Louis “Lou” Aversano

Lou is Head of Marketing & Social Platforms at Fidelity.

Prior to this role, Lou served as Global Chief Brand Officer at Cigna Health. Lou caught the healthcare bug just ten short months ago when he was drafted to help establish a brand leadership platform for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) that improves the industry’s standing among consumers. Lou loved the category so much so that it compelled him to join Cigna full-time. In Lou’s new role he leads the marketing function for the enterprise.

Over the course of his 30+ year career in the marketing industry, Lou has helped many of the world’s most successful enterprises – American Express, AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, IBM, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever to name a few – realize their growth ambitions by creating platforms maximizing their business, societal and brand ambitions. One of Lou’s proudest accomplishments is working arm-in-arm with the team that introduced the most heralded enterprise brand platform of this millennium – IBM’s Smarter Planet.  This work fused an aggressive business strategy with a bold brand purpose and demonstrated how technology can improve the planet’s most critical systems. The agenda helped IBM realize exponential market and share growth while catapulting its brand to the #2 position on Interbrand’s coveted “Most Valuable Brand” ranking.

Before joining Cigna, Lou spent twenty-six years at Ogilvy leading their largest client, largest office and largest market. During his tenure he delivered significant revenue growth, profitability, and market impact by embracing diversity and applying creativity for business advantage. Lou’s leadership beliefs, and therefore style, come from a place of compassion, performance, service and outcome. Along the way, Lou discovered that leaders can accomplish much by establishing a clear vision and path, but the greatest, most authentic leaders are those who readily admit their vulnerabilities and embrace their imperfections. Lou is still a work in progress on perfecting this learning.