David Edelman’s leadership in driving strategic digital and marketing change over the past 30 years – as a top CMO and as a Strategic Consultant -- has made him a sought-after advisor on AI, digitization, go-to-market strategy, marketing organization, and agile operations. From his earlier work for clients such as JPMorganChase, SAP, American Express, Verizon, IBM, and McDonalds, he developed and popularized foundational concepts such as “The Customer Decision Journey,” and “Segment-of-One Marketing.” Most recently, he guided Aetna (now part of CVS Health) through becoming a digitally-oriented, customer-centric enterprise. David has been repeatedly recognized by Forbes as one of the “Most Influential CMOs in the World,” and by AdWeek as one of the “Top 20 Marketing and Technology Executives.” His writing and work has attracted over 1.1 million followers to his LinkedIn blog, and he has delivered dozens of keynote presentations at conferences around the world. Currently, David is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at HBS. He also advises CEO’s and CXO’s in Health and Marketing Services, focusing on where AI and personalization unlock transformational opportunities. Through his relationship with Halifax Partners, he is a Board member of Stratatech, a vocational school chain, building on his strong interest in education. He is also on the Advisory Board of Glasswing Ventures, a major Boston VC firm. Previously, as Chief Marketing Officer of Aetna, now part of the $200B healthcare giant CVS Health, David ran CVS Health’s “Digital First” enterprise modernization program. He drove a broad transformation at Aetna, implementing real-time analytics and agile operations in a company where marketing had been merely a functional cost center. He led the rebranding of the 166 year-old company, and brought its marketing technology into the digital age. By rebuilding Aetna’s go-to-market operations as fast cycle “war rooms” that constantly test and learn, he accelerated the growth of its Medicare business, adding billions in revenues. Using advanced marketing to improve members’ health behaviors, his team cracked the code of moving the needle to save millions in medical cost. A proven change agent, David built multi-million dollar practices for The Boston Consulting Group, Digitas (now part of Publicis Groupe), and then for McKinsey & Company, all based on guiding clients through global digital transformation initiatives. Responding to CEOs’ anxieties about how to compete in a digitizing economy, David guided the strategy development, and led the implementation of programs that injected new technology, built organization capabilities, and captured value for his clients through fresh in-market execution. As a consultant, David frequently advised clients’ boards of directors, and coached top executives on critical board-level issues. Before the CVS acquisition, he worked with Aetna’s board to guide decisions on brand direction, customer experience investment, and expansion of digital marketing. On the non-profit side, David is a member of the Board of Trustees, and Strategy Committee of The Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and the Board of the American Marketing Association. He just published his third article for the Harvard Business Review, Customer Experience in the Age of AI, following his earlier cover story on Branding in the Digital Age, and a follow-up article Competing on Customer Journeys. These have become core reading at business schools and in many marketing departments. He has spoken at top digital, marketing, and health conferences world-wide, and is helping to shape the future of marketing on the “Growth Master” council of the Association of National Advertisers. David has both an AB in Economics, and an MBA, from Harvard University.