” award at the 2011 Ad Age ACE awards.
Kristen’s authentic and empathetic leadership inspires people, teams, and organizations to deliver above and beyond. Through the Cigna and NY Life Foundations, she established the Brave of Heart Fund to support families of healthcare workers who lost their lives to Covid 19. Tirelessly recruiting corporate sponsors such as BOA, Morgan Stanley, and Accenture, the fund reached over $60M. She
also drove a first-of-a-kind national education campaign with America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), “Care Changes Everything,” showing how health insurance providers support the people they
serve every day.
A passionate advocate for women in business, Kristen mentors women of all ages and hosts young professionals from outside the US in her home each year. She has served as an intervention counselor for women in crisis. Kristen holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. She is a tireless advocate for her two
children and enjoys traveling.
CMO RoundTable: Digital Engagement “vNext” – What Should it Look Like?
Thursday, September 22, 2022 3:00 PM EST
Today’s agenda will have enlightened and informed the savvy B2B marketing executives and professionals in the audience… But what’s coming next? CMOs agree that online gatherings will be a permanent fixture in the going-forward hybrid work reality. The mundane virtual conferences of 2020-21, and the tired webinars that preceded them will give way to a metaverse of live, interactive, and immersive digital experiences.
Long before the pandemic thrust virtual events to the forefront, savvy marketers found great return on their investment in online gatherings. As promised, the Digital Engagement Summit has brought together experts from multiple disciplines to talk about best practices and thought leadership. But it’s also a conversation. None of us have all the answers.
In this session, senior marketing leaders who have spent time, energy, resources, and budget on digital engagement will discuss their best projections for what the next iteration of short- (webinar) and long-form (virtual event) gatherings could look like.
